The Minoan Bride

Cambric Creek Bite-Sized Reads #1

by C.M. Nascosta

Gwen and Madoc are a modern minotaur couple who have spent their professional careers sifting through the past. When a job opportunity prompts them to move to Cambric Creek, it's a chance to make living in the present — and planning for their future — a priority.

The Minoan Bride is a dual-narrative trip into the Cambric Creek universe's minotaur origin story. As they move around the relics of the labyrinth, Gwen realizes the story is a mirror to her present circumstances. No matter how much the world changes, some things — living, and loving, and dying — always stay the same.

Please see author's note for content advisories.

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Monster Romance, Novella, Monsters, Smut, Fiction

66 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 29, 2023

About the author

C.M. Nascosta is an author and professional procrastinator from Cleveland, Ohio. As a child, she thought that living on Lake Erie meant one was eerie by nature, and her corresponding love of all things strange and unusual started young. She’s always preferred beasts to boys, the macabre to the milquetoast, the unknown darkness in the shadows to the Chad next door. She lives in a crumbling old Victorian with a scaredy-cat dachshund, where she writes nontraditional romances featuring beastly boys with equal parts heart and heat, and is waiting for the Hallmark Channel to get with the program and start a paranormal lovers series.

Reviews

[toointofiction · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sight of him sitting before his laptop screen, legs splayed open and hard cock in hand, was one she saw weekly, long-distance sex that paled in comparison to the real thing, but the best they could manage.

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️


Short novellas that don't make much sense, have little to no plot, and are full of monster smut are the ultimate cure for the soul. It's just barely eighty pages full of wholesome, cheesy romance, minotaurs, and an absurdly sexual retelling of Greek Mythology (I doubt it's more absurd than the actual myths though. It would definitely make the Greek Gods proud 😂).

This story is a prequel to the first Cambric Creek novel, with a new couple that is already established, meaning they are already together from the beginning of the story. While I do love reading a love story from beginning to end, it's always refreshing to read the happily ever after part, even if it's a couple I haven't read before. They are just planning their wedding, thinking of the years they've spent together, and being cute and horny. Adorable, right?

There's also a side story with the OG Minotaur set in Ancient Greece. I actually liked this story more than the main one. It is told from the perspective of one of the Minotaur's brides, sent to him in the labyrinth along with a bunch of other women (because one is simply not enough to soften his joystick). She goes into great detail about how our favorite Greek horny boy rails his brides and you know what? It doesn't sound like such a terrible situation to be in. They just never see the sun or breathe fresh air. Perfectly doable, I think 👀

[Honest Mabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

ehhh

So I love Nascosta’s books. I just didn’t love this one. It was okay but both just left me sad and wondering where this was going exactly?

[Gabrielle Barbettini · Rating 2 out of 5]

How this is a 3.80 is beyond me, this was feral behavior

[Zen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

I never really warmed up to Gwen and Madoc, even in Blue Ribbon Romance . It was interesting how they told the story of the minotaur of legend, however.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the plot but the delivery fell a little flat for me. Overall 2.5 stars.

[Ra! ʕ •̀ ω •́ ʔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this darker look into the world of Cambric Creek! We see a the lore of Minotaurs in this world in an interesting way. We get past and present povs and the relationships between minotaurs and women. I found it to be short, spicy and a little dark!

Horn Level: 5/5🌶️
Format: Ebook
I give this book a 4/5🌟 rating.

Check out my socials here for more reviews!

[Libbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5✨

This was a fun and interesting take on the minotaur myth. Made somewhat better by the fact I read this in the sunny Crete.

Spice was good too 🔥🔥

[Victoria Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the story of the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Greek mythology being the origin story for the minotaurs of Cambric Creek, and I wanted even more of that flashback, historical setting. I thought the present day couple was cute, I do love a power academic couple.

I keep noticing this about Nascosta, but I swear she makes up words, and not even in a fantasy sense, but in a “this sounds fancy and descriptive so here it is” (she keeps using “velutinous” and I’m so confident that’s not a real word). She also will fully use words incorrectly or weirdly in sentences (like a condom described as “prophylactic” is technically not wrong but so strange and not hot).

It’s still fun though and just mindless smut with likeable characters in a cute little town.

[⟡ Amira ⟡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something abt this felt odd. Idk if the author intended to have a direct parallel to the ways the Minotaurs and the brides were treated to our reality but if that is the case this seems sloppily handled…

[HyperBallad]

Dnf!

