How Not to Kill a Hellhound Summary: A Cozy MM Romance
TL;DR: The Short Version
Sebbie likes his life the way it is.
He works as a hospice nurse, keeps sweet tea in the fridge, and feeds a murder of crows from his porch — and he has mostly convinced himself that the cult kidnapping and the way people seem to die around him are ordinary facts of existence.
Then he meets Corbin, a tattooed witch and hellhound who removes evil souls from the world, and the quiet arrangement Sebbie has made with his own memory begins to come apart.
How Not to Kill a Hellhound by Shannon Mae is the fifth book in the Hellhounds of Paradise Falls series.
It follows a cheerful mortal who is not mortal at all, and the ancient predator who chooses to stand beside him.
The book suits readers of paranormal MM romance who prefer warm, low-angst storytelling, found family, and humor mixed into dark fantasy elements.
- Who: Sebbie, an oblivious reaper, and Corbin, an ancient hellhound and witch.
- Where: Paradise Falls, a small town ringed by state forest, plus the dreamlike river of the afterlife.
- Core tension: Sebbie’s suppressed powers surface while he keeps dissociating from the violence attached to them.
- Tone: Snarky, cozy, and romantic, with low angst despite the death-heavy premise.
- Ending: A saved life, a revealed origin, and a settled happily ever after.
How Not to Kill a Hellhound Summary
Spoiler warning: this section covers the plot in full, including the ending.
The book opens with Corbin, a centuries-old hellhound and elemental witch, finishing a job of vigilante justice against an abusive psychiatrist. His sassy crow familiar, Crow, keeps him company throughout.
Corbin lives on a large forested compound in Paradise Falls with his adopted hellhound pack, led by his adoptive father Wilder. His brothers Jude, Dexter, Liam, Aiden, and Atlas share the land with their human mates.
Corbin is fascinated by Sebbie, a bubbly hospice nurse and EMT the pack rescued from a Nephilim cult basement. During that rescue, Corbin saw spectral shadows around Sebbie and realized he was looking at an unconscious grim reaper and ferryman of souls.
Sebbie has no memory of any of it. He has rationalized the trauma away and believes his life is ordinary.
Sebbie spends his days comforting dying patients, including an elderly man named Mr. Russell, telling them that death is a journey rather than an ending. At home he feeds the local crows, and Crow frequently leaves him shiny gifts.
Thea, a female hellhound recovering from severe trauma, begins lingering on Sebbie’s porch and gradually becomes his closest friend.
Corbin hesitates to court Sebbie too quickly, afraid of overwhelming him. Then a magical ritual to bond the pack’s land to Paradise Falls leaves Corbin badly weakened from blood loss.
He stumbles to the pack house, where Sebbie happens to be visiting. Sebbie switches into nurse mode and cleans his wounds, and a lightheaded Corbin calls him beautiful.
At night, Sebbie enters a lucid dreamscape: a misty river where he wears a cloak, carries a staff, and ferries departed souls across the water on a wooden party boat. A refined figure called Luce, the Man in Black, watches over him there.
Once Corbin and Sebbie begin dating, Corbin’s magical connection lets him enter that realm with him.
Sebbie’s reaper powers then start leaking into the waking world. While browsing a new age shop with Toby and Dexter, he touches a Death tarot card and falls into a trance.
He walks more than a mile to a house where a man is beating his elderly father. Sebbie unconsciously reaps the abusive son’s soul, and the man dies of a sudden heart attack while the father survives.
On the dream river, Sebbie refuses to let the cruel soul board his boat. Corbin arrives in his fiery beast form and, with Sebbie’s consent, consumes it.
Sebbie later explores a dark forest along the river and finds two stone pillars holding souls from his past. One contains Aiden’s grandfather, who once tried to kill him; the other holds the Nephilim cult leader.
Corbin’s hellfire destroys the grandfather’s soul. The cult leader tries to flee across the River Styx but falls into the River of Woe, which erases her memories and dissolves her permanently.
Snapshot memories of these acts break through Sebbie’s dissociation, leaving him grieving and confused. Corbin talks him through the breakdown, telling him his reaper nature is not evil and that he only collects souls already due for death.
The climax arrives when Sebbie has a premonition that Sheriff Paul, the local lawman and Jude’s unacknowledged mate, is about to be killed in the line of duty.
Time stops on the mortal plane, and Sebbie transforms into his true reaper form: a pink cloak and a silver scythe, with Corbin at his side. They arrive at a crime scene where a suspect is mid-strike, stabbing Paul in the chest.
Reapers cannot alter physical events directly, so Sebbie reaps Paul’s soul and carries him onto the ferry boat. There he offers Paul a choice: move on to the afterlife with his ancestors, or return to the mortal world and the life waiting for him with Jude.
