This is a spoiler-free review!
Diana makes a deal with the Devil -- literally. In order to give her father a second chance at life, she agrees to a three month contract with Lucien Star, the Devil himself, in order to save his fate. And the price? Spend every Friday night with Lucien doing whatever he asks from her -- in my opinion, a pretty sweet deal.
This is a relatively quick read, and I managed to read the entire book in just under an hour and a half. The pacing is maintained throughout the story and the author does not linger on trivial plot points but rather cuts right to the chase in order to develop the story. That being said, I do think there was room for some more character development for Diana and Lucien -- we flew through the story so quickly, it felt as though that we as readers were just getting to know them when the story ends.
The book was giving major Lucifer television show vibes, and I am still up in the air if I actually enjoyed the similarities -- he owns a nightclub and is ridiculously handsome and suave. I am not a super fan of insta-love stories (I am an enemies to lovers girl at heart), so the extremely quick progression of their relationship was not really my cup of tea. Diana's characterization was a little two-dimensional in the sense that she just really did not experience any type of development besides wanting to be with Lucien, which is not exactly a personality trait.
I wish the author spent more time actually exploring angels and the paranormal aspect of the story. It had the basic backbone of Lucifer being a fallen angel and a few well-known angels making their appearance throughout the book, but other than the occasional mention from a side character, the paranormal focus was left in the dust in order to make room for Diana and Lucien's romance. I expected the book to be a lot darker based off of its summary, and it just was not giving what it should have been -- I would go far enough to say that this was tamer than some new adult novels that I have read.
Diana and Lucien have this instant attraction towards one another, and I was having a pretty fun time reading about their growing relationship and both of their internal struggles of coming to terms with what they were feeling. The further the story went on, the more it read as their relationship really only developing in order to further a particular plot point that I will not spoil, which made the relationship cheapen in my eyes.
For someone who is literally supposed to be the devil, Lucien was a pretty chill guy and did not give off scary or powerful vibes -- he felt more like a PG-13 version of the devil that for some reason had a solid moral compass. I expected a lot more debauchery than what we were given in the story and the lack of it made me start to lose interest about halfway through.
Honestly, I did not love the ending of this book. I was really hoping that it would go in a certain direction, and in the last pages it really took a turn that I personally felt undid a lot of what the story was working towards. Maybe I expected too much from this book, but I genuinely thought it was working towards a decent ending (at least my version of a decent ending) and ended up pretty disappointed.
If you are looking for a slightly spicy quick read with a touch of fantasy, Midnight with the Devil may be the perfect read for you, especially if you are looking for an arrangement romance.
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