Skyn

by Nikki Payne

When Fawl's ex dumps her for her stepsister, she takes the messiest deal imaginable: dig up dirt on an Elite family for a golden ticket out of the Underground. Simple, right? No. Now she's somehow *Checks Notes* married to an emotionless machine who's weirdly obsessed with her skin.
Content notes/warnings: extreme body modification, hints of cannibalism, intercourse in an altered state

Genres: Romance, Novella, Dystopia, Adult, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Short Stories

165 pages, ebook

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Flora (Helia's version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one kind of smashed?? More like this, please.

[Soft Nectarine ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beep. Boop. Beep. She loves robot dick 🤖💦

Dystopian world where body modifications are highly praised, Fawl is shit out of luck. She has a nickel allergy which means no robo parts for her. She ends up being a SKIN BRIDE for a high ranking Councilman & helps him stage a mini rebellion.

Favorite moment: she kisses him & he actually glitches unable to let her go

I didn’t think I would enjoy this robo-romance as much as I did 🩵🤖✨ Fawl & Ben had a friendly (if disinterested) flirtatious start but when he went off his dampener drugs….ya baby, give me passion! 


My favorite dystopian world in the series so far! Human’s trying everything to be more like the unfeeling robots while robots craved more soft skin. Also her ex was into CYBER PLAY!!? Like, he wanted her pretend to be a robot…ewww even in this context.


dystopian romance
unfeeling mmc
sex positive fmc
sick bed
body modifications
skin obsession
HEA

[veerali · Rating 1 out of 5]

bro, what the fuck was this shit? 😭

[˚₊꒰ა Jii ໒꒱₊˚ (catching up)]

˚₊ ⟢┊pre-read 🖇️┊⊹࣪⋆

Premise seems good, so lemme take a sniff of this and judge it for myself👀

╴╴⊹ꮺ˚ After the End Collection ╴⊹˚ ╴╴
⟢ ♯01 ∼ first 🩹 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯02 ∼ bait 🔥 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯03 ∼ skyn 🦾 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯04 ∼ m.a.y.a. 🐺 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯05 ∼ brood 🤍 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯06 ∼ taken 🫟꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯07 ∼ trade 🍃 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
⟢ ♯08 ∼ prima 🌊 ꒰ ✩ ꒱
─ ⟢・⸝⸝ Overall rating ~ stars pending…. ☆ .ᐟ ─

[vaishnavi ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠* · Rating 3 out of 5]

this one was kinda good! I'm surprised. but also: he kisses her and he glitches. he eats her out and goes into cardiac arrest or something 😭

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After the End collection:
⤹ first by ali hazelwood °‧ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ·｡‎ [2.5 ⭐]
⤹ bait by adriana herrera .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ [1 ⭐] dnf
⤹ skyn by nikki payne [2.5 ⭐]
⤹ m.a.y.a. by nina saxena ˙✧˖°🐺 ༘ ⋆｡˚ [0.5 ⭐]
⤹ brood by claire kent . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁. [1 ⭐]
⤹ taken by elizabeth stephens .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ϟ ⚡︎ ϟ ˖ ݁ 𖥔. [0.5 ⭐] dnf
⤹ trade by cate c. wells ˚˖𓍢ִ໋`🌿:✧˚⋆𖧧 [3.5 ⭐]
⤹ prima by sherry thomas ⊹ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ˖ [2 ⭐]

[sashenka 🖤 · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐

Maybe I'm too dumb. I don't even know.

[Liz | lizzuplans · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am actively unmotivated to finish this book.

The writing is not great and especially the world building is bad. I have no idea what is happening.

It got a bit better after the first quarter of the book, but ain’t nobody got time for this.

And again with the sexual violence (just “service” other people for a few years and you might die but you will probably rich. Like???????!), why is this a thing suddenly?

[GigiReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cyborgs are basically one percenters, puny humans with all their weak regular parts are at the bottom of the barrel quite literally. They are all living underground toiling away in mines. Moving closer to the top is nearly impossible unless you sell yourself as a skin bride. Cyborgs apparently have a fetish for skin and keep concubines. The intrepid FMC gets dumped by her ambitious bf who is now moving up to the top and can't be saddled with a human, she has foolishly given him everything and he leaves her more destitute than before. She gives the skin bride thing a go while promising to spy for some sort of resistance in the mines. The cyborg who "acquires" her is not what she expected and things take a wild turn once she's topside and it's not just the cyborg sex.

This one had the best premise so far but the execution was a tad messy and confusing. There was just way too much going on and I feel like the plot was way too expansive for a novella and that's why it came off as confusing. The romance was okay but it was not the focus so I found it pretty weak. The end like in Bait was sort of HFN. Felt very abrupt and tied up in a hurry. I liked the MMC, a horny cyborg who was a Wife Guy, but there just wasn't enough time for the romance to be developed and feel believable.

⭐⭐⭐/5
🔥🔥🔥/5

Tropes:
Forced marriage
Close Proximity
Class Difference

[Tanya Ittiruck · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75⭐️

this book had me questioning my intelligence bc why was I confused for so much of it?? maybe it’s me but I honestly think this needed another round of edits. aside from the egregious amount of typos in a finalized copy, this felt like how i’d write a book if I forgot to take my adhd medication. so many thoughts were started but not finished before jumping to something else. the storytelling was so choppy and just didn’t flow well. for having the highest page count out of the collection I don’t think it was used very efficiently.

[AbbieReads3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece!!! I’m obsessed with everything about this! I loved Fawl and how unique she was from everyone else from the way she looked to the way she spoke, she had me in stitches so many times!! Ben was amazing, I love how he completely transformed and how obsessed he was with his wife! I adored Ben and Fawl together, they were such a power couple!! The world building was so captivating, I loved the setting, the system, the body mods!! Even though this was a novella everything was so descriptive and there was truly nothing missing! AMAZING!!

[Xanny Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Skyn by Nikki Payne

❝ You are not my skyn bride but my wife. And I intend to treat you like one with full right. ❞

Tell me why THIS line alone had me kicking my feet like an idiot? Cyborg husband declaring ownership rights like we’re in some dystopian chapel at the end of the world? Yeah. I ate that up.

This story dropped me straight into a world where “perfection” means slicing away everything human. Where Skyn women — fully human, unmodified — are treated like defective models, and the only thing that matters is how many implants you can survive without dying. And poor Fawl? She can’t take the implants because she’s literally allergic to them… so her husband trades her out like old hardware and marries her stepsister instead. The betrayal? The humiliation? The FAMILY being complicit in it? I felt every sharp edge of it.

And then — the plot twist that rewired my whole brain — Fawl ends up agreeing to become a Skyn bride just to claw her way up to the Surface. To survive. To reclaim some damn agency.
Except the whole thing backfires because she gets claimed by Ben — the Elite, 80% machine, politically dangerous, emotionally unreadable man who marries her purely to spite the family that owns half the sky.

And listen… Ben? BEN??
I was not prepared.

The man is respectful, terrifying, protective, and so unintentionally tender it physically hurt. He treats Fawl like a person even when the rest of their world sees her as scrap metal. He defends her. He chooses her. And the way he becomes obsessed with her human softness — her skin, her emotions, her reality — felt like the exact inverse of every tech-bro fantasy in fiction. Nikki Payne knew exactly what she was doing. This book isn’t just romance, it’s social commentary served with metallic fangs.

There’s body-mod horror, political scheming, family betrayal, tech cult nonsense, and yes — hints of cannibalistic fetishism because this universe refuses to let you breathe even once. And it WORKS. Somehow, it works. It’s grotesque and beautiful and so strangely intimate I couldn’t stop listening.

