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Monsters of Faery #1
Captured by the Fae Beast
I never intended to become a princess. Or make a deal with a monster.
Lost in the wilderness, I thought the handsome stranger was my salvation—until I looked into the eyes of a beast. They say not to bargain with the fae, but there was no other choice.
The deadly prince of Stag Court claims I belong to him. I only have a year and a day to convince him to let me go before I'm his forever. He's without mercy, known as a ruthless killer. Yet he protects me. Defends me. Tells me his secrets. In front of the Court, he's the Beast, but behind closed doors he gives me the chance to choose him, or not.
The fae Court is a dangerous place, and the prince isn't the only terror lurking in the shadows. But I'm stronger than his enemies give me credit for. Together, he and I might be each other's salvation . . . or ruin.
Captured by the Fae Beast is a complete story loosely inspired by the story of Hades and Persephone, with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. This enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance features a possessive male lead and the sunshine mortal who can tame him.
Contains mature themes.
Lost in the wilderness, I thought the handsome stranger was my salvation—until I looked into the eyes of a beast. They say not to bargain with the fae, but there was no other choice.
The deadly prince of Stag Court claims I belong to him. I only have a year and a day to convince him to let me go before I'm his forever. He's without mercy, known as a ruthless killer. Yet he protects me. Defends me. Tells me his secrets. In front of the Court, he's the Beast, but behind closed doors he gives me the chance to choose him, or not.
The fae Court is a dangerous place, and the prince isn't the only terror lurking in the shadows. But I'm stronger than his enemies give me credit for. Together, he and I might be each other's salvation . . . or ruin.
Captured by the Fae Beast is a complete story loosely inspired by the story of Hades and Persephone, with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. This enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance features a possessive male lead and the sunshine mortal who can tame him.
Contains mature themes.
Audible Audio
First published October 18, 2022
About the author
Mallory Dunlin
19 books494 followersMallory Dunlin is a certified monster lover who cut her reader eyeteeth on fantasy epics. She combines her reading passions into writing romantasy novels with powerful women and traumatized, dangerous, non-human male leads.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 572 reviews
April 2, 2023
DNF @43%
I think this was intended as a more profound and realistic take on the magical fae and their fates bonds, but it was a bunch of words too many for starters, with no real magic of connection or romance between the leads.
Rationalisations are good even in romance storytelling but this tried so hard to be better and different that it failed spectacularly because it stripped away the essence of emotion and interest the reader will need to get invested.
It was bad in my opinion and it’s a shame that a lot of carefully constructed paragraphs and chapters (which I found boring and too long) were wasted on this. I believe the author does have a good grip on writing just not on storytelling or story building.
I think this was intended as a more profound and realistic take on the magical fae and their fates bonds, but it was a bunch of words too many for starters, with no real magic of connection or romance between the leads.
Rationalisations are good even in romance storytelling but this tried so hard to be better and different that it failed spectacularly because it stripped away the essence of emotion and interest the reader will need to get invested.
It was bad in my opinion and it’s a shame that a lot of carefully constructed paragraphs and chapters (which I found boring and too long) were wasted on this. I believe the author does have a good grip on writing just not on storytelling or story building.
March 6, 2023
This book had so much potential that was WASTED and I am livid. So much could have been cut out, so much unnecessary back and forth and inner monologue of the FMC.
It’s about the period of a year and a day and reading it felt like it took a whole ass year and a day.
Would have been better as a dual POV. MMC was perfect.
I rage finished it because I had to know what happened but I am so mad at it and myself for being weak.
It’s about the period of a year and a day and reading it felt like it took a whole ass year and a day.
Would have been better as a dual POV. MMC was perfect.
I rage finished it because I had to know what happened but I am so mad at it and myself for being weak.
December 20, 2022
Spice level 🌶🌶🌶
There’s sexual tension/ attraction between our main characters.
The story dragged, I kinda skipped pages throughout the book.
The FMC was annoying, her dialogue was stupid and juvenile. She said “yeppers” at one point… 🙄
I think the only thing I loved about this book was the MMC, he’s like a dragon wolf hybrid. I think the overall story could have benefited from a dual POV.
There’s sexual tension/ attraction between our main characters.
The story dragged, I kinda skipped pages throughout the book.
The FMC was annoying, her dialogue was stupid and juvenile. She said “yeppers” at one point… 🙄
I think the only thing I loved about this book was the MMC, he’s like a dragon wolf hybrid. I think the overall story could have benefited from a dual POV.
August 17, 2023
I am at 57% and I really am frustrated by Leah. She seems to feel no guilt for the fact that Dain was literally tortured at the court of mercy just to "become a better man for her". Why did she even let him go?
As soon as she realized what he was willing to do, she should have gone with him, or stopped him entirely, or intervened on his behalf. She takes him for granted and it's really hard to keep reading when she refuses to give him a chance.
Edit: I finished it. I was mildly entertained by this book, but it was really cringe a ton of the time. And Leah just forgets about her family when she accepts the bond.
And then remembers them and is like "oh. Cool, I didn't have to be miserable this whole time, I can have the best of both worlds." Like, why did no one have this idea sooner in the book?
I am eternally frustrated by Leah and occasionally by Dain being in utter disbelief about everything Leah does and says.
As soon as she realized what he was willing to do, she should have gone with him, or stopped him entirely, or intervened on his behalf. She takes him for granted and it's really hard to keep reading when she refuses to give him a chance.
Edit: I finished it. I was mildly entertained by this book, but it was really cringe a ton of the time. And Leah just forgets about her family when she accepts the bond.
And then remembers them and is like "oh. Cool, I didn't have to be miserable this whole time, I can have the best of both worlds." Like, why did no one have this idea sooner in the book?
I am eternally frustrated by Leah and occasionally by Dain being in utter disbelief about everything Leah does and says.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2023
I was really trying to buy into the author's lies about how the main character mourns in her own way. But seriously? She watched someone she loved die gruesomely, then wandered lost and dying for 6 days (in what felt like torture porn, why did it need to be described like that!?), and within 2 days she's flirting. Coupled with her proudly mentioning she's a defense contractor over and over again. Ew.
Just. Ew. This MC is just a thinky veiled psychopath. It's giving male gaze and it's gross. No.
Just. Ew. This MC is just a thinky veiled psychopath. It's giving male gaze and it's gross. No.
January 24, 2024
This book is truly a series of ups and downs in terms of enjoyment and storytelling. I want to preface that this book manages to feel so much longer than it actually is, which I’m not sure is a positive or negative. Our FMC, Leah, has to spend a year and a day in the world of Faery and I genuinely felt like I was reading this book for a year and a day.
The book opens with a prologue chapter in the pov of our MMC, Dain, which establishes a basic foundation for his character. Unfortunately, we never get to read in his pov again, which is SUCH a let down. Dain is easily the highlight of this story and carries a real depth to his character. He has personality, fears, aspirations, passions, flaws and so much more. Most of all, he develops across this story in a way that feels realistic.
But before we can get to know Dain better or explore the world he lives in, we get to know Leah…or we’re supposed to. My biggest gripe with this story starts with an issue at the very beginning: Leah has no motive. Before entering Faery, we gain no insight into what she truly desires. Her prior life seems grand-an interesting job, unique hobbies, a nice boyfriend. She has it all. There’s no setup for her character that we can see be developed by the events of the story as her entire character serves as a means to develop Dain. While she has an impact on Dain’s original flaws and weaknesses, Dain does little to impact the Leah we already know at the start of the story, making her a generally weak character. Also we spend an abysmal couple chapters reading about Leah’s near-death experience in the wilderness. This would be fine in any other circumstance. But here we know there’s no urgency or suspense because we know she’ll end up in Faery. If I recall correctly, not even on the cusp of death do we get any insight into something that could be future motive. It’s not until she ends up in the Stag Court that she develops a motive of escaping and seeing her family again. But that is merely the plot shaping character and not the other way around.
A strong romantic plot should have us see the ways in which a connection between characters changes each of them for better and/or worse. There’s no lessons for Leah to learn because she’s never seen in a poor light by anyone except a queen that we are meant to despise. Every other character virtually believes her to be incredible or is proven wrong in time. If Leah had some sense of flaw, it could have been attended to in tandem with Dain’s and the two could have grown more authentically. Instead, we see Dain time and time again pledge himself to be better for a character that doesn’t need to change herself. It makes her unlikeable and the one-off pop culture references and occasional weird lines don’t help her case (though the humor is a matter of personal taste albeit not mine). The smut is well written and the tension leading to those first few instances is incredible.
As for the other elements of the book, the side characters are mostly forgettable aside from Dain’s two friends and Leah’s “servant” (This role being associated with the only African character in this story rubbed me a bit wrong especially because she has little agency in the story but that’s a much broader conversation). The antagonist of the story, the Queen/Dain’s mother, is a twist villain from someone who’s already known as the villain so it’s a little underwhelming. She sort of fades away from the middle of the plot and kind of just reappears when she’s needed and I didn’t find myself intrigued by her. Much of the plot suffers from being strictly in Leah’s pov and the long tangents that tend to come from her perspective. I found myself skimming a few times simply because it was just so much and not everything was relevant. Lastly, the epilogue feels like a patch for the ONE motive Leah had and it barely seems like she cares about her family or her dead boyfriend. Like I love grumpy fae boys as much as the next person but I would be eternally sickened by the idea of my family mourning me for over a year and the grief of my boyfriend that apparently I had no issues with.
The book opens with a prologue chapter in the pov of our MMC, Dain, which establishes a basic foundation for his character. Unfortunately, we never get to read in his pov again, which is SUCH a let down. Dain is easily the highlight of this story and carries a real depth to his character. He has personality, fears, aspirations, passions, flaws and so much more. Most of all, he develops across this story in a way that feels realistic.
