A review by wardenred
Wyn by Lily Mayne

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“You know if I tell anyone all the sweet shit you say to me, no one’s gonna be scared of you anymore.”
I bared my teeth in a not-quite grin, leaning my head down to graze them over the shell of Danny’s ear. “Then you better not tell anyone.”

I really enjoyed this venture into the monster world and all the details about it. The creatures, the flora, the alien landscapes, all the new information about Wyn's species, getting to meet another representative about said species—all of that was so fascinating and so interestingly done. Honestly, I went in expecting to be hooked by the romance parts, and I ended up way more invested into the worldbuilding instead. Not something I've come to expect from this series, but I'm absolutely digging the change!

It was nice to catch up with the characters who started it all and to have the aspect of age/mortality difference addressed. Feels like by this point Wyn and Danny are out of the acute honeymoon phase and settled into a chronic honeymoon phase, and I love it for them. Danny in particular seems to be in a really good place and far more of a cinnamon roll than he was at the start—or maybe it's just because we're looking at him through Wyn's absolutely infatuated eyes? Nevertheless, the fluff was really nice, and it was great to get Wyn's POV.

I also weirdly liked the fact that Wyn comes across rather villainous at times (that scene where he used a random soldier as a guinea pig to make sure Danny would be all right in the monster world was absolutely hilarious, but also absolutely horrifying when you think about it from the soldier's POV). After Edin and Auri being all nice, sweet, and misunderstood in their books, each in his own way, it was kinda cool to see a monster being, well, monstrous, while also being pathologically sweet and protective within his relationship. 

That said, I did have some qualms with that one moment when Wyn led Danny to believe that he did the best he could while actually... not... having done that (even though he did more than he would have otherwise). Danny is already determined to see Wyn as a hero-like, almost martyr-like figure, and there's something toxic about directly feeding into that belief rather than opting for an open compromise: "Yes, I could do more, but I've already done more than I wanted, how about because of these and these rather valid reasons we agree it's enough." I know they're fictional, but I kind of hope that as their relationship evolves they'll move past such moments, because in many other ways, I'm totally rooting for their happy ever after.
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