The Deer and the Dragon

No Other Gods #1

by Piper C.J.

The deities you call aren't always the ones who answer. Marlow needs to believe she's crazy. The alternative would mean embracing the gift―or curse―shared by her mother and she can see angels and demons, including a dark and haunting entity who's been with Marlow her entire life. At least, she believes that's all he is until a fae from the Nordic pantheon strolls into her life and informs her that she's been sharing a bed with the Prince of Hell. A Prince who's now gone missing. Before she knows it, Marlow is deeply entangled in a centuries-old war, stumbling straight into a battleground between mighty beings of myth and legend from powerful pantheons around the world. And who will come out on top may just depend on her and the love she never dared to believe in.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Audiobook, Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Fae

528 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2024

About the author

Fantasy author with an M.A. in Folklore, who loves to take pictures, eat french fries, and live my life as an all-around creative forest nymph! I'm so excited to bring you with me on my journey as I step out of our everyday lives and into the new fantasy world within The Night and Its Moon fantasy series!

I wrote these books for an audience of one, and that audience was me. I wanted to see bi representation, love, mental health struggles, religious trauma, and overcoming the of obstacles that I needed to be modeled in my own life. At the end of the day I'm so proud of myself for creating the series that I'd always hoped I could read, and I hope someone is able to connect with them in a way that I have.

Reviews

[Reads With Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25
Here’s a video review:
https://youtu.be/eCoMu4PtdJM

Let me type some shit since if I don’t, this review will get reported to the goodreads librarians. Yall are weird for doing that.

There was a line in this book that legitimately made me tear up. This had some great cathartic moments for the exfundie girlies who grew up with moms that gave us religious trauma and yet, called it love.

There were also some lines in here that made me have some reflective moments on what I was taught vs what others in fundieland were taught despite us all being a part of the same religion. Specifically on things like spiritual warfare and speaking in tongues.

There were some lines, though, that made me question what the editing process of this book was like.

“I stared down the barrel of the lesser of two evils”
“The dredges of my coffee”
“Columbian flag”

And the line “I had the worst case of blue tubes in the history of womankind” was certainly a choice.

Also, entire swaths of inner monologue that made me absolutely nauseated listening to the mc Marlowe talk about herself. And further, made me feel really fucking bad for her friends. I hope in the next book we hear that Nia and Kirby dump Marlowe for a friend who actually gives a shit about them.

That all said, I’ll read the next one. It’s better than Crescent City, and some other urban fantasies I’ve read in the last year. But I’m biased as an exfundie who saw myself reflected in the book, so take that with a grain of salt.

[Teeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for early review.. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

Rated 0.5 stars. The Deer and the Dragon is a major miss on almost all fronts.

A bit of praise before the critique; Luna Rey does a nice job narrating and l enjoyed her character voices and performance. I do think it's funny that Piper CJ managed to get someone with a moon themed name to read her book, though.

Now on to the critique.

The audiobook (which was the only ARC format available on NetGalley) did not contain trigger warnings, content warnings, or in fact any kind of author's note about the sensitive content contained within the book. This is a major miss. Here's a shortlist of content warnings for this title.

•Religious trauma
•Abusive parental figures
•Mental health denial
•Psychological breakdowns (the main character thinks she is crazy for many, many years)
•Assault of a woman in her own home
•Being stalked
•Misgendering
•Being drugged without consent
•Being drugged for the purpose of sex
•Dubcon/noncon

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be included. Here's some explanation on the misgendering bit.

•Marlow misgenders her friend Kirby, who is nonbinary, point blank to their face by calling them a "horse girl." Kirby immediately corrects this to "horse person." This is played as a joke.

•At one point, Fauna (the main character's manic pixie dream girl companion) is introduced to Kirby. She says she likes their name a lot. Marlow proceeds to say "that's not their real name," and roll her eyes. When Fauna chides Marlow for trying to give out information that isn't hers to give, Marlow glares and says nothing.

•Directly after speaking with Kirby, Marlow reveals the entire reason for Kirby's chosen name, without asking permission to share this story, which is intertwined with a trauma dump to Fauna, whom she met for the first time yesterday. She also reveals that she was the one to take Kirby's virginity to Fauna, whom she met yesterday.

•Fauna's only response to this is to coo and comfort Marlow, and state "I love queer culture."

Marlow, the main character, is an incredible thin and see-through attempt for the author to self insert into a story. Marlow has a literature degree with a focus on mythology. Piper CJ has a masters in folklore. Marlow writes bestselling books and makes millions of dollars and is beloved by fans across the globe, including literal deities who want to make deals with her to have their own pantheons featured in the next installment. Piper CJ writes books. Marlow was an abused child who endured significant amounts of religious trauma because of her parents. Piper CJ has never been shy about the fact that she is a victim of religious abuse, which I found out from a few minutes of googling.

It's fine to self insert into your works. It's a viable way to produce content. The issue comes from the fact that Marlow is an insufferable deadbeat who is unlikeable to the nth degree and treats every single person around her like garbage. Here's a rundown of her persona that you get to know in the first third of the book.

•Marlow is laughably rich. Her book series is a current bestseller. People recognize her name in passing. She has the floor beneath the penthouse level at her apartment because she "didn't mind not having the penthouse." She claims to want a simple life and she doesn't want for anything, but drives a BMW, lives in a luxury apartment, and spends money out the wazoo. But the author expects us to see her as a poor little thing who just wants to be normal and go to therapy. This would work if it was written differently but it literally comes off as nothing more than the author's wish fulfillment for her OC (do not steal!).

•Marlow is a retired escort who did sex work to get her start on adult life. This is not a problem in itself, but the way that the author glorifies sex work and presents it as one of the easiest and safest things in the world is neither accurate nor advisable. Marlow didn't have to struggle for her position as a notable escort, she didn't have to work to get reliable clients, and she was handed everything that she needed, including clothes, contacts, references, and appointments, by someone she met on the streets of a foreign country one day.

•Marlow is a bestselling author. She is currently writing book three of her series. She attends conventions and has to force herself to be kind and polite to her fans. She has done so much research to be able to write these mythology filled titles, but when it is recommended that she reach out to a few local witches to try to help her figure out what is going on, she treats them with disdain, rudeness, and disbelief. Which is a great look for a bestselling author, truly. When Fauna, a literally Nordic minor deity, tries to tell her about selkies, Marlow snaps and claims that she's wrong, because she is an expert on these things. She only has three friends at the beginning of the book because she's a shut-in, but she treats all three of them just as badly as the new friends she gains.

•Marlow is the reincarnated princess lover of the prince of Hell and doesn't believe that the white fox/ hot man that has been keeping her company/ having mind-blowing sex with her for over a decade is real. She makes him invisible at one point in time because she doesn't want to see him anymore, and he follows this command to the letter of the law. And she eventually sends him away entirely after a former client stalks her, enters her apartment, an angel shows up to save her by killing said man, as a favor to the demon prince. She is so pissed at the fact that the demon prince does not personally save her after she has treated him like a figment of her imagination for years and put restrictions on his actions that she banishes him entirely. And then she mopes around a lot, because she misses him, and finds out that he's not a figment of her imagination, and wants him back.

Those few bullet points already cover enough word count for an entire review where I could just say "this was quite bad." But let's continue.

I'm only going to mention Fauna as a side character because I only had access to the audiobook and can't spell the name of her boyfriend, but Fauna is just as insufferable as Marlow. She is rude, mean, snotty, bitchy, and the epitome of a manic pixie dream girl. She bullies Marlow, makes fun of her, calls her stupid, physically harasses her when she's in shock while waterboarding her in a shower, all of your typical mean girl checklist items. She's a minor deity from Marlow's side of the veil, the Nordic pantheon. Marlow is one eighth fae. They have to go on a a quest to... um... get the demon prince back? Figure out if Heaven is taking the lead in the war? Unlock the secrets of Marlow's past? Something. Pick one, they all happen. That's because---

The plot is a disorganized mess. It's like if someone took the splendor and depth of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and put it in a broken down soccer mom van for a roadtrip with three people who only want to sing Hazbin Hotel songs and make out with each other. And yes, this book is marketed as Hazbin Hotel meets Crescent City, and it's nothing like either of those, other than the fact that the author clearly loves both of them and wanted to live her self insert fantasy as the princess of hell with a fae for a best friend and a demon assassin as eye candy. I listened to this entire book and I can only tell you the barest details about what was even happening. But I distinctly remember that it was entirely a boring right up until about 40%, when things finally started happening.