But before we can get to know Dain better or explore the world he lives in, we get to know Leah…or we’re supposed to. My biggest gripe with this story starts with an issue at the very beginning: Leah has no motive. Before entering Faery, we gain no insight into what she truly desires. Her prior life seems grand-an interesting job, unique hobbies, a nice boyfriend. She has it all. There’s no setup for her character that we can see be developed by the events of the story as her entire character serves as a means to develop Dain. While she has an impact on Dain’s original flaws and weaknesses, Dain does little to impact the Leah we already know at the start of the story, making her a generally weak character. Also we spend an abysmal couple chapters reading about Leah’s near-death experience in the wilderness. This would be fine in any other circumstance. But here we know there’s no urgency or suspense because we know she’ll end up in Faery. If I recall correctly, not even on the cusp of death do we get any insight into something that could be future motive. It’s not until she ends up in the Stag Court that she develops a motive of escaping and seeing her family again. But that is merely the plot shaping character and not the other way around.
A strong romantic plot should have us see the ways in which a connection between characters changes each of them for better and/or worse. There’s no lessons for Leah to learn because she’s never seen in a poor light by anyone except a queen that we are meant to despise. Every other character virtually believes her to be incredible or is proven wrong in time. If Leah had some sense of flaw, it could have been attended to in tandem with Dain’s and the two could have grown more authentically. Instead, we see Dain time and time again pledge himself to be better for a character that doesn’t need to change herself. It makes her unlikeable and the one-off pop culture references and occasional weird lines don’t help her case (though the humor is a matter of personal taste albeit not mine). The smut is well written and the tension leading to those first few instances is incredible.
As for the other elements of the book, the side characters are mostly forgettable aside from Dain’s two friends and Leah’s “servant” (This role being associated with the only African character in this story rubbed me a bit wrong especially because she has little agency in the story but that’s a much broader conversation). The antagonist of the story, the Queen/Dain’s mother, is a twist villain from someone who’s already known as the villain so it’s a little underwhelming. She sort of fades away from the middle of the plot and kind of just reappears when she’s needed and I didn’t find myself intrigued by her. Much of the plot suffers from being strictly in Leah’s pov and the long tangents that tend to come from her perspective. I found myself skimming a few times simply because it was just so much and not everything was relevant. Lastly, the epilogue feels like a patch for the ONE motive Leah had and it barely seems like she cares about her family or her dead boyfriend. Like I love grumpy fae boys as much as the next person but I would be eternally sickened by the idea of my family mourning me for over a year and the grief of my boyfriend that apparently I had no issues with.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2025
At times, this book made me sigh with impatience. At other times, it made me feel embarrassed for everyone. At other times still, this book horrified me. And those really put a damper on the times when I could see true potential in the romantasy that might have been.
Leah Escarra is a programmer for a military defense contractor, who suffers a sudden tragedy while rock climbing in Yosemite. A cliff face shears off, crushing her boyfriend and nearly taking Leah with it. Alone and without supplies, Leah wanders broken and bleeding in the wilderness for days, until she collapses. Near death, she is spotted by three bizarrely beautiful men. But one man's face seems intensely wrong to her. And somehow, she knows his name is Dain.
Saved by the three fae--Crown Prince Dain and his (only) friends Alluin and Zhiolas--Leah wakes in the Stag Court to discover that she is bound, for a year and a day, to her fae soulmate. During that time, Leah and Dain can either find "balance" (as nemeses, platonic friends, lovers, or trueloves), or they can drift apart altogether, freeing Leah to return to mortal Earth. Unable to grieve her dead boyfriend, or to say goodbye to her loving parents and autistic(?) younger brother, Leah is determined to resist the soulmate bond and go home. As she observes the prince at court, she learns that the "Beast of Phazikai" is hated by his own kingdom--especially by his own mother, the queen. But where the court sees a monster, Leah sees a man who has suffered and sacrificed alone for too long. She resolves to be a friend to the beastly prince, and to show him a life filled with something other than pain, anger, and revenge. In public, she must pretend to be, at best, undecided, or else Leah will become the court's new favorite way of tormenting Dain.
To start with the good news, I found the reviled beast prince to be a decent take on the morally gray hero, reminiscent of Max in Daughter of No Worlds, for his post-war-trauma and self-loathing, and Cardan in The Cruel Prince, in which the beastly prince is beastly because he has been deeply hurt and betrayed for no other reason than the accident of his birth. (Also, tails.) Like Cardan, Dain is instantly infatuated with Leah and tries hard not to be hurt by her inability to return his feelings. It was nice, then, to build the strength of their relationship on someone, at last, seeing Dain for Dain. Leah takes a soft approach, bringing out tenderness rather than violence in the fae warriors around her; at least, that's sort of where the book wants to take us, and in that regard, I read on with some optimism despite some early red flags. (It fails spectacularly.)
Leah's soul-bound sensibilities help her cut right to the chase: she finds Dain beautiful and believes in him, almost from the very beginning. This quick shift from "enemy" to friend contributes two problems. First, it dissolves narrative tension, adding to the enormous pacing problems of this book (reviewers comment frequently that this short book feels terribly long, and they're right). Dain and Leah spend the entire time edging the friends/lovers boundary repeatedly. This should be because Leah struggles to get the true measure of Dain's character, and vice versa; but such is not the case: both have already decided they like each other, and nothing happens to shake that near-immediate trust, apart from when Dain executes two fae who tried to assassinate them both, and Leah decides that killing them was wrong.
Which brings me to the second fallout from having Leah admire and believe in Dain so quickly. Because she has a compassion for the broken beast, Leah is positioned as our story's moral center. And truly, we could not pin our ethical sensibilities on a worse character. Dain commits to being a man who deserves her love. This means that when she rails against his decision to enact state-sanctioned executions of criminals (which, yuck, but to Leah, more yuck than the massacre of a city of unarmed citizens), Dain to seeks redemption by risking his own life and, ultimately, sacrificing his dignity and safety. He gets publicly tortured and humiliated for weeks, exposing his vulnerabilities to his enemies. Leah appears to think this is a perfectly reasonable form of penance. She doesn't even travel with him on his journey into enemy territory. She just sleeps in his bed and enjoys his large bathroom.
Pausing on Leah's moral depravity, it's super unclear what stands in the way of Dain and Leah's HEA for so long. At first it's Leah's interest in going home to her family. But she gets over the dead boyfriend in a hurry (don't worry, she sends his parents a fucking letter to tell them their son was crushed to death, so it's all good) and she rarely thinks about her parents or her brother at all. Beyond that, the fae actually do come and go from the mortal world, so why couldn't a truelove-bonded Leah? She seems content to wait out her year and a day, but regardless of the balancing of their soulmate bond, there is no reason why she wouldn't be able to see her family again, no matter what she chooses. So, why does she resist her clear feelings for Dain, even after they cross the line from friends to lovers, and back again, multiple times?
Turns out, it's because Leah wants Dain to prove himself worthy of her truelove bond. After Dain changes the way he uses and displays his body for her, then submits to torture for her, then hides and denies his feelings to avoid pushing her to make a decision, she waits for "one more thing" before she'll choose to actually love him--as though love is a simple conscious election. We get it, agency. But that's not how love works, and Leah endlessly auditioning Dain, after she's already decided he's a good guy who loves her, seems cruel. That final, one thing she waits for, apparently, is Dain's greatest secret, which his friends are fae-promised to keep for him. The secret (which I'll spoil, because it's so dumb) is that the beast turns into...a somewhat bigger beast on full moons. Wow. It's almost as disappointing as the discovery that the Big Baddie undermining Dain's kingdom is exactly who you think it is from the 10% mark onward.
Okay, so the plot doesn't have a lot of structural integrity. And so what? It's a self-published romantasy, and I've had fun switching off my analytic brain to enjoy the ride before. So, why didn't I this time?
Let me count the reasons, from least to most horrifying:
1. The SASSY and PERKY heroine. Don't get me wrong, I want a protagonist with a personality. But the way that Leah is cobbled together actually embarrassed me. She is a grown-ass woman who acts like a bratty teenager (e.g., "Poor scawy Cwown Pwince Dain" and "Nothing, babey [sic]. Head empty, no thoughts. Just macking on the Beast of Phazikai for funsies" and "yepperdoodles," she says, and I died of embarrassment). Which, like, it's fine to have a kooky heroine, even if it's not my bag. But after months of cracking wise and doing nothing of substance, don't expect me to believe that goofball Leah has the gravitas to command a kingdom at a moment's notice. Especially when she's never done anything to earn respect from the fae, aside from drunkenly telling lame stories to Dain's two friends, which they apparently find super hilarious. (Sorry, but the humblebrag story about climbing a crane while being scared of rats is not the knee-slapper you think it is, Leah.) Yes, I want a funny, bold, compassionate, confident female protagonist, and yes, female characters are given much narrower paths to tread than male characters, but I am not in the least charmed by Leah just because she tells me she's charming. Speaking of which...
2. The telling and not showing. Given the difficulty I had fully appreciating the protagonist, I share many other reviewers' disappointment that the entirety of the action in this book is delivered through Leah's inner monologue. We are "shown" some of the most important scenes either in brief summary, or not at all. For example, for the year she's in court, Leah attends revels. However, apart from her rare interactions with Dain, we are shown nothing of what goes on there. As a princess eventually takes on an important leadership role, this is a totally squandered opportunity to see how she builds a place for herself in this unfamiliar world. We are told in hindsight that she dances for hours, but we never know with whom, or what they discuss. At one point, she overhears courtiers insulting her, and Dain reacts, but we aren't even told what they say. Later, Dain (performing for the public) "made cutting comments" about Leah, which she sobs about, but we never know what he said or why it hurt her so much. This absence of dialogue and on-page action just felt so lazy, as though the author couldn't fully imagine what characters might say and do. (She does, however, have a lot of imaginative power for Dain's genitalia.)
