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Love Between Fairy and Devil, Vol. 1 by Jiu Lu Fei XiangLove Between Fairy and Devil/Cāng Lán Jué #1
Published by Seven Seas Entertainment on May 6, 2025
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Format: Physical
Source: Library
The novels that inspired the hit Chinese live-action drama on Netflix! A powerful demon lord finds his life linked to a seemingly weak fairy in this epic fantasy romance.
Years after his defeat, Dongfang Qingcang—the ancient and powerful Demon Lord—has been resurrected. Hell-bent on settling the score, he nabs the first scapegoat unfortunate enough to cross his path: the bubbly orchid fairy Xiao Lanhua. As if becoming the Demon Lord’s accomplice wasn’t shocking enough, Xiao Lanhua has her soul ripped from her body and loses her physical form to a lethal self-inflicted slap. Forced to share a vessel with the Demon Lord himself, Xiao Lanhua is horrified by her luck. What’s a fairy to do?!
Still, for a former flower, Xiao Lanhua isn’t faring so bad; she now has the power of the Demon Lord at her disposal. Yet as the unlikely duo wrestle for control over their body, will they be able to find Xiao Lanhua a new vessel? Or will they be forever bound together?
The drama for Love Between Fairy and Devil came out way back in 2022, and it was one of my favorite C-dramas of the year (although it’s also the last drama I watched… I haven’t been feeling it lately). So after seeing there was an official translation in late 2025, I knew I wanted to pick the books up, too.
Prior to picking up the book, I was fully aware the novel would be different from the drama. The drama keeps the personalities for Xiao Lanhua and Dongfang Qingcang at the surface level; Xiao Lanhua is a lot spunkier and arguably less naive (though still equally as naive) and Dongfang Qingcang is a lot crueler in the novel. The drama’s plot keeps the body swapping element, though in the book, the two share a body the entire time while the drama moves away from it quickly (but they can still feel each other’s emotions) — I imagine that would be a bit more difficult to implement in a live action, though, and since I’ve not watched the animated version, I don’t know if they keep more close in tune to the book than the drama did. Volume 1’s entire plot is the two of them trying to find her a new body after she slaps her physical form to death while Dongfang Qingcang tries to form a plan for revenge.
There’s a lot more focus on the plot and moving the story along rather than diving deep into the character development and world-building. There’s also no tangent for the side characters like the drama goes into and diving into all of their backstories and development, though this could change in the second volume. Frankly, I don’t even think there’s any mention of the characters except maybe Shangque, who’s actually a sword in the novel if I’m remembering correctly (I don’t have the book with me anymore to double-check since I had to return it (ಥ﹏ಥ).
There’s only two volumes (officially in English) to Love Between Fairy and Devil, so it’s quite fast-paced and the translation by Yu is pretty well-done. While there are some moments where it feels like something didn’t translate as smoothly, the novel flows well for the most part, and you’re not taken out of the story. It does feel like there’s more books since we pretty much get plopped into the story right when Dongfang Qingcang is first resurrected and Xiao Lanhua just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, though. Assuming there are other books set in the same world that don’t have an official English translation, those may provide more context to the world and develop the side characters.
Love Between Fairy and Devil Vol. 1 was overall a delight to read. It’s so unhinged and comical, and I just had a good time following Xiao Lanhua and Dongfang Qingcang as they try to find her a new body while bickering.
Hannah has a penchant for chaos, which is probably how she ended up blogging since 2012. That, and she was probably too expressive for her parents to handle, so it had to go somewhere. She can be found occasionally at The Arts STL. If you’d like to fuel her boba addiction or just enjoy her posts and want to support her, stop by her KoFi or Buy Me a Coffee!