Let's end this off by talking about the spice. There's a max of two explicit full length sex scenes in this story. One of them is Marlow having sex with her demon prince boyfriend even though she doesn't think he is real. The other one is a drug-induced lust session where Marlow makes out with multiple people, is unable to control her body or stop herself from taking steps forward, and ends up almost having sex with her demon prince boyfriend because he manages to show up in time. And the only reason this non-consenting drug-induced orgy does not occur is because everyone in the room who isn't a main character dies graphically because it's a trap. This is not cool. This needed to be in the trigger warnings for the book. So, limit the sexy times down to one full length scene max, which still has the issue of one of the participants considering herself clinically insane, because I will not count non-consenting drug induced sexual encounters towards a spice rating when there was no content warning.

To quote my own message from earlier in this review; This was quite bad. I wanted to pick this up to give Piper CJ a shot after all of the issues of her first series (racism, plagiarism, bullying reviewers, occupying reviewer space, etc). Maybe she had a chance to improve and tackle those issues and would put out something really notable. The Deer and the Dragon is just as problematic as the rest of Piper CJ's work. And no, in case you were curious--- there are no dragons.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

HUMAN GIRL BANISHES THE PRINCE OF HELL SHE’S BEEN LOWKEY IN LOVE WITH AND THEN HAS TO TRACK HIM DOWN, ACCIDENTALLY PUTTING HER IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR BETWEEN GODS, ANGELS, AND DEMONS!!!!

This was A+

[Jena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hadn't looked into this author's controversies or reviews of her other books before picking up The Deer and the Dragon, and I wish I had, because if I did, I never would have given this book a chance. I really wanted to like this book, but I knew almost immediately that the writing style was not going to work for me. I had hoped that the plot could redeem the book, but it just didn't.

The premise of this book is alright. Marlow has been friends/lovers with the prince of hell for years, but thought he was a figment of her imagination. Now, she knows the truth and is drawn into a celestial war. Unfortunately, not much of this book explores any of that lore or the war between different classes of gods and religions. Instead, we follow Marlow, one of the most insufferable protagonists I have ever met, in her day-to-day routine.

Let me introduce you to Marlow. She's incredibly hot, like physically perfect. She's rich, but still unfilled. She's a quippy feminist (but in a Buzzfeed "we paint with our period blood" type of woke millennial way). She's a sex worker, and the process of her becoming a sex worker is incredibly easy. Hey, did you guys know that sex work is really fun, well-paying, easy to get into, and safe? (please sense my sarcasm). The way this book depicts sex work is incredibly harmful, as it practically encourages girls to jump blindly into an incredibly dangerous industry. And most of all, Marlow is dumb as a rock. She gives gods who can bind her to do anything her full name, she breaks into a supposed serial killers house for fun, and oh yah, she is physically touching and having sex with a demon every night for YEARS, but doesn't believe he's real until like the 40% mark of the book. But don't worry. Despite all the faults, multiple men are in love with her. Her demon beau even calls her incredibly gifted and refers to her as smarter than him. You know what she did to wow him? She acted like a snotty rich person all day. The explanation we're given is that you have to be really good at reading people to pretend to be rich, therefore, Marlow is a genius.

So back to the plot. Marlow finds out her Prince of Hell is real (a lot of "w-w-w-what?" moments follow) and decides to save him because she loves him. Here's the thing: we never get to see this couple fall in love. They are declaring their love and having sex on page one. The excuse for this is that Marlow has been reincarnated many times and he has fallen in love with her in other lives. But like, could we not even see them fall in love in one of those lives? Or see some scenes of them doing anything other than having sex in this life? No? Alright, whatever. We just jump straight to the marketable declarations of love and smut, bypassing any romantic or emotional growth.

And as I mentioned early, aside from issues with the plot or characters, I really hated this writing style. It was so shallow, and at times felt very dumb. It felt like the author was trying to be edgy and sexy, but nothing about this book was clever. Every joke annoyed me, and every attempt at depth had me rolling my eyes. And my last point - I just finished this book and yet I have no idea why it's titled The Deer and the Dragon. I hate to be so negative with ARC reviews, but this book truly didn't have any solid features I could latch onto for some positivity.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 stars

CW: discussions of nonconsensual drugging, sexual assault, dubious consent

SPOILER FREE
Did I have a better time than with Piper’s previous series? In some ways, yes. Did I enjoy myself? Still no. Will I be continuing this series? Not unless I am financially compensated.

PROSE
I would say the prose in this book is simpler— and, therefore, significantly more understandable and palatable— compared to the TNAIM series. I’m glad to see that Piper has improved on this front. Because this is a modern setting, the prose takes itself less seriously, and modern word choice is fitting here instead of wildly out of place. There is still the occasional line that is meant to be descriptive or profound that just doesn’t land for me; for example, the very first line almost made me give up then and there. Because this was an audiobook, the narrator probably helped the writing flow more naturally, so I can’t speak to the actual construction of sentences like I normally do. I still thought much of the writing was quite melodramatic, though, lessening the impact of actually important events.

GENERAL CRAFT
I’m pleased that Piper has made some other improvements in her overall craft as well. It seems she paid more attention to common story beats, like focusing on establishing a character’s normal world before the inciting incident, and tried using more techniques like flashbacks. Unfortunately, she struggles with these new techniques, and the overall story lacks the appearance of structure and has issues with pacing. The setup section really drags, as it consists of monotonous details of the main character going about her day and recalling her past in vivid detail. I appreciate that Piper was trying to incorporate backstory in chunks rather than all at once, but the flashbacks end up interrupting the pacing and do more telling than showing. Up until the inciting incident, which isn’t until roughly 17%, I was wondering what the point of everything was.

The rest of the events up until the climax do have more internal logic than Piper’s previous books but still feel quite meandering at times. The main character gets dragged around by other characters instead of controlling her own story, leading events to feel disjointed and arbitrary at times.

SPOILERS AHEAD

CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS
I really didn’t enjoy Marlow and how she was written. On paper, I do like the idea of her: an escort-turned-author that becomes involved in an otherworldly conflict due to her ability to see through the veil. I thought this story was going to be about Marlow utilizing her people skills from sex work as well as her knowledge of mythology to hold her own among deities. Instead, Piper has created a character that I can only describe as entitled, self-absorbed, whiny, passive, and idiotic.

Marlow is not a fun character to follow. She’s allergic to common sense (moving to another country on a whim, going to her stalker’s house alone, giving her full name to fae despite being supposedly well-versed in mythology and folklore, jumping to conclusions, etc.) and treats everyone poorly (neglecting her “friends,” consciously having to be nice to fans at a signing, looking down on other authors and local witches, trauma-dumping on someone she met a day ago, etc.). The other characters have to constantly save her, and she lashes out when they don’t help so there’s no opportunity for her to grow. Make it make sense.

Marlow is also incredibly wealthy, successful, and special with minimal effort. She is recruited for high-class sex work by a person she randomly met on the street, who then gave her all the resources she needed at no expense. Not only does Marlow not do anything to get this job in the first place, she does not struggle to maintain it; she is immediately very skilled in the work and can retire from escorting after a few years because she is so successful. In my opinion, this is a very idealized and unrealistic depiction of the industry and reads as Marlow simply being naturally so incredible. I would rather see Marlow work to find clients and resources herself (she could still be supported by the other escorts that she befriended), struggle in the beginning, and develop her skills over time. This would make her later success feel more earned and give her more agency.

Marlow goes on to also be a best-selling author, so she has more money than she knows what to do with. I think this success is meant to be inspiring, considering Marlow’s difficult and traumatic childhood. I would be less bothered by Marlow’s status if she was more self-aware about it. She could feel like she doesn’t deserve the money or donate to charities. Instead, she lives in a luxury apartment, has many designer items, and makes frivolous purchases with her unlimited credit card.

Despite all of this privilege, Piper still wants us to feel bad for Marlow because she had a rough childhood and struggles with mental health. While, yes, these are challenging things for a person to go through, they do not excuse Marlow’s awful behavior and attitude for me. We don’t see her trying to do anything to help herself, seek support, or take control of her life. I just can’t sympathize with or relate to a character like this.

Moving on to other characters. Caliban, the prince of hell, doesn’t get a lot of page time so we don’t get to learn a lot about him that isn’t told to us via flashbacks. We learn that Marlow is his reincarnated mortal lover that he tries to reunite with in every life. This is pretty endearing, but he deserves better than Marlow, to be honest. In this life, Marlow is 1 ⁄ 8th fae, so she can see through the veil and see him (yay, more specialness for Marlow), leading her to believe she is having hallucinations for most of her life. Because Caliban is missing for most of the story, the relationship does not feel developed in the present timeline. We just have to take Marlow’s word that she’s always loved him, despite the reader mostly seeing her trying to deny his existence. I don’t have much to say about Caliban’s actual character. He’s fine, I guess.

I also didn’t particularly like Fauna. I think Piper wanted her to come across as quirky and charming, but I found her irritating, petulant, and generally unlikeable. She barely helps Marlow understand what is going on, constantly berating Marlow and calling her stupid (she’s right, but she’s still very rude about it). She also does whatever she wants and prioritizes sweets over everything else, evoking the image of an unruly toddler. Marlow and Fauna are constantly bickering and insulting each other while thinking highly of themselves, but, by the end of the book, Marlow thinks of Fauna as a close friend.

I also don’t have any strong opinions about Fauna’s boyfriend Azrames. I liked that he was a more stereotypical demon but was generally easy-going and justice oriented. I’m not sure why he likes Fauna, though.

PLOT
While things do happen in this book, they feel more like a series of side quests in a video game rather than part of an overarching plot, in my opinion. Marlow feels like she’s tagging along with Fauna and Azrames while they do most of the actual work, rather than leading the search for Caliban. I wish there were more sleuthing instead of characters being pointed where to go next by side characters. One of the best scenes for me is the confrontation between Marlow and Fauna versus Marlow’s mother and the angel Silas, but there isn’t much payoff or course correction due to this interaction. This book is mostly just a few characters going to different locations to find objects or information, and I wish there was more substance.

The main point of this book is finding Caliban, right? They get to where they think he’s being held against his will, and he just kind of shows up. I thought there was going to be way more conflict and plot surrounding trying to free him, but, nope, he’s just chilling despite being supposedly trapped. Piper introduces the idea of a town-sized sigil that’s supposedly holding Caliban and other deities, which is a cool idea, but then does absolutely nothing with it. The story, instead, jarringly shifts to undercovering the plot of the deity Astarte who has “taken over” a town and is running a fertility clinic in order to garner more followers. While this is technically connected to freeing Caliban, it feels like it comes out of nowhere because it doesn’t relate to the rest of the plot.

I really disliked this whole conflict with Astarte. Lots of deities meddle with humans to gain power and sabotage each other, so I’m not sure why this situation is such a big deal besides that she separated our two main characters who are supposedly deeply in love. To prove that this is in fact the villain of the story, Astarte drugs Marlow so that she has the uncontrollable urge to have sex. The ARC didn’t come with content warnings, and I hope the finalized version fixes that.

As far as I understand, having sex is an act of devotion for Astarte and gives her power and I guess this would bond Marlow to her, but I didn’t really understand why Astarte specifically wants this. We get so little about her beyond being the Villain™. We also don’t get to explore her character any further, because Caliban and Azrames show up and kill everyone. Marlow doesn’t do anything except try to have sex with Caliban, and he does start to engage as a means to distract Astarte. Remember that Marlow cannot give proper consent because she isn’t sober.

This is another instance when Piper does not set up her villains properly and kills them off very quickly. Also, can you even technically kill a deity? I would have liked more inclination earlier about who the villain might be or that there would actually be a specific villain in the first place. Also, the messaging about sex in this book is quite confusing. You would think it would be sex positive given that Marlow is an escort, but then the villain is a deity associated with sex and uses sex for nefarious purposes.

WORLDBUILDING
Throughout the book, I was confused about the logistics of this world. I get what Piper was trying to do with worldbuilding, but I don’t think she currently has the skills to handle a world in which the deities of every pantheon exist. This is a super interesting idea, but she does the bare minimum instead of using this premise to inform the rest of the book. For instance, the characters go to hell, but whose interpretation of hell? Or is it a collective amalgamation of all versions of hell?

If all-powerful beings actually existed, we would need to reinterpret many things about our very existence, technology, and lifestyle. For one, across the world’s mythologies, there are conflicting origin stories, so, which is the real one in this book? If deities are real, why haven’t they revealed themselves to gain followers? Why don’t they mess with humans for fun? What are the rules and politics of the different realms interacting with each other? Are these tied to human politics at all? Also, deities are notorious for fighting with each other within their own pantheons, and I can’t imagine the amount of chaos that deities fighting between pantheons would unleash, given that one character explicitly says that angels and demons often use the human realm to fight. Piper doesn’t explore any of the fun speculative aspects of her world and instead “worldbuilds” by making all the supernatural and paranormal creatures incredibly hot.

ART VS ARTIST
I’m going to be talking about Piper in the context of her work, not about her as a person specifically. This is interpretation and analysis based on the text.

In my opinion, Marlow is a thinly-veiled self-insert for Piper, and it is difficult to discuss one without the other. Based on my cursory google search to confirm my suspicions, I found that both Piper and Marlow worked in the sex industry, studied mythology and folklore and now primarily write fiction books about the topic, and were raised in a conservatively religious environment, and I can guess that they also have smaller details in common like being Norwegian by heritage. It is impossible to not incorporate part of yourself into the characters that you write, but this book felt like a weird wish fulfillment for Piper to live vicariously through a wealthy, successful, and powerful main character. I’m not sure if this is how Piper views herself or how she wants her life to be, and I’m concerned with what Piper is unintentionally reflecting about herself through Marlow.

I want to look at two passages from a scene early in the book. Since I received an ARC, I pulled these from the preview feature on Google Books by searching keywords. I’m operating under the assumption that these are the finalized versions of these lines.

I refused to read anything worthwhile these days. Not only did I not want to compare myself to the greats, but nor [sic] did I want to risk being accused of idea theft, but I found that spite was my favorite motivator. Every terrible idiom, every clumsy sentence, every ill-conceived plot and obnoxious main character highlighted ways in which I’d like to do things differently.

Gandhi told us to be the change we want to see in the world. He was probably talking about kindness or charity or something, but I preferred to apply it to becoming the author I wished everyone else was.

The call is coming from inside the house. In my experience, Piper’s work itself can be characterized by its terrible idioms, clumsy sentences, ill-conceived plots, and obnoxious main characters. The ability to recognize weaknesses and make improvements is essential to writing. This lack of self-awareness will likely be very off putting to readers.

I think these comments by Marlow are supposed to be witty, but they come across as self-important, flippant, and disparaging. There’s a difference between well-earned confidence and arrogance. Given that Marlow is likely acting as a mouthpiece for Piper, I worry that Piper might also think it’s alright to put down other authors, especially given that she has reacted poorly to criticism in the past. It’s unfair for someone to think everyone else isn’t as good of a writer as them and that their writing is changing the world for the better, but no one is allowed to critique their work. Critique is not personal until you make it about yourself. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Also, the mentality of refusing to use references to learn and thinking you are better than everyone else is very unhealthy and unproductive. This prevents authors from growing as a writer and a person and sets them up to not take criticism well. It’s almost impossible to not be influenced in some way by other books. Yet when that inspiration becomes imitation, whether intentional or not, writers need to be able to accept feedback from people who are ultimately trying to help create a more unique story. Everyone can improve their craft, and it’s important to learn from others. If Piper actually thinks she doesn’t need to improve, then she is getting in her own way.

The wording “accused of idea theft” here is also quite leading and likely reflects that Piper thinks that she has done nothing wrong in regards to her own plagiarism controversy. Instead of acknowledging previous mistakes and demonstrating growth, she appears to be doubling down. It’s also pretty hypocritical, considering that Marlow and Piper are profiting by using mythology and folklore from communities that they don’t necessarily belong to. Marlow is working on a book inspired by a mixture of South American lore, despite not being South American and only spending a short time in a handful of countries there. Anyone supposedly knowledgeable in folklore would know that it’s impossible to accurately and succinctly convey information about an entire continent’s folkloric traditions without oversimplification and misrepresentation. Yet Marlow wishes everyone else was better. I just don’t understand how someone can be defensive about stealing ideas when their livelihood is built on using existing ideas from other cultures.

Piper has obviously put a lot of herself into this book, but, unfortunately, she is perhaps revealing a little too much about herself. I would recommend she really reflect on the author she wants to be and how she presents herself through her work.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite my best hopes, this book is further proof that Piper needs more practice as an author, both in terms of skill and mindset. While she has made some progress with prose and technique, she is still ultimately holding herself back. However, this does offer a glimmer of hope that, with intentional and thoughtful development of her craft, she has the potential for more substantial improvement.

Side note: I’m bummed there were no actual dragons.

[Zana · Rating 1 out of 5]

"But all I could feel was the heartbeat of the cock inside me."

'“Please,” I begged, needing him inside me more than the sun in the winter, more than water in the desert, more than air.'

Reads like a 13 year old wrote and uploaded their first novel on Wattpad. Corny as hell. Doesn't know how adulting works.

The FMC is a multimillionaire author and former high-end sex worker. She becomes best friends with a manic pixie dream fae. She's star-crossed lovers with the demon prince of hell who's been watching her and protecting her since childhood. She goes on a quest to find her shadow daddy prince because her dumb ass banished him from her life.

The author then ran out of plot, so at the end there was another quest thing to free a god but the FMC gets drugged and ends up in a goddess's sex dungeon. Lots of horniness, but sadly no orgy.

Like I said, corny.

At least it helped me as a sleeping aid.

I'll leave you with my favorite quote:

"His cock made everything else feel like eating ashes after experiencing caviar."

[꧁ Brutally Honest ꧂ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nah fam

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok so the thing is… miss Piper has an MA in folklore and you can TELL when you read this. I genuinely felt like I needed to be taking notes at certain parts because the mythology side of it had me scratching my head so many times :’))

it’s clear how much thought & intelligence went into this book and I did quite enjoy the story as a first installation!! Caliban & Az had me literally drooling & giggling and Fauna was an unreal side character, Mar however fell a weeee bit short for an FMC but I think that is simply because we haven’t had enough of her yet. I will without a shadow of a doubt be reading the second book in this series!!

My only complaints are that I did feel a little lost some of the time, the story seemed to jump all over the place for the first half maybe because of how complicated the world building was in a way?? And I do think this story would have resonated soooo much more if more flashbacks were given throughout to paint the picture of Mar & Caliban’s relationship :(( ANYWHO - I do think this will all come in later books hopefully 🫡 I’m remaining optimistic & this was a very fun, steamy fantasy book with crazy mythology/folklore elements!!

[Rachel Rowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t love The Night and Its Moon, but this sounds sooooo good…

[Talia Devereaux · Rating 1 out of 5]

writing.
I firmly believe that this book was never edited or reviewed by a developmental editor, and if it was, either they scammed Piper or she didn’t bother to listen to them. Because there’s no way an editor would have let any of this slide. No editor worth their salt would have allowed Piper to use the incorrect version of ‘brooch’ sixteen times. The same applies to the incorrect use of the term ‘dredges’, as well. There are no dredges at the bottom of your drink, Piper. This is what makes me wonder if her editors are scamming her because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Piper use the word ‘dredges’ wrong.

Another reason I don’t believe an editor has touched this book is that the Norse people are consistently referred to as the Nordes. The Nordes are a group of people in the video game Skyrim. When people refer to ‘the nordes’, they’re referring to northern winds. I doubt a developmental editor would have let that pass without comment. There’s also the laziness when referring to other pantheons. She doesn’t even bother to call them by their names. The Aesir are constantly referred to as the Nordes. The Olympians are just the Greeks. The Netjeru are just the Egyptians. This series is about a woman who is allegedly well-versed in mythology but can’t seem to get a single pantheon title correct. There’s a point in the book where Marlow meets a character and describes her accent as North American. Literally, what does that even mean? Is she midwestern? From Texas? Jamaican? Where is she from, Piper? She talks about ‘average North American height’, which is…what?

The writing, when it’s not completely purple word salad, holds your hand through every single emotion that Marlow has. It’s over-explained to the point where I genuinely think the author thinks her readers are stupid. Things are explained and then explained some more to the point where I feel like it was done to fill up some more space, because there simply isn't a lot of plot going on in this book.

Really, the only character I can talk about is Marlow because this book is just about Marlow and how amazing, special, perfect, and genius Marlow is. I cannot stand Marlow. Never has a character been more insufferable. Never has a character been more up her own ass and so madly in love with herself. If I ever met Marlow in real life, I would beat her up. Marlow is the most unlikable protagonist I have ever encountered, yet she’s written in a way where you’re meant to like her. It’s insane to me. She’s one of the most unlikable characters in existence. She’s such a piece of shit, lmfao. The story opens with her on a date with a guy she's not interested in and can't be bothered to remember his name, but she’s just there for the free food. When she gets it wrong, and he corrects her, she continues to call him the wrong name all the way to the end of the book. She mentally berates him for mixing wasabi and soy sauce and cannot let it go, to the point where it’s brought up literally 300 pages later when she hasn’t seen or spoken to this man since chapter one. She’s an AWFUL friend. It seems like her friend's only real purpose is to support her and tell her how amazing she is. That’s basically the role of every side character in the book, honestly. To hype up Marlow. Marlow never bothers to make plans with her friends or inform them about anything that’s happening in her life. When she goes missing for a good chunk of the book, and they're blowing up her phone, worried about her, she doesn't even bother to call them to calm them down. She doesn't think about them at all. She's far more concerned with herself and finding her imaginary boyfriend, whom she only just decided was real like a week ago. Her editor tells her she's at risk of losing her job if Marlow doesn't deliver her work or update her on what's happening(meaning the editor might lose her job, not just Marlow), and Marlow just...doesn't care. She's like, 'No excuse I can give will be enough, so I'm just not going to say anything at all because I'm afraid of confrontation. ' Grow the fuck up?? Honestly, I’ve dealt with enough people who’ve given me that excuse when I’ve told them they’ve wronged me to recognize a narcissist. And Marlow is 1000% one. ‘I can’t possibly make up for what they think I did wrong, so I won’t even try.’

Her friend Nia only became her friend because she obsessively messaged her on social media until Marlow 'gave in', and now they're family? Somehow? Yet Marlow doesn't think about Nia once or bother to comfort her when Nia has to call Marlow's abusive mom to ensure Marlow isn't dead. She reads the message and is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ‘whoops’ and doesn’t even bother to return the texts at all. Kirby has allegedly been Marlow's friend since childhood, but does Kirby know anything about Caliban at all? Does Nia? Does Marlow share her actual life with her friends? Suppose they know about the abuse her mom put her through. Do they know how that abuse started? (which is because Marlow began seeing things that others could not and her mom thought that it meant she was going to hell or some shit) When Fauna shows up and freaks out over liking Kirby’s name so much, Marlow takes it upon herself to tell Fauna the story of Kirby’s name, scornfully informing Fauna that Kirby isn’t their real name, the second Fauna expresses interest in it. (Like what, are you jealous that Fauna likes Kirby’s name, you insecure freak??) The story of how Kirby got their name revolves solely around something traumatic that happened to Marlow and how she and Kirby sat and played Super Smash Bros. Kirby liked their character so much that they adopted the name. Which…okay, choosing the name because you liked a video game character, okay, fine. But the whole story preceding this was so unnecessary and just made Marlow come off as suuuuch a whiny baby. “Oh, you want to know about my friend’s name? Well, first, let me preface it with this long woe-is-me story all about ME before I tell you how they chose their name because basically everything revolves around ME and how special and amazing and how beautiful I am.”

The way Marlow discusses rejection is so immature. Life is full of rejections. Someone telling you they didn't want to play with you when you were eight years old isn't something you should form your whole life around. Like, Marlow doesn't want kids because she doesn't want them to face rejection? GET OVER IT. Oh my god, Marlow. I also can't empathize with her trauma with her mom at all because I feel like I didn't really see much of it. Some of the things she says might hit with other people, but I wanted an actual flashback of a super intense fight or conversation instead of an overview of what happened. I think this book would’ve been better off if we’d started with Marlow’s childhood and gone from there. Instead of just explaining how Marlow was a sex worker, then a famous author, and how she got super rich for the first hundred pages, I would’ve rather learned about her childhood. I genuinely couldn’t care less about how Marlow’s dumb ass fell for basically a sex trafficking scam and convinced herself it was the best job in the world.

It took a while to get to the actual plot. About 100 pages in, things start to happen. I would’ve liked a little more exposition on Marlow’s relationship with Caliban at the beginning of the book. I get that some of the reveals needed to come more towards the end, but I kind of wish that maybe the fox had spoken to Marlow, too, which would’ve helped with why she’s so sure she’s insane. Foxes don’t talk! In all honesty, I wish this story had been restructured entirely. I think it would've been substantially better if we'd started out in Marlow's childhood. We can see how her day-to-day life was before Caliban ever appeared, how things were with her mom, who can also see through the veil. Perhaps she notices some strange things about her mom that she initially dismisses, only to later recognise them in herself and understand why her mom responded that way. Then something actually traumatic happens instead of some little kids not letting Marlow play with them, instigating her to start seeing Caliban. I also would've liked to see flashbacks to Marlow's previous lives. While she's busy trying to convince herself Caliban isn't real, those flashbacks would add to her thinking she's losing her grip on reality. Maybe she'll be doing something innocent, like washing the dishes, and then suddenly, she sees herself standing in the middle of a raging battle, wearing long, elaborate robes. Do you see what I'm saying? This could've been cool! Instead, I had to read about Marlow jerking off about herself for 600 pages.

When Marlow is about sixteen, Caliban appears to Marlow as a human because she’s about to kill herself. Her reaction is so nonsensical because a dude just materialized in your home, and you don’t immediately run out of your room screaming? Okay, Marlow. See, what I hate about this is that he was a fox all through her childhood, then shows up as a man(?) When she’s sixteen. At some point, they start sleeping together. And honestly, it gives me the ick. Because like he’s been a grown ass man this whole time. He’s a grown ass man when he appears to her as a teenager and …well, it feels like grooming. Because he's clearly thousands of years old, he probably stays the same age while she's a teenager. At what age did he wait for her to turn before their relationship turned sexual?

Additionally, she doesn't even think he's real, and he does nothing to convince her otherwise. He let her believe she’s insane for 20 years, and the explanation is that they struck a deal that he had to do whatever she wanted or something? So he had to let her believe she was insane because that’s what she needed? That’s big dumb, and if he really loved her, he would have found a way around that. Because no one who loves you would allow you to believe yourself insane and let you live in misery for two fucking decades. Yeah….just no thanks. I'm good. When she’s 21, Marlow tells Caliban, she doesn’t want to see him anymore, so she literally physically cannot see him, but she can hear and feel him, and he still shows up, and like they keep having sex. (Bruh, don’t tell me they immediately started boning when she was like 18) So she’s just having sex with her imaginary demon friend for like five years before she’s finally like, all right, this is weird; maybe we should stop. And tells him for real to stop, and then she immediately regrets that when he stops showing up, and then the rest of the book finally happens.

We also get flashbacks to when Marlow first starts escorting, and tbh, I hated this depiction of sex work. I keep hoping, since Piper claims to be an advocate for sex work and is a former SWer, that we might get some actual depth to this plot. Perhaps learn how Marlow was able to mold herself into the person each client needed her to be, how she was able to play different roles, etc. But no. Every time she calls upon her acting chops from her escorting days, she messes it up immediately, even though she’s constantly claiming to be so good at it. Anyway, this is how it happens. Marlow is in Argentina(?) Teaching English to children. A random, expensively dressed, and very beautiful woman approaches her alone and immediately starts oversharing with her. The girl is like, OMG, you’re too pretty to BE A TEACHER. COME HANG OUT ON MY YACHT. I feel like any woman with a speck of intelligence in their brain would have red flags going off right about now. If a random woman I met in a foreign country invited me to her yacht five minutes after meeting me, I’d immediately assume this woman was about to try and murder me or kidnap me or traffick me or something. But not Marlow. Well, she briefly worries that she’s about to get her organs taken. But decides, fuck it, why not. She flies on over to wherever this yacht is(literally, she has to get on a plane and fly there) and makes some new besties(hilariously named Ivy and Quinn because Piper has not a single original bone in her body) who introduce her to the wonderfully glamorous non-dangerous life of escorting, where they hand her clients and set up the appointments for her and blah blah blah(also, wanna point out that Marlow even tries to say that she built this sex work empire herself. bitch no you didn't. It was all handed to you on a silver platter by three random women you met who literally pimped you out). I don’t feel like I really need to go further about why this is a really poor, dangerous rose-colored glasses-type depiction of sex work. It’s just not the reality.

Flash forward five years, and Marlow is now a top-selling author writing about South African folklore as a white woman, trying to date other men, still having sex with her imaginary friend, calling her nonbinary friend a horse girl, the usual. Her escort pals are nowhere to be seen, and we have no clue what happened to them. We never hear from them again; they just vanish once Marlow gets what she wants from them, just like Nia and Kirby vanish once Marlow finds Fauna and Azrames. One day, Marlow’s at a book signing and sees the ONE bad client she had(because in all the years/months fucking strange men you met in a foreign country, only one time does it go bad. okay, sure) He somehow finds where she lives, breaks into her home, and tries to murder her. An angel shows up and murders him instead, and then Caliban finally reveals his face and explains to Marlow that he has marked everyone who’s ever wronged her. (Wronged her in what way, tho. Like if someone accidentally shoulder-checked her on the street, are they now marked for death?) But then it’s later explained that Caliban was just chilling there watching her get strangled and then marked him in the hopes that someone would show up and save her? I’m sorry, is that not the dumbest shit you’ve ever heard? I thought it was weird that she’s not like…focused on the fact that her hallucinations have extended to two people and another person dying. She’s still convinced Caliban is a figment of her imagination even after she sees this happen, and Caliban explains to her that he couldn’t save her because there’s some type of contract with her that forbids him from doing anything under her roof without her permission. But she still gets mad and banishes him, and now he can’t come back, and now she’s like, but wait, no, I didn’t mean it. Thus begins the search for Caliban.

Caliban’s solution to this whole thing was to make the body of the person who tried to kill her vanish as well as heal all her wounds so she could pretend it never happened, but he left the entire crime scene in her apartment. The body of the receptionist was still downstairs, so Marlow was still interrogated by the police. Where is the developmental editor who allegedly worked on this book? Now, I could sit here and outline the rest of the book, but I won't because it's so boring, and nothing of substance really happens. So, to summarize. Marlow searches for Caliban fruitlessly for months, asking a witch for help, who has a page-long explanation of her name, only for Marlow to immediately forget her name and never call her again, even though she struggles for literally months with the single instruction the witch gave her. (Also, don’t forget she made fun of witches but then immediately knew what a poppet was several chapters later and was terrified of it?) But anyway, she finally makes some progress when she decides to go to the house of the guy who tried to kill her(brilliant idea, Sherlock) and finds a parasitic entity that she continuously calls a Cheshire Cat, or the Cheshire child, which drove me fucking bonkers. Then Silas, the angel, shows up to save her again. Silas maybe wants to fuck Marlow, I can't tell. He waffles between abandoning Marlow to die and stalking her and her mom to force Marlow to bond with him for no seeming reason at all. Everyone and their mom wants Marlow to join their religion, and I don't know what the fuck makes her so special. Marlow is such a popular author that everyone recognizes her name, reveres her, and has multiple copies of her two books in their offices. She's so good that she’s inspired millions to switch religions and revert to paganism. This book was exhausting to read because it was mostly about how amazing Marlow is, LOL. I'm fairly certain they even try to claim she's the reincarnation of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. Marlow goes to Hell with Fauna to escape bonding with Silas, where they meet Azrames and he and Fauna are long time lovers and they go and bone while Marlow is in the next room and Marlow fucking masturbates to the sounds of them boning. So...I was forced to read about that, and I hated it. And then, at the end of the book, five chapters before it concludes, we learn that the bad guy who has been holding Caliban captive the entire time is a Phoenician fertility goddess. Just out of nowhere. No mention of it previously. I have no idea why this goddess has an entire town imprisoned, no idea why Silas felt the need to send Caliban there, and no idea what this has to do with anything in the rest of the plot. So, no one tells Marlow the actual plan, and instead, they send her into this fertility clinic the goddess is working out of and have her pretend to want to get pregnant. So the goddess drugs her without her consent and puts her in a room full of half-naked men, hot stereotypes from every ethnicity, while she's SUPER horny. One of the doctors tells her that 'mixed babies are all the rage right now'. The men all tell her how hot and amazing she is and how lucky they are for the chance to get to fuck her. Then after she chooses one of them, she grinds all over him while he just stands there, then they take him out and bring Caliban in and decide he'll fuck her instead. I just wanna point out that this, all of this, would be rape. Marlow didn't consent to being drugged, and if she didn't know who Caliban was, they basically just took the guy she "agreed" to have sex with away and brought in one she didn't agree to for no reason whatsoever(because he’s a cambion?). It doesn't matter that she's saying yes to it; she is drugged. She can't consent. Anyway, Caliban sticks his dick in Marlow and just leaves it there, unmoving, and then makes out with the fertility goddess before stabbing her in the heart and cutting off her head, even though five chapters earlier, they said it's super hard to kill a god.

