Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Demon Inside
AUTHOR: H L Day
NARRATOR: Freddie Wills
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 43 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2024
BLURB:
The forces of darkness are gathering, and only two men can stand in their way.
Jude Campbell can see demons. His psychiatric history says it’s all in his head, but he knows they’re out there. Watching. Waiting. Biding their time.
Dante Moretti is the half demon child that should never have been born. He might exorcize demons, but the dark urges from his demon side are growing stronger, and he knows the day will come when he’ll lose himself to them completely.
When Jude’s time runs out, Dante is tasked with keeping him alive. Jude might be temptation personified, but for Jude’s sake, Dante won’t give in. Only, being together is changing them, in ways neither could possibly hope to understand, and it’s no longer clear who is saving who.
Destiny has come calling. And love could be its prize.
Demon Inside is a 94k action/adventure paranormal MM novel. It features a demon king who can enter dreams, two flawed main characters who don’t have the happiest of backgrounds, a priest sidekick, secrets that go way back, and plenty of steam.
Content warnings: violence and murder, past mentions of sexual assault (not of the main characters), and mentions of psychiatric difficulties and medication use.
REVIEW:
Jude is a 35 year old guy who has never been believed about being able to see demons beneath the surface of human faces. He’s been committed against his will and finally he’s just determined that he will just tell people what they want to hear. Despite continuing to see doctors, he’s not taking the antipsychotic drugs he’s prescribed. Mostly because they do not work. Demons aren’t affected by Jude taking drugs! His latest boyfriend has left him and he’s on his own yet again. His family isn’t much help and he’s pretty salty about the whole thing.
Dante is a half-demon who hunts demons and banishes them. He works with a priest, Rory, who helps him – with a number of tasks, including cleanup of the messes left by his elimination of the demons. He also helps Dante find others who can see demons. Or at least he’s trying to help him. When Jude’s name shows up on the list and Dante tries to warn Jude to not go back to his flat where hordes of demons are waiting to kill him, Jude doesn’t know what to think. Demons do show up to kill him, but Dante is able to hold them off. The end up basically on the run together.
When Jude realizes that the only other person he’s met who can see demons has been killed in a most gruesome manner – likely by the demons, he believes Dante that they have to stay hidden. They keep moving and Jude’s presence helps to quiet Dante’s mind and keep the demon voices at bay. But as they keeps dispatching demons, one voice calls to Dante – and he cannot ignore it. That voice is telling him that he has to kill Jude. One huge problem. He’s come to love Jude and he could no more kill him than kill himself.
The showdown is coming though and Jude and Dante are there for each other. Despite the danger, neither is walking away. But can they figure out what is really at work here before one or both of them are taken out by the evil that fills the city?
This is my second book by H.L. Day and is completely different to the first one I read, Five Night Stand, which was a holiday contemporary. This book could not be set further from that one. Here the story is a bit of a runaway freight train with our opposite MCs, Dante and Jude along for the ride and holding on tight to make it to the end. There are so many circumstances against them. Whether it’s the mysterious demon king, the questions that Jude can’t answer about his own family, Dante’s damage growing up in care after his mother’s death, or the demons who continue to hunt them, Dante and Jude are in for a very rough road. Rory, Dante’s pseudo-father and a priest who seems to have more information than anyone else in this battle, is the one person who provides insight into what might be happening. But even Rory doesn’t know the whole story. He does his best to try to help them, but some things they are just going to have to sort out themselves. Luckily the more time they spend together and the more their feelings for each other grow, the closer they actually seem to be in achieving their goal. If only the demon king wasn’t out to stop them by whatever means possible. There are secrets and lies that come to light here and Dante and Jude have to navigate their future together or there may not be any future 😉 It’s an intriguing story and not for the squeamish, but ultimately a hopeful HEA.
Freddie Wills is a new narrator to me. He did a fabulous job of performing this story. The urgency and desperation of Jude and Dante are palpable in this rendering. Both characters have a lot of question and very few answers available to them. The anger and hurt that each feel given the circumstances of their lives to date are obvious in the emotional overtones of this audio. The story starts off with a bang and then just keeps picking up speed as Dante and Jude race against time to stop the evil that is lurking all around them. Their connection and love are the only thing that keep them going despite lots of obstacles. I believed their relationship which definitely was not an easy one. Well done.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: