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Rifting Hearts and Roars: A Cozy Monster Romance
Not yet published
Expected 6 Apr 27Lir: I was sick of men. That’s why I was in the woods hiking around.
I didn’t mean to fall through a rift onto an alien planet, but here I am killing it… or rather trying not to be killed.
Being on a planet where literally every creature wants to kill me is not fun.
Then there’s Somnus, a giant puma man who likes to bake pies… and seems to like other things, like me. It’s getting complicated with each passing day I don’t find a way home. I don’t understand Ailurus culture and Somnus’s ways.
Now there’s a Celestial Mating Ceremony that Somnus needs to attend that involves servicing the Ailurian females.
I’m pretty sure I’ve become his pet... I’ve got to get out of here and find a way home.
Somnus: Lir is much too fragile for life on Ailurus.
She has no claws and her teeth are blunt and barely able to tear flesh. She is unlike Ailurian females in so many ways… and yet I can’t help but find myself pulled to her.
But I am Smaáu Neyt—the Warrior God to my people—and I have a duty to fulfill.
Each day that I am with Lir, those duties seem less and less important, and I fear that one day she will find a way home and away from my heart.
Rifting Hearts and Roars is a cozy monster romance with only a smidge of beheading.
I didn’t mean to fall through a rift onto an alien planet, but here I am killing it… or rather trying not to be killed.
Being on a planet where literally every creature wants to kill me is not fun.
Then there’s Somnus, a giant puma man who likes to bake pies… and seems to like other things, like me. It’s getting complicated with each passing day I don’t find a way home. I don’t understand Ailurus culture and Somnus’s ways.
Now there’s a Celestial Mating Ceremony that Somnus needs to attend that involves servicing the Ailurian females.
I’m pretty sure I’ve become his pet... I’ve got to get out of here and find a way home.
Somnus: Lir is much too fragile for life on Ailurus.
She has no claws and her teeth are blunt and barely able to tear flesh. She is unlike Ailurian females in so many ways… and yet I can’t help but find myself pulled to her.
But I am Smaáu Neyt—the Warrior God to my people—and I have a duty to fulfill.
Each day that I am with Lir, those duties seem less and less important, and I fear that one day she will find a way home and away from my heart.
Rifting Hearts and Roars is a cozy monster romance with only a smidge of beheading.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 6, 2027
About the author
Katie Gabbert Downey
6 books23 followersKatie Gabbert Downey is a Minnesota born midwestern multigenre author.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars
🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 Spice
Thank you to the author and BookSirens for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own and given honestly.
I am a sucker for a cosy, spicy monster romance, so the moment I saw this on BookSirens, I was like, yep, sign me up, please....
The book starts off nice and slowly, introducing us to our FMC, Lir. She comes across as someone who is not tied down and is emotionally uninvested in complicating her life with romance and, well, people if she can help it. At first, she comes across a little bit like a porcupine in a way. The writing style is easy and uncomplicated, which made reading the book fast and easy, all the things I love when looking for this sort of book.
This book has a clear story from the get-go. It's what throws our FMC into the main story of the book, and soon you are introduced to a whole new alien world, beings and dangers. I felt like our female main character, Lir, struggled with choice-making, and at one time I did think a choice she made was epically stupid, but I think, given I was in her place and in her frame of mind, I don't think I would really make the best choices when scared either. I felt like she became more likeable as the story went on, and I really loved the exchanges between Lir and Somnus. The playfulness and differences between the pair really made this book fun.
For over half the book, you are mostly getting to grips with this alien planet, and you are really getting to see more of Lir and Somnus, her getting to grips with how her life has turned upside down and what of her future, and him working out what to do with her and his own confusing feelings. It really held up to the cosy side of the book.
There was a time skip that threw me off, as for a moment I had not known there was one, and when it said it, it felt a little jarring. There was one more moment of transition in the book that also felt a little like that too, but other than that, I had no problems with the writing.
The book really picked up after the halfway mark, and I'm not talking silly stuff that feels like fluff. I'm talking about action, gore and seeing a side of what this alien race is like in the main city, and it really picked the book up and the tempo. You meet new characters, and it made the book feel bigger, and our girl Lir got to really see what sort of environment she was in and how different it was from her home.
I loved the action and seeing a different side of Somnus and getting a bigger idea of the political workings of his people. The author was not shy about the gore, and I felt like there was a great balance of story, gore, spice and action that left me feeling totally pleased, zooming through the book in only a few hours. I normally know how much I like a book by how fast I read it, and I ate this book up. I think any reader who loves monster romance will find this one a totally enjoyable read.
If I was to nitpick, I would say I would have loved more at the end. I felt like there was a feeling of openness to the end, like there was this want for Lir to be happy in her choice and... closure, but I felt like while I loved the ending, there was this... what now? Rather than a "The End" sort of feel.
Anyway, to sum up, I found this to be a unique, spicy monster romance with a sprinkle of gore and a solid storyline. I finished reading thinking about what I think would happen now, and that for me is always a sign of a good book.
🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 Spice
Thank you to the author and BookSirens for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own and given honestly.
I am a sucker for a cosy, spicy monster romance, so the moment I saw this on BookSirens, I was like, yep, sign me up, please....
