The Demon of Beausoleil

Costa (Belle of the Ball) serves up a raunchy romantasy with a devilish sense of humor. Helianthes “Hell” Beausoleil is a cambion, a half-demon born to a human family. In his Victorian-esque fantasy world, such beings are usually killed at birth, but Helianthes has grown into a sly, sarcastic, and horny (in both senses of the word) rake with a reputation for seducing men. (Or, as patrons at the local tavern gossip, “That bastard puts this nasty spell... that makes ’em fall for him!”) Cast out of his noble family for bedding his sister’s fiancé, he finds work as a freelance exorcist, dispatching demons with the help of his burly, perpetually exasperated bodyguard, Elias. Costa draws a cast of colorful characters with hilariously animated faces and lithe figures, then sets them loose in a vividly imagined sepia-toned period setting. Helianthes and Elias battle demons in a brothel, a basilica, and a country house; receive an invitation to the apocalypse; and face off against Helianthes’s most dreaded ex. Beneath the fighting and flirting is a warmhearted romance, in which the leads learn to lower their emotional defenses as they hone their fighting skills. Along the way, Helianthes’s half-demon status and society’s reaction to it serve as a saucy commentary on queer identity. It’s a wicked treat. (Jan.)