simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)

I received an ARC through NetGalley for free, and this is my honest and voluntary review.

A unique and exceptional book. A sapphic romance from the perspective of a monster, Shesheshen.

Shesheshen's body is truly monstrous - she is really like a slime blob, and she needs to feed to design organs for herself, and stones and metal to make bones out of. Oh, and she eats people or something. But just like Frankenstein, the true monster isn't the one you expect.

In fact, the true monster is probably the horrific abuse Homily suffered from her entire family. Yikes. I would advise anyone triggered by such topics to be cautious reading this, because I have no related trauma but it was still pretty difficult at times. She deserves better, man.

This book has both dark and humorous parts. Dark, like when Shesheshen eats people, but also humorous and sometimes bleak as she looks at humanity through the eyes of something non-human. They call her a monster, and yet in this book, it's humans who are equally monstrous.

It was interesting to see words like allosexual and enby be included in a fantasy book. I'm not sure how I really feel about it. My first reaction was that it doesn't really fit, but I think I wouldn't mind seeing it become more normalized. Even if enby is kind of a strange word to me.

This book beautifully displays what a toxic, abusive relationship is like, the way it sucks life out of you (pun intended). The vampire collects his wives and husbands and destroys them slowly, taking away everything that makes them bright and youthful and alive. But at the same there is Constanta's, Magdanela's and Alexi's love for each other, the way they cling to each other. 

A very sweet, gentle, romantic D/s age gap relationship between a gorgon and a human. I loved their relationship, and the cast of background characters was delightful. Lady Demetria's staff are all women of all body shapes and sizes, including trans women.

Mixed feelings. The characters and the plot were okay, but the worldbuilding rules made me tear my hair out. Who thought these were good rules for ruling a kingdom and how did they last several decades?

Aranyos, érzelmes, cukormázas. Legalábbis az elején, mert az utolsó harmadban elég durva drámák vannak. Illetve ahhoz képest, hogy a szereplők felnőttek, eléggé young adult hangulata van, amitől még furcsább volt amikor bejöttek a szexjelenetek meg az utalások. A sok bifóbia Zénó családjától és magától Danitól is elég rosszul érintett, viszont az tetszett, ahogy Zénó zsidósága megjelent, és én is megtanultam a magyar kifejezéseket egy-két dologra amit eddig még csak angol könyvben olvastam.
A szleng meg az utalások annyira „kortársak” voltak, hogy nagyon vártam egy covid utalást, de az végülis nem volt :) Az egyetlen ami kicsit furcsán érintett, hogy tele van Harry Potter utalásokkal, pedig azért már néhány éve lehet tudni, hogy JKR nem éppen LMBT-barát. Emiatt persze külön nem pontozom le a könyvet, de kicsit rossz hatást keltett bennem.
Egyszeri olvasásra jó volt, de nem annyira az én stílusom, nekem egy kicsit talán túl drámai volt. 

I've been putting off this book since 2017 and I have so many feelings now

I enjoyed the set-up, but I gotta say, it's a bit toothless. This island is full of corrupt men... but our male lead is constantly distanced from them as being Less Corrupt (though still not good, of course, but comparatively has better morals). It's an island full of sex slaves who have to have sex with multiple men... except the main character, who keeps getting exceptions made for her.

I understand why the author did this, because I guess she was trying to keep the main characters likeable and the main relationship mostly monogamous, but it was a bit disappointing. 

The book ends on a cliffhanger, and from what I read so does the second one, so the three books are really one story. I will most likely continue at some point but I'm not in a hurry.

I received an ARC from the author for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fun, short read. I've read the author's fantasy books before, and I'm always down for android romance, so I was really glad to see this new release. Lela and D are likeable main characters, and I liked Lela's emotional complexity regarding her choice of work.

Around half of this book is sex, which was expected. The erotic scenes are pretty sexy - the focus on Lela's pleasure is nice, and there is some toy use and creativity in D's anatomy. Also, I'm not sure if his name being D was meant to be a naughty pun, but it's definitely a bit funny in an erotic book. I admit that in some respects D was almost too human-like, which took away some enjoyment from the android story.

Most people probably won't be reading this book for the plot, but that was where I felt it was a bit weaker, and I had Questions. The saboteur was a bit predictable. Lela being so focused on her crush that she can't do her job was a bit annoying at times. And as for D - the author's fantasy books also had racism between humans and non-humans, but it hit differently here, since D literally doesn't have the same rights as the humans on the crew. This was touched upon a little, especially in the epilogue, but it definitely had some uncomfortable implications. Including the fact that he's apparently designed fully functional for sex.

Overall, it's a nice romance/erotica book with a likeable main pairing, with the plot being a little weaker.

This was my favorite of the trilogy, with a good balance of romance and intrigue.