Review: Beast by A. Zavarelli

Beast by A. Zavarelli

Series: Twisted Ever After #1

Publication date: May 16th, 2017

Pages: 243

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, I believed in fairytales.

But then he took me.

And he taught me that life isn't a fairytale.

He is scarred. Broken.

A dark and wild thing.

His beauty is violent and his words are cruel.

His heart is a shadowed landscape where nothing can grow.

He tells me he could never care for me, and he proves it every day.

He's destroyed my life.

Tortured me.

And worse...

He's trained me to beg for his affection.

This prison is a place where sunlight doesn't reach.

He taught me that hate is born in darkness.

And then he taught me that sometimes love is too.

*A standalone dark romance*

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Review:

This book is proof that you cannot judge a book by its cover. When I personally look at this book I think a softly contemporary book with a sweet love affair that may be destined for tumultuous waters but with a very happy ending to follow. What I don't expect is for there to be kidnapping and scenes that toe the line between assault and CNC (consent/non-consent). I was confused and blown away almost immediately into the 243 page read. And to think, I almost listened to it on audiobook. I think it was a good call that I didn't because this is hedonistic dark romance that gets dangerously close to being splatterpunk level of darkness.

This book, while not grammatically well written, was an enigma. There were times when I was rolling my eyes at the obvious way that Javier manipulated her and toyed with her while she bought into it immediately. Then there were times when I was all but sniffling with how bad I felt for Isabella. The motives of Javier are never fully fleshed out. We reach a point in the book where it is obviously meant for a villain's monologue but it never comes. It is never fully explained. None of it makes a lick of sense in the end and the story has so many twists and turns I have no idea who is good anymore. A lot of it seemed like delusions but then the truth would be explained but then it would go back to the delusion being the reality after all. If a book is going to have that many twists and turns it needs to be exceedingly longer; perhaps even a series. This was too much all at once and it made me feel incredibly overstimulated in the end.

This was not a book that I closed at the end having a firm idea of how I wanted to rate it. I had to stew on it for a little while. I can't say it was something that, if given the choice, I would read again. I also don't think I would recommend it except as maybe a "I have no idea what happened, see if you can figure it out" sort of method. It needs to be gone over again with an editor for sure and I feel like Javier's Latin accent that was discussed, didn't come through until the end of the book. That made Javier feel a little disconnected for me.

I don't feel right giving the book a two star review because there were moments in the book where I was really sucked into the story but then it would turn and I would lose focus again. So I will remain in the middle of the road with this one. If anyone reads it and has some better theories as to what exactly I just read, please let me know. Also, make sure you go into it being well aware of the trigger warnings because it will shock ya even if you're pretty much immune to that sort of thing.

Review: Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

Series: Royal Artifactual Guild #1

Publication date: October 15th, 2024

Pages: 432
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman determined to save her family joins forces with an unlikely partner, in this steamy romantasy by USA Today bestselling author Ruby Dixon.

As a Holder's daughter, Aspeth Honori knows the importance of magical artifacts... which is why it's a disaster that her father has gambled all theirs away. Now that her family is in danger of losing their hold--and their heads--if anyone finds out the truth, Aspeth decides to do something about it. She'll join the Royal Artifactual Guild and the adventurers who explore ancient underground ruins to retrieve the coveted arcane items.

It's a great plan--with one big problem. The guild won't let her train because she's a woman. Aspeth needs a chaperone of some kind. The best way to get around this problem? Marry someone who will let her become an apprentice. Who better than a surly guild member who requires a favor of his own? He's a minotaur (it's fine) who is her teacher (also fine)... and he's about to go into rut (which is where it gets tricky). He also has no idea she's a noble (oops), and he'll want nothing to do with her if he discovers her real identity.

Now Aspeth just has to pass the guild tests, thwart a fortune hunter, and save her hold--oh, and survive a rut with her monstrous, horned husband, whom she might be falling in love with.

It's time to dig deep. Literally.

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Review:

I have recently gotten into reading along with the audiobook when I know the narration style will be a duet. It is a little slower reading than if I am doing it on my own but I like getting a bit of a feel for the characters through the voices of their narrators. I will divide my review between the book itself and the audiobook narration so that I can cover my critiques on both.

