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Claws & Cubicles #1

Love, Laugh, Lich

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Some people have monsters for a boss, but not everyone has an undead Necromancer Lord at the office.

Lily has been the Lich's secretary ever since his evilness took over the company. She loves her job, but she's got some questions about her boss. Like what's under that cloak of ever-billowing.

Her wondering intensifies when one day the Lich needs something from her that isn't just scheduling appointments-- but a shiver. He needs it for a spell, but it feels like it crosses a line from their usual workplace banter. After her contributions to his dark rituals become more than OSHA compliant, she starts to contemplate whether the Lich Lord returns her feelings, or still only sees her as his secretary.

Lily may have given him her body, but he never asked for her heart.

Love, Laugh, Lich is a M/F office monster romance with light comedic elements, roughly 17k words. Content notes will be on the author's website.

87 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 22, 2021

624 people are currently reading
3607 people want to read

About the author

Kate Prior

14 books444 followers
#Romance author, illustrator, hermit. 💕💜💙 My office monster romances are on KU.

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5 stars
1,374 (18%)
4 stars
2,196 (29%)
3 stars
2,671 (35%)
2 stars
1,040 (13%)
1 star
231 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 987 reviews
Profile Image for Kristina .
1,051 reviews942 followers
June 6, 2023
#metoo but with monsters.

It seems that even in the monster realm, you can’t avoid toxic bosses…this was mildly gross monster smut and not much else. It completely lacked relationship development and was mostly descriptive sex with a Lich (whatever the fuck that is) and a virgin-turned-cock-hungry receptionist.
I cringed for most of this, but sometimes it was funny when the Monster-man was a bit dorky or when Janice from HR made appearances. His peen(s) was creative, but yikes, I’d run screaming if that thing came at me. 😱
Profile Image for SHOMPA.
615 reviews331 followers
March 9, 2023
I wished it had a full story with a great plot rather than a mindless short one because, honestly, it felt like the writer had great imaginative skills and visions and could have developed more with this fiction if she had the chance.

Oh, and I never read about having multiple appendages in any book before, which was quite interesting.😉
Profile Image for Rae (semi-hiatus).
520 reviews165 followers
November 5, 2022
This had a lot of potential to be great but it fell flat imo.

I was…bored? I didn’t feel a connection between the two MCs at all, so I’m reading these scenes and I’m going, “okay, next?”

I do love the concept and the humor was great. The author definitely is witty. The incorporation of monsters and humans into something as mundane as office work is great. I just hope the next book is better.
Profile Image for Kate V.
1,848 reviews368 followers
October 13, 2022
This was delightful. A steamy and unintentionally (I think) funny office romance between a secretary and her boss. I think this would have been a five star read for me had we had the hero’s POV and an epilogue. It ended a little abruptly and I also wanted to know that they’d be together forever…ya know since he’s undead and she’s not. But overall, pretty cute.
Profile Image for Grapie Deltaco.
844 reviews2,636 followers
October 21, 2021
4.5⭐️

So. Much. Fun.

First off, thank you so much to the author for reaching out to me to send me an ARC. I'm absolutely in love with the world of this novella.

My only critique is that I wish it were a few chapters longer, both because I enjoyed it so much and I'm selfish but also because the final chapter felt like it ended a bit too early.

The chemistry between our cloaked lord of darkness and Lily, one of the employees at his evil domain/office building filled with cubicles, was very clear in this highly humorous and quick read. I loved the mundane office setting being the headquarters for magical and mystical dark magic where the main recurring nuisance is a new "chosen one" coming in to kill the Lich and save the world. This entire cycle of failed quests being background to an office romance involved in magic rituals was just fantastic.

This story has me excited to read more from Kate Prior.

CW: explicit sexual content
Profile Image for Lillian Lark.
Author 12 books3,274 followers
October 25, 2021
If you are interested in any of the following themes/ tropes, this book is for you!
😈 Novella length office romance (All-powerful Lich CEO and his personal assistant)
😈 Hilarious setups
😈 She goes above and beyond for her boss
😈 Sex Rituals
😈 Multiple... appendages 👀
😈 Can someone without a heart love?