3. The racism. Cool, we get a Nigerian human woman to dress, bathe, and feed Leah, and Leah's inner monologue thinks of her as "her helper" (see? she didn't say servant! she's THE HELP). Her name, by the way, is actually Kamharida. As if to make things right, Kamharida scolds Leah for making their conversations all about herself, and we're informed (by Leah, so taken with a measure of suspicion) that they become "friends." To show her appreciation for her new friend, Leah orders someone else to steal a single photo of Kamharida's lost human family, including the new woman who has replaced her as a wife and step-mom. How sweet. Is it any wonder I struggle to be charmed by Leah?
4. The pro-military apologism. The worst flaw of all (to me) is the inexcusable choice to have our protagonist's never-ending inner monologue wax on about the necessities of the military massacre of civilians. Setting aside the nonsense that Leah's career as a programmer for a defense contractor qualifies her to lead preparations for an assault on the palace, it was disturbing to watch a character who applauds the hero for spending months being publicly tortured and humiliated in order to prevent a war, turn around and start scattering frag grenades and napalm, stealing rocket launchers, commandeering private homes, and declaring martial law because "Sometimes the best way to get shit done is to stop arguing about it, and just fucking do it. Disband the senate, lock up the politicians, whatever." Whoa, there, Anakin Skywalker. When she gets around to defending the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, my impatience turned to rage, and I committed to finishing the book simply so I could justify writing this review. (Remember, Leah is our moral compass!)
Of course we needed to confront the fact that Dain made an impossible choice in a previous war, as do all military leaders. He chose to wipe out a city of civilians in favor of preventing (perhaps) a greater number of deaths among his own people. Is it the right choice? Does it make him a bad person? Is it better that he did the killing himself, rather than asking others to do it for him? Should Leah fall for a man who would make such choices? These are good questions, and I don't think they need to have easy, or any, answers. They certainly don't need Leah's instant seal of moral approval, which is precisely what happens: in the trolley dilemma, Dain chose the "lesser" impact, ergo, he's a good guy. (But not when he legally executes two would-be assassins--that is bad, according to Leah, because it's about revenge, not saving lives. And what Leah says, goes.)
By the end, Leah is smugly proud that they ended the latest war via "a third way": killing Dain's mother, a vengeful rape victim (I don't even have the energy to process that, but again: revenge against enemies = bad, killing to prevent more war = good). For Leah, this is apparently a happy third option to the trolley dilemma because it doesn't require Dain to choose between the good of the many over the good of the one. But this "third way" framing only became an option when "the one" in harm's way is...Leah. So yeah, girl, applaud yourself for saving...yourself. Especially after supporting Dain's choice to sacrifice himself to prove he's a good man for you. Enjoy your monarchic life with your wolf-dragon and his Jacob's ladder.
Leah Escarra is a programmer for a military defense contractor, who suffers a sudden tragedy while rock climbing in Yosemite. A cliff face shears off, crushing her boyfriend and nearly taking Leah with it. Alone and without supplies, Leah wanders broken and bleeding in the wilderness for days, until she collapses. Near death, she is spotted by three bizarrely beautiful men. But one man's face seems intensely wrong to her. And somehow, she knows his name is Dain.
Saved by the three fae--Crown Prince Dain and his (only) friends Alluin and Zhiolas--Leah wakes in the Stag Court to discover that she is bound, for a year and a day, to her fae soulmate. During that time, Leah and Dain can either find "balance" (as nemeses, platonic friends, lovers, or trueloves), or they can drift apart altogether, freeing Leah to return to mortal Earth. Unable to grieve her dead boyfriend, or to say goodbye to her loving parents and autistic(?) younger brother, Leah is determined to resist the soulmate bond and go home. As she observes the prince at court, she learns that the "Beast of Phazikai" is hated by his own kingdom--especially by his own mother, the queen. But where the court sees a monster, Leah sees a man who has suffered and sacrificed alone for too long. She resolves to be a friend to the beastly prince, and to show him a life filled with something other than pain, anger, and revenge. In public, she must pretend to be, at best, undecided, or else Leah will become the court's new favorite way of tormenting Dain.
To start with the good news, I found the reviled beast prince to be a decent take on the morally gray hero, reminiscent of Max in Daughter of No Worlds, for his post-war-trauma and self-loathing, and Cardan in The Cruel Prince, in which the beastly prince is beastly because he has been deeply hurt and betrayed for no other reason than the accident of his birth. (Also, tails.) Like Cardan, Dain is instantly infatuated with Leah and tries hard not to be hurt by her inability to return his feelings. It was nice, then, to build the strength of their relationship on someone, at last, seeing Dain for Dain. Leah takes a soft approach, bringing out tenderness rather than violence in the fae warriors around her; at least, that's sort of where the book wants to take us, and in that regard, I read on with some optimism despite some early red flags. (It fails spectacularly.)
Leah's soul-bound sensibilities help her cut right to the chase: she finds Dain beautiful and believes in him, almost from the very beginning. This quick shift from "enemy" to friend contributes two problems. First, it dissolves narrative tension, adding to the enormous pacing problems of this book (reviewers comment frequently that this short book feels terribly long, and they're right). Dain and Leah spend the entire time edging the friends/lovers boundary repeatedly. This should be because Leah struggles to get the true measure of Dain's character, and vice versa; but such is not the case: both have already decided they like each other, and nothing happens to shake that near-immediate trust, apart from when Dain executes two fae who tried to assassinate them both, and Leah decides that killing them was wrong.
Which brings me to the second fallout from having Leah admire and believe in Dain so quickly. Because she has a compassion for the broken beast, Leah is positioned as our story's moral center. And truly, we could not pin our ethical sensibilities on a worse character. Dain commits to being a man who deserves her love. This means that when she rails against his decision to enact state-sanctioned executions of criminals (which, yuck, but to Leah, more yuck than the massacre of a city of unarmed citizens), Dain to seeks redemption by risking his own life and, ultimately, sacrificing his dignity and safety. He gets publicly tortured and humiliated for weeks, exposing his vulnerabilities to his enemies. Leah appears to think this is a perfectly reasonable form of penance. She doesn't even travel with him on his journey into enemy territory. She just sleeps in his bed and enjoys his large bathroom.
Pausing on Leah's moral depravity, it's super unclear what stands in the way of Dain and Leah's HEA for so long. At first it's Leah's interest in going home to her family. But she gets over the dead boyfriend in a hurry (don't worry, she sends his parents a fucking letter to tell them their son was crushed to death, so it's all good) and she rarely thinks about her parents or her brother at all. Beyond that, the fae actually do come and go from the mortal world, so why couldn't a truelove-bonded Leah? She seems content to wait out her year and a day, but regardless of the balancing of their soulmate bond, there is no reason why she wouldn't be able to see her family again, no matter what she chooses. So, why does she resist her clear feelings for Dain, even after they cross the line from friends to lovers, and back again, multiple times?
Turns out, it's because Leah wants Dain to prove himself worthy of her truelove bond. After Dain changes the way he uses and displays his body for her, then submits to torture for her, then hides and denies his feelings to avoid pushing her to make a decision, she waits for "one more thing" before she'll choose to actually love him--as though love is a simple conscious election. We get it, agency. But that's not how love works, and Leah endlessly auditioning Dain, after she's already decided he's a good guy who loves her, seems cruel. That final, one thing she waits for, apparently, is Dain's greatest secret, which his friends are fae-promised to keep for him. The secret (which I'll spoil, because it's so dumb) is that the beast turns into...a somewhat bigger beast on full moons. Wow. It's almost as disappointing as the discovery that the Big Baddie undermining Dain's kingdom is exactly who you think it is from the 10% mark onward.
Okay, so the plot doesn't have a lot of structural integrity. And so what? It's a self-published romantasy, and I've had fun switching off my analytic brain to enjoy the ride before. So, why didn't I this time?
Let me count the reasons, from least to most horrifying:
1. The SASSY and PERKY heroine. Don't get me wrong, I want a protagonist with a personality. But the way that Leah is cobbled together actually embarrassed me. She is a grown-ass woman who acts like a bratty teenager (e.g., "Poor scawy Cwown Pwince Dain" and "Nothing, babey [sic]. Head empty, no thoughts. Just macking on the Beast of Phazikai for funsies" and "yepperdoodles," she says, and I died of embarrassment). Which, like, it's fine to have a kooky heroine, even if it's not my bag. But after months of cracking wise and doing nothing of substance, don't expect me to believe that goofball Leah has the gravitas to command a kingdom at a moment's notice. Especially when she's never done anything to earn respect from the fae, aside from drunkenly telling lame stories to Dain's two friends, which they apparently find super hilarious. (Sorry, but the humblebrag story about climbing a crane while being scared of rats is not the knee-slapper you think it is, Leah.) Yes, I want a funny, bold, compassionate, confident female protagonist, and yes, female characters are given much narrower paths to tread than male characters, but I am not in the least charmed by Leah just because she tells me she's charming. Speaking of which...
2. The telling and not showing. Given the difficulty I had fully appreciating the protagonist, I share many other reviewers' disappointment that the entirety of the action in this book is delivered through Leah's inner monologue. We are "shown" some of the most important scenes either in brief summary, or not at all. For example, for the year she's in court, Leah attends revels. However, apart from her rare interactions with Dain, we are shown nothing of what goes on there. As a princess eventually takes on an important leadership role, this is a totally squandered opportunity to see how she builds a place for herself in this unfamiliar world. We are told in hindsight that she dances for hours, but we never know with whom, or what they discuss. At one point, she overhears courtiers insulting her, and Dain reacts, but we aren't even told what they say. Later, Dain (performing for the public) "made cutting comments" about Leah, which she sobs about, but we never know what he said or why it hurt her so much. This absence of dialogue and on-page action just felt so lazy, as though the author couldn't fully imagine what characters might say and do. (She does, however, have a lot of imaginative power for Dain's genitalia.)
3. The racism. Cool, we get a Nigerian human woman to dress, bathe, and feed Leah, and Leah's inner monologue thinks of her as "her helper" (see? she didn't say servant! she's THE HELP). Her name, by the way, is actually Kamharida. As if to make things right, Kamharida scolds Leah for making their conversations all about herself, and we're informed (by Leah, so taken with a measure of suspicion) that they become "friends." To show her appreciation for her new friend, Leah orders someone else to steal a single photo of Kamharida's lost human family, including the new woman who has replaced her as a wife and step-mom. How sweet. Is it any wonder I struggle to be charmed by Leah?
4. The pro-military apologism. The worst flaw of all (to me) is the inexcusable choice to have our protagonist's never-ending inner monologue wax on about the necessities of the military massacre of civilians. Setting aside the nonsense that Leah's career as a programmer for a defense contractor qualifies her to lead preparations for an assault on the palace, it was disturbing to watch a character who applauds the hero for spending months being publicly tortured and humiliated in order to prevent a war, turn around and start scattering frag grenades and napalm, stealing rocket launchers, commandeering private homes, and declaring martial law because "Sometimes the best way to get shit done is to stop arguing about it, and just fucking do it. Disband the senate, lock up the politicians, whatever." Whoa, there, Anakin Skywalker. When she gets around to defending the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, my impatience turned to rage, and I committed to finishing the book simply so I could justify writing this review. (Remember, Leah is our moral compass!)
Of course we needed to confront the fact that Dain made an impossible choice in a previous war, as do all military leaders. He chose to wipe out a city of civilians in favor of preventing (perhaps) a greater number of deaths among his own people. Is it the right choice? Does it make him a bad person? Is it better that he did the killing himself, rather than asking others to do it for him? Should Leah fall for a man who would make such choices? These are good questions, and I don't think they need to have easy, or any, answers. They certainly don't need Leah's instant seal of moral approval, which is precisely what happens: in the trolley dilemma, Dain chose the "lesser" impact, ergo, he's a good guy. (But not when he legally executes two would-be assassins--that is bad, according to Leah, because it's about revenge, not saving lives. And what Leah says, goes.)
By the end, Leah is smugly proud that they ended the latest war via "a third way": killing Dain's mother, a vengeful rape victim (I don't even have the energy to process that, but again: revenge against enemies = bad, killing to prevent more war = good). For Leah, this is apparently a happy third option to the trolley dilemma because it doesn't require Dain to choose between the good of the many over the good of the one. But this "third way" framing only became an option when "the one" in harm's way is...Leah. So yeah, girl, applaud yourself for saving...yourself. Especially after supporting Dain's choice to sacrifice himself to prove he's a good man for you. Enjoy your monarchic life with your wolf-dragon and his Jacob's ladder.
July 6, 2024
Ended up skimming the last 50%, this one was not a winner for me. I hated the FMC and her non-stop monologuing and over-rationalizing was so tedious. Maybe I missed something but the act she gets so upset at the MMC about seemed like justified revenge and she acts like it’s some terrible war crime? And then she just lets him go get tortured? WTF? Honestly she sucks. She seems totally vanilla and boring and I did not feel any heat between them.
June 5, 2024
Dnf at 19%
The book started off descriptive and gripping, and I was very immersed. Then it took a left turn into confusing rationalizations by the FMC, and I just could not connect with her or get on board with main couple as a romance pairing.
The book started off descriptive and gripping, and I was very immersed. Then it took a left turn into confusing rationalizations by the FMC, and I just could not connect with her or get on board with main couple as a romance pairing.
October 30, 2024
4.75 very emotionally mature relationship
April 5, 2023
I liked this I was charmed by it, and despite all of my notes that follow I thought the leads have chemistry, (sort of) and I feel like this is a true enemies to friends to lovers which I enjoyed. There were moments in the story where I was invested in the mystery and the wider court plot, the magic is pretty cool I did like that it’s kind of the medieval-court vibe you’d expect from Fae story but they still use technology (napalm, shotguns, photos, clothing) from the mortal world.
So let’s get into it. We spend a lot of time in the brain of the FMC and her inner monologues start to feel almost too perfect. They’re almost always have the most perfect, gentle-parenting-esque, therapy-workshopped answer to understand and communicate with Dain. I felt like there was very little turmoil, very little confusion or even defensiveness in the time when she initially meets him and has to figure out how to navigate his anger.
She spends a lot of the book conflicted about falling in love with Dain b/c doing so will trigger a forever soul bonding to him for infinity time and she’ll never seeing her family again. But it felt like inconsistent conflict, her clear horniness/growing affection for Dain are more strongly developed than her repeated claims of split allegiance. There’s a lot of page time given to their friendship which is charming and they have great chemistry in some ways but then every 5 chapters she spends a bunch of time thinking, oh but how could I give up my family ?!etc
This is a slow burn, generally built upon the FMC wanting to avoid the above mentioned soulbond. Again there’s a lot of inner monologue time spent where she feels conflicted about this but then in action she turns around and openly flirts/hits on/ touches MMC, making passes at him when it seems very clear that wants more then friendship. Maybe it’s a personal preference but to me this doesn’t seem like behavior between even very close platonic friends. The set up in the story to this point allows for a range of soulmate level relationships both affection and antagonistic, but it does not point to the possibility of soulmate level friends with benefits, soulmate level situationship??
When finally the FMC realizes that she’s been leading the MMC on, saying she doesn’t want to be more than friends but wants to kiss etc (??) and that this is very hurtful to him, it’s been a good 60% of the story, and i as reader have long since started to feel that the FMCs cluelessness is bordering on cruelty
It seems like the story could easily be structured to not include the dead boyfriend and handle the question of abandoning your family differently because in the end she’s able to have a both a balanced soulbond with Dain and a reunion with her family. Her letter to her family was a surprising weak point, a bit of a hand wave IMO. Oh don’t worry family I disappeared in the woods but then an off grid mountain man rescued me and then we fell in love. If I got that letter I would not believe it for a second, think my loved one had fallen for a cult of somethig.
Dain, as MMC, was charming, a gruff angry beast type who ends up super-pining for the fmc for most of the book. I started to feel bad for him the longer this dynamic went on. I like that his physical form is pretty monstrous, two sets of arms, two tails, talons feet.
I don’t actually like dual POV most of the time but this might have been a story that could have used it.
So let’s get into it. We spend a lot of time in the brain of the FMC and her inner monologues start to feel almost too perfect. They’re almost always have the most perfect, gentle-parenting-esque, therapy-workshopped answer to understand and communicate with Dain. I felt like there was very little turmoil, very little confusion or even defensiveness in the time when she initially meets him and has to figure out how to navigate his anger.
She spends a lot of the book conflicted about falling in love with Dain b/c doing so will trigger a forever soul bonding to him for infinity time and she’ll never seeing her family again. But it felt like inconsistent conflict, her clear horniness/growing affection for Dain are more strongly developed than her repeated claims of split allegiance. There’s a lot of page time given to their friendship which is charming and they have great chemistry in some ways but then every 5 chapters she spends a bunch of time thinking, oh but how could I give up my family ?!etc
This is a slow burn, generally built upon the FMC wanting to avoid the above mentioned soulbond. Again there’s a lot of inner monologue time spent where she feels conflicted about this but then in action she turns around and openly flirts/hits on/ touches MMC, making passes at him when it seems very clear that wants more then friendship. Maybe it’s a personal preference but to me this doesn’t seem like behavior between even very close platonic friends. The set up in the story to this point allows for a range of soulmate level relationships both affection and antagonistic, but it does not point to the possibility of soulmate level friends with benefits, soulmate level situationship??
When finally the FMC realizes that she’s been leading the MMC on, saying she doesn’t want to be more than friends but wants to kiss etc (??) and that this is very hurtful to him, it’s been a good 60% of the story, and i as reader have long since started to feel that the FMCs cluelessness is bordering on cruelty
It seems like the story could easily be structured to not include the dead boyfriend and handle the question of abandoning your family differently because in the end she’s able to have a both a balanced soulbond with Dain and a reunion with her family. Her letter to her family was a surprising weak point, a bit of a hand wave IMO. Oh don’t worry family I disappeared in the woods but then an off grid mountain man rescued me and then we fell in love. If I got that letter I would not believe it for a second, think my loved one had fallen for a cult of somethig.
Dain, as MMC, was charming, a gruff angry beast type who ends up super-pining for the fmc for most of the book. I started to feel bad for him the longer this dynamic went on. I like that his physical form is pretty monstrous, two sets of arms, two tails, talons feet.
I don’t actually like dual POV most of the time but this might have been a story that could have used it.
October 18, 2025
Fey Prensi Tarafından Zaptedilmiş aka Post Green Flag Shadow Daddy Ever! 🌟
Sevgilisi ile dağ tırmanışında olan Leah (24) bir kaza sonrasında kendini aç susuz bir şekilde 6 gün boyunca ölümle pençeleşirken bulur, son dakikalarını yaşadığını düşündüğü anda ruh ikizi Dain (119) ve yol arkadaşlarıyla karşılaşır ve olaylar gelişir.
Dain’ in sarayına getirilen Leah ile aralarında önce düşmanlık sonra arkadaşlık ve tabii ki kaçınılmaz olarak en sonunda da aşk olacaktır. Düşmanlarımız var tabi her zamanki gibi olaylar oluyor vs, vs..
Aşırı uzun olması haricinde bir sorunum yok, daha kısa olabilirdi ve tam bir slooooooow burn. ☺️
Redditte çok övülen bu seriyi merak ettiğimden elime aldım. Daha iyilerini defalarca okuduğum için de 2 ile uğurluyorum. Ama serinin diğer kitaplarına da bakacağım; hepsi standalone.
Sevgilisi ile dağ tırmanışında olan Leah (24) bir kaza sonrasında kendini aç susuz bir şekilde 6 gün boyunca ölümle pençeleşirken bulur, son dakikalarını yaşadığını düşündüğü anda ruh ikizi Dain (119) ve yol arkadaşlarıyla karşılaşır ve olaylar gelişir.
Dain’ in sarayına getirilen Leah ile aralarında önce düşmanlık sonra arkadaşlık ve tabii ki kaçınılmaz olarak en sonunda da aşk olacaktır. Düşmanlarımız var tabi her zamanki gibi olaylar oluyor vs, vs..
Aşırı uzun olması haricinde bir sorunum yok, daha kısa olabilirdi ve tam bir slooooooow burn. ☺️
Redditte çok övülen bu seriyi merak ettiğimden elime aldım. Daha iyilerini defalarca okuduğum için de 2 ile uğurluyorum. Ama serinin diğer kitaplarına da bakacağım; hepsi standalone.
dropped-books
March 13, 2024DNF 50%
I wanted to like this book so, so much. I LOVE the MMC Dain with all my heart. He easily could have made my list for top book boyfriends.
Sadly, the Leah is my issue. And considering the fact that this book is primarily in her pov, I can't finish it.
I don't want to spoil or give away anything, but what made me quit was that Leah is pushing for Dain to do something that may lead to him getting hurt/killed. I can't for the life of me understand why. If Dain were my soul mate, I would protect him and love him with every fiber of my being. I would NEVER willingly send him to his potential death.
I can't read this anymore.😭
I wanted to like this book so, so much. I LOVE the MMC Dain with all my heart. He easily could have made my list for top book boyfriends.
Sadly, the Leah is my issue. And considering the fact that this book is primarily in her pov, I can't finish it.
I don't want to spoil or give away anything, but what made me quit was that Leah is pushing for Dain to do something that may lead to him getting hurt/killed. I can't for the life of me understand why. If Dain were my soul mate, I would protect him and love him with every fiber of my being. I would NEVER willingly send him to his potential death.
I can't read this anymore.😭
July 9, 2023
This book is so fricken long and its length emphasizes how passionless Leah is.
It’s a strange romance that takes a year for the FMC to get into. And you feel every day of that year. The thing is, her love of her human life dies in the beginning, so she could be excused for taking a long time if she was grieving him. But she’s not. She “grieves in her own way” which is to basically be sad for a week and then get over it. She never talks about her life with him, or her relationship, or what she loved about him.
Leah’s big hang up is that she misses her family and friends, who think she’s dead. Who cares about mommy and daddy in the face of true love? Who cares about your old friends when you can make new ones? Most of us naturally move away from our old lives by doing things like going to college, moving for a job, and falling in love. “Head over heels in love” is a thing that humans experience and it makes them willing to crazy things. But not Leah. She doesn’t seem to understand what it feels like to be in love. I can’t relate.
Around the 70% mark, things start moving and overall the last part of the book is good.
It’s a strange romance that takes a year for the FMC to get into. And you feel every day of that year. The thing is, her love of her human life dies in the beginning, so she could be excused for taking a long time if she was grieving him. But she’s not. She “grieves in her own way” which is to basically be sad for a week and then get over it. She never talks about her life with him, or her relationship, or what she loved about him.
Leah’s big hang up is that she misses her family and friends, who think she’s dead. Who cares about mommy and daddy in the face of true love? Who cares about your old friends when you can make new ones? Most of us naturally move away from our old lives by doing things like going to college, moving for a job, and falling in love. “Head over heels in love” is a thing that humans experience and it makes them willing to crazy things. But not Leah. She doesn’t seem to understand what it feels like to be in love. I can’t relate.
Around the 70% mark, things start moving and overall the last part of the book is good.
April 4, 2025
WHAT. THE. HELL!!?!???!! I LOVED THIS. I LOVE BEING TAKEN BY SURPRISE! but honestly, was it cringe and were there multiple inconsistencies? Yes, but the angst, yearning, broken MMC, the slow-ish burn, the romance, the fact that the romance is NONTOXIC (a rare find in my current reads) literally made this book for me!
The dressing/undressing scenes, the washing of each others’ hairs, the nightmare trope, the domestic fluff, ‘my beloved’ 😫😭, when the MMC cries, not once but MULTIPLE TIMES?!
Lordy this was just what I needed.
It was around the 50-60% mark that I realized this was very similar plot lines to Grace Draven’s Radiance & Eidolon (just one of my favourite fantasy books ever!) and I was pleasantly surprised and I can’t lie, that was a huge factor in this book’s rating.
Ms Dunlin, hats off to you. The writing, the prose, was perfect to get the reader in the feels, I was awestruck at some of the descriptions of the scenes. I shall be reading more of her works.
The dressing/undressing scenes, the washing of each others’ hairs, the nightmare trope, the domestic fluff, ‘my beloved’ 😫😭, when the MMC cries, not once but MULTIPLE TIMES?!
Lordy this was just what I needed.
It was around the 50-60% mark that I realized this was very similar plot lines to Grace Draven’s Radiance & Eidolon (just one of my favourite fantasy books ever!) and I was pleasantly surprised and I can’t lie, that was a huge factor in this book’s rating.
Ms Dunlin, hats off to you. The writing, the prose, was perfect to get the reader in the feels, I was awestruck at some of the descriptions of the scenes. I shall be reading more of her works.
September 28, 2026
⭐ 2.5 | ❤️ 4/5
I purchased several books from the Monsters of Faery series some time ago after devouring books from the author’s other series, Echoes of the Void, which I loved for her beautiful prose, refreshingly sensitive MMCs, and how she writes spice. While she’s one of my favorite authors, I never got around to reading them until now, but wanted to read it in preparation for her newest release, the prequel In Fealty and In Love, which features two major secondary characters from this book. This is my first Monsters of Faery book, and I am left unsure how to rate this.
Two out of three of what I loved about Echoes of the Void books were in this book. I’ll start with what I liked.
Whenever someone asks for recommendations for MMCs who aren’t the standard broody, dominant shadow daddy archetype commonly found in this subgenre, I point them towards Echoes of the Void books. I was delighted to find that MMC Dain, the Fae Beast, was on par with Mallory Dunlin’s Echoes of the Void male leads with his sensitivity and displays of vulnerability. While I love a self possessed lead (both MMC and FMC), Dain’s insecurities about his looks and desirability made sense given his court upbringing and relationship with his mother, the fae Queen of Stag Court. I loved how the book explored the vulnerability of a non-human MMC being fetishized and othered and its impact on him. It was written in such a beautifully heartbreaking way with so much specificity.
Secondly, Mallory Dunlin is one of my favorite fantasy romance writers when it comes to spice: her scenes are memorable, have specificity to each character, and don’t shy away from kink.
What was disappointing to me was the sentence-level writing itself, which is normally something I love about her books—at least from the Echoes of the Void series. Coming from Echoes of the Void series, the register and tonal shift from a more formal, flowery prose to the casual, conversational style prose was jarring for me. Very often, the writing felt clunky and the dialogue read as wooden. At the worst of times, the writing veered a bit cheesy and at times cringey. It actually reminded me a lot of Ruby Dixon’s register and tone in her portal romance Aspect and Anchor series, except instead of going into a fae world, her contemporary FMCs portal into a mythological world. So if you enjoy Ruby Dixon’’s informal writing style, this book might be a fit for you.
For my taste, the writing lacked subtlety, often overexplaining including jokes after they landed, Leah narrating to us how she came across, and the Leah overexplaining Dain’s actions and feelings repeatedly. The repetitiveness of the endless internal monologues (that went on for pages) but also dialogue made the story really drag for me. To give an idea of how repetitive the writing was: soulmate was mentioned 164x, anger/angry 176x, fear 67x, hurt 74x, monster (in reference to how Dain sees himself) 69x, and shame 22x. The repetitiveness and the tendency to over explain contributed to the slow pacing, and I found it very difficult to stay engaged with the story. I was invested for a bit, when there was a voyeurism scene followed by a moment of tenderness and vulnerability between the leads, which the author does really well.
This was a first person POV, so I struggled with being stuck in the head of FMC Leah, whose stated age was 24 but behaved much younger than her stated age. She came across as short tempered, selfish, self-centered, unkind, and at the worst of times, cruel. Without giving details due to spoilers, there is a moment of domestic violence with Leah as the perpetrator as they were putting on a performance, and it really put me off how there was no remorse or apology. I don’t like when books treat domestic violence perpetuated by a woman less seriously just because it’s a woman doing it to a man. On top of that, she had no survival instincts at all— being antagonistic and contrarian towards Dain from the get go, her only true ally in this unfamiliar, hostile fae court. Not to mention her making poor decisions (no details due to spoilers) that could have had deadly outcomes.
This made it really hard for me to root for Leah as a love interest for Dain, who I felt deserved so much more. His love felt unearned to me.
All in all, this book sadly wasn’t for me in spite of how much I love Mallory Dunlin’s other books from Echoes of the Void series, but I was determined not to DNF it, because didn’t want to be spoiled prior to reading In Fealty and In Love, the prequel that was just released. This book might be for you if you enjoy portal romances, monster romance, and an informal register and tone.
Monsters of Faery
0.5 In Fealty and in Love ⭐ 4.75 | ❤️ 4/5
1 Captured by the Fae Beast ⭐ 2.5 | ❤️ 4/5
Echoes of the Void
1 The Gardener and the Water-horse ⭐ 4.5 | ❤️ 4/5
2 The Sorceress and the Incubus ⭐ 4.75 | ❤️ 4/5
3 The Changeling and the Dragon ⭐ 4.25 | ❤️ 4/5
CW: gore, domestic violence, other woman drama
I purchased several books from the Monsters of Faery series some time ago after devouring books from the author’s other series, Echoes of the Void, which I loved for her beautiful prose, refreshingly sensitive MMCs, and how she writes spice. While she’s one of my favorite authors, I never got around to reading them until now, but wanted to read it in preparation for her newest release, the prequel In Fealty and In Love, which features two major secondary characters from this book. This is my first Monsters of Faery book, and I am left unsure how to rate this.
