Review:
Selene has spent her whole life acting as the peacemaker for those in her life - watching out for her younger siblings when their workaholic father was gone and their mother was drunk, bending over backwards to help her boyfriend with his music career, etc. With her boyfriend having just proposed that they take a "break" from each other while he goes on tour, Selene thinks she'll have a relaxing weekend to herself. That's interrupted by her sister, Cass, deciding that they needed to go on a sudden roadtrip to Rubgy, Tennessee. Selene, as usual, is unable to say no. The trip turns into more than she bargained for when she's suddenly transported to another world, Aurelia.
She's told that the only way she'll be able to go home is if she and a demon bodyguard, Samael, visit a vampire named Zaybris, and ask him for the magical stone he has that's capable of transporting her back home (Zaybris owes Thema, the queen who found Selene, a favor). What Thema doesn't tell Selene is that this plan is actually intended to help Thema find her missing sister, Queen Lilith of the Goblyns. Samael's plan is to use the stone to get himself back to the Underworld, the home he was taken from as a child. However things turn out for Thema and Samael, there are no plans to get Selene back to her own world.
As Selene and Samael travel together, they find themselves drawn to each other, and Samael realizes that Selene is his mate. But what about his plans to go back to the Underworld, a place humans only enter after they die? And what will Selene do when she finds out the truth behind Thema and Samael's plans?
Part of the premise of this world is that urban legends, stories, and myths about beings like the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, etc. are all various sightings, in our world, of Aurelian queens. Thema is mistaken for the Wampus Cat, the Black Beast of Exmoor, and the Ozark Howler. I don't know that this information deserved a whole page at the end listing out the various queens and the urban legends/stories they're responsible for, but maybe it'll become a more prominent part of the series later on.
Although I never grew very attached to Selene and Samael as a couple, I did at least think that this was an interesting take on the whole "fated mated" thing. Samael thought Selene was the missing piece that allowed him to finally attain control over the rage that, as a vengeance demon, occasionally took him over. Selene, understandably, had concerns about this viewpoint - she'd spent her whole life denying her own interests and desires in favor of helping those in her life through their own issues, and she didn't want to be the person responsible for Samael's ability to be calm. Part of their romance involved gradually learning that they'd gained strengths from each other but weren't dependent upon each other.
A note for folks interested in the trope: this has "virgin hero." In addition to his lack of experience with sex, Samael also felt less emotionally mature than Selene, which I wasn't really wild about and which I suppose made sense considering the lack of demon parental figures in most of his life.
The last scene with Zaybris seemed a bit too quick and easy, and Selene and Samael's relationship developments near the end seemed to be missing something, but overall I liked this more than I was worried I might. The next book in the series, starring Selene's sister, isn't out yet, but I'm definitely interested in reading it. That said, I'm hoping that her reaction to Selene's decision at the end of this book won't get brushed aside as her being overly worried - if anything, I thought her reaction showed the most thought and genuine care out of everyone in the family.
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