[Candice Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't her best novella. I didn't really enjoy it.

[Aleyda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Very slow start, I think this just wasn’t for me.
A lot of history and plot building, which was good, but not what I was looking for. Last ten pages were when the story picked up.

[Killian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of Monsters in Love, Vol 1.

I tend to like Nascosta's work, but this one was a bit odd. It's set in Cambric Creek with an already established couple in addition to flashbacks to a woman from ancient/mythological Greece. The history bits were a bit tedious, but the contemporary story was fine. The mythological one though annoyed me - there wasn't an actual ending to the story of the woman, and it kind of ends on a cliffhanger. I really liked the added worldbuilding for the minoan's but would have preferred it to be told in a smoother method (for instance, I didn't understand for almost half the story what the MC looked liked/what form they had).

[Ani · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a nice touch in the Cambric Creek universe. We see Madoc and Gwen who are going to get married soon and the complications that come with this big of a change. I liked their pairing, they were cute together. I would've loved to see more of them together. The exhibit and the snippets of the past stank of Stockholm syndrome, though.

[KB *cursed with a freaking salmon patronus* · Rating 3 out of 5]

First CM book i DNFd. It was fine.

[Tonya · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐️⭐️
I hope her other books are better.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️

Wasn’t anything super deep. No character development / arcs. I thought the conflict was whatever, normal for the things they’re going through, life changes and all that. But within an hour, it’s… resolved?

I enjoyed the flashbacks but it feels so despondent. Like, okay the bride gets fucked and she’s happy but she’s one of x number of other women (I see you, og sister wives) and does she ever develop a *more* relationship with the Minotaur? Does she ever get out? Do I need to read up on my Greek mythology???

By the way. That whole thing about the bellies filling up like wine skins with the Minotaur’s splooge? Fkn. In. Sane.

After meeting Madoc in BRR, I liked seeing their story, seeing another side of him.

Wouldn’t mind seeing them again in other books.

Like I said not much to say, not without breaking down the whole (very short) plot.

Next books are MGMF and BRR, which I’ve already read, followed by The Mabon Feast.

[Amy Bergesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and spicy little novella giving us a peek into the the relationship between Maldoc, the Minotaur professor we met in Morning Glory Milking Farm, and his fellow archaeologist bride-to-be, Gwen. They take an after-hours tour of the new Minotaur exhibit that Maldoc has created at the local museum.
HEA
🌶️🌶️🌶️

[˚₊‧☾ space case ✩‧₊˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

apparently the key is just to include anthropology and I'm sold.

[Britt N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wild. 30 stars

[Darbin O’Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not light fluffy like her usual stuff this is monster romance with an element of nonverbal lover, if you get what I'm putting down.

I recommend for those that go deep into monster romance territory.

[Thia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was perfection! I adored every moment of this novella (is it too short to be a novella?) that gives a moment with a couple we meet in A Blue Ribbon Romance and parallels their life and love with the Minoan history.

When I tell you I was on the verge of tears by the end, believe me. We follow Gwen as she recalls her relationship with her Minotaur fiancé while touring an exhibit he’s curated that resonates deeply with them both. Though she is human presenting, both are Minotaurs yet she feels a bit of guilt and disconnect having grown up in mainly human communities. However through her own growth and the relationship with Madoc, she feels pride and true kinship with her ancestry.

In the 60+ pages of this story we get some real emotional and rich history of Cambric Creek Minotaurs as well as loving and very very spicy story of our main characters.

This was truly so vivid and immersive in such a short read. In the end I was left fulfilled and happy to have met more residents from my favorite fictitious town.

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slice of life plus history

This was an interesting read because it flashed between Gwen and Madoc and one of the brides of the first Minotaur. It was such a flip flop of precious tender engaged couple and tragic forced polygamy with moments of pleasure thrown in. They were such a cute couple with their nerdy history exhibit (totally my thing too).

Spice: 4/5

Triggers: dubcon, forced marriage, captivity, child taken from parents, slavery

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I don't love how the author transitioned between past and present

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

***3.2***

A sweet charming little novella, shedding light on what happily ever after looks like within an established couple, and then -through flashbacks to the original Minatuar - glimpses of something notedly darker.

I don’t know what it is about this author, but Minotaurs are her secret weapon. After the success of Morning Glory Milking Farm, I’ve slowly made my way through the series and sadly have noted diminishing returns. But this is 3 out of 3 books by CM Noscosta now with a Minotaur MC that has been easily enjoyed and given all the feels you’d expect. It’s not a lot, but it’s an interesting coincidence.

As a novella intended as a short bit of cotton candy fishbowl moment into the lives of two characters we meet in A Blue Ribbon Romance, it lacks the plot line for a higher rating. But it’s got heart and some actual laugh out loud dialogue.

The darker elements (of which there are plentiful trigger warnings at the beginning) actually serve to balance out the Cambric Creek universe’s lore. All that glistens isn’t always rosy, and it’s effective use of nuance to learn that the species haven’t simply been co-existing harmonious all this time.

My one biggest issue is that the author really gets it wrong in representing consent here, which is a let down from an otherwise liberating Universe.

[Jody Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you are just working though Nascosta in her reading order, and you think, ok, this little novella will be a quickie, and it turns out to be a wonderful meditation on the sacrifices and loss that come with even the most anticipated and welcome changes.

Minotaur couple Madoc and Gwen are a week from their wedding, and there's no hint of trouble between them in this whole story. They love each other, they communicate well, they are super happy and looking forward to their wedding. The story takes place over a visit to a museum exhibit of the OG minotaur's labyrinth, is interspersed with the current story is a story from the POV of one of the minotaur's brides. As the bride is dropped in the darkness of the labyrinth, the minotaur becomes her whole life, her sun. Meanwhile Gwen is facing moving to Cambric Creek, away from the world she knows, and living full time with her husband, who she's been in a long distance relationship with for many years. Big changes. IDK, I just loved it. As Gwen reflects, you can want something and know it's right and wonderful, but also know that at some point you'll be crying in the shower because it happened.

[Athena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never in my life seen two professors (archaeologists? museum curators? I'm not really sure what they actually do but they do call each other Dr. a lot) who are this horny for each other lmfao.

This is a little darker than the typical Cambric Creek fare, Gwen & Madoc (who have a cameo in Blue Ribbon Romance) are touring Madoc's newly curated museum exhibit about the original Minoan Minotaur & his brides while we get flashbacks from one of said brides. If you're familiar with the Minoan Minotaur of Greek mythology, it's just that but crank the horniness up to a 10.

Anyway these two can't even get through the whole exhibit before they're fucking in his office lol so that's fun. Bonus points for the mention of the titular milking farm from Morning Glory Milking Farm and hearing it referred to as "vacuum sucky-sucky” and “The Splooge Sucker Emporium” ahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

CW: dubious consent, mention of historical slavery, graphic sexual content, child being taken away from mother

🌟 Monster romance
🌟 Established couple
🌟 Minotaurs

🌶 Exhibitionism
🌶 Copious amounts of 💦
🌶 Breeding

This was a mixture of a slice of life novella and a Greek mythology retelling, offering some history of the minotaur in Cambric Creek.

The present day slice of life comes in the form of Geen and Madoc, visiting an archaeological museum exhibit about the history of their species. The historical, giving an insight as they go around the exhibit as to the history of the minotaurs.

It was a mix of sweet and sexy love from the present, and the darker undertones of the past.

I really have zero complaints, although it was short, I feel like we got a solid insight into both aspects.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

This short story was originally included in the Monsters in Love Vol. 1 anthology.

There are 2 alternating timelines: one in current day Cambric Creek with minotaur couple Gwen and Madoc, and one set in ancient Crete with Melita, one of the human tributes to King Minos's minotaur.

Madoc is a museum employee curating an exhibition about Knossos.

In the alternating timeline, Melita soon finds that, contrary to her expectations, the human tributes are actually quite content to serve in the minotaur's harem.

Again no lack of spice and NSFW content, as is customary in CM Nascosta's stories 🔥

[embright15 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really well done novella.
I like the whole Minoan mythos anyway, so I was a big sucker when Nacosta threw some historical fiction at me.
Alternating between present tense Cambric Creek and past tense labyrinths in Greece was a fun way to read and made time pass really quickly.
The Minoan Bride was also a cute little "prequel" to A Blue Ribbon Romance, as we get to see the Minoan Bride characters cameo in ABRR.
I thought that Gwen and Madoc were super cute little kinky dorks and it was simultaneously super hot and super nerdy that the museum exhibit was revving their engines.
I love Cambric Creek in any context and this was a super fun addition to that world.