Firstly, the story overall was unlike any I had read before. I was a dabbler in the Ice Planet Barbarian series without having completely read the series back when they were shorter novella form. But I remember the author having a way of creating these worlds that were completely foreign but no less intriguing. Ruby Dixon did the same here. The world was a lot more similar to our own world but with minor tweaks to make it otherworldly in its differences. In this world there is no such thing as magic in the physical sense but for Aspeth and her Taurian husband, Hawk, magic is a long forgotten skill that clung to the items of a time forgotten. There are crews of tomb robbers who dig into the world of their ancestors for magical artifacts meant to help with their day-to-day lives. These highly sought after items are then rooted firmly in a political world of bureaucracy and subterfuge. The more artifacts one had, the more prestige they wielded. As long as they held onto the artifacts, that is. The loss of them is what turned Aspeth's world upside down and set the tone of desperation and determination that gave the character her fire.

I thoroughly enjoyed Aspeth as a character. Albeit, there were times when I had to slap my forehead at her naivety. I think that same innocence is why she entered into her agreement with Hawk without much trepidation. I don't believe she realized what she was offering up nor how different such experiences would be from what she may have dreamed of as a woman made to desire love. Her naivety made her both frustrating to watch but also delightfully refreshing. Her relationship with Hawk transformed the bullheaded man (literally) into someone who was learning to care for another despite his jaded feelings on his job and even the frustrating time of the Conquest Moon. Even while he was acting like he couldn't stand her, there was a fire inside him that called to her own. They were a delightfully paired couple.

A lot of people might be squeamish of the fact that the main male character is a minotaur but that is not all that Hawk is. Getting past the fact that this woman was essentially falling in love with a man who has bull features was surprisingly easy. I am not one who usually subscribes to monster romance but this book was a lot more than just that. I would say to anyone who thinks they may not like it simply because the male lead as hooves and horns to give it a shot before you dismiss it entirely based purely on prejudices. 

The story overall was top marks entertainment and the narration only made it all the better. Felicity Munroe was able to slip in and out of a proper English accent to an American one with different embellishments that made none of the most present characters sound the same. Even if I looked away from the pages of the book I could tell who was speaking without being prompted. She encapsulated Aspeth's naivety and innocence perfectly. Hiro Diaz also did a fabulous job even if his range of voices did overlap a lot. The scene where Hawk was under the control of the Conquest Moon must have ruined his throat, but it is a scene that will live inside my head for a long while. Anytime I think the world 'mine' it will likely be accompanied by thoughts of Hawk's rough growl. The narrators did the story and characters proud.

Overall, I believe the book and the audiobook narration to be some of the best I have read in a while. Ruby Dixon outdid herself again and I have to hope this series gains in popularity as Ice Planet Barbarians did so that I have many many friends to discuss every bit of it with. 

 

Book Blitz with Teaser: A Gingerbread Christmas by Mary Oldham @GiveMeBooksPR

A Gingerbread Christmas by Mary Oldham

Publication date: November 28th, 2025

Synopsis:

Liza Morgan works for one of New York's most elite, high-strung wedding planners. Her career is on the line when a celebrity client, a notoriously demanding Hollywood star scraps her lavish Valentine's Day plans and demands a spectacular, one-of-a-kind Christmas wedding that looks like the North Pole.

Liza's only hope is to return to her charming hometown, Silver Falls, utilizing the colossal, life-sized gingerbread house built every year by The World Famous Swete Gingerbread Factory.

But returning to Silver Falls means facing the past she ran from--specifically, Stephen Swete, her high school sweetheart. Stephen, now a widower and singer father of two, runs the factory and is the only person who can grant permission for the wedding. Liza hasn't seen him in years and knows she is about to put him "in the center of her crosshairs".

Can Liza manage a celebrity Christmas wedding in a literal gingerbread house while navigating the complicated feelings for the man she never forgot?

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MARY OLDHAM is an award winning author, and three-time Golden Heart Finalist with the Romance Writers of America in the areas of Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense. She is a 2023 Maggie Finalist for her book, CRUSH. Mary lives in Portland, Oregon when she is not sitting on her deck and looking at the Pacific in Yachats, Oregon, the Gem of the Oregon Coast.

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Book Blitz with Excerpt + Giveaway: The Skeleton Faerie by A.P. Mobley @author_apmobley @XpressoTours

The Skeleton Faerie by A.P. Mobley

Series: Children of the Death Gods #1

Publication date: November 8th, 2025

Synopsis:

Faerie folklore meets a nuclear post apocalypse in this dark mythological fantasy woven with secrets, treachery, and star-crossed love.