Lily is fabulous at her job and takes pride in that. When the Lich she serves needs something as simple as a shiver, of course she's going to offer it.
But that shiver could very well ruin everything by revealing certain impossible feelings that the personal assistant in question has been harboring about her evil overlord.

This book made me laugh with its funny setting of an office environment with a literal Dark Lord CEO. The chemistry between the characters is adorable and I enjoyed their relationship progression.
Always say yes to multiple appendages.
Profile Image for girlwithhearteyes.
1,707 reviews226 followers
May 28, 2023
4.25 stars

I didn’t know what a lich was going into this, but I’m glad that didn’t stop me from reading because this was so fun, quirky AND steamy. And such a clever premise!

You know those office romances where everyone is afraid of the ruthless CEO except for his sweet and innocent secretary? And he asks her for a borderline indecent favour? This book is that, except the fear actually makes sense because the MMC is literally an undead evil lord. And the favour is a ‘shiver’ for a spell.

I found the corporate America vibe mixed with monsters incredibly entertaining.
Profile Image for Amanda.
804 reviews184 followers
November 16, 2021
Is this the best written? No.
Is it a little rushed and could have used a longer treatment? Yeah.
Is the premise fun? Yes.
Is it kinda bananas and odd? Yup.
Is our monster proper monstery? Yessss.
Was it enjoyable to read? Absolutely.

A light little rom-commy office romance in the times of the apocalypse, when the boss is a Lich lord with surprising anatomy hiding under his cloak.
Profile Image for BookishKB.
862 reviews221 followers
August 22, 2025
Short and Sweet Novella

“You’re not a means to an end. You are the end.” I think my heart is so full it might burst. “You’re my end too.”

This was a reread and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around!
Profile Image for b.andherbooks.
2,357 reviews1,275 followers
October 29, 2021
Anyway - Love, Laugh, Lich was super fun and steamy. Hit my humor aesthetic in a fabulous way, hoping there will be a bonus chapter/epilogue.

Some of the office dynamics was a bit eeee, I'm worried about consent/HR stuff here but then I reminded myself b, this is an actual dark lord and the world is not what we know here. Just go with it, and I did, and I had fun.

The last chapter ended SO abruptly mid-coitus that I was left a titch grumpy, so do be warned.

CW: office dynamics, office sex, ritualistic sex (discussed and thought to have happened), fangs, horns, tri-penis?
Profile Image for Dara.
847 reviews54 followers
April 23, 2022
Spicy and amusing tale of an executive assistant and her undead boss who has three dicks. Which just seems like an overabundance of dicks.
Profile Image for Poppy || Monster Lover.
1,821 reviews506 followers
February 8, 2023
surprising cozy for an evil overlord romance

This was a cute little read where the MMC is a liche evil overlord and a dork, and the FMC is his dedicated personal assistant. The steam starts when she first volunteers to provide a “shiver” for him for a spell. She’s been working for him for 5 years, so they have enough background together for what feels like instalove. I’m just always so frustrated when they don’t tell you what the solution is for a immortal + mortal couple. Ugh.

Spice: 3ish scenes

Triggers: I dunno, maybe mention of past evil deeds? Nothing detailed enough to make this not a cozy read, in my opinion.
Profile Image for Beeba.
228 reviews2 followers
March 22, 2022
i fell asleep reading this.
also, THREE??
Profile Image for kit.
99 reviews6 followers
September 14, 2025
so stinkin' Adorable, oh my goshhhhh
Profile Image for Cait.Reads.Stuff.
40 reviews89 followers
October 20, 2021
I adored this little novella! It's such a fun mixture between romcom, smutty monster action, and office romance. This book has a great balance of comedy, sweetness, and spice! Definitely give it a read if you can appreciate a good wacky monster romcom.