I'm out of space but one last thing...I thought it was super fucking wild to compare God and the angels to the fucking CONFEDERATES.

[Amber's Book Cave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah this wasn’t for me. This was my first time reading this author and I hated the style of writing in this book.

I listened to the audiobook and I couldn’t tell if I hated the narrator or if it was the authors writing style… but the narrator definitely didn’t save the story either.

I found myself eye rolling to several parts. The are several times that brands are name dropped in the story, which just kill the overall fantasy aspect for me and felt like an ad. It was incredibly hard to root for the romance plot when he is MIA for the entire story and the author didn’t really do a good job of filling in those gaps. Also the spice was cringe.

There was no character development throughout the entire story. Literally no likable characters… this story had nothing going for it.

I honestly just found myself not caring wtf was happening in the book. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone… I should have DNF’ed but it was an audiobook so I just increased the speed and powered through.

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me with an ALC. My opinions are my own (obviously lol) 💖

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Genuinely hilarious how many self inserts are in this. The author believes she’s in a sexual relationship with a demon, and I wish I was joking.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m Going To Hell And I Can’t Wait.
There truly aren’t words to describe how captivating this book is. I was privileged enough to read an advanced copy of the first installment of the No Other Gods series, The Deer & The Dragon and it’s been the only thing occupying my brain ever since. Living rent free status. As in, read the entire novel in 24 hours... I’ve tried my best to move on and read other works but find myself daydreaming about Marlow and wondering what will happen next in her world. After reading and falling in love with Piper’s The Night and It’s Moon series I didn’t think anything could top it and yet here we are. Somehow this series, just the first installment, already has such a grip on my mind and soul and I know will be the one to make and rebreak me.

The marker of a great book in my opinion is feeling like I’m friends with the characters and Piper CJ does it again with this one. The MC and supporting cast have no shortage of personality and the dialogue has me cracking up even on my third (…or fourth or fifth… ok I’ll admit I’ve lost count) reread. The authentic diverse representation is made to be meaningful and plot relevant and humanizes those characters in a way that SO SO many books fall short. The immersive urban fantasy setting had me hooked from the very first paragraph and it kept my interest like I was back in my middle school body up until all hours of the night reading the cult classics for the first time. The number of times I laughed out loud, cried, snorted, scoffed, rolled my eyes, and had to throw my tablet across the room were unmatched. I already know the next installment will have me in a sobbing heap on the floor but all I can say is I’m ready to be hurt again.

[Kendall · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so poorly written, awkward, filled with plot holes, nonsensical scenarios, and stilted dialogue. Also, the blatant self insert main character was super cringe, especially when paired with how insufferable and full of herself the MC was.

[Maddie Vaters]

DNF @ 27%….

Maybe this just isn’t the vibe for me right now, might come back to it later…

[Laney · Rating 1 out of 5]

How some people get published
...I will never know.

[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Deer and the Dragon is the first book in the new series No Other Gods, by new to me author C J Piper.  This is a book that isn't going to be for everyone.  I am not a religious person and have read a lot of stories with the concept of demons or the veil.  Still this book has elements I really struggled with that impacted my experience with the story.  Always a risk when using modern religions and pantheons.

Marlow has been able to see through the veil to some extent most of her life.  Problem is because of her highly religious upbringing and parents she just thinks she is crazy.  The man that visits her must be a figment of her very active imagination and the more she sees him the more delusional she believes she is.  Most of the time she self medicates with either recreational drugs or prescriptions from her various therapists to keep the demons away literally.   At twenty-six, she has spent much of her adult life in this state of being while she writes books about  various pantheons of mythology and religion.  Until the day she realized, she isn't really crazy and the man she banished from her life is a prince of hell, her soulmate and she is determined to find him.

I struggled with this book for a few reasons.  First, is the main character Marlow.  I never found much empathy or fondness for her.  She is very self centered, even most of the friendships we see her have in the book are very one sided as I don't see her contributing to those friendships much.  She lives in various states of indulgence, from the drugs and alcohol use to the money she spends on the nice things in life to how she sees the people around her.  When we meet her the only reason she accepted a second date with a person was because of the location he was taking her for dinner, then we find out she has a ton of money so why accept that date?

Second, is her backstory with the escorting.  Marlow worked as an escort for a few years and while I was hoping to see how that work gave her skills to work people it seemed like a really fluffed up version of that life.  She fell into the industry after one very small conversation with a person on the street in a foreign country and it was a very rose colored experience for her.

Third, and probably the hardest for me is that in this Heaven and God are the bad guys and all the other pantheons (Greek, Norse,  Hell etc..) are in a cold war of sorts with Heaven.  Marlow is now the linchpin to that war because of a sacrifice Caliban made to save her.

This story did have some really interesting and cool moments and I did start to enjoy it a bit more after Marlow accepts that she isn't crazy and the being beyond the veil are real.  That is quite a bit into the story though at about 50ish percent.  I liked both Caliban, Marlow's love interest and Azrames a demon from Hell that helps Marlow find Caliban after he drops out of communication with everyone.  But that all happens really late in the story.

There is one other main side character, Fauna who is from Marlow's Norse heritage, who comes to help her when she is coming to the realization that her 'delusions' are true and she is the reincarnated lover of the Prince of Hell.  Fauna is chaos and sometimes her character is fun but she also calls Marlow a lot of names, not all of them undeserved but sometimes derisive.  Still Fauna's character is a lot of fun and that is when the story starts to pick up some speed.

This should work well for people who don't have any religious hang ups and don't mind Heaven being the bad guy in story.  Also notable to the story pansexuality, sex work, gender announcements, religious trauma and reliance on drugs.  I'm really on the fence if I will continue the series based on my own struggle with the religious notations in the book.

Narration:
Luna Rey is a new to me narrator.  I enjoyed her performance and the voices she used for all the characters in the story.  She did well with the parts of the story that were supposed to feel heavy or light and helping to evoke those emotions.  Her voice separation was really good and I never had issues distinguishing characters.  I was able to listen to the story at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip: HERE

[Madi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i want to lead with this is better than night and it’s moon but not by much. there are still completely incomprehensible passages of metaphors and the self insert main character is exhausting. i could see how some of this book could be cathartic to those with more of a religious up bringing than i had but most of of this book could be summed up with yet another line from the text “blasphemous theology in a nutshell”

also i don’t care what anyone thinks, trigger warnings should be included in every book bc putting child ab*se on the page and then having your main character say “pain builds character” please bffr

i will have a spoilery reading vlog on patreon coming soon

[Brynn Sundgaard · Rating 1 out of 5]

so much to say, so little time. strap in, folks.

i'd like to start with this:
our author, piper cj, begins the book by discussing her personal stance on religion and sex work. this is a person who has clearly been wronged by those following christianity and is wrestling with the consequences of it to this day. okay, fine! i get that! i'm happy you're taking time to understand you! our author also states that her thoughts on religion, as seen in the book, do not represent religion as we know it. this is true, and i respect that deeply.
re: sex work, she flat out refuses to acknowledge that prostitution (which is inappropriate to say for some reason) is not a good thing to fall into. one aim of this story is to, in essence, de-stigmatize "whorephobia" (no, i am not kidding, she genuinely uses this word). i have issues with this that i will go into later.

here i will move onto the portion of the review where i re-type genuine quotes and react to them for you.
- "the tyranny of pants” i have a gun (read: will shoot myself in the face).
- “i’d never met anyone else who was glad they’d tied the knot.” our FMC, marlow, is a miserable bitch.
- “the chains that shackled me to the earth” marlow is literally a super successful writer who is filthy rich and can do whatever she wants whenever she wants with limited to no repercussions. what chains.
- (while discussing she listens to bad authors' audiobooks) “…every terrible idiom, every clumsy sentence, every ill-conceived plot and obnoxious main character highlighted ways in which i’d like to do things differently.” well piper cj, i have news for you. LOOK IN THE MIRROR BABE.
- “‘here you are in the godforsaken american midwest’” i take personal offense to this and i'm kind of joking but not really.
- “and i could be the catalyst to the book of Revelation.” PLEASEEEE LMAOOOO!!!