The book starts off nice and slowly, introducing us to our FMC, Lir. She comes across as someone who is not tied down and is emotionally uninvested in complicating her life with romance and, well, people if she can help it. At first, she comes across a little bit like a porcupine in a way. The writing style is easy and uncomplicated, which made reading the book fast and easy, all the things I love when looking for this sort of book.
This book has a clear story from the get-go. It's what throws our FMC into the main story of the book, and soon you are introduced to a whole new alien world, beings and dangers. I felt like our female main character, Lir, struggled with choice-making, and at one time I did think a choice she made was epically stupid, but I think, given I was in her place and in her frame of mind, I don't think I would really make the best choices when scared either. I felt like she became more likeable as the story went on, and I really loved the exchanges between Lir and Somnus. The playfulness and differences between the pair really made this book fun.
For over half the book, you are mostly getting to grips with this alien planet, and you are really getting to see more of Lir and Somnus, her getting to grips with how her life has turned upside down and what of her future, and him working out what to do with her and his own confusing feelings. It really held up to the cosy side of the book.
There was a time skip that threw me off, as for a moment I had not known there was one, and when it said it, it felt a little jarring. There was one more moment of transition in the book that also felt a little like that too, but other than that, I had no problems with the writing.
The book really picked up after the halfway mark, and I'm not talking silly stuff that feels like fluff. I'm talking about action, gore and seeing a side of what this alien race is like in the main city, and it really picked the book up and the tempo. You meet new characters, and it made the book feel bigger, and our girl Lir got to really see what sort of environment she was in and how different it was from her home.
I loved the action and seeing a different side of Somnus and getting a bigger idea of the political workings of his people. The author was not shy about the gore, and I felt like there was a great balance of story, gore, spice and action that left me feeling totally pleased, zooming through the book in only a few hours. I normally know how much I like a book by how fast I read it, and I ate this book up. I think any reader who loves monster romance will find this one a totally enjoyable read.
If I was to nitpick, I would say I would have loved more at the end. I felt like there was a feeling of openness to the end, like there was this want for Lir to be happy in her choice and... closure, but I felt like while I loved the ending, there was this... what now? Rather than a "The End" sort of feel.
Anyway, to sum up, I found this to be a unique, spicy monster romance with a sprinkle of gore and a solid storyline. I finished reading thinking about what I think would happen now, and that for me is always a sign of a good book.
Review of advance copy
ARC Review (source: booksirnes)
This story was incredible! I really liked the unique set up for this alien/human romance. "Portal magic" is not a very common approach in this genre, but it was so well done in this story. It provided an interesting set up for character-meets since no one is abducted, and it can be held up as a matter of luck (good or bad). It also opens up a world of possibilities, too. The reason and cause of the rifts is a mystery and creates it's own kind of tension throughout the story. I liked that there wasn't an easy or clear answer for them too.
And the world we fell into was beautiful and very deadly. We get to spend a good half of the book getting to know our characters. Spending time in their heads and experiencing their slow drift toward one another. I appreciated that none of it came easy to either character, that they both had things they needed to work through and figure out. That at various points along the way they both needed to take a chance, put themselves at emotional risk and in a vulnerable position to the other. It created this lovely balance between longing and uncertainty that brought them together.
In the latter half of the story we get the bigger introduction to the culture and people we've been learning about. A glimpse at the political landscape and just how complicated things are. I really wish we had gotten to spend more time here. I would have a loved to have gotten more than a flash of something curious, followed by an explanation. It would have a different external tension in the story that I would have loved to have seen as the romance developed in the story.
The ending... This is a HEA story, but there was a sense of open bitter sweetness to this ending that for me took a little more away from the "happy" part. It left me happy (and worried) for one side character, and a little uncertain of just how settled the main characters were with their circumstances. It was good, just really not what I would have anticipated for this story.
This story was incredible! I really liked the unique set up for this alien/human romance. "Portal magic" is not a very common approach in this genre, but it was so well done in this story. It provided an interesting set up for character-meets since no one is abducted, and it can be held up as a matter of luck (good or bad). It also opens up a world of possibilities, too. The reason and cause of the rifts is a mystery and creates it's own kind of tension throughout the story. I liked that there wasn't an easy or clear answer for them too.
And the world we fell into was beautiful and very deadly. We get to spend a good half of the book getting to know our characters. Spending time in their heads and experiencing their slow drift toward one another. I appreciated that none of it came easy to either character, that they both had things they needed to work through and figure out. That at various points along the way they both needed to take a chance, put themselves at emotional risk and in a vulnerable position to the other. It created this lovely balance between longing and uncertainty that brought them together.
In the latter half of the story we get the bigger introduction to the culture and people we've been learning about. A glimpse at the political landscape and just how complicated things are. I really wish we had gotten to spend more time here. I would have a loved to have gotten more than a flash of something curious, followed by an explanation. It would have a different external tension in the story that I would have loved to have seen as the romance developed in the story.
The ending... This is a HEA story, but there was a sense of open bitter sweetness to this ending that for me took a little more away from the "happy" part. It left me happy (and worried) for one side character, and a little uncertain of just how settled the main characters were with their circumstances. It was good, just really not what I would have anticipated for this story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews