Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner

The Apocalypse Isn’t the Only Thing Coming #1

by Latrexa Nova

Our lust for each other could shatter reality.

Asta
I only had one summoner left just begging to feed me her sin, and then I was supposed to be home free, finally soaking my aches in the fiery hot springs of the Fifth Circle of Hell for my vacation.

Then they showed up.

Asmodeus. Cocky, entitled, and a King of Hell, they're top of the list for demons I'd like to crush under my foot after what they did to me. The worst part? Three hundred years without seeing them did nothing to break the irresistible tension between us. I want to bite their head off and get my mouth on that glorious incubus body all at the same time.

Asmodeus
I thought I was over Asta breaking off our friendship over a stupid prank. After all this time, I should have been. I had plenty of easily seducible humans to get over Asta. So how could I have expected the one time I get summoned in all those years would put me in their path?

Now that we're forced to complete our summoners' deals together, I can't get Asta out of my mind—which sucks (and not in the fun way), because if we act on our desires, it could spark a literal apocalypse.

But one true taste of sin might just be worth damning all of creation.

Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner is a 50,000 word high steam, enemies-to-lovers romance that defies reality. It features genderfluid, shapeshifting sex demons who take every advantage of being anything you want them to be.

Genres: Romance, Monsters, Fantasy, Spicy, Paranormal, Demons, LGBT

228 pages, Paperback

Published March 23, 2022

About the author

A California native, Latrexa has always seen the weird in the world and seeks to share their outright lust for the strange and unusual. Their hobbies include sculpting unnatural horrors and running from their inner demons. Latrexa writes for the weirdos, heavily featuring darkness and off-beat humor.

Reviews

[Wicked Fox ✨️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is drunk and I love it 😈

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was funny, irreverent, and over the top. Asta and Asmodeus had a lot of mean banter and pranks. They were both self-centered and horny and I loved watching them grow together. I enjoyed the wild shape shifting during sexy time too.

Spice: 5/5

Triggers: cheating, SA, dubcon, soul destruction, hell, references to torture, death, witch hunting, execution via hanging and burning

[Biblio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chaotic and hilarious. But with a dash of sweet (as sweet as it can be with demons) Latrexa always writes such absurdly amazing stories with that dash of nerdy that I love. The cherry on top- someone getting punched with a literal dick. Amazing

[Billie Yankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote this book itself, "What the fuck be that?" I love it. I want more.

This book has friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, which is by far the most superior of the X-to-lovers trope, and they're concubi (sex demons), so you know it's all as smutty as it can be. They're also shapeshifting creatures, and by that I mean rally shapeshifting. Asta, in all their forms, is the literary representation of my gender envy.

All of Latrexa's works are effortlessly funny in a geeky and slightly absurd way, and this one reminds me of Good Omens in its mundane description of infernal creatures and their lives. If it had been decidedly hornier and braver in almost any way. I loved every weird, lustful, and hilarious page.

Can't wait for the second book.

[kase · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was funny but at around 60% I started getting so confused at what was going on and why. Like the plot just made no sense. Also shapshifting nonbinary demons is very fun until you get to the point where they each have like 4 different sets of genitals at random parts of their body lmao.

[Anna]

Sometimes you just need an utterly ridiculous book and this fits the bill. This book is absolutely chaotic and stupid and wonderful all at once. It follows two gender fluid pansexual shape-shifting sex demons as they go from friends to enemies to lovers. The beginning shows their friends to enemies journey then the majority of this follows them as they learn about what love feels like as they help a married couple figure their shit out.

When I say it's nuts, I mean it. Like there's a lot of shape shifting and a lot of dicks. Dicks for all purposes including punching in the face. I laughed really hard at that.

[Chey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two demons are summoned to to help a couple keep their marriage together, and end up falling in love themselves.

The steam in this book is great as always. The author knows steam and does it very well. There are many interesting scenes that were fun to read and the entire time those were happening I was thoroughly entertained.

When the scenes didn't have steam, the story was boring. The beginning was a pain to get through and the switch of pronouns became annoying after so long. I love the author's books, but this one missed the mark when it came to a story of any kind.

[Debbie Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. They know they shouldn't do what they want but do. Asmodeus and Asta are demons who can't love but learn to love each other during the course of their latest summons. It was a very interesting and unique read.

[Lydia Gates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abrupt Ending

All the tension in this book is centered around one thing, and then the resolution happens in like three sentences pretty anticlimactically, which I found pretty frustrating as it seemed very out of character.

Overall, I like the idea of the worldbuilding but the execution wasn’t amazing; the main characters spoke as if they were modern even in the past (contrasted with clearly knowing how to speak to the people there to blend in) so I thought at first they could time travel. However, it turned out that modern vernacular was just their default which didn’t really make sense since it’s established that Asta especially doesn’t interact with human culture. Some of the strange aspects of the demon’s ability to shapeshift/their true forms seemed just for shock value, as well.

The inclusion of varied pronouns for the protagonists was really nicely integrated and I did enjoy some of the scenes, but I just don’t think this is really for me and won’t be continuing.

