[Review] My Roommate from Hell - Cale Dietrich

Summary: Owen is not going to college to have fun. Nothing is going to stop him from achieving his goals: study hard, get a good job, and set himself up for the rest of his life. The last thing he needs is to have a loud, obnoxious, and infuriatingly hot roommate. Especially since said roommate just so happens to be the prince of hell.

Prince Zarmenus has come to Point University for the first-ever Earth/hell exchange program, and he's determined to make the most of it. Which may or may not include wild parties, bringing in random boys to his and Owen's room, and accidentally setting Owen's furniture on fire. Sparks fly (literally) as Owen and Zar clash, but Zar's actions threaten to not only ruin Owen's peaceful college life, but demon-human relations as well. To clean up his image, he asks Owen to be his fake boyfriend and teach him how to be a better human in exchange for an internship that will secure Owen’s future. That, and Zar will consider being a better roommate.

A deal is struck, and the two start pretending to be in a relationship where they each have agendas of their own. Only Owen has a secret—dating his mortal enemy, even if it’s fake, is the most fun he's ever had. (Pub Date: Nov 11 2025)

What a fun ride! I loved the silliness some parts of this book had.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

Owen is sad his best friend couldn't follow him to college, and suddenly he's got much bigger problems—his roommate has changed and now it's the prince of hell. A very spoiled, loud, messy prince of hell who's bringing chaos to his life and heart.

First of all, I wish this were actual hell. I don't get why the need to give a proper explanation that someone found this passage to a world that is probably the basis to humans' imaginary of hell. Was it to escape the religious context? Was it just to give it a tinge of reality? Amongst all the silliness that I loved, this attempt of sobriety threw me off. Why do I even need an explanation? I just need Zarmenus, the hot but spoiled brat. 

But it's a fun romance that with all that's been said was actually a slow-burn, no pun intended. I can't call it enemies-to-lovers, even if there is a bit of it, because it's more of a culture shock happening between the two, and Zarmenus never acts like Owen's enemy. They just very slowly end up with each other (I was going to write slowly attracted to each other, but that they are from the first page they share together).

I did wish they had explored more of the theme. To be honest, aside from random happenings with little to no repercussion, Zarmenus is really just a bad roommate who needs to learn to behave better. I'm not sure how I hoped that should have happened, I maybe wanted the silliness to be more deranged. To go extra. However, the more I read, the more normal the situation felt. It was a nice romance, but under-used plot.

Definitely a recommended read for anyone up to a fun romance involving magical realism. And even for those who are just here for the romance—this pairing is worth it!

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.