The only moment that annoyed me was the arranged marriage subplot with Lilly — the programmable “ideal companion” he’s supposed to want. And yet watching him glitch out emotionally because he starts wanting Fawl instead? That was chef’s kiss. That was the moment I knew this man was cooked.

This novella gave me a power couple who crawled through class warfare, cybernetics, underground politics, and family sabotage just to come out on top. Fawl and Ben are feral, loyal, and beautifully mismatched — human softness meets mechanical devotion — and by the end I was genuinely feral for them.

I swear… this one might actually be my favorite in the whole collection.
And maybe that’s because, if the apocalypse came tomorrow, I too would be choosing my robot AI boyfriend. And apparently Nikki Payne wrote him for me.

Cyborg husband supremacy forever. 🤖❤️

[sonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Постапокаліпс в стилі кіберпанку. Задумка цікава і можливо було б краще щоб це була повноцінна книга, а не новела, бо в новелу важко всунути всю ту історію, в ідеалі з якимись флешбеками. а так було дещо скомкано, багато про що доводилося здогадуватися.

[jordan mogul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars // conflicted because the premise was really cool and i loved Ben and Fawl, but i feel like i was confused more than i should have been. it’s possible that i am simply dumb and/or not used to sci-fi/dystopian world-building, but some things were not clicking in my brain.

and while i would never factor this into ratings — this had more than a few errors, as did Bait (book two of the after the end collection). i can't fathom the level of work it takes to write a book, so i generally overlook the small things, but i wish these novellas were given another copyedit before going live.

[MegsChaosLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐, 📱 ebook, 2🌶️

I want to say the key take away from this book is "beauty is an illusion and women are obsessed with it. the 'lastest trend' is controlled by a fickle god." anyway slightly confusing plot but that's what I took from it. glad to be apart of the Kickstarter!

[Ellen - most.lyromance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skyn features Fawl, human and Ben, cyborg. In this post apocalyptic world, society is divided into regular ish humans underground in the mines and cyborgs above ground. When Fawl’s life implodes, she signs up to be a skin bride, a play thing for a rich and powerful cyborg.

This was wayyyy too complex of world building for the novella length. I still don’t get why Fawl had a diamond or how she was able to get it if it’s some sort of elite thing. Ben going off his dampeners was fun but the politics got confusing and I honestly don’t understand the solution they came up with in the end. But yay, they won?

[aromanticshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

this felt super slow for the first 20% but after that? phew. but i do understand that the beginning was needed for world building.

i love love love Ben, he’s so “hate everyone but my wife”. he’s soft for Fawl, obsessed, yearning to touch her, on his knees, in love with her!!!! i also love the “first time being truly seen” trope and both Fawl and Ben were that for each other. they have my heart.

i loved the balance between plot and character. the world was set up thoroughly while focusing on how the characters interact and working the plot into that, instead of being too much of one or as if they didn’t make sense together. i loved the idea of skin vs modded. the way real world politics and commentary were included. the way Fawl and Ben interact. SKYN gave me all the character interaction i wanted while also discussing some insanely real world issues. this book is so beautifully balanced.

[Z$ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is half baked nonsense. The Lore doesn’t make sense the world building doesn’t make sense. The plot doesn’t make sense.

Somebody should’ve edited this book before it was published

[Kait · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to four stars

Maybe that's all you can really ask for in the end—not certainty, not perfection, but someone to stand beside you when the world falls apart.

I've been so excited for the After the End (ATE) novellas since they were announced and I'm so happy I kicked off the series with Skyn.

My expectations for each of these novellas is that they balance commentary (on class, race, etc) with romance and spice, and this one delivered! Tackling issues ranging from beauty standards to wealth inequities, Skyn explored so much in its 200-ish pages and left me feeling hopeful that a better world IS possible.

Let's be real, who doesn't need that these days?

I'm also an absolute sucker for romance novels with the trope (if we can call it that) of being fully seen for the first time. Both Fawl and Ben get to experience this and it had me kicking my feet and cheering!