Paul chooses to return. Sebbie then uses his mortal free will — the one thing afterlifers lack — to trade Paul’s death for the soul of the knife-wielding criminal.
Time unfreezes. The attacker dies of a fatal brain aneurysm while missing Paul entirely, and the sheriff lives.
Afterward, Sebbie meets Luce on his river dock. Luce reveals that he is Lucifer and explains Sebbie’s origin.
Centuries earlier, the ancient ferryman Charon grew lonely as fewer souls crossed his river. To give his old friend a joyful life, Lucifer combined Charon’s ferryman soul with a bright mortal soul and a weary grim reaper soul, creating Sebbie.
In the epilogue, Corbin officially moves into Sebbie’s cottage. A tarot reading shows the Ten of Cups face-up, the card of emotional fulfillment.
Surrounded by their pack, their crows, and each other, Corbin and Sebbie settle into their eternal future together.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Sebbie (Sebastian) | A hospice nurse and EMT who is secretly an amalgamation of a human soul, the ferryman Charon, and a grim reaper. |
| Corbin | An ancient hellhound and elemental witch who becomes Sebbie’s mate and personal hellhound. |
| Crow | Corbin’s crow familiar, a daimon who bonds with Sebbie and brings him gifts. |
| Thea | A traumatized female hellhound in the pack who becomes Sebbie’s close friend. |
| Jude | Corbin’s adopted hellhound brother, an assassin-for-hire and Sheriff Paul’s unacknowledged mate. |
| Toby | A human paranormal romance author mated to Dexter. |
| Dexter | A hellhound who can smell hellbound souls on the wind and Toby’s mate. |
| Wilder | The alpha leader and adoptive father of the Paradise Falls hellhound pack. |
| Josh | A human nurse and caretaker mated to Wilder. |
| Aiden | A wealthy hellhound hiding from his corrupt family and mated to Atlas. |
| Atlas (“Fluffy”) | A feral hellhound who prefers his giant wolf-dog form and is mated to Aiden. |
| Liam | A tech-focused hellhound who handles pack surveillance and mated to Quinton. |
| Quinton (Q) | A hellcat who works at a local coffee shop and is mated to Liam. |
| Sheriff Paul (“Walrus”) | The local law enforcement officer and Jude’s mate, saved from a fatal stabbing. |
| Luce (Lucifer) | The King of Hell and Charon’s old friend, who created Sebbie’s tripartite soul. |
| Nephilim Cult Leader | A winged cult leader who stole immortality from supernaturals and is dissolved in the River of Woe. |
| Aiden’s Grandfather | A cult member who tried to kill Aiden and is destroyed by Corbin’s hellfire. |
| Dr. Reginald Dornham | An ER doctor at Sebbie’s hospital who bullies nurses and is confronted by Corbin. |
| Mr. Russell | An elderly hospice patient ferried across the river by Sebbie. |
Books Like How Not to Kill a Hellhound
- How to Flirt with a Hellhound by Shannon Mae — The first Hellhounds of Paradise Falls book, following Toby and Dexter. It shares the same setting, pack, and cozy paranormal romance tone.
- A Beginner’s Guide to Death, Demons, and Other Afterlife Disasters by Shannon Mae — Another MM paranormal romance by the same author built around humorous afterlife mishaps and sweet supernatural romance.
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune — A cozy fantasy about found family and gentle romance among supernatural beings learning to accept their own powers.
- Wolfsong by TJ Klune — A fated-mates shifter romance with a protective supernatural partner, a hurt/comfort dynamic, and a tight found family.
- The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune — A comedic fantasy romance with banter-driven humor and a warm ensemble cast.
- Psync by Onley James — An MM romance pairing a fierce, protective partner with a soft-hearted mate caught in dark circumstances.
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Paranormal Romance / MM Romance / Urban Fantasy
- Core Narrative Tropes: Fated mates, protective hellhound and cheerful reaper, hidden supernatural identity, found family, hurt/comfort
- Tone & Atmosphere: Warm, cozy, humorous, and low-angst, with soft dark fantasy elements
- Primary Conflict: Sebbie’s suppression of his grim reaper nature and Corbin’s effort to help him embrace it safely
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced and character-driven, told in dual first-person POV alternating between Corbin and Sebbie
- Book Structure: 30 chapters plus an epilogue, with front and back matter including content warnings and an author’s note
- Series Position: Book 5 of 6 in Hellhounds of Paradise Falls
- ISBN-10: 1967788049
- ISBN-13: 978-1967788040
- Print Length: 272 pages
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