Night with the Morningstar

Rise of the Fallen #0.5

by Kaeya Lee, Lissa Kasey

Alone for centuries, Star wants to watch the world burn, but he never expected to encounter Yuri and find love amidst the darkness.

Will Star find a way to keep Yuri in his arms after the world ends?

Note: If you bought this under the pen name Kaeya Lee, you do not need to rebuy. The content is the same, only change is to the established name.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, M M Romance, Paranormal, Magic, Demons, LGBT

36 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

Note this pen name is being retired and all works moved to the pen name Lissa Kasey.

Reviews

[Drusilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know that prequels don't necessarily have a conclusion, but it was kind of mean to let the scene end almost in the middle and leave me hanging in the air.
No, I'm not a bit angry, that's not sarcasm either, I'm totally hooked. That was probably the best written prequel I've ever read and it's really super clever that it's available for free at SM right now, because of course I have to buy the next book immediately ...
I have so many questions and at the same time I'm super satisfied with the introduction of the characters and the little bit of plot there is, well and the sex scene ... yummy yummy ...
I also rarely give so many stars for something that is totally incomplete, but I am simply stunningly impressed.

“If you become mine, I will never let you go,” Star said, holding Yuri’s face between his hands to force the man to meet his gaze. “My affection is not for the weak.” 🫠🖤😳🫠😳🖤🫠

“Can we?” Star groaned.
Could Yuri take him like this? Most humans couldn’t, in fact most species couldn’t, even those crafted for sex. But Star longed to try, and could imagine how beautiful Yuri would look, split wide on his pulsing length, writhing and begging as Star claimed him. 🤤🔥🤤

[Nedra81 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely needed this bonus book!! The more in-depth explanations of the transpired events from another’s POV, specifically Stars, brought a lot of interesting information to the forefront. And, to find out more about Yuri and Star’s relationship was filled with excitement and curiosity.

“𝓘𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮, 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓰𝓸, 𝓶𝔂 𝓪𝓯𝓯𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓮𝓪𝓴.”

Holy hotness is all I can say about this one!! The vers aspect was definitely a shock, but quickly explained just a short while later. The intensity of the moment, the heat that blossomed, would leave anyone in a pool of perspiration! Ughhh….. I need a Star in my life 😩

“𝐿𝑒𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒.”

[Achim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short prequel is more than a teaser but I believe it might be better to read it not as the first book of the series. It works fine as a dreamlike love story at the start of the end of the world where the misconceived eternal evil and an innocent human are falling for each other; a love story that probably will be sung by bards in later centuries if parts of the world survives. You just shouldn't expect explanations what happened to Star to become the immortal fiend; there are only insinuations and that's has to be enough. You also can't expect to get much from an end of the world scenario; that's more like white noise pushed into the background by the sadness and the longing, the foreboding and the bliss, the unexpected and the fated and like every great love story there is also the possibility of doom.

Now I suppose my expectations for the series might be too high but reading a novel I won't be satisfied with a love story detached of the physical surrounding and with only hints of the tragic past.

[Beagle Lover (Avid Reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A demon falls for a human as the world ends.

3.75 stars. **MILD SPOILERS!**

Star, a cursed demon in human form, desires Yuri, a young human that tends the bar Star visits just to catch a glimpse and have a few words with the young man.

Yuri, drawn to the illusionary magical demon in the form of a handsome human, shamelessly flirts with Star as a television spouts news and scenes of the world being destroyed by mankind.

When three men enter the bar and begin trouble for Yuri, Star acts to protect the barkeep, despite his mind telling him not to.

Star resists the urge to kill all three hoodlums in an alley beside the bar. Yuri watches, amazed and with yearning, as the demon deals with the men easily.

With the world around them crumbling, Yuri expresses his longing for Star. As a rift opens between the demon and human worlds, allowing Star to draw power from the tear, he manages to keep other evil forces at bay as he considers Yuri's words of passion and want. Dare he act upon them and condemn Yuri to an eternal destiny that Star has suffered for millennia? Could Star's own wants and desires do harm to this lovely human, perhaps even kill him?

