I enjoyed the story and character but the MC’s stance on women took a lot away from what makes a story like this unique. He killed people to protect a crime family and their drugs. He is blessed by demons. He is not a good guy. Not even close. The backstory seemed like an excuse to handicap the MC in a typical way that dismissed his unique nature. It made women a weakness and dismissed them as a threat in a gun riddled fantasy world with gods and magic.

It made a clever, strong MC unreliable and prone to undermining himself because someone happened to be a woman. The whole exchange after the first female card barer was introduced was jarring and confusing. He gives up tactical thinking and caution to reveal himself, then his home. I don’t see that being the veteran who survived odds stacked against him.

And the writing around this change is tropish and amateurish. Just a bunch of plot armor and of course she would be this way.