I’ve read quite a few novels by Dietrich and I’ve enjoyed each of them, so when this landed in my inbox I thought sure why not and promptly forgot about it for five months.
Now, paranormal romance isn’t usually my thing, but I have read a few and given it’s by an author that I generally like and had a humorous blurb so it made sense I accepted it, however I 100% forgot it was paranormal and just expected another teen mm romance novel that I would enjoy. Boy was I surprised.
The basic premise of the story is that Hell is real and has echoes of what we believe it to be, but it’s not an afterlife. It’s a separate dimension and the Prince of Hell, Zarmeneous, is coming to study at an earth college while another student is going to Hell for a semester. He ends up rooming with Owen Greene, a normal average teenager and whose vantage point we get the novel from. Zar gets in trouble and somehow convinces his parents that he and Owen are an item and the fake-boyfriend trope kicks into high gear.
I’ve known for a while now that the prince of Hell would be studying at Point. Sometimes it seems like the first-ever interdimensional exchange program is the only thing anyone talks about. (Chapter 1)
For the most part I enjoyed the novel. The first year struggles with a roommate, trying to find your group and crushing on someone you “shouldn’t” were all so real. I do, however, really wished (over and over again) that Owen would get out of his head and just believe people when they told him he was cute and worth it, but I get it it’s not that easy.
And the thing is, we don’t make any sense. None. Demon stuff aside, he’s a classically handsome prince with such high levels of charisma that he becomes the focus of every room he walks into. I like video games and being alone and have to think about every move I make a million times before I feel comfortable doing anything. He is chaos. I am order. We make no sense. (Chapter 32)
There were quite a few subplots that made sense, but we definitely approached the end and I truly wondered if they were all going to wrap up, and thankfully they did. There were financial troubles with Owen’s parents, a pregnant best friend that didn’t get to come to school, paparazzi, crushes on other characters, Zar being a playboy, internships on the line, etc. The one that annoyed me the most was probably the Golden Sun subplot. I appreciated why it was included, to create danger and to really show how restrained Zar and Hell were when it came to being labeled as they had been historically, but it just kind of felt a little underwhelming and talk about a deus ex machina: Zar’s mom fixed it with one dream. Like, what!?
The further we got in the novel though, I couldn’t help but love Owen’s thought process and his growth from meek and mild to figuring out that he could step out of his comfort zone and that he was worth it. The growth felt well timed and steady paced so that it wasn’t a single moment or scene that had Owen become this awesomely self-embracing person, it was slow and gradual and even at the end of the novel when he gets to visit Hell you get a little bit of his hesitancy again which was actually kind of rewarding.
I do know from watching videos online that the things people seem to regret the most about their lives are the things they didn’t do, as opposed to the things they did. People rarely say they regret rolling the dice and quitting their job to travel the world or chase their dreams or go after the person they love. It seems that in the end, the riskiest choice is staying still to try to avoid failing at anything, because it means you never go for what you really want. (Chapter 36)
If there’s one thing I wish from the novel it’s that it was told from both perspectives. I’d love to know what Zar was thinking throughout the novel. He confesses multiple times to Owen that he’s liked him or found him attractive since their first meeting, but Owen doesn’t believe it until the very end. With that in mind, knowing what was going through Zar’s head when he was bringing boys home or when he first told his dad they were dating, would just add so much to the story (for me at least)!
But if I spent all my time thinking about how things could be different, I’d miss everything good about my life now. Things change all the time, and I truly believe the people that succeed in life are the ones who take the cards they’re dealt and adapt. (Chapter 46)
Recommendation: Well worth the read! I enjoyed it and there were humorous and adorable scenes throughout. Owen and Zar were absolutely adorable in their dancing around each other for the first part of the novel and once the fake-boyfriend trope kicked in I was all in on the story. The only question I keep coming back to—and it has absolutely no bearing on the story—is do they speak English in Hell? It was never acknowledged and it would be a crazy coincidence if they did.
*I received a copy of My Roommate From Hell via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.
Opening Line: “The good thing about never getting your hopes up is that you’re rarely surprised.”
Closing Line: “Would I like that? Hell, yes.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