Two out of three of what I loved about Echoes of the Void books were in this book. I’ll start with what I liked.
Whenever someone asks for recommendations for MMCs who aren’t the standard broody, dominant shadow daddy archetype commonly found in this subgenre, I point them towards Echoes of the Void books. I was delighted to find that MMC Dain, the Fae Beast, was on par with Mallory Dunlin’s Echoes of the Void male leads with his sensitivity and displays of vulnerability. While I love a self possessed lead (both MMC and FMC), Dain’s insecurities about his looks and desirability made sense given his court upbringing and relationship with his mother, the fae Queen of Stag Court. I loved how the book explored the vulnerability of a non-human MMC being fetishized and othered and its impact on him. It was written in such a beautifully heartbreaking way with so much specificity.
Secondly, Mallory Dunlin is one of my favorite fantasy romance writers when it comes to spice: her scenes are memorable, have specificity to each character, and don’t shy away from kink.
What was disappointing to me was the sentence-level writing itself, which is normally something I love about her books—at least from the Echoes of the Void series. Coming from Echoes of the Void series, the register and tonal shift from a more formal, flowery prose to the casual, conversational style prose was jarring for me. Very often, the writing felt clunky and the dialogue read as wooden. At the worst of times, the writing veered a bit cheesy and at times cringey. It actually reminded me a lot of Ruby Dixon’s register and tone in her portal romance Aspect and Anchor series, except instead of going into a fae world, her contemporary FMCs portal into a mythological world. So if you enjoy Ruby Dixon’’s informal writing style, this book might be a fit for you.
For my taste, the writing lacked subtlety, often overexplaining including jokes after they landed, Leah narrating to us how she came across, and the Leah overexplaining Dain’s actions and feelings repeatedly. The repetitiveness of the endless internal monologues (that went on for pages) but also dialogue made the story really drag for me. To give an idea of how repetitive the writing was: soulmate was mentioned 164x, anger/angry 176x, fear 67x, hurt 74x, monster (in reference to how Dain sees himself) 69x, and shame 22x. The repetitiveness and the tendency to over explain contributed to the slow pacing, and I found it very difficult to stay engaged with the story. I was invested for a bit, when there was a voyeurism scene followed by a moment of tenderness and vulnerability between the leads, which the author does really well.
This was a first person POV, so I struggled with being stuck in the head of FMC Leah, whose stated age was 24 but behaved much younger than her stated age. She came across as short tempered, selfish, self-centered, unkind, and at the worst of times, cruel. Without giving details due to spoilers, there is a moment of domestic violence with Leah as the perpetrator as they were putting on a performance, and it really put me off how there was no remorse or apology. I don’t like when books treat domestic violence perpetuated by a woman less seriously just because it’s a woman doing it to a man. On top of that, she had no survival instincts at all— being antagonistic and contrarian towards Dain from the get go, her only true ally in this unfamiliar, hostile fae court. Not to mention her making poor decisions (no details due to spoilers) that could have had deadly outcomes.
This made it really hard for me to root for Leah as a love interest for Dain, who I felt deserved so much more. His love felt unearned to me.
All in all, this book sadly wasn’t for me in spite of how much I love Mallory Dunlin’s other books from Echoes of the Void series, but I was determined not to DNF it, because didn’t want to be spoiled prior to reading In Fealty and In Love, the prequel that was just released. This book might be for you if you enjoy portal romances, monster romance, and an informal register and tone.
Monsters of Faery
0.5 In Fealty and in Love ⭐ 4.75 | ❤️ 4/5
1 Captured by the Fae Beast ⭐ 2.5 | ❤️ 4/5
Echoes of the Void
1 The Gardener and the Water-horse ⭐ 4.5 | ❤️ 4/5
2 The Sorceress and the Incubus ⭐ 4.75 | ❤️ 4/5
3 The Changeling and the Dragon ⭐ 4.25 | ❤️ 4/5
CW: gore, domestic violence, other woman drama
March 17, 2023
4.5 rounded up
This was a beautiful story of a woman asked to make and impossible decision and a man who is broken seemingly beyond repair. Leah and Dain had a slow burn relationship with constant threats to their lives and well being.
The author did a good job addressing “main character syndrome” by having side characters have their own lives and opinions. The author was also bold in how dark they allowed Dain to become. They allowed him to have an appropriately timed growth arc; not having him instantly become a different person because of Leah’s presence.
Leah had a growth arc as well; mostly centered in growing her confidence as an individual and realizing her potential in the role she was thrust into.
The only critique, and reason for 4.5 stars is that I think Leah’s personal emotional growth should have played a bigger role. At times, she seemed to be present just to solve the MMCs problems, even though the book is entirely in her POV.
Spice: 3/5
Triggers: SA, abuse, captivity, violence, starvation, death, grief, discussion of torture
This was a beautiful story of a woman asked to make and impossible decision and a man who is broken seemingly beyond repair. Leah and Dain had a slow burn relationship with constant threats to their lives and well being.
The author did a good job addressing “main character syndrome” by having side characters have their own lives and opinions. The author was also bold in how dark they allowed Dain to become. They allowed him to have an appropriately timed growth arc; not having him instantly become a different person because of Leah’s presence.
Leah had a growth arc as well; mostly centered in growing her confidence as an individual and realizing her potential in the role she was thrust into.
The only critique, and reason for 4.5 stars is that I think Leah’s personal emotional growth should have played a bigger role. At times, she seemed to be present just to solve the MMCs problems, even though the book is entirely in her POV.
Spice: 3/5
Triggers: SA, abuse, captivity, violence, starvation, death, grief, discussion of torture
August 21, 2024
I had high hopes for this book. The first few chapters were a delight. I thought I found another great read.
Alas.
The FMC begged someone to save her after a climbing accident. She entered another world, a fae world. She knew that the person who saved her, a dangerous, fae prince. After she was nursed back to health, a servant came to her, this servant, also from the mundane world, the normal earth reality, told her that she was now in FAE world, the prince was a dangerous murderous beast. After knowing all of that, she decided to be mouthy and rude to the prince.
What an imbecile.
This is why I tend to avoid FMC that is tagged as sassy and feisty because most of them operate with little to none brain cell.
Ugh.
Alas.
The FMC begged someone to save her after a climbing accident. She entered another world, a fae world. She knew that the person who saved her, a dangerous, fae prince. After she was nursed back to health, a servant came to her, this servant, also from the mundane world, the normal earth reality, told her that she was now in FAE world, the prince was a dangerous murderous beast. After knowing all of that, she decided to be mouthy and rude to the prince.
What an imbecile.
This is why I tend to avoid FMC that is tagged as sassy and feisty because most of them operate with little to none brain cell.
Ugh.
June 20, 2024
Hi, do you like Fae? Do you like magic? Do you constantly think about what it would be like to be whisked away to the Fae realm as a human? Oh you do! Awesome, me too, thanks for joining the support group.
Now that I have your attention, let me present THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.
I was in the mood for a spicy Fae read where the folk are appropriately wicked and Reddit pointed me toward "Captured by the Fae Beast". It was literally already sitting in my checked out KU books library so I thought, okay let's give it a go. And let me tell you. I CONSUMED this book. Started and done in a day and a half. I haven't loved a book this much since Butcher and Blackbird. And did I mention that it's part of a pseudo-series? The ones that interconnect but can all be read stand-alone? Because those are my absolute favorite. Sometimes, I don't want to wait 5 books for my happen ending, OKAY?
Not only does the author establish a perfect reason for how the humans in her books end up in the Fae realm, she does it organically and devastatingly. The book actually opens with the main character Leah on vacation with her boyfriend. No spoilers, but her arrival in Fae is filled with sadness and regret. Then she finds out that she is the fated mate to the monstrous prince Dain, because of course! There is a wonderful amount of fourth wall breaking as Leah thinks about all the Fae romances she has read and all the tropes and lore associated with them.
One of my favorite things about Dunlin's Fae is her version of soul mates that I have never seen anywhere else. Sure, Leah might be soul mates with the prince, but for Dunlin's Fae, this could mean they are fated to be lovers, enemies, best friends, or rivals. There are 7 different types of soul mates and the couple doesn't truly know which they are until the bond "snaps" into place.
While I wouldn't really consider this book "enemies to lovers" like it is advertised, it was interesting to see the dynamic between Leah and Dain as they wrestle with what feelings to lean into to solidify the soul mate bond. The lust, the friendship, or the desire to go home?
And Dain. My goodness. Dain is one of my favorite MMC's in a long time because he is so perfectly imperfect. He's NOT tall dark and handsome with perfect bronze skin and eyes of a unnatural color that still somehow don't look like cringy color contacts (I'm sorry that's literally all I can think of when their eyes are silver or purple or some shit). Leah does still find him attractive, admitting to the reader that she is a fan of monster romance. That combined with the bond makes it feel totally believable when she is lusting after him.
On the other hand, Dain is not happy with his appearance at all. While most Fae men in books go on and on about how beautiful they are, Dain is hated by his mother for his appearance, constantly told he is hideous, and has only had lovers who treat him like a novelty. It is heartbreaking watching him recoil from Leah's honest affections because he feels like he is too ugly to be loved. The best part of the book was watching his confidence grow and his body image be restored by this woman who may also be his downfall.
I could gush on this book forever. I went in thinking it was going to be fun (but a bit cringe if I am being honest) and finished with a newfound favorite author. The romance was so well written and while there were a few predictable moments, I wouldn't have wanted them to pan out any other way.
Captured by the Fae Beast gets a 5/5 from me. Perfect for fans of Fae romance, monster romance, or literally anyone who can mentally handle the fact that the male lead isn't another Adonis.
P.S. If you read it you also MUST read the bonus epilogue. You're welcome.
Now that I have your attention, let me present THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.
