I really enjoyed how this story was just the right balance of cozy and creepy. Here we have a town on the edge of the woods with local traditions built around the presence of a horned monster in the forest, except no one really believes in the monster anymore; a young town outcast/hermit living on the very edge of the woods with his dog and his vegetable garden; and of course, one day the hermit gets a bit lost among the trees and finds out that the monster is in fact real. What follows is a short and sweet cottagecore tale that involves walks in the woods, baking, gardening, and growing pumpkins despite the neighbor's objections.

Styx, the monster, also hits that balance very well. On one hand, he is super sweet and considerate with Ellis. On the other hand, he's also very much a primal force of nature with a possessive streak. The relationship was fun to follow for the most part, although there was an aspect to it that didn't feel balanced to me at all. I'm not sure if this is one of my trademark "I'm too ace for this shit" moments, or if it was indeed not clear at times whether the romance was heading in a "first and foremost, the man and the monster are going to get to know each other, slowly dispensing the awkwardness" direction or in a "don't trust the first chapter, this is actually erotica" one. Not saying allosexual people can't think about sex and feelings at the same time or anything, but I think that probably "at the same time" is key. Meanwhile, Ellis was kind of swinging between "the monster is a person and I want to get to know that person" and "the one interesting thing about the monster is his dick and I'm going to think of nothing but his dick" :D

All in all, I really liked the vibes here and might pick up the full-length novels from this series sometime.