Written with astounding world building for a prequel, dialogue befitting the characters and a surprising conclusion, I found myself taken in by this novella. The author seems to have put a lot of effort into making the tale resonate with the reader, drawing them into the unlikely pairs' passion and heat. Not an easy task for a story of so few pages.

At present, two sequels have been published. I hope to read them both very soon and continue following Star and Yuri's journey.

[atlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy hell I ate no. I devoured this. TWICE within an hour

3rd pov isn’t my favorite as I find it hard to get into but this being 30 pages and mostly smutty really worked for me. The writing is beautiful too and captivated me from the first page

I hadn’t realize this is a prequel, but the instant I finished reading the second time I bought the other 2 works in this series and I can’t wait to get into this world!

[Lennie ✨]

Lil steamy novella which is an intriguing start to a series

[Joseph Harkreader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea

The writing style wasn’t my thing. I just didn’t vibe with it. This story has a lot of spice. It was okay but the wording was repetitive imo.

[Michelle Boyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

PopSugar 2021 reading challenge #18

Stuff Your Kindle Day gives you some great books, and then it gives you some like these that are not worth the quick download. Let me preface this by saying I love little novellas and have read several that I love -- many of which are meant to get you to read a series (some of which I then do go read).

The pitfalls with this novella are as follows:

Poorly constructed world. We know it is ending and such but, not enough to truly understand where/when we are.

Poorly written characters. While we may be able to get a general idea who Star and Yuri are, I would argue we actually don't know much about them at all.

Unrealistic sex scenes. Look, before you think I mean monsters and humans or whatever, nope. Don't mean that at all. I am really only referring to one character allegedly being a virgin and he goes from virgin to "hugest monster shaped shlong in the world" within a few seconds. Just, no. Not realistic. Its one of those moments where you can tell this is being authored by someone who doesn't fully comprehend the physical restraints of.... well, you get the idea.

Where is this going? Because the rest of this is so haphazardly plopped together you don't get a sense of the world, the story, or where this "series" is going to go. It just didn't work.

[Mads Duck · Rating 1 out of 5]

So this book or novella wasn’t good. I’ll be honest I think that’s on my part because I’m

1. Not into monster smut, no hate to those who are tho.
2. I think this is a prequel to something? Like it’s part of a series and I’m just so lost.

The writing was okay I guess but I was just so confused. Who are these people? Why is the Star guy cursed? Why is Yuri like so attractive to him? What is Star?

I only got this book because I saw it on that long list for the stuff your kindle day on that one website from TikTok. The description was an Angel and demon fall in love which sounded kinda cute. I stupidly didn’t read the actual book description so it’s no wonder I’m so confused. Luckily this was a free book and I didn’t spend any money on it. I shall stay away from this monster stuff so that way I don’t drag the reviews down as it’s not my cup of tea.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una precuela, pero que sin duda se hace sentir increíble.

Realmente parece mentira como se puede explicar tanto en solo pocas páginas, eso me ha encantado, pese a ser como algo que ha empezado se siente igual como la introducción que es a la serie. Me gusta como profundiza en los personajes de una forma profunda sin necesidad de extenderse mucho, pero lo suficiente para sentir que conectas con ellos, y que deseas saber que ocurre con ellos después.

La verdad no conocía a la autora y es una de las ofertas que me saltaron recomendadas de Amazon, y la verdad es que se disfruta mucho y me hace desear empezar la serie así como conocer más de la autora.

[Demetra Roussakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the prequel to this series and must be read before starting with books 1 and 2. Star came to a bar that Yuri was working at and, when they met, Star was surprised that Yuri could see him. Once they started talking, Yuri realized that the end of the world was coming. They got together but by the time Yuri woke up the next morning, Star was gone. Sweet read and looking forward to reading the whole series.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creative Novella

I wanted to love this little novel so much, but it was really hard to connect. I understood Yuri and Star, but some times it was hard to follow how one thing led to another situation. It has so much promise but fell short for me. The MM action was nice and I could tell there was a connection. If you need to make your quota read this. I will be trying others from this author.