it is obvious that marlow is a shameless self-insert of miss piper cj, which really makes this glorified fanfiction.

other than the fact that the idioms were terrible, sentences were clumsy, the plot was ill-conceived, and the main character was painfully obnoxious (a rich bratty know-it-all who uses her trauma as an excuse to continually be stupid putting not just her own life but the lives of others in danger, also she's sleeping with a demon who is her one true love because why not), piper cj misses HARD on one of her most present plot-points: sex work.

after marlow leaves home and sets out to experience the world on her own, she decides to teach english in south america (colombia, i think. also, instead of "colombian," the published edition of this book said "columbian." i hate it here.) to preschoolers. off topic, but this prompts her to go on a rant about never wanting children (this is fine not everyone wants or needs to be a parent) aka "crotch-goblins" (which is not the serve you think it is, piper cj, that term has been floating around the internet since the world wide web existed, also i am not down with vitriol towards children). while chilling for a weekend or whatever in buenos aires, a pretty girl named taylor talks to her and tells her to come hang with her and her friends in their super cool nice penthouse or whatever. idc. long story short, these girls are high-end escorts who make bajillions of dollars from elite clientele. marlow somehow enters this industry, no barriers to entry, gets some of the best clients (on the streets, they would be called "johns," but because they're rich it's whatever), works for herself and makes the rules apparently (not how that works - all of these types of employees have a boss), and makes bajillions of dollars herself.

now, here's a dose of reality for everybody at home: that is not what sex work is like 99% of the time. most people, generally girls and women, are prostitutes on the street in the red light district of your favorite city, or sometimes suburb, even. most "clients" are dodgy men. most prostitutes do not make very much money because the majority of what they make goes to the boss. the vast majority of sex workers are NOT "empowered" 21 year old gals doing their thing with their gal pals, making bank, setting rules with clients who generally behave and are respectful, living a jet-set lifestyle drinking mai tais on the beach. a large majority of sex workers are victims who are trying to survive in whatever hellish world they were unfortunate enough to somehow find themselves. it is NOT empowering. per google, "Estimates of prostitutes as targets of serial killers range from 12.5% to 22.5%. A 2020 study found that 22% of confirmed U.S. serial murder victims between 1970 and 2009 were known prostitutes, and that number increased to 43% over the last decade." this doesn't account for one-off murders, rapes, assaults, or any other crime prostitutes are more often than not subjected to, regardless of their status of clientele. and before anyone says "it isn't that serious brynn!" i disagree. it is that serious. real people in our real lives are in this line of work.

i am not saying to judge, demean, and abuse sex workers. quite the opposite, actually - they are people just like you and i. what i AM saying is this line of business should not be touted as the epitome of female empowerment because it blatantly isn't. it's dangerous for REAL PEOPLE, and for the book to masquerade this line of business as fun and quirky and a net gain is just downright disrespectful and immature. the more i think about this, the more angry i become. why are we encouraging young, impressionable women to pursue a line of work where the word "respect" doesn't exist.

on top of that, i am fine with people discussing the ways in which their situation growing up had an effect on them, like piper cj's beef with religion. that said, the more i went into this book, the more her writing started to sound like blasphemy for the sake of blasphemy. i am no Bible thumper by any means and if you are largely non-religious ignore this paragraph because it isn't relevant to you, but i had a genuinely hard time taking the book seriously because it could've been such a good story including the different mythologies and then the abrahamic religions but instead it started to sound like "oh i hate God" "God's the bad guy" "angels are bad" "demons are good" "angels were just God's slaves" blah blah blah PLEASEEEEE I WANT MYTHOLOGY AND A STORYYYYY IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASKKKK write an autobiographical essay on your beef with religion because you clearly can't write a decent book.

the writing was painful and i am confident piper cj and i would not get along in person. piper cj, i am happy that you're living out your dream of being a professional writer and making money and doing your thing, but do it better.

[XxTainaxX Curvy and Nerdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the narrator did a good job, the book itself and the writing style didn’t really connect with me. It seemed to try hard to be relevant to themes of today but didn’t achieve it in a natural way. Not for me.

[Jamie Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first DNF of the year and maybe my 3rd ever DNF. I don’t like to leave things unfinished, and I tried with this book...

But it is painfully hard to get through to even to 30% maybe it’s a miss for me because I’m not interested in the romanticism of mental illness, and victimhood. And I don’t have religious trauma that requires literary exorcism. Both of those I have powered through in other books because there was redemption in the MC or a lesson to absorb. But that is not the case here. The most egregious part is the MC. I have a hard time relating to a joyless, self involved, materialistic MC who has no real redeemable humanist qualities. The only dragon in this story is her; locked away in her tower surrounded by treasure but having no genuine connection to anyone or anything outside her gold. And how did she make her enormous gold cache. A few short years of sex work. I don’t look down on this at all I’ve seen sex work written about brilliantly. But here it is described in a way that does perfectly describe the MC’s relationship with all other people, devoid of emotion and transactional. It feels like a trauma dump from someone who hates people with an ambiguous meandering plot, an utter lack of character development, and a FMC who is vapid and quite bitchy.

Even her love interest is flat. He’s a figment of her imagination at the point I gave up. I’m sure he’ll turn out to be a mythical being but he’s such a golden retriever. But I have no idea why because she is a miserable human with the atrophied emotional evolution of the lobotomized.

Maybe if I kept reading the character would have developed, maybe the plot would have gained focus, but I couldn’t get over my dislike for the MC to devote another second to finding out. This book is the opposite of timeless. It was so inundated with the current and popular of now, if it was readable now, it would be even less so in 10 years.

[DonutAssassin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marlow really was so insufferable 😫😫 The plot was interesting enough, but seriously. Hard to say how much I like the MMC because he wasn’t even in it that much. The level of obnoxious pick-me from the FMC was truly painful to read. Her inner thoughts are repetitive, making sure the reader knows how much religious trauma she has, and how she was a sex worker. We get it. Not sure if I’ll continue this series.

Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley

[Vixxen · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! The best take on gods and angels ever experienced. Piper’s extensively knowledge on not only folklore and mythology but also organized religion play a huge role in the overall plot and flow of the story. I’m absolutely in love with the sex positive gods 👀 and the representation in book 1 is well done.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to see hot demons and angels, demigods and deities engage in passionate encounters of the sexual kind, this is the book for you. Yes, yes, there is also the beautiful unraveling of the religious trauma the main character was exposed to…which makes the story even more relatable. But let me be clear: the first three chapters will leave you thirsting.

Piper has a fantastic way of drawing the reader into the mind of the main character, effectively connecting you to her deeply. The twists and turns come wildly, and the comedic banter keeps the book interesting!

I’ll definitely re read this one ☝️ and anxiously await book 2!

[Stevie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I REALLY wanted to love this book, but I will not be finishing it...
I found the author on Insta and how she described the book sold me on pre-ordering it. This was the first book I've read by this author, and I was so excited about it. However, I can't get past the first 2 chapters. There are so many lines that either left me confused about what's trying to be conveyed, that felt contradictory, or were just weirdly/poorly worded - which makes it very ironic that the main character, Marlow, is a writer that only reads/listens to the "shittiest audiobooks" while being the "author [she] wished everyone else was" when I've already forced myself past some "clumsy sentenses" by the time I got to those lines.

[Jill Vieira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it the best book I've ever read no. But I also don't think it deserved all the 1 star reviews that made me so hesitant to read this thinking it was going to be a horribly written barely edited mess. I enjoyed this story and will definitely read the next book when it comes out. I'm interested to see how the story continues and I think this is an author who I will keep an eye on. She has lots of creativity and a thorough knowledge on mythology that made me very curious about the world she is weaving.

As someone with some mild religious trauma I found her descriptions of facing the emotional and psychological damage of that fascinating, but at the same time part of that Christian upbringing that I, and many others are working to get past is the sheer horror ingrained into our subconscious when someone starts shit talking God. So if you are or were a Christian, know that God is the bad guy in this story and be prepared for whatever mental gymnastics you need to do to be okay with that.

