Ink Print Press, $0.99, ISBN 979-8201559434
Fantasy, 2023

So, in Amy Laurens’s Curses With Benefits, we have a guy named Harry. No, not that Harry, as the author will make it clear. 

Harry has a friendly demon that resembles a Great Dane. The demon’s name is Seagal, Prince of Air and Night, Fleet of Foot and Master of Speed, Haunter of Shadows and Bringer of Sorrow, Seagal, Keeper of Lost Memories and Guardian of the Void.

So, one night, Harry can’t sleep, so he summons Seagal and seriously, a part of me is terrified that this will lead into some furry erotica moment. The other part is kind of hoping that it will, because reading self-published works has turned me into a degenerate.

Alas, he ends up summoning Seagal in the midst of a kerfuffle with another demon, so ooh, what to do, what to do. 

This is a super short story that, even for $0.99, makes me feel like I’m cheated out of 98 cents. This is because the story is so abrupt and barely nibble-sized that it doesn’t really do anything for me.

What, we can’t even have some kind of elucidation as to what the “benefits” are? I have my suspicion, because a guy that summons a demon just because he can’t sleep must surely want to do something obscene and vile to a dog demon. The author can’t fool me!

Anyway, this is a big whatever. Whatever it could be at a longer length—maybe this Harry and his dog can have an orgy with the other Harry and his owl—the final form is so inconsequential that I can’t even muster the energy to feel even a twinge of disappointment.