This book is for somebody, but that person is not me. I think the sex favorable ace rep has value and I can see the appeal of a low angst version of paranormal that's just meant to be fun and not stressful. There's also a found family aspect I could see people enjoying. I just want more violence, angst, and flawed characters in my paranormal. Especially being marketed as a haunted house story, I was disappointed in how little horror or suspense there was. It felt more like a paranormal investigation story than a haunted house story. I also found the hero too perfect for my taste and the book is way longer than it needs to be in my opinion. That being said, there are some interesting times about the heroine being too much for most people and finding the people that will accept her. There are one or two sex scenes towards the end of the book, but nothing very graphic and some discussion of past sexual relationships and sexuality.

From the Dark we Came by J. Emery is a solid fantasy romance novella featuring a demisexual hero in an MM relationship. The demi rep was well handled and I enjoyed seeing the intersection between that and an older hero with chronic pain. I loved the worldbuilding and the prose had a great balance between function and expression. I was also fascinated by Belar's relationship with his fae heritage and wish we could have seen more of it. However, it's not perfect. There could have been higher stakes and more character development for my taste. I want to see characters grow and change and learn through adversity and I didn't feel enough of that here, especially for what could have been a high stakes conflict. Although, I do tend to enjoy stories and characters that treat the absurd or violent as mundane and that aspect worked for me. I just wanted more tension. I also wish it dealt more with what it would mean for a monster hunter to be dating a vampire, the main type of monster he hunts. That being said, I do appreciate seeing an aspec character in Belar that is a little morally ambiguous. The book contains one brief sex scene and some discussion of sex, including some light kink elements.

This was a fantastic quick read that gave me everything I could want based on the synopisis. It's well paced and doesn't feel too long or short for the story N. J. Lysk is trying to tell. I loved the ace rep and the way the characters were able to communicate and come to a solution where the ace character was not the only one compromising to make the relationship work. There's a lot here about agency over your body and your place in the world that is literally present in the speculative aspects of the story and can easily translate to reality. Both Lia and Amelia struggle with the difference between what their bodies/wolves want and what they as people want, which is something I think a lot of people can relate to, especially a-spec people. Omegaverse and shifters as a concept opens up some really interesting ways of exploring agency and power dynamics and that potential was definitely taken advantage of. Both subgenres tend to be heavy on the sex so it was really nice to read a version of subgenres and tropes I love without that element! The only thing I would critique is the writing on a sentence by sentence level. Some moments could have been a bit clearer and Lysk avoids naming sex and sex acts at times, which feels intentional, but also can make it a little unclear what exactly the character means at times. There is one scene that appears to be leading to sex, but never goes that far and there are no full sex scenes.