A Deal With A Demon is a Paranormal Romance series by Katee Robert.
The Demon Azazel is known as a Bargainer demon and makes his profit by making deals with mortals. He has arranged a deal with the warring five leaders of the various demon races (Dragon, Succubus/Incubus, Gargoyle, Kraken and Bargainer) to give them each a bride in return for peace. This is a matter of convenience, as only demons with human blood can access Earth and its power, hence hybrid children are needed. The series follows the romances between the various brides and their betrothed kings as well as Azazel's apparent machinations in the background.
The series currently contains three novels.
- The Dragon's Bride (2022)
- The Kraken's Sacrifice (2022)
- The Gargoyle's Captive (2023)
A Deal With A Demon provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The Bargainer Demon Azazel is ruthless and rather sly, but also rather charming and a polite host. One thing to note is he never forces any of the people who enter his deals into them, simply persuading them to do so and treating them quite well, making sure they aren't hurt by his other clients.
- Broken Bird: In The Dragon's Bride, Briar Rose has had a horrible life of being abused and threatened with death by her husband, which has left her with anxiety. Catalina has shades of this between her mother's toxic nature, her own personality making her difficult for people to connect with her. For Catalina even when feeling some pain Azazel's contract doesn't react because SHE doesn't register it as pain.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover for The Dragon's Bride makes it look like Rose is imprisoned by Sol and she needs to thaw him out. He never puts her in chains and is very much a sweetheart once she gets to know him.
- Deal with the Devil: The entire series is centred on a group of women making a deal with the demon Azazel, who offers them various favours and help. In return, they will marry the various rulers of the demon world and live with them for seven years. The rulers aren't allowed to abuse or force into anything, instead are meant to consensually seduce them into staying.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Something to be said that most of the demon rulers have something with this, Sol is more nervous and anxious about not pushing his fragile wife Rose, Bran is desperate and lonely. Thane takes the cake since between not being a people-person he's also grieving over the loss of his husband who was more warm and sociable of the two.
- Domestic Abuse: The heroine of the first book, Briar Rose has an abusive husband who would beat her. She actually makes a deal with Azazel to kill him, as she knows he's escalating and will get her first if she doesn't do anything.
- Draconic Humanoid: Dragons in this series are humanoid reptilian men/women with a reptile head but a human body. They are also nine feet tall and have a heavily muscled build.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Azazel is a crafty bastard and likes to trick people into deals. But he also keeps his word and even keeps the women who act as his courtesans safe and ensures that no one hurts or forces them to do anything that don't want to do.
- Face of a Thug: In The Dragon's Bride, Sol looks like a fearsome, brutish dragon man monster but is actually a rather caring husband, family man and king to his people.
- The Good King: Sol is the King of the dragon demons and treats them very well by showing them great care and respect. He only goes into a marriage with a human because a half-human child is granted immense magical power and would help keep his people safe in the future.
- Half-Human Hybrid: At the end of The Dragon's Bride, Briar Rose and Sol's daughter is a half-human and half-dragon hybrid.
- Hunter of Monsters: In The Gargoyle's Captive, Grace and her family have a long history of hunting and killing supernatural monsters which dates back to at least her grandfather.
- Hybrid Power: The offspring of humans and demons are granted immense magical ability and power. It's for this reason that Sol asks the Bargainer Demon Azazel for a human bride, as their child can be very helpful in keeping his people safe in the future.
- Interspecies Romance:
- The Dragon's Bride features the romance between a dragon named Sol and the human Briar Rose.
- The Kraken's Sacrifice features the romance between a Kraken named Thane and the human Catalina.
- The Gargoyle's Captive features the romance between a gargoyle named Bram and the human Grace.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Thane once he stops feeling like he's trying to replace his lost husband with Catalina. The demon that checks on the wives certainly shows different sides of him depending on the woman. To Rose he is fearsome and he likes to rile up Sol. With Catalina he seems to bond with her and while he likes to work up Thane he makes clear he is concerned for Catalina when a magical abortion is needed.
- Monster/Slayer Romance: In The Gargoyle's Captive, Grace is a monster hunter who falls in love with and begins a relationship with the Gargoyle King Bram.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: On the cover of The Gargoyle's Captive, Grace is shown with a dress whose cleavage goes all the way below her belly button.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons in this series come in five separate species, with each having their own features:
- The red skinned Bargainer Demons, which specialise in making deals with mortals for favours.
- Humanoid dragons which are nine feet tall and have reptilian faces and scales.
- The Krakens whose lower bodies, and hair, are made up of tentacles.
- Gargoyles whose skin is hard as rock and are greyish in colour.
- Succubus/Incubus which are a form of sex demon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons in this series are a species of demon and are humanoid. They are nine feet tall and scaled, with a reptilian head and males have two penises.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: Gargoyles are, in the series, one of the five races of demons. They have stone skin and the ability to fly. They can also, like all demons, interbreed with humans.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Azazel sets up a marriage of convenience between Briar Rose and the dragon Sol, who desires half-human kids to help keep his kingdom safe with an influx of magic. The two end up genuinely falling in love, and she even chooses to stay after the seven years of the trail marriage are up.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: In The Gargoyle's Captive, Grace is described as being gorgeous and having jet black hair and pale skin.
- Redeeming Replacement:
- Azazel, current leader of the Bargainer Demons, is manipulative and amoral, but he's way less evil than predecessor and actually wants to help ensure the demon realm is at peace. He ensures all his bargains are fair and keeps his word to anyone who makes a deal with him without resorting to Exact Words or tricks like his predecessor.
- Bram, the current king of the Gargoyles, has replaced his father, who was a far more vicious ruler. Bram is more willing to let there be peace between the various demon races and cares about his people.
- Searching for the Lost Relative: In The Gargoyle's Captive, Grace is searching for her mother who disappeared when she was a child after she made a deal with the then leader of the Bargainer Demons. She agrees to marry one of the demon kings in order to get their help and find out what happened to her mother, but ends up falling in love with the king of the Gargoyles, Bram. It's eventually revealed her mother is dead. As a Hunter of Monsters, her mother had used this opportunity to arrive and kill Bram's family and was in turn taken down by one of the other demon rulers.
- You Sexy Beast: The series' main draw: human women finding love with distinctively non-human men. Especially in The Dragon's Bride, in which the title dragon's appeal is his assiduous personality contrasted against his fearsome looks and suppressed bestial instincts, such that his relationship to the heroine has aspects of a(n eroticized) Predator-Prey Friendship.