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, I guess, a best friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story about two nonbinary sex demons who work for Satan. (Yes, the Christian hell Satan, but also, the story validates all other religious/afterlife beliefs.) Sex demons are either incubi (doms) or succubi (subs), and they can all shape-shift, which is complicated by what they desire for their bodies/pleasure and what the humans they're corrupting want.

Astra is a succubus, and Asmodeus is an incubus and also King of Hell as they're Satan's kid. Their fun and games cause Astra to cross a real witch at the Salem Witch Trials, and Astra blames Asmodeus for all the ills that come out of it. Including that Asmodeus didn't come looking for Astra when they disappeared for over a year.

(Also, I don't know how or why authors would ever give their characters names so close to each other in spelling.)

Then, the story flashes forward to modern times with Astra and Asmodeus being summoned by a member of a married couple. The married couple has each realized they're kinky but haven't realized that their kinks are compatible with each other. Sexy hijinks ensue.

All sex demons have been told that if they have sex with each other, the world will end. Astra and Asmodeus have no reason not to believe this, and this is the underlying tension. They end up creating more chaos when they attempt to use the human couple as a proxy for their desires.

The world-building is messy, while intriguing. Some of it flat out doesn't make sense, such as the sex demons offer sex in exchange for a human's soul going to Satan, but somehow, they also have repeat customers.

Nova leans into the shape-shifting in fun, sexy, and absurd ways. Sometimes, it's for a joke, and sometimes, it's for sex, and sometimes, it's both, like when Astra grows a bunch of dicks on their shoulders as Asmodeus has four heads in demon form. The very nature of the story pushes back on physical body assumptions around gender, but I wouldn't call it revolutionary.

I don't think I'll read more in this specific series, but I am open to reading other works by Nova, especially more recent ones.

[Jenifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting story that kept me entertained throughout. It's about two devils who are summoned to earth to help a couple in their marriage and end up falling in love themselves. Lots of fun scenes described throughout and we even get to see the 9th circle in all it's wickedness.

The story does get very confusing though with the ever-changing pronoun usage, sometimes within a single sentence. Also, following along on whose point of view the story is being told from was a bit confusing as well. And when the two demons are using their internal speak it's nearly impossible to follow who is talking at which point unless they use a name in one of the sentences. It was nice that it was differentiated by the bold and italics, but it still didn't help with who was speaking which part.

The infernal speak from Satan was nearly impossible to read as it was like a hidden script message. I found that if I copied it and pasted it into google it at least made it so I could make out the message, but in the format that I read for the ARC it wasn't decipherable. Glad I was able to find a work-around.

This is the start of a series and I'm looking forward to hearing about Prudence's adjustment to present day earth in the upcoming story. I'm also curious as to what Nick has planned as that was left as a huge open thread at the end of the story, as whatever meeting that he needed Asmodeus to preside over from the beginning of the story never actually happened.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarre Trip

This story is all sorts of weird and bizarre, but in the absolutely best way. Asta and Asmodeus are succubus and incubus who have some extensive history together. The scene with Asta, Asmodeus, Vince and Angelica was absolutely crazy and hot hot hot! I really enjoyed seeing what Latrexa Nova brings to a full length novel - I’ve enjoyed her short stories, so more story was even better!

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It was really unique. It was funny. It was sexy. It was FUN. It was a real joy to read. You can tell the author reads the genre and has a real passion for it. There was no holding back on the weirdness. I felt like the author didn’t care if something might be too silly or odd, they just went with what felt right for the moment, and it worked. I look forward to reading more books set in the same universe.

[Vanessa]

DNF 55%. This book is so delightfully ridiculous--a funny, raunchy romp as promised. Far too much for my pearl-clutching sensibilities at times but such a bonkers and creative look at incubi/succubi and all their nonsense. I mean, the opener where one of our demons gets the other burned at the stake in the Salem witch trials as a prank? Too good.
DNFing because the plot was getting stretched pretty thin and it's one of those cases where I felt done with it before the story itself was done?

[Nina Diab · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was unique and different. Great world building. I was fascinated by the characters and loved how fluid they are- though I got a little confused at times with the changing pronouns. I found this completely entertaining, and at times very steamy. All around very imaginative and I can't wait for book two. 4 stars.

[Tay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️ 2.5🌶️

[Nicole Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, sexy, and fun read. I never expected to like it as much as I did but I couldn't put it down.

[Ewok · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked how the demons had no gender until taking a gendered form.
...and that's about all I liked. :(

[Gita · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 80%

I really tried, but this one was not for me, fam. I couldn’t keep up with all the shifting and extra appendage growth 🤷🏻‍♀️

Filling it under “too much”, pun intended

[Mymy (Myka) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For pure shock and awe and comedic value this trashy little read gave, solid 4 star.

[Kaylie Helfrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was honestly just a lot of fun. The plot was interesting, the gender fluid pansexual demons were wonderful, and this just put a smile on my face.