First thing's first, I want to say that I appreciate the forward written by the authors', as it describes exactly what you're going to get. The authors' are right: this is just fiction and they are exploring tropes and kinks within that medium. I am mentioning all of this to say that the dubcon, rape, etc. are not the reason for my rating.

The reason for my rating is that I find the book to be avergae. The Dragon and His Prince is not horrible, but it's not for me. Despite it's short length, it took me days to complete because I kept getting bored. And I even skipped and/or skimmed a good few chapters (you know the ones).

And I have to say, the whole "heal SA trauma with more sex" was a really weird choice that I don't agree with, despite the content warnings the authors' offered.

The writing style is not bad, though. If you know you like monster romances (and you've read the trigger warnings and are okay with them), then you should give this a go. 

Even though I'm so close to the end, I really don't want to finish this book. I found this series while browsing Kindle Unlimited and I thought it sounded fun and absurd, so I gave it a try. I must say, this wasn't what I was expecting, and I don't mean that in a good way. I was expecting all of Santa's reindeer to interact, but besides the main character (Dasher), not one of them has been mentioned, which is disappointing. 

The mate thing is also incredibly weird and rushed as well. They barely have time alone but are completely devoted to each other. I also think the omegaverse dynamics are weird. Humans apparently have them, as Byron acknowledges, but he (and other humans) don't know what mates are? And none of the other humans besides Byron are even, like, acknowledged to be A/B/O. It's just really weird. And it's barley relevant to the story as well. Which is probably a fault of the prose, which is horrible (sorry to say). The writing is incredibly stilted, and is riddled with factual and grammatical errors. It's just... serviceable in the worst way possible. Lots of conversations are skipped over and the timeline is hard to follow. This book needed an additional 100 pages just so it could make sense. 

I don't know, this didn't hit with me the way I wanted it to. I wanted it to be a goofy, silly time, but it's just boring. I wouldn't waste your time on this, there are much better shifter books out there. 

I really enjoyed this book. It's a bit on the short side—the story and characters aren't as fleshed out as they could have been—but overall, I found it to be quite enjoyable. Shawn and Derek were very cute at the end. It was so sweet to see them falling in love, especially Derek. 

If you like student/professor relationships, you should read this one.

This was such a fun short story. Hot, too. I feel like the characters needed a little more fleshing out, and the romance could have used a little more of that as well. I feel like if it was double the length it is now, with more focus on those two things, it could be an easy 5 star. If you like spanking and find teacher/headmaster relationships to be hot, I strongly recommend this one. 

This was so much fun to read. It's a great conclusion to this series. I'm so excited to read the rest of this author's work. They have a way of writing characters that is incredible to read. I don't really have a reason for not giving this five stars, except that I would feel weird to rate it above Comfort Me, Daddy. 

I'm a little sad I have to leave these characters now. I highly recommend this series to those who love DD/lb, who are curious or unsure about DD/lb; hell, I'd even recommend it to people who haven't liked any DD/lb in the past. I think it's worth giving it a shot. 

Hot. As always, I wish it was longer. 

First of all, this is such a good book. I have read only a few DD/lb romances before, but they always left me feeling off-kilter and I could never get into them. This series changed that. The characters feel like real people outside of the DD/lb dynamic, and that makes all the difference. In the other books I've read with this trope, it always feels like the characters are, well, caricatures that only embody the stereotypes, whereas these characters get to live outside of that.

I admit I was a little skeptical at first since the characters are high schoolers, but they are both nineteen-year-old seniors with interesting and believable reasons for why they behave the way they do, which helps it not be completely awkward and weird. And the punishment aspect also helps me like it, too. The other books I've read have really soft daddies, and that's not for me. (Not that Caleb isn't sweet, but he can be stern, too).

However, I have one major and two minor grievances that are keeping me from giving this 5 stars.

The one major grievance I have with this book is, unfortunately, the climax at the end.

I'm sorry, but there is just no way that a principal would tell a student (with an obviously unstable mother) to leave in the middle of the school day to drive her home. They would call the cops, especially if the student was over eighteen and no longer living with her. And on top of that, Logan's coach was there as well, and you're telling me he wouldn't protest one of his star athletes leaving the day he has a really big test that matters? The star athlete who he rode endlessly to get his grades up? There's no fucking way.

I'm not saying the basic premise of the climax is bad, but I think the author could have found a much better way to get to the scene at Logan's old house. The way it happened is incredibly stupid and took me out of the story.

The two minor grievances are honestly not enough to remove any points, and one of them is just selfish on my part. The first is the way Logan's big test gets graded.