I was in the mood for a spicy Fae read where the folk are appropriately wicked and Reddit pointed me toward "Captured by the Fae Beast". It was literally already sitting in my checked out KU books library so I thought, okay let's give it a go. And let me tell you. I CONSUMED this book. Started and done in a day and a half. I haven't loved a book this much since Butcher and Blackbird. And did I mention that it's part of a pseudo-series? The ones that interconnect but can all be read stand-alone? Because those are my absolute favorite. Sometimes, I don't want to wait 5 books for my happen ending, OKAY?
Not only does the author establish a perfect reason for how the humans in her books end up in the Fae realm, she does it organically and devastatingly. The book actually opens with the main character Leah on vacation with her boyfriend. No spoilers, but her arrival in Fae is filled with sadness and regret. Then she finds out that she is the fated mate to the monstrous prince Dain, because of course! There is a wonderful amount of fourth wall breaking as Leah thinks about all the Fae romances she has read and all the tropes and lore associated with them.
One of my favorite things about Dunlin's Fae is her version of soul mates that I have never seen anywhere else. Sure, Leah might be soul mates with the prince, but for Dunlin's Fae, this could mean they are fated to be lovers, enemies, best friends, or rivals. There are 7 different types of soul mates and the couple doesn't truly know which they are until the bond "snaps" into place.
While I wouldn't really consider this book "enemies to lovers" like it is advertised, it was interesting to see the dynamic between Leah and Dain as they wrestle with what feelings to lean into to solidify the soul mate bond. The lust, the friendship, or the desire to go home?
And Dain. My goodness. Dain is one of my favorite MMC's in a long time because he is so perfectly imperfect. He's NOT tall dark and handsome with perfect bronze skin and eyes of a unnatural color that still somehow don't look like cringy color contacts (I'm sorry that's literally all I can think of when their eyes are silver or purple or some shit). Leah does still find him attractive, admitting to the reader that she is a fan of monster romance. That combined with the bond makes it feel totally believable when she is lusting after him.
On the other hand, Dain is not happy with his appearance at all. While most Fae men in books go on and on about how beautiful they are, Dain is hated by his mother for his appearance, constantly told he is hideous, and has only had lovers who treat him like a novelty. It is heartbreaking watching him recoil from Leah's honest affections because he feels like he is too ugly to be loved. The best part of the book was watching his confidence grow and his body image be restored by this woman who may also be his downfall.
I could gush on this book forever. I went in thinking it was going to be fun (but a bit cringe if I am being honest) and finished with a newfound favorite author. The romance was so well written and while there were a few predictable moments, I wouldn't have wanted them to pan out any other way.
Captured by the Fae Beast gets a 5/5 from me. Perfect for fans of Fae romance, monster romance, or literally anyone who can mentally handle the fact that the male lead isn't another Adonis.
P.S. If you read it you also MUST read the bonus epilogue. You're welcome.
June 22, 2025
I am SO DISAPPOINTED. I ended up just having to DNF. why? the story just did not work for me. The plot is meandering and boring, the leads have no chemistry, the smut is barely there and oh, he sleeps with another girl in front of her. I'm OUT.
THOUGHTS:
- To start, the female lead is ANNOYING AF. She literally will not shut up and always has some badass or saucy remark. she's constantly monologuing and deciding if she likes him and most of the book is them trading barbs. I get it, but seriously can you stop being a sarcastic cow for like 2 minutes? how are we supposed to see two people bond where one is hiding himself and his feelings and the other is dramatic and mouthy and a total Mary sue. Ugh. She has no flaws, everyone loves her and even the evil we're supposed to hate begrudgingly likes her. absolutely no character development at all on her end, she just gets to be perfect and great while Dain tries to fix himself for her.
- we're not told WHY she knows his name?? she's human so that's super confusing to me. it's probably expanded later but since I could not continue I guess I'll never know lol
- then there's the premise / beginning of the story ... her bf DIED in the accident and she wanders through the wilderness with infected wounds for DAYS and she thinks about all this like twice?!?! that whole part was not needed and should have been left out IMO. or it should have just been her hiking alone or something and it's super weird to me that she barely even thinks about her old life or her loved ones at all. no shock? no depression just "oh I miss my family" sheds a tear and never thinks about it again and that's it.
- the design / description for Dain was interesting but his personality was REALLY lacking. at first he starts off as cruel and monstrous but by the time I stopped reading he's just sad and a bit whiny?! why?? he could have been such a good character, a scarred, hated, deformed and unloved prince everyone hates.... except the author throws that out in favor of him being scared, sad, self conscious and quick to anger. these two have literally nothing in common and can barely talk but Dain's the one who has to do everything for her and change and were supposed to believe they're in love?
- Dain's whole sexcapade in the garden grossed me out. Seeing the male lead fuck another girl is a HUGE no for me. oh and after he does it and knows she saw he's all "she wanted it to hurt" sad face, and the heroine is all "but you don't like pain" BITCH WHAT???? the guy you're basically married to / trying to get to know, gets mad at you, storms out to "make himself feel better" and fucks some random girl the way she likes it and the heroine is all "poor baby, let me stroke your hair and you can put your head in my lap"
NOPE, NUH UH.
Oh and we've gotten NO SMUT by the time I reached the middle of the book of my God. I cannot
THOUGHTS:
- To start, the female lead is ANNOYING AF. She literally will not shut up and always has some badass or saucy remark. she's constantly monologuing and deciding if she likes him and most of the book is them trading barbs. I get it, but seriously can you stop being a sarcastic cow for like 2 minutes? how are we supposed to see two people bond where one is hiding himself and his feelings and the other is dramatic and mouthy and a total Mary sue. Ugh. She has no flaws, everyone loves her and even the evil we're supposed to hate begrudgingly likes her. absolutely no character development at all on her end, she just gets to be perfect and great while Dain tries to fix himself for her.
- we're not told WHY she knows his name?? she's human so that's super confusing to me. it's probably expanded later but since I could not continue I guess I'll never know lol
- then there's the premise / beginning of the story ... her bf DIED in the accident and she wanders through the wilderness with infected wounds for DAYS and she thinks about all this like twice?!?! that whole part was not needed and should have been left out IMO. or it should have just been her hiking alone or something and it's super weird to me that she barely even thinks about her old life or her loved ones at all. no shock? no depression just "oh I miss my family" sheds a tear and never thinks about it again and that's it.
- the design / description for Dain was interesting but his personality was REALLY lacking. at first he starts off as cruel and monstrous but by the time I stopped reading he's just sad and a bit whiny?! why?? he could have been such a good character, a scarred, hated, deformed and unloved prince everyone hates.... except the author throws that out in favor of him being scared, sad, self conscious and quick to anger. these two have literally nothing in common and can barely talk but Dain's the one who has to do everything for her and change and were supposed to believe they're in love?
- Dain's whole sexcapade in the garden grossed me out. Seeing the male lead fuck another girl is a HUGE no for me. oh and after he does it and knows she saw he's all "she wanted it to hurt" sad face, and the heroine is all "but you don't like pain" BITCH WHAT???? the guy you're basically married to / trying to get to know, gets mad at you, storms out to "make himself feel better" and fucks some random girl the way she likes it and the heroine is all "poor baby, let me stroke your hair and you can put your head in my lap"
NOPE, NUH UH.
Oh and we've gotten NO SMUT by the time I reached the middle of the book of my God. I cannot
June 19, 2025
Captured by the Fae Beast had such an intriguing premise—a survival story that transitions into a magical fae realm, complete with a mysterious fae prince and court intrigue. I was really drawn to the idea, and it’s honestly the reason I stuck with it as long as I did. But ultimately, the execution just didn’t work for me, and I had to DNF around the 16% mark.
The story begins with Leah surviving a tragic accident in the mountains, and I actually found that opening setup pretty compelling. But as soon as she’s rescued by the fae prince and wakes up in this magical new world, things started to feel off. She adapted to everything very quickly—especially for someone who had just experienced something so traumatic. Her reaction was mostly, “Oh, this is just like my favorite romantasy books!” and it pulled me out of the story. I wanted more confusion, more resistance, more emotion from her in that moment.
Leah is meant to come across as witty and strong-willed, but her humor often leaned into sarcasm in a way that made it hard for me to connect with her. She jokes a lot about the prince’s appearance, which felt repetitive, and later gets upset when others do the same. I think the intention was to show her as tough and guarded, but instead it came off as inconsistent.
Another thing that didn’t sit well with me was how quickly she seemed open to romance again. Her longtime boyfriend had just died in the accident, and while grief shows up later in the story, it was delayed enough that it felt emotionally disconnected. I needed to see her sit in that loss a little longer before she began to bond with someone new.
As for the romance itself... the chemistry just wasn’t there for me. The prince’s big offer—basically, “Come with me and I’ll try to be a better person”—didn’t feel romantic or emotionally grounded. I wanted more tension, more build-up, more reasons to care.
Overall, this had the bones of a great romantasy, but the pacing, character development, and emotional depth weren’t where I needed them to be. I had high hopes for this one, but it just wasn’t a good fit for me.
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The story begins with Leah surviving a tragic accident in the mountains, and I actually found that opening setup pretty compelling. But as soon as she’s rescued by the fae prince and wakes up in this magical new world, things started to feel off. She adapted to everything very quickly—especially for someone who had just experienced something so traumatic. Her reaction was mostly, “Oh, this is just like my favorite romantasy books!” and it pulled me out of the story. I wanted more confusion, more resistance, more emotion from her in that moment.
Leah is meant to come across as witty and strong-willed, but her humor often leaned into sarcasm in a way that made it hard for me to connect with her. She jokes a lot about the prince’s appearance, which felt repetitive, and later gets upset when others do the same. I think the intention was to show her as tough and guarded, but instead it came off as inconsistent.
