Early Review – Demons and Diplomacy (Ministry of Supernatural Affairs, Book 1) by Megan Frampton (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Historical Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: August 25, 2026
ASIN: ‎B0G3YRNY6Y
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Ministry of Supernatural Affairs series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars

“1851, London. All supernatural species have emerged from hiding, a result of The Great Revelation, led by Her Majesty, the vampiric Queen Victoria, and her dhamphir consort, Prince Albert.

Cora Hastings is the British government’s Species Ombudsman, a human tasked with keeping the peace between supernatural creatures. It’s run-of-the-mill work: enforcing the newly created shifting parameters, negotiating contracts between species, and generally making certain all Londoners are treated equally.

That is, until the Devil himself decides he wants to leave his hellish home and see the results of Prince Albert’s greatest accomplishment, the Great Exhibition. His arrival could upset the uneasy peace between creatures, and worse—he’s brought his son.

The Marquis of Hell is diabolically good-looking, unnaturally perceptive, and, well, a demon. Cora navigates her sinfully seductive diplomatic assignment as best she can, until she catches wind of a secret conspiracy set to come to fruition at the opening of the Great Exhibition. This leaves her with an impossible choice: Either Cora enters an unholy alliance with the Devil’s son, or she watches as her world is torn asunder….”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Ministry of Supernatural Affairs series. I got an ebook of this for review from NetGalley..
Thoughts: This was a quick and fun paranormal romance. I enjoyed the witty banter between the two main characters and enjoyed the world here. The story itself it a pretty straight-forward political mystery as the two main characters join forces to figure out who is trying to assassinate Satan.

The story follows Cora, Great Britain’s Species Ombudsman who has been tasked with keeping peace between supernatural creatures. Cora’s job gets a lot more challenging when she finds out she will coordinate Satan’s visit to London. Satan wants to see the sites and is a bit of a spoiled debutante type of guy. However, Satan’s son, The Marquis of Hell, is a whole different beast. The Marquis expects organization and perfection, and as he and Cora work together, they both seem to be finding perfection in each other. When someone seems bent on assassinating Satan, the two must join forces to stop a diplomatic incident from occurring.

This was an incredibly fun romp with lots of witty banter, lots of crazy circumstances, and also some very steamy romance scenes. The world-building here is also fun, if a bit loose. This is a world where supernatural creatures were revealed to humans not that long ago and now the Victorian world is trying to cope with that. The story is very focused in London.

Cora is your no-nonsense type of Victorian lady with a bit of a spicy streak. I enjoyed her a lot. I also really enjoyed the Marquis of Hell and Cora’s two best friends (a succubus and a fairy). Most of the other side characters are fairly underdeveloped and don’t feature much in the story. The chemistry between Cora and the Marquis is fantastic and so much fun.

This book does suffer from a bad case of insta-love, but it is done in a cute and fun way. So while I don’t love that, I didn’t hate it for this book either. There is a solid plot here. So the romance is well balanced with a good story and an intriguing world. There are some things that feel a bit rushed, like the first kiss. There are also some things that feel a bit inconsistent (like all the talk about how weak humans are but then using them to prevent conflict). However, this isn’t a book to take too seriously.

This was incredibly easy to read and flowed well. This book practically read itself. I didn’t want to put it down, and I was eager to pick it back up again. It was fun and left me feeling happy.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a fun and entertaining paranormal romance set in Victorian London. I am happy to have read it and plan on continuing the series. If you enjoy humorous paranormal Victorian romance similar to Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, I think you would enjoy this book. Also if you enjoyed this maybe check out the Parasol Protectorate series as well, it is very similar in tones and themes to this one.