Title: Oscar’s Soul
Author: Missy Welsh
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Buy Link:Oscar’s Soul
Genre: paranormal
Length: 7k words
Rating: None

A Guest Review by Cryselle

Review Summary: Cute and well written but with a bitter aftertaste.

Blurb

Satan, himself, has discovered love in the form of a beautiful young man whose soul he’s been forced to reap. The poor devil’s desperate for sweet Oscar’s affection, actually does get it and more, but then The Big Man Upstairs wants Oscar up where he truly belongs. Now, Satan can’t say “no” to his boss…or can he?

Review

The story, which is very short, is a quick and mostly light-hearted read. Satan falls in love with a soul he’s collected in one of the deals even he admits is a bit passé. Wondering if he should fire the devil who made this soul-for-success bargain, Satan comes across as a businessman, even putting on his cloven hoofsies and red skin for a day of work terrifying the new shipment of the damned the way most men put on suits.

Oscar is unlike anyone Satan’s ever collected; it wasn’t even his own deal with the devil that got him into this mess. He’s sweet, gentle, adorable, sexy, virgin even, and Satan is smitten hard and thoroughly. Oscar is just as smitten—this is as complete an insta-love as you’ll ever see. It’s cute and fluffy, and even if the two come across as love-struck fourteen year olds, it makes you say Aw!

Of course there must be a twist and revelations or there’d be no story, and here the first reaction is more AW!! Isn’t that cute? And there is an HEA, which for a guy like Satan, whom Oscar would rather call Stan because it’s friendlier, can be a very long time.

And, if this was all I ever had to think about for this story, I’d still be saying aw! But, since I have to write a review, meaning I have to keep thinking after I’ve stopped reading, this story changes tone. What was cute and funny became disturbing.

Some things don’t go together ever, like herring and chocolate sauce, and for me, the twist should not go with everything else in the story. Thinking about that at anything other than the most surface levels is actually making me kind of queasy and may be deeply offensive for others. Explaining further without spoilers is beyond my skill, I’m sorry.  But just as Satan doesn’t always answer to Stan, Oscar doesn’t usually answer to that name either and there’s at least one ass where Satan spooge just doesn’t belong. Highlight the gap if you want something spoilerish but explaining my reaction.

I’m left with having read a cute story that I wish I’d never seen. I’d recommend it for people who can compartmentalize their thinking better than I can. Rating is a problem. My first reaction, when I was still at the warm fuzzy glow stage, was a 3.5. My second reaction, at the queasy stage, is some large negative number.

Apologies to everyone on this one, but queasy wins for me. No rating.