Ninety-nine years after the Nuclear War of 1989, twenty-one-year-old Gus Brandon should only be interested in the survival of humanity and the expansion of his compound. But he's obsessed with legends from the distant past, superstitions of an expired people.

While searching forbidden ruins for the scraps of stories lost to time, he stumbles upon a mysterious young woman covered in scars. Her name is Saoirse, and their meeting sets off a bloody chain of events--one in which Gus discovers that the folklore he loves just might be real, and that it's tied to mankind in ways he could have never imagined.

Soon the lines between myth and reality blur, as do the lines between realms.

Gus will have to rely on his knowledge--and Saoirse--to survive the horrors awaiting him... in this world and the next.

Available at:

Excerpt

When Gus and his teammates were a mere mile from the compound, the sun had almost finished setting, and the temperature had dropped significantly. A breeze grazed the back of his bare neck and arms, sending chills through his body. In every direction, all that was visible were trees, the only noises those of his and his companions' boots and their animals' hooves crunching against shriveled grass and fallen leaves. Occasionally, crows--some of them genetically altered, their feathers stained a pinkish color--flapped from branch to branch, their harsh caws piercing the quiet.

Maybe it was because of the extensive amount of folklore he'd been reading, but these days, the dark played tricks on Gus's eyes, making him see monsters when nothing was there.

Nothing could be there, after all, as the stories he so loved weren't real.

And even if there was a chance that they were real (and he knew there wasn't), his compound was on the western side of a mountain range called the Black Hills, located within the fallen United States of America--far, far away from the places those magical tales took place.

Yet he still found himself imagining all manner of malevolent faeries prowling the woods at night. He saw them skulking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

In masses of collapsed cottonwoods, he imagined there were redcaps hiding, plotting to slaughter any stray travelers passing by.

In murders of crows, he imagined there was sluagh flying, scouring the forest floor for the next unlucky fellow whose soul they might devour.

In fast-moving streams, he imagined there were kelpies biding their time, anticipating the moment a person came close enough to drown and eat.

Thankfully, the logical side of his brain knew he had nothing to worry about--even as far as nonfictional threats went. The worst anyone on scavenge-duty had encountered in the last year was a couple of mountain lions and some rattlesnakes, and although he and his teammates had never run into anything like that, they knew how to take care of it as easily as the other people of the compound had: with bullets.

No one left the compound without a loaded gun and extra ammo.

Gus and his team were safe.

The sun dipped below the horizon, and if it weren't for the smog blanketing the sky (a lingering effect of the Nuclear War, which the elders said should clear up any decade now), the moon and stars might have lit up the night. The temperature fell even further, clouds of breath filling the air in front of Gus's face and fogging up his glasses.

"Guess we should have packed our coats," Nancy remarked as she walked in front of Gus, guiding her pig along. She began to shiver. "I hate when the weather gets like this. Hot during the day, cold at night."

Twigs cracked to the left. Hand flying to his holster, Gus looked that way, his goat bleating, Nancy's pig squealing.

A flash of movement in the trees, there and gone in an instant.

"What the...?" Oliver tossed his bundle of birds over his shoulder and retrieved his flashlight, his teeth chattering. He and Adam stood several feet to Gus's right. "Did you guys see that?"

Adam drew his handgun. "Probably a mountain lion. We're almost home, so just keep your eyes peeled and your weapons ready."

"Maybe speed it up a little too," Gus added, and he and Nancy pulled out their handguns. The team continued toward the compound.

Not five minutes had passed before more branches snapped behind them. Again, the goat bleated, and the pig squealed.

Everyone swung around, preparing to shoot. Oliver shined his flashlight into the trees.

The glow revealed a creature that made Gus's skin prickle with goose bumps.

A. P. MOBLEY is the Halloween-loving, rock-music-obsessed author of dark fantasy inspired by mythology. She doesn't only write about her favorite myths, folklores, and fairy tales in books, though; she discusses them on her podcast, Myths (& Folktales & Fairy tales), as well as on her blog and newsletter. She grew up in Wyoming and Nebraska and currently lives in South Dakota, and when she's not up to her elbows in research for her next project, she can be found consuming dangerous amounts of coffee, reading speculative fiction, or rewatching The Good Place.

Never miss an update from A. P. by signing up for her newsletter. Full list of books and Content Warnings on her website.

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