Thank you to the author for reaching out to give me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
Profile Image for PlotTrysts.
1,217 reviews475 followers
January 16, 2023
This was our first book of 2023, and it didn't disappoint! It's a short little workplace romance with a hefty dash of monster spice. Lily is the titular lich's executive assistant. The Evil Overlord really appreciates her color-coded spreadsheets, and Lily appreciates what a great boss he is. In fact, she's found herself wondering what he looks like under that billowing cloak.⁠

As our friend Sam puts it, the book "is probably one of the best monster office romances of our generation - true romcom gold." We have to agree - sure, Soven is a horned lion-like creature with three 🍆🍆🍆 (who knows how to use them), but he's also a socially awkward dork of a boss AND HR's worst nightmare.⁠

The best thing about the book, though, is how easily Kate Prior maps corporate culture to the Evil Reign. She drops gems like "there's no ethical consumption under evil dominion," makes sure we know that unions are there to protect us from giving away more labor than is there in our contracts (like, say, a virgin sacrifice?), and that under the Evil Reign it's unlikely that the boss will face a wrongful dismissal suit even after tossing an employee into a bottomless pit. It's simultaneously hilarious, bonkers, and mundane. ⁠

Come for the monster peen, stay for the riffs on late stage capitalism. We loved it.

12-Word Summaries:

Meg: Lily’s working for the Man every day. Make that: the Necromancer Lord…⁠

Laine: Don't you hate bosses who keep you guessing about their corporeal form?⁠
Profile Image for Desirée Niccoli.
Author 10 books165 followers
October 22, 2021
Fantastic monster office romance! So sweet and hot and funny, I loved every bit of it and the worldbuilding was perfect and so well done. And that’s not easy to do with a novella.

- - -
Spoilers territory:

Omg I’m horrible but I was cracking up when Lich Lord Soven opens up a pit in the floor and pushes Randall in (he asks our FMC Lily on coffee date). And Lily is like wtf and the lich just says “downsizing” 🤣💀

My heart melted when he gave her his phylactery. 🥺
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for RLbooks (in and out).
1,000 reviews482 followers
September 6, 2022
3.5 stars

Quick and light read with a lot of steam and humor. This was an unusual and quirky paranormal office romance between an evil lord and his personal assistant. He also has a little extra going on underneath his cloak. Told in first person, heroine’s POV. No ow drama, brief om drama where the boss gets jealous and reacts strongly, h is a virgin and no specifics on H, no bc used.
Profile Image for Athanasia ♥︎ .
393 reviews31 followers
March 26, 2023
The idea was good ...the execution..mediocre...

Love,laugh, lich could have been a deliciously sinful tale full of mystery and romance... IF the romance was more developt more like at all and the mystery was actually explained rather than be mentioned TWICE.... Someone is trying to kill this dude and we should just ignore it, because his triple dick is finally getting some with his secretary??? ... come on...

Moreover, the characters lacked any personality and all of them felt like the same person!

Also, the ending was so abrupt that i thought there was a problem with my ebook... all in all it felt like a promotion sample...


Tags:
Virgin FMC 🌮💦👅
Paranormal MMC👻👹😈
Explicit Content 👀✨😈
Contemporary setting🚝🗾🗼
Insecurities 😵‍💫⚠️
Learning intimacy💁👌😍
🎇MMC HAS THREE D*CKS 🍆🍆🍆🎇
double penetration🍆🍑💦
monster smut👺👾🤤
Profile Image for Lia Reads.
539 reviews473 followers
March 31, 2025
I honestly really enjoyed this book. It was unhinged and a little out there, but overall I really liked the story line. I love how it was an office romance.