Another thing that didn’t sit well with me was how quickly she seemed open to romance again. Her longtime boyfriend had just died in the accident, and while grief shows up later in the story, it was delayed enough that it felt emotionally disconnected. I needed to see her sit in that loss a little longer before she began to bond with someone new.
As for the romance itself... the chemistry just wasn’t there for me. The prince’s big offer—basically, “Come with me and I’ll try to be a better person”—didn’t feel romantic or emotionally grounded. I wanted more tension, more build-up, more reasons to care.
Overall, this had the bones of a great romantasy, but the pacing, character development, and emotional depth weren’t where I needed them to be. I had high hopes for this one, but it just wasn’t a good fit for me.
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January 5, 2025
This book is needlessly long and laughably bad. Having finished it for completions sake I am now angry at having lost hours of my life.
Nothing happens, no characters are fleshed out, none of the dialogue is believable and it repeats over and over again. There is no reason to bother with this book.
Nothing happens, no characters are fleshed out, none of the dialogue is believable and it repeats over and over again. There is no reason to bother with this book.
September 30, 2025
DNF @ 65%. There were some aspects of this book I liked, but the whole thing hinges on plot and worldbuilding that contain some major holes and flaws.
The frame was amusingly meta (in the sense that the real world exists and the FMC is familiar with the Fae and associated tropes), it had a fun spin on some genre tropes (e.g., I love the idea of soulmate nemeses), and the smut was fun and well done. The MCs are also emotionally mature adults, which is great to a point.
Unfortunately, the entire book (or at least the first 65%) is entirely the two MCs talking about their feelings, and the only thing that changes is where they are talking about their feelings and whether they're doing it via some sort of game mechanic. Nothing else plot-wise is happening, which made it really hard to buy into their relationship actually building around a potential life together (common interests? Goals? Anything?).
There were two other enormous issues for me. First of all, the FMC is supposedly stuck in Faerie for a year, but there are never any discussions about a) contacting her family, which we know is possible because she somehow??? gets family photos for her servant or b) what, if anything, is preventing movement to/from Faerie after that year is up, because they clearly go back and forth. Whatever physics or laws of secrecy govern whatever is happening between the fae and human worlds is never explained, despite being pretty fundamental to the romance plot. Secondly, the MMC's whole schtick is he's a monster and he's a sad man because no one else in Faerie can see past the monster, but he literally has two best friends and it is noted that the army loves him. So why is this man so sad?? And why is it on Leah to convince him to give diplomacy a go after a century?
Overall, a lot of promise and decent writing style, but I had a hard time buying into it enough to finish.
The frame was amusingly meta (in the sense that the real world exists and the FMC is familiar with the Fae and associated tropes), it had a fun spin on some genre tropes (e.g., I love the idea of soulmate nemeses), and the smut was fun and well done. The MCs are also emotionally mature adults, which is great to a point.
Unfortunately, the entire book (or at least the first 65%) is entirely the two MCs talking about their feelings, and the only thing that changes is where they are talking about their feelings and whether they're doing it via some sort of game mechanic. Nothing else plot-wise is happening, which made it really hard to buy into their relationship actually building around a potential life together (common interests? Goals? Anything?).
There were two other enormous issues for me. First of all, the FMC is supposedly stuck in Faerie for a year, but there are never any discussions about a) contacting her family, which we know is possible because she somehow??? gets family photos for her servant or b) what, if anything, is preventing movement to/from Faerie after that year is up, because they clearly go back and forth. Whatever physics or laws of secrecy govern whatever is happening between the fae and human worlds is never explained, despite being pretty fundamental to the romance plot. Secondly, the MMC's whole schtick is he's a monster and he's a sad man because no one else in Faerie can see past the monster, but he literally has two best friends and it is noted that the army loves him. So why is this man so sad?? And why is it on Leah to convince him to give diplomacy a go after a century?
Overall, a lot of promise and decent writing style, but I had a hard time buying into it enough to finish.
October 28, 2024
I’m glad I didn’t start the series with this book because I really enjoy this series, but this one the least. The FMC is annoying and doesn’t make sense. She’s all on her high horse judging his violence when her job in human world was a programmer for a defense contractor. Ma’am you have 0 moral high ground, your products are definitely killing innocent civilians around the world. And then also how is she suddenly capable of leading the army when needed?
So this specific book I could take it or leave it, def don’t need to read it first in the series (inter-connected standalones) and it has spoilers for the 2nd which chronologically happens before this one but the rest of the series I really really enjoyed. The premise and world building is unique and interesting. Lots of spice.
So this specific book I could take it or leave it, def don’t need to read it first in the series (inter-connected standalones) and it has spoilers for the 2nd which chronologically happens before this one but the rest of the series I really really enjoyed. The premise and world building is unique and interesting. Lots of spice.
February 12, 2023
What a deeply flawed cinnamon role of a MMC. An in-the-gray hero who does the work to become a better man. Yes yes yes.
Almost 5 stars for me, but it was just a bit longer than it needed to be. It felt like a lot of sitting around waiting in the bedchambers could have gone.
Also had two descriptive sex scenes with ow when we had to wait a looooooong time to get there with Leah and Dain. It’s part of Dain’s character growth and shows how far he comes, and it really does happen before anything starts with Leah, but I still coulda have done without the garden scene.
Almost 5 stars for me, but it was just a bit longer than it needed to be. It felt like a lot of sitting around waiting in the bedchambers could have gone.
Also had two descriptive sex scenes with ow when we had to wait a looooooong time to get there with Leah and Dain. It’s part of Dain’s character growth and shows how far he comes, and it really does happen before anything starts with Leah, but I still coulda have done without the garden scene.
October 20, 2023
3.5 stars
this one was a lot of fun, and really captivating! for a fairly long book, i flew through it and enjoyed every minute. the main couple was so cute and i loved the idea of soulmated nemeses and soulmated platonic best friends etc, and the book also had an interesting plot, which i appreciated. the monster aspect was a little bit much for me, i think... but no judgement for those who love that type of thing! still really loved the author's writing :).
this one was a lot of fun, and really captivating! for a fairly long book, i flew through it and enjoyed every minute. the main couple was so cute and i loved the idea of soulmated nemeses and soulmated platonic best friends etc, and the book also had an interesting plot, which i appreciated. the monster aspect was a little bit much for me, i think... but no judgement for those who love that type of thing! still really loved the author's writing :).
July 29, 2023
This book really reminded me a lot of Fruits Basket in that the male MC is hiding a monstrous form and he eventually needs to reveal it. The dynamic between the two main characters was really well written and the theme of being afraid of rejection was interesting to read. The beginning of this book was also a very wild ride and immediately sucked me in.
March 25, 2024
I think I played myself a little bit by reading the third book first because the spice in that one - oh my god is it good. This was also good too - don't get me wrong. Just...not my cuddly little dragon boy, ya know?
May 11, 2025
3.5/5: I do like Mallory Dunlin's writing style overall, and I've actually read books 3 and 4 of this series out of order but thought I should go back and start from the beginning before reading book 5. Though technically people say you can read them as standalones, the later ones would have made more sense with the whole concept of humans making bargains when they're dying to live in the fae world and leave the other world behind, as well as why there are random human world items floating around the courts, like sweatpants. Generally I like the juxtaposition of the modern day person in the fae world, but some of her dialogue/inner monologue was sometimes a little goofy, like okily dokily Ned Flanders level slang.
I like the concepts of there being different types of soulmates you can be, instead of it only being the traditional true love sort of thing, your soulmate could also be your perfect enemy, or a range of things in between. It adds a little more tension to the story instead of them realizing they're soulmates and then it's all blah blah blah you know exactly how the story is going to go. I'm always a fan of how she writes her monster romances, with the monsters being secret sad boys.
I did have some issues with some of the plotlines.
Overall I found it enjoyable, despite being bothered by the dialogue at times, and one or two plotlines.
I like the concepts of there being different types of soulmates you can be, instead of it only being the traditional true love sort of thing, your soulmate could also be your perfect enemy, or a range of things in between. It adds a little more tension to the story instead of them realizing they're soulmates and then it's all blah blah blah you know exactly how the story is going to go. I'm always a fan of how she writes her monster romances, with the monsters being secret sad boys.
I did have some issues with some of the plotlines.
Overall I found it enjoyable, despite being bothered by the dialogue at times, and one or two plotlines.
July 1, 2025
More like a 3.5, but not going to round up.
I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this series. Dunlin is very talented at creating a rich world with complex and interesting characters. I'm not an expert in fae lore, but I thought it was explained really well and wove into the story in an interesting way.
Dunlin's also a super talented writer, but tends to overwrite...a lot. This causes any built-up tension to deflate and lose momentum. It go to the point where I had to skip a few paragraphs because it was just endless exposition. (There were also several parts where something obvious was stated, only to be reinforced/restated internally by the FMC. Super annoying and felt like I was getting talked down to, lmao, but that's just my own personal gripe! I wish romantasy authors trusted their readers more!)
ETA: also there were multiple references to real-life atrocities like Hiroshima that used language to indicate the characters/author were FOR the bombing….just done in really poor taste tbh. And the FMC works for the military to build bombs/missiles. Felt very pro-military😐😬
I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this series. Dunlin is very talented at creating a rich world with complex and interesting characters. I'm not an expert in fae lore, but I thought it was explained really well and wove into the story in an interesting way.
Dunlin's also a super talented writer, but tends to overwrite...a lot. This causes any built-up tension to deflate and lose momentum. It go to the point where I had to skip a few paragraphs because it was just endless exposition. (There were also several parts where something obvious was stated, only to be reinforced/restated internally by the FMC. Super annoying and felt like I was getting talked down to, lmao, but that's just my own personal gripe! I wish romantasy authors trusted their readers more!)
ETA: also there were multiple references to real-life atrocities like Hiroshima that used language to indicate the characters/author were FOR the bombing….just done in really poor taste tbh. And the FMC works for the military to build bombs/missiles. Felt very pro-military😐😬
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