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars M/M paranormal prequel short story.
As other reviews indicated, this is really out of context if you are not familiar with the series.
The story revolves around one unrealistic (physically and emotionally) carnal night between Star the monster demon and Yuri the ‘pure’ human. No idea why virginity had to be mixed in that!
And the world building is so lacking that I have no desire to pick up the series or learn more about these characters.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS A PREQUEL

The book was short yet romantic at the same time. I hope that Yuri gets to reunite with Star happily in the future. The way the author describes the MCs’ interactions with each other makes their relationship feel very special which is refreshing compared to typical BL novels. Excited for the next one and to find out what Yuri really is!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 It's The End of The World Stars

I choose this book because I liked the cover. I had no idea what I was going to read and after finishing it I was confused. It's the introduction of Star and Yuri's story, a short story and I'm not going to read the next book in the series. I didn't care about the characters or the fact that the world would end soon.

[Marija P.]

I'm not gonna rate it now. It's a novella that serves as a prequel to the trilogy. I got it on "stuff your kindle day" because I liked the cover (not the one you can see here).
Star is the Devil, Yuri is his love, but has no memories of Star. They can't take their eyes off of each other. The world is ending, why shouldn't we spend the remaining time making love? That's it.

[T.A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

A definite must read before the other Rise of the Fallen. Too bed it’s not listed under the series but I understand since it’s a prequel Amazon doesn’t allow it.

This is from Star’s point of view of him meeting Yuri.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars.

Quite a nice short read, the spice was spicy, and the characters had chemistry, but I wish there was more opportunity to connect with the characters instead of just being thrust into the story.
It's a satisfying short read nonetheless

[Chase Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was pretty boring until after about 65% ways through to be expected from a quick read it drove me crazy to keep reading star this star that it was way over used in my opinion not my favourite read but okay enough ending for a two star.

[Anne Barwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this glimpse of Star and Yuri’s world, and reading their encounter from Star’s perspective. The world building is descriptive, easy to visualise, and intriguing. I’m already invested in these two and hope their brief encounter will eventually lead to their HEA.

[Tenshisonnet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a spicy intro into a doomed earthly dimension scenario. A timeless being chained in shadow lets the right one in.. the right one being a vibrant bartender perfectly sculpted for his inhumane form. I immediately checked out the following book aft finishing this peppery prequel.

[Jacquie Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved getting this glimpse into Star's pov - and, of course, the steam! Further proves my theories. This serial is great

[Wayne Blood · Rating 4 out of 5]

NIGHT WITH THE MORNINGSTAR covers the the same time period as the first chapter of TOUCHED BY A STAR (Book 1 of Rise of the Fallen: Touched by the Morningstar) but it is told entirely from Star’s POV. It gets into the VERY spicy and surreal sexscapades shared by Yuri and Star on the night the the End of the World begins. I think it’s important to read, because the reader gets a MUCH fuller picture of why Yuri is still aching for Star even after the ten-year time jump. While reading it, I was sometimes confused by Yuri’s open willingness to the strange encounter they share, but when reading the next book from Yuri’s POV, it all come together and makes much more sense. It’s short, sexy, and I caution readers not to try ANY of the sexy shenanigans at home. It could hurt unless you’re of the paranormal variety. ;-)

Review of Advance Reading Copy.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a sweet prequel.
Loved that we got the story between Yuri and Star and now we know why it meant so much to Yuri after the world collapsed. A fantastic snippet into that one night.

[romanceandcoffee]

This should be a prequel but I have no clue why I would want to read the series, since this one didn't make any sense to me.

[RjS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet and interesting prequel to the series.
Good to read first!

[Desi · Rating 2 out of 5]

34 pages of confusion tbh…… 😭

[Laurie. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of a download

[Sadrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is honestly so well-written for a prequel and I’m so excited to experience the series and its characters and world in all its glory.

[Majmozzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I dunno what to say… I imagined a whole bird having relations with a male.