I also find the author's descriptions of prostitution to be overly glamorized. She only describes sex work as the high class escort services her character participated in willingly with hardly any bad experiences. I worked nextdoor to a seedy motel for too many years and saw more drugged out prostitutes than I can count to be okay with a glamorized view of what the vast majority of sex work is: human trafficking.

Overall I enjoyed this book and will be checking out her previously completed books because I think Piper CJ is a promising young author. And my cat is named Piper too lol.

[sunbeams.and.rainbows · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was quite literally blessed to be an ARC reader for The Dear and the Dragon by Piper CJ & let me tell you I fell wholly in LOVE with this story and these characters. The way in which Piper CJ seamlessly blends modernity, mythos, & the utter relatability of the MC, Marlow, makes the suspension of disbelief normally required for the Fantasy genre easy to cast aside. I may not have lived Marlow’s life & many aliases, but I sure as hell understand the woman. I was immediately drawn in with the intrigue & spice offered up in the beginning chapters & it only got better from there. The Deer and the Dragon turns Heaven, Hell, & all the other pantheons on their head, & Marlow’s life with them. Somehow, in the middle of it all, Marlow finds herself surrounded by Heaven, Hell, & the Nordic pantheon’s finest thirst traps. Once again Piper CJ has ruined my life by writing the most perfect partner(s) anyone could ever hope to have in this lifetime or the next. I may never recover. I also truly appreciated Piper CJ’s beautifully nuanced representation of bisexuality, found family, and the realities of living with anxiety and other mental illnesses. If you’re looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat through action, intrigue, & plenty of spice, then look no further than The Deer and the Dragon.

[Jae · Rating 1 out of 5]

0.20/5 stars.
After my book club finished our meeting on this book I sat on my review for another few hours. This will not paint the book, its contents, its false sense of portraying things as a supposedly allied author would, or anything else it contained in a positive light. And that is all without me touching exactly how despicable the author is as a person, something my book club only learned after meeting for our halfway mark. Last time we don’t research authors first! Though this is the first time it’s ever been an issue, and we’re three years strong with a new book monthly. So that says enough on Miss Piper C.J.

To start, at no point was this book for bisexual women, transgender people, or even Hazbin Hotel or Crescent City fans. We were in a bar in Hell for one scene. What Hazbin Hotel influence in this overinflated novel gave them the idea to thusly make this book a twist on that show? And sure, there’s lots of species and lore tidbits about CC like things, but the mc makes it insufferably hard to care about these things when, even after she’s jumping realms, it’s all too unbelievable still! Not CC. And if you have a “bisexual” mc who gets drugged and, let’s be quite honest here, thrusted into as the man/demon/rªpist she loves beheads a goddess of fertility… just no. You’re not for the girls, the gays or anybody. And that’s not kink shaming or fantasy shaming either. That’s a fact. Let’s move on.

Marlow blatantly makes a mockery of all women that aren’t as perfect, rich, hot, egotistical and on and on as her. Then it’s not just women, it’s everyone. It’s every species. As much as she can whine and complain she’s so messed up, five moments later she’s thinking she’s the toughest, hottest person to ever strut her way into a completely horrid take on escorts and sex work in general. Blatantly a self-insert of a bad person/author as another bad person/author, Piper outdoes herself here. Marlow isn’t just an ex sex worker (who swears it’s not as bad and dangerous as it literally is!) she’s a well established author with bank to show for it. And if Piper or Marlow can write these novels, you, too reading this review should publish your own work unedited, unscreened and severely underdeveloped. Especially because Piper and Marlow are so unique… they only listen to trashy authors audiobooks so they can’t be blamed in anyway for plagiarism… this author wrote and published a Ciri X Yennefer The Witcher fanfic. How original and not at all gross!

Moving on from not specifically antagonizing Marlow, I did not care for her love interest. Mind that one of the last scenes between them was horrid, I just didn’t feel the yearning and love that was supposed to be there. Quite literally too much telling and not showing there. As much as I didn’t like Fauna, her relationship, though supposedly less flushed out in a by number grouping of pages, with Az was much easier to see and feel between the characters. And so many reviews mention smut fests and things of that sense between Marlow and Caliban… where? She had a more emotional time being near Caliban’s father than she did reuniting with him. She also felt more like she’d have a dynamic love interest in Silas. Not to say he was much better than her first demon lover.

Which brings me to my next point. So many of the men in this novel are revered or essentially redeemed for any wrongdoing just because they’re hot men. Silas seemingly betrays and tries to use Marlow against her will, looping her abusive mother in, that’s fine. A goddess of fertility wants to be in Marlow's future novels and Marlow lied saying she'd trade for a baby and signing the deal after being warned for 200 pages not to do that? Not fine. Murder spree. Because you can only have understanding conversations with male presenting gods, etc. A merman god (I don't know) gets more sincerity than three female goddesses. Over shitty business practices and Marlow not sincerely using her brain. Okay!

The story… how do I adequately express what it was when I’m not sure it ever knew where it was really going? The only overarching theme is finding Caliban. That gets done pretty near the end. And then it drags to a final fight that happens mostly off page between everyone but the mc. If Marlow hasn’t incited the war between up and down yet, then apparently she will now. Who really knows when the book ends with Fauna tormenting her as she’s still reeling from being drugged and assaulted and then comparing them to sunflowers? I wish this author had focused more on the overarching themes of potential schizophrenia and religious trauma than jumping through one mythical creature and story to the next as she pleased and calling it a novel about empowerment in looked down upon circles.

Anyone picking up the sequel, let me know how it goes. If you want to pick this book, good luck and please do proper research on the triggers that this book does contain. Piper’s own warning is not adequate, much like her writing.

[Mariena Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I stared down the barrel of the lesser of two evils: the flesh-and-blood disappointment of a human man, or a life trapped in my imagination with a fictional lover.”

That was the very first line, and from the very first page, I was crying. I don’t think I stopped crying until after the first few hundred pages. This book was incredibly, deeply personal for me. I saw my soul in damn near every word.

“It would be nice to love and be loved. It would never really god damn pleasant to have someone else make the coffee while I slept in.”

For a fantasy mythology book, I was not ready for the intense deep dive on depression and religion. Or exactly the way it feels to be in your late 20s, hyper independent, and trying to figure out if dating is even worth your time. I saw all of my own coping mechanisms verbalized and represented in a way that was so accurate it was often startling, and honestly humbling, to be so specifically seen.

“The world would never guess that my vivid imagination had slowly eroded me from the inside out as fantasy splashed over the cup, soaking my life.”

The first half of the book builds characterization, the second half builds the world, and I ate up EVERY word, sentence, paragraph. I was so invested in Marlow I forgot there was a plot. I wanted 70000 more pages, I couldn’t put it down, I was reading this while walking the streets of Croatia because I just couldn’t look away, even while abroad in Europe. This book WAS the sightseeing. It was raw, it was funny, the banter was incredible, it was HOT, it was traumatic.

“Am I going to be okay?” “You have no other choice.”

If you want a blurb, this is female adult Percy Jackson and it was DELICIOUS if you like mythology that gets a little darker. Real talk: this is very heavy on religious trauma, and if you are involved in church and cannot separate other experiences without hurting your faith, this one isn’t for you. But god it was really, really for me.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this book. This was a once in a lifetime for me. From creating love in your head because you know it’ll never be that good in real life, to coping with an imagination so vivid it can steal time away from reality, to let’s be sunflowers….fuck I’m crying again. 100000/10 read for me

[Caitlin_ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a mythological soup. The writing style is overly chaotic. Also the “girl power” vibes and Fauna’s character gave me a headache. Too much. It was just doing too much.


✨ Reread

I don’t remember a lick about this other than I was afraid the blue, sprayed-edges would stain my fingers 😭

Angels x demons…and fae…which I totally forgot about.

[amarachireads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay paranormal romance. I think the book easy to read, fast paced with interesting multi dimensional characters. So the plot is about a human girl who has been seeing someone in her room that no one else sees. She kinda starts falling in love with him when she realizes that he’s a demon/ prince of hell. The romance is cute, the stakes were high and there is a lot of religious mythology about demons, angels, gods along with the religious trauma and questioning the fmc faces. This was a solid first book, the characters and plot were okay and I think it had potential. Thanks to the publisher for this alc for an honest review.

Read if you like:
- Paranormal romance
- Religion mythology
- Demons/angels
- Very modern world
- Queer characters