It’s a novella so of course it was fast paced, but I do wish we got a little more story. I would have read the full version of this.
Profile Image for Becky (romantic_pursuing_feels).
1,289 reviews1,725 followers
May 21, 2025
Note: Some of my goodreads shelves can be spoilers

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (This is a shorter story and I felt like I didn’t know much about either mains background)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes, it’s hilarious
Perspective: first person from the heroine only except the very end of the book has POV of Janice, a side character
More character focused or plot focused? charcacter
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: immediately
Cliffhanger: This ends with a happy for now for the mains
Epilogue: No
Format: listened to audiobook from the library (Hoopla)
Why I chose this book: it was recommended by a member of our A Love Less Ordinary group when asked for monster romance
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a lich hero and human heroine
(Descriptions found at end of my review)

Should I read in order?
This is the first in Prior’s Claws and Cubicles series.

Basic plot:
Lily begins to help her boss, the Lich, when she realizes he’s outsourcing for things for his ritual – like a shiver across skin. She has skin after all...

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary setting
- monster romance
- lich hero
- workplace romance with employer/employee dynamic – she works for him (secretary/personal assistant)
- never been kissed heroine
- he gifts her flowers
- medium steam – 2 full scenes in a shorter page count

Ages:
- I didn’t catch either

First line:
I never knew working at an office job would be this soul sucking.

My thoughts:
This book was SO fun! I liked it so much more than I was expecting. The writing was great and it was steamy and hilarious. My only knowledge of liches comes from fighting them in Oblivion lol and this one was so enticing once he….derobed. This made me want to read all the Kate Prior books! Super fun.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: This is my first
Average rating from me: 5 stars
Favorite book: This one by default

Cock/Hero Stats:


Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)


Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:


Extra stuff like what my review breakdowns mean, where to find me, and book clubs
Profile Image for Lori R..
1,411 reviews71 followers
November 12, 2022
Not gonna lie, when I heard there were extra appendages in this story, I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop my curiosity from making me one-click. No judgies.

If this short story was meant to bring out the laughs, with no emotion or feelings and very little swooning, then it did its job. At times I felt I was missing something. I wanted/needed more. It was…interesting to say the least. I think if I would’ve been able to connect with the Lich Lord, maybe I would’ve enjoyed this more?
Profile Image for Alex (HEABookNerd).
2,449 reviews
November 22, 2022
The idea of an office romance combined with monsters intrigued me so I had to try LOVE, LAUGH, LICH and it certainly got a few chuckles out of me. I liked Lily as a character but we don't know a whole lot about her or the world. There are a few hints dropped about when the Dark Lord took over but it's very unclear what that actually means for the greater world outside the Evil, Inc. offices. I also wish we learned more about Soven because all we really know is that he's occasionally a dork and he has some interesting monster anatomy.

Lily spends a lot of this novella worried that she doesn't mean anything to Soven and that she's just a means to an end for his rituals but honestly, I'm not sure if Soven means anything to her. She only seems to be interested in his physical attributes and when I finished this book I wasn't completely sold on their feelings. It also ends a bit abruptly so that was jarring.

All that being said, I do plan to read book 2 because I enjoyed Kate Prior's writing style and I can see the potential in this series and set up.
Profile Image for Christi (christireadsalot).
2,811 reviews1,456 followers
February 11, 2023
2.5 stars. Lily is a personal assistant to Soven, the Dark Lich Lord. Her boss is undead and she can’t stop wondering what’s under his black robes. Soon she finds out and gets a major surprise when she sees he has 3 🍆🍆🍆!

So this read was kind of strange because the world/setting didn’t make much sense. Corporate world but with talk of an economic collapse, social upheaval, and the Dark Reign of Terror, with the lich hero now her boss. She starts helping him out with magic-collecting by offering up things for him to collect like her shivers and first kiss. He gets possessive, in a kind of sweet way? Guess I just wanted more plot or something to the story to keep me interested, because the characters and story kind of fell flat for me. 🤷🏼‍♀️
Profile Image for Elly.
141 reviews85 followers
January 10, 2024
I loved it!
It was a funny and light and well written novella about office romance between the Dark Lord that conquered the world/CEO and his personal assistant.
Honestly, it made me laugh on multiple occasions xd
Displaying 1 - 30 of 987 reviews

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