A Demon's Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley

Pages: 432

Publisher: Gollancz 

Released:  30th of November 2023 

Calladia Cunnington curses the day she met Astaroth the demon, but when he shows up memoryless, why does she find him so helpless . . . and sort of hot?

Calladia Cunnington knows she’s rough around the edges, despite being the heir to one of small-town Glimmer Falls’ founding witch families. While her gym obsession is a great outlet for her anxieties and anger, her hot temper still gets the best of her and manifests in bar brawls. When Calladia saves someone from a demon attack one night, though, she’s happy to put her magic and rage to good use . . . until she realizes the man she saved is none other than Astaroth, the ruthless demon who orchestrated a soul bargain on her best friend.

Astaroth is a legendary soul bargainer and one of the nine members of the demon high council—except he can’t remember any of this. Suffering from amnesia after being banished to the mortal plane, Astaroth doesn’t know why a demon named Moloch is after him, nor why the muscular, angry, hot-in-a-terrifying-way witch who saved him hates him so much.

Unable to leave anyone in such a vulnerable state—even the most despicable demon—Calladia grudgingly decides to help him. (Besides, punching an amnesiac would be in poor taste.) The two set out on an uneasy road trip to find the witch who might be able to restore Astaroth’s memory so they can learn how to defeat Moloch. Calladia vows that once Astaroth is cured, she’ll kick his ass, but the more time she spends with the snarky yet utterly charming demon, the more she realizes she likes this new, improved Astaroth . . . and maybe she doesn’t want him to recover his memories, after all.

What I Have to Say 

I wasn't sure how this one would be after seeing Astaroth's character in A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon, but it worked better than I thought. The only problem I found was that Astaroth had a complete personality change in order to fall in love. 

It made sense in the plot and he still had some of the same sass and snobbery that the original Astaroth had. And I don't think the plot would have ever worked with the original Astaroth. But I found myself wondering at several points whether amnesia really would have so much of an effect. 

I liked both characters though and the enemies-to-lovers style of their relationship was satisfying., I love this world and I was really glad to spend more time in it. 

Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book! 

4 stars 

My thanks goes to Netgalley and Gollancz for providing me with this gifted copy for review.