I'm also very very glad for how things ended with Dru. I was worried there for a hot sec and so glad I didn't need to be!

As with many short stories and novellas, there were some world-building elements I wish had been more fleshed out. For example, the statuses confused me - i get what it means to be a diamond in this world but not how it works.

CNs: body shaming, domestic abuse (mention), non consensual touch (brief), cannabalism (mention), sex under influence

[Luce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was mildly confused for the majority of this book.

Horny robots???

Book Ranking
1. Trade by Cate C. Wells - 4 stars
2. Brood by Claire Kent - 4 stars
3. First by Ali Hazelwood - 3.5 stars
4. Skin by Nikki Payne - 3 stars
5. M.A.Y.A by Nina Saxena - 2.5 stars
6. Bait by Adriana Herrera - 1.5 stars
7. Taken by Elizabeth Stephens - 1 star
8. Prima by Sherry Thomas - 0.5 star

[quin ⁠♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

it wasn’t bad, just a bit much for a novella. the concept was pretty interesting, but i got a little lost quite a bit with the worldbuilding

[Bri The Shameless Romance Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikki! Can I call you Nikki? You have a new fan. I’m a SFR reader and this was a great read. I wasn’t expecting to get so sucked into this book but here we are. The society was a futuristic dystopian nightmare that managed to mirror the class inequality in modern society. I enjoyed it a lot. I wish it was longer so I could see more of the world. I really hope that you opt to write more SFR. I need more worlds created by you. 🤞

[Marilag · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5 stars

I'm contemplating whether to put this at a full five star rating, because I actually really enjoyed how fleshed out (pun intended) this dystopian world was compared to the other stories I've read in this collection so far. But I would probably go back and retroactively rate the rest of the collection once I finish the whole thing.

That all said, this novella was literally about a human having strange robot sex with a mostly synthetic cyborg, and boy was I seated for it! Like guuuurl, when having to choose between a man and a cyborg with emotional dampeners...you see where I'm going with this. (But seriously, do you SEE how Ben is illustrated in the cover?! Because my eyes said "Yum" and there was no stopping that train.)

Anyway, I thought the story from start to finish slapped, and as a novella, it wrapped everything up like it should have, and I much appreciated that too.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mc was pretty unlikeable at the beginning and honestly kind of ridiculous but I grew to like her a lot by the end. I enjoyed the romance and the world was interesting and definitely touched on a lot of important societal pressures and politics. There were times when it felt like the author had wrote more and then had to edit it out, so the story didn’t flow very well or feel cohesive at certain points. Overall I liked it though.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 — I backed the “After the End” dystopian romance kickstarter not knowing quite what to expect…but, it was co-created by Ali Hazelwood and I have loved everything she’s written so it seemed like folly not to be a part of it. Anyway… this was an… interesting story? Very sci-fi, futuristic, post-apocalyptic and a bit weird. But, it was fun and had political commentary and had me thinking, while also being a romance. It’s great to be introduced to new authors through this novella series!

Happy reading!

[Ahappyhermit · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️3.5 but rounded up
🌶️yes


In a world where getting metal upgrades is what brings you up into society out FMC is allergic to metal - I think this was so neat as a concept

- arranged marriage
- underground world to up ground world
- classism
- cyborgs

Probably would have rated this higher if i understood exactly how the ending (which was just like town hall meeting) really made sense but i appreciate that the author didn’t try to do too much on such a small book.

[elise | bookingthroughlife · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!!

i'm learning that all of these novellas are little wacky in their own way, but they're also hot & entertaining!!

this one was interesting but also made me laugh out loud!

[amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

one of the better in the series, it lost me a bit in the middle in terms of interest but it picked up!

[bella fazzati · Rating 3 out of 5]

loved the premise, but was too much happening for this to be so short

[Merry Jayned · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Fawl so much. She definitely gave power to the story.

[Lyv R · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off so well and then just….lost me. Oh well! Onto the next