Tag Archives: monster romance

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Book Review: I’m in Love With Mothman, by Paige Lavoie

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I won a copy of I’m in Love With Mothman from the author, Paige Lavoie. I read it as part of my Mothman Challenge. In fact, it was part of why I created the challenge in the first place.

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22-year-old Heather is suffering from an epic case of burnout.
So, just like any other young influencer, she
abandons her social platforms. Check!
gathers up her best flowy dresses. Check!
and moves to a desolate cabin. Check!

Heather imagines spending her #unplugged days traipsing through the woods and tending to her garden. However, her cottagecore fantasy is turned upside down when a wounded cryptid crashes into her roof-and her heart.

With no help from her internet followers, and the local monster-hunter growing suspicious, Heather’s quiet life in the wilderness has suddenly become a little more complicated. To make matters worse, she thinks she might be falling in love with the brooding winged man in her living room.

my review

This was surprisingly sweet. It’s heavy on consent and acceptance (of yourself and one another). Heather is an online influencer, a vegetarian, a lover of sparkly and frilly things, who says “like” a lot. Which is a personality type that is stereotypically depicted as vacuous, not very smart, and/or mean. So, it was nice to see an author invert this and make her the lovable main character. Moth is adorable. Big and potentially scary, but also just really, really cute. The book is fairly low-angst, especially in the romance department, and it wraps up nicely before leaving a hook for the next book. Which I’d be happy to read. Though I hope the author does a little better with copy edits in book two.

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Other Reviews:

Beauty’s Library: I’m in Love With Mothman

Book Review: I’m in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie

 

 

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Book Review: Nocturnal, by Clio Evans

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I picked up a copy of Nocturnal by Clio Evans as an Amazon freebie at some point in the not-too-distant past.

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I was his toxic obsession. He was my sadistic monster.

Nora:

When I took a job at St. Thorns university as a psychology professor, I encountered something—someone—unexplainable. Fascinating. And deadly.

Alec Briar had the eyes of a killer.

He’s a botanist who would rather rot in his greenhouse alone than deal with students, professors, or me. When a monster stalks me, our relationship becomes corrupted in ways that bring us closer together, for better or worse. He has secrets—ones that will destroy him if he discovers the truth…

Our minds twist to protect our souls, and Alec’s is the most warped of all. The only way to save him is to hurt him and accept the damnation doing so will bring.

Alec:

She was deadlier than belladonna, and yet I cannot resist her.

Nora Woulfe has become my infatuation. As she pushes me to my breaking point, we spiral down a path that will be our downfall. A monster is trying to steal what is mine, and I will hunt him to the bitter end. Even if I have to use her to draw him out…

my review

This was a lot of fun. It’s not super deep or complicated. It’s cotton candy. But I went in expecting two (maybe three) chaos grimlins being chaotic, and the book delivered just that. I liked Nora a lot as a character and could relate to her frustration with society’s men. I appreciated Alec and Monster, too, though “likable” isn’t a description I could apply to them. I did find a lot of the narrative repetitive. The reader is told the same thing several times. Or maybe characters just keep thinking the same thing over and over, which makes sense for the obsessed. But it felt redundant to read. And there is a character who is trusted at the end, but I saw absolutely no reason why they should be more trustworthy than anyone else. All in all, however, I enjoyed this.

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Audiobook Review: Echoes of the Tide, by Emma Hamm

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I borrowed an audiobook copy of Echoes of the Tide by Emma Hamm through Hoopla. I reviewed Echoes of the Deep and Song of the Abyss, books 1 and 2 of the series, in 2024.

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Ace has spent her entire life hiding who she is.

First, it was from friends and family who didn’t know she was stealing from the rich. Then, it was hiding her true self in a prison city under the water. The worst was hiding herself from new friends who helped her destroy Alpha. What she didn’t know was that the decision would force her to come into the light.

Maketes has always been the jokester. No one takes him seriously, and if they do, it’s only because he was born violent. But then he starts talking with a human through droids and finds a kindred spirit in them. When he’s given an opportunity to find out who this human really is, he takes it.

What he finds in that prison city is not just the person he was friends with. He finds a villainous group of people who wish to use him to their advantage and a woman who captivates his entire soul.

Together, they travel through the remains of Gamma, a city long forgotten. While they search for a key that will change how they see the entire world underneath the ocean, they find themselves growing closer. Soon enough, they realize that perhaps hiding their entire lives has prevented them from experiencing the greatest part of life.

Love.

my review

I enjoyed this in a shallow sort of way. I liked the characters a lot, and I see how the events of the book fit into the larger series arc. But somehow I just never found myself particularly invested. There was a lot of swimming around and doing things (and one really questionably convenient coincidence that raised my eyebrows), but not much else. I didn’t feel like there was much chemistry between Maketes and Ace, or maybe the reader isn’t given enough of them to coming to know and appreciate one another. IDK, as I said, I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’ll remember much of it by tomorrow. The narrators, William M. Watt and Carmen Rose, did an excellent job, though.

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Other Reviews:

Bookish Delights: Echoes of the Tide Book Review