Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A touch
Perspective: third person from both the hero and heroine (alternating chapters)
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? slow to medium
When mains are first on page together: They are on page pretty soon in...like 5% or so but don’t really interact knowingly with each other until 30% and don’t really talk to each other until 37%
Cliffhanger: This ends with a happily ever after for the mains
Epilogue: Yes
Format: listened to an audiobook from my library (Hoopla)
Why I chose this book: it was recommended on my post asking for monster romance in our FB group A Love Less Ordinary
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a monster (mahr) hero and human heroine

Should I read in order?
This is the first of Dare’s Freedom, Love, Monsters series.

Basic plot:
Addison is pulled into a new to her world when Traeyr finds her nightmares delicious.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary setting
- monster romance
- monster hero / human heroine
- Boston setting
- hero is a mahr
- heroine works at a fish market
- graphic designer heroine
- hero feeds on human nightmares
- shadow daddy
- protective hero
- full figured heroine
- at least 4 steam – I might have missed some

Ages:
- didn’t catch them

First line:
The gaudy blue house with its peeling paint and crooked shutters taunted Addison from the driveway.

My thoughts:
I am sad I struggled with this one! I think part of it was….it was just weird to me lol. Which might be great for others and just a me thing. But I also was feeling like I was waiting forever for the heroine and her to actually be together and interact and that always makes me salty.

I also just wanted a bit more...world building? Like I didn’t really understand this world of monsters. Mahrs would ride peoples chest when they were having nightmares? And sometimes break their bones? So is this Boston but people randomly are dead in their apartments, chests crushed? And how the hero rescues her from a hag or whatever that would have killed her it’s kind of like...expected like this is a common occurrence. I just wanted a bit more understanding of all this PNR activity happening!

I did like the mains okay. But overall I just didn’t get super into this story. I didn’t really love the plot and the mains were separated for so much of the book that I was left wishing for more from them.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: This is my first
Average rating from me: 3 stars
Favorite book: This by default

Cock/Hero Stats:

- hero feeds on human’s nightmares
- he can fly through human realms, can travel through keyholes
- hero has horns and claws
- he can control shadows
- he could only become mortal with a binding ritual that would bind him to her bedroom (of course!)
- 8 feet tall with soft fur along his body
- huge cock

Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)

- remembrances of domestic abuse/violence in her family
- remembrance of a bad relationship and break up
- abusive boss
Author given content warnings: Didn’t notice any on audio but she has some listed on goodreads

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

 
Safe sex: 

  No? 

 
How’s the consent? 

  There’s dubious elements because he’s addicted to her nightmares and body before she has even been aware of him – he feeds on her in sleep but the acts are consensual 

 
Pregnancy/children in story? 

  I don’t think so? 

 
12% - 🔥 heroine self pleasure (short)
46% - 🔥 heroine self pleasure at work (again, pretty short)
53% - 🔥 oral for her
78% - 🔥 oral for her, bj, missionary