In Hurt Me, Daddy, Logan isn't actually failing, but on the precipice. Here, it's treated like he was failing and needed this test to be able to play. And if that was the case, Logan wouldn't actually be forced to wait around on a game day for it to be graded. Simply put, if he was going to be put on academic probation, it would be after the test was graded normally.

The second minor grievance is that we didn't get to see the scene where Caleb fucks Logan while quizzing him on Chemistry. I'm so offended that this is just referenced as a couple throw-away lines. I NEED IT, DAMMIT. 

As for the things I liked about this book, they seem endless. The characters are wonderful and fleshed out, the spanking scenes are hot as hell, and I loved seeing Logan learn to love himself (and Caleb). I think the timeline was a little fast, but it's not a dealbreaker here like it can be for other books. If you're looking for a fun time, I strongly recommend you read this.

I wanted to give this book 4 stars, but I think the beginning slogged on a little too much for my liking. Once we got to the spanking, though, it was really hot. I love both Logan and Caleb; I already started reading the next book because I can't get enough. The ending is also a pretty big cliffhanger, but the next book picks right back up where this one leaves off, so it's not a huge deal.

Also—and this is a minor pet peeve—there were quite a few typos and missing punctuation/quotation marks. I believe this is self-published, so I understand that it's not going to be as polished as a traditionally published book, but it was still distracting enough for me to mention. 

This book has me coming around on the DD/lb kink. A lot of the books I've read in this genre don't have the punishment aspect, which is what I've been missing. I recommend giving this one a shot even if you haven't liked any DD/lb in the past. 

This book was okay. Definitely better than other books I've read from this author, but still nothing special. 

I liked Milo and Trevor, although I feel like they started way too fast. At the very beginning, Trevor wanted a purely fake relationship, but from the jump it never felt like they had a "fake" phase. Milo literally calls Trevor his little for the first time in the same scene where Trevor asks for the fake relationship. I would have liked a little more easing into that. And I wish we got to see more sex here. I was surpsied by how little of it we got. 

If you like DD/lb dynamics with a Christmas theme, then you will probably enjoy this. 

Starling House is a gothic fantasy that barely dips its toes into horror. The prose and illustrations are beautiful and the characters are interesting, but there's not much plot depth. The pacing also felt somewhat off to me.

The romance was really sweet, but I think it developed too quickly on Opal's end.

Opal says she wanted Arthur before they kissed, but I didn't feel it. I would have liked some more yearning.

I also felt like the arrest/interrogation scene was 1) really unrealistic; it didn't make sense at all and 2) dragged on forever.

It would have made more sense for Baine and her cronies to use the fire as a cover to kidnap Opal, rather than have her arrested. Because there are too many unanswered questions otherwise. Why would the constable allow an outside agency to take his newly arrested suspect into an interrogation room alone? Why would the constable even think she was a suspect after Bev, the owner of the fucking motel, said Opal wasn't there? Why did the constable care about why Charlotte was there? DOES HE NOT KNOW THEM? IT'S A SMALL TOWN! Why would Opal think Baine had any chance of sending her to jail when there were multiple witnesses saying she wasn't there versus Baine's one planted witness? And there's video evidence of Baine buying matches at Tractor Supply?

The scene is just so poorly constructed for something that's supposed to be so pivotal.

Then, the ending felt really rushed,

as if Eleanor gave up because the author needed her to so the story could wrap up, and not because it was earned. It didn't feel natural. The characters didn't have any room to breathe once we got to Underland, which is a real shame

. The book needed to be much longer, or (ideally) split into a duology. Getting to the ending area should have been the first book, and

exploring Underland/winning over Eleanor should have been the second

.

One of my favorite things the author did was jump between first person POV for Opal and third person POV for Arthur. It really made each of them feel distinct, while leaving Arthur a little bit more of a mystery than Opal. It was perfect. I also kept imagining Cillian Murphy as Arthur, which was really fun.

The other things I liked include: all the Easter eggs for other books and media to find, the "This is the story of Starling House" sections and how they came together

just like that map of the Mississippi River

, and the "character" of the House itself.

I was also surprised to learn that this is much closer to reality than I was expecting. One of the footnotes mentions a song called Paradise, which I looked up on a whim and it turned out to be real (although the lyrics were slightly altered for this book). That led me down a rabbit hole where I learned about the Green River area of Kentucky and all the shady stuff coal companies did (and still do) there. It's super interesting, and if you liked the book, I bet you would find this all really intriguing too!

Overall, I really liked this book. It was a bit dense, so if you aren't much of a gothic and/or fantasy reader, it might be hard to get into, but I think it's worth it.

P.S. Listen to evermore by Taylor Swift while reading this. The vibes are immaculate.