hexentart's reviews
608 reviews

The Lovely Dark: A Monster Romance Anthology by Zoey Draven, Juliette Cross, Emma Hamm

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Undines, Fae, and mysterious Aliens. 3 authors, 3 worlds, 3 stories, 1 wonderful book.

To be honest, I bought this book because of the story by Juliette Cross, who is a personal fave, but I discovered a couple of new-to-me authors that I'm going to enjoy exploring more.

What a lovely bonus.

Each story appears to be a stand alone, but they made me want to dive further into their respective worlds again.

They hurt so good and have just the right amount of steam.

I'd consider this anthology to be more shadowy than dark. It has some edgy themes, but nothing really disturbing.

YMMV, of course.

Return the Rose by Joachim Heijndermans

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

WOW!

Wicked good monster erotica. This brings all the zest. 🥵

Simply wonderful Monsterfucking

, as well as some delightful surprise sapphic encounters.

It's not a fairytale retelling, more like a smoking hot sequel and I AM HERE FOR IT!

Looking forward to reading more of this Beautiful Beasts series.

Alpha Ranger by Anna Fury

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This short story set in the Alpha Compound universe was a fun and spicy PWP.

However, I had to detract a star for a glaring continuity error.

The MMC removes the FMC's shirt, remarking on her bra and the way her breasts look filling it out. A few paragraphs later and it said he came all over the bottom of her shirt and he had to help her take it off, and wondered if she was wearing undergarments.

The fact that this is a short story, PWP, only 45 pages long and that mistake made it through the chain of command to be published for sale is a big OOF. It throws the reader completely out of the moment.

This short is not indicative of the quality of the author's other works, so take it with a grain of salt.

The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The characters in this book felt very real to me. They are raw, flawed, vulnerable, and they really make a hash of things more than once…as folks do.

Teddy is so very relatable; his openness and huge heart have caused him a world of hurt and regrets.

He gave me very ND vibes, which made me love him even more.

Cole seems to have it all, but at what cost? He exchanged the shackles of his father's expectations for ones of his own making; rules to keep him safe and allegedly happy.

Yeah, no. Shackles are shackles, my dude.

Together they have the power to help each other heal, if they would only get out of their own way first.

This book wrecked me in the best of ways. I ugly cried more than once, wishing I could reach through the pages and give them both comfort and love. Maybe a Gibb's slap in the back of the head when needed too.

My only regret with this book is that the villain seemingly gets away scot free. His plan is thwarted but he just disappears into the sunset. I would have liked to see him pay for what he did to not only the MCs, but also Nicko.

I would love to see a story where Nicko gets his own HEA. That man deserves to find someone to love him as fiercely as he longs to love another.

This book isn't for everyone. Far too many readers out there looking for their cookie cutter Queer characters, predictable tropes, formulaic romance, and sex, sex, SEX.

While this has some of those elements, it's more out-of-the-box than usual and that's what makes it even better, IMO. It's about heart, hurt, and healing. Yes, there's intimate scenes but those are a bonus, not the point.

As with their YA novels, Steven Salvatore has once again delivered a book with a sucker punch of heart and soul.

I can't wait to see what they write next.

YMMV, of course. ✌🏻

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