I grabbed Brenda Sparks‘ novella, A Midsummer Night’s Demon from the Amazon KDP list.

Synopsis:
Daelyn Torres is determined to break free from her over-protective brother. Born a demon, she knows little of the world outside her home and work. A chance blind date promises adventure and perhaps a walk on the wild side. But her night on the town takes a deadly turn when she is gravely injured and left to die. A handsome, mysterious stranger comes to her rescue and brings with him a passion she has never experienced.

A dark guardian sent to investigate a series of missing person cases, vampire Ky Robinson is ready for anything, except the insatiable desire that engulfs him when he meets Daelyn. He senses their destiny is intertwined and vows to do everything in his power to keep her safe. The only problem: demons and vampires go together like fire and ice.

Daelyn never believed in things that went bump in the night but is more than willing to be seduced by the sexy vampire who marks both her body and soul. Will Ky be able to keep them both alive long enough to prove that vampires and demons can be so much more than friends?

Review:
While entertaining, A Midsummer Night’s Demon left me scratching my head. Daelyn Torres is supposed to be a demon, but what kind I just don’t know. Not only is she extremely sweet and naive, but she’s also an ACCOUNTANT with a penchant for SUN DRESSES. We sure aren’t talking Mephistopholes, Belial or the Christian hierarchy here. In the end, it didn’t really seem to matter. Other than longevity her status as a demon might as well have been any other cultural quirk. She could have been a practitioner of Wicca or a dedicated Buddhist, the effect would have been the same.

For a full 83% of the novel I also kept waiting to meet the overbearing brother mentioned in the synopsis. He plays almost no role in the novella, which means that the blurb is being used to provide background information not present in the book. My gut reaction is that that isn’t right. It just seems that all pertinent information should be contained within the story itself.

Then there were the unanswered questions. What was the secret mission Ky’s partner was off on? She was introduced briefly but disappeared. Why was Raziel acting out of a vampiric character? What happened to Daelyn’s parents?

Really most of the above could have been addressed by more bulk. Had the book been a bit longer it could have addressed Daelyn’s background and family history, as well as explored the demon angle enough to give it a purpose. The side characters could have been fleshed out and explained. Despite my general sense of confusion I did enjoy the book. Ky was just fabulous. It would be almost impossible to not love him. He was kind, considerate, handsome, patient, sexy and funny. Daelyn simply existed. She was the woman who passively accepted Ky’s affections. But so many PNR females are just the same, so I can’t really complain about her lack of volition. The writing was fine and I don’t remember many editorial errors. All in all, it was satisfying enough.