All Yours: A Steamy Monster Romance

Apex #1

by Vicky Walklate

She should be horrified. Terrified. Fleeing, pleading for her life. Yet here she was, swaying into the monstrous creature before her, her body on fire, desperate for his touch.

♥♥♥

After the death of her mentor, wildlife park manager Cleo struggles to cope with her grief and loneliness. When her creepy new boss reveals his prized possession: a bizarre, crocodile-shaped statue, she doesn’t think much of it. But as it turns out, there’s much more to this statue than meets the eye.

As Cleo agonises over the park’s shaky future, a freak accident causes a mysterious monster to come to her aid. Raukra bears a striking resemblance to the statue and is as fascinated by Cleo as she is by him. His teeth, claws, and overwhelming dominance send her wild with desire as he takes her for his own. As their bond deepens, a shocking truth about Raukra is revealed. In mortal danger, her courage is put to the ultimate test. She must decide who to trust in order to save the park – and herself.

♥♥♥

ADVISORY: This ~19k word monster romance novelette features high heat scenes between a human and a monster. Please use the ‘look inside’ feature for content notes/warnings or check the book’s page on Goodreads. Further details can also be found on the author’s website.

Genres: Romance, Monsters, Monster Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Novella

108 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 2021

About the author

Vicky Walklate is a romance author from Norfolk, UK. She writes full length novels about dragon gods, and spicy novellas about predator monsters. She loves all things monstrous and magical in romance.

Reviews

[sarah ♡]

our culture needed a hot crocodile zaddy and vicky walklate delivered

[Hal]

arc provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

So, maybe crocodile demon monsters are going up my list of favourite monsters because!! I loved Raukra from the second he spoke. He was dominating, assertive and oh so hot!

I liked Cleo too— she was stubborn and held her ground despite the fact that she landed in the water with a literal gator demon (which was hilarious). I loved the two of them together, they make a great team!

I wish we had a bit more buildup with the villain of the story but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to read more from Vicky Walklate!

4/5⭐️

[♥ a r o a ♥]

1/5 ⭐️ All Yours? Not for Me ✖

All Yours by Vicky Walklate attempts to weave a monster romance within a fantastical setting, but it falls flat due to a rushed narrative ༄ Despite some intriguing world-building elements, the story lacks some depth to make the main romance compelling ‹𝟹

This novella is presented as the first installment in the ❝Apex❞ series, introducing a world where human-monster dynamics merges with strands of urban fantasy ☾𖤓

► What works ↓

✓ Fascinating fantasy elements ground the story in an imaginative premise ☾⭑: gods manifesting in animal forms add a mythical layer, while portals to a demonic realm create opportunities for otherworldly conflict and exploration 𓆩😈𓆪

✓ Pacts with demons 💀: this premise introduces a compelling magical system 🔮

► What doesn’t work ↓

✗ The female protagonist is poorly developed: Cloe’s motivations and personal growth are null, making it hard to connect with her journey ⚠︎

✗ The relationship with the crocodile demon is utterly unbelievable: they jump straight into intimacy without any background, which undermines any sense of authenticity or emotional progression ✖

► In conclusion ↓

All Yours by Vicky Walklate has sparks of originality in its worldbuilding premise, but these are overshadowed by weak character development and a romance that prioritizes ❝sex scenes over real feelings❞ ♡

In my opinion, the more psychological complexity, the better, but as is, this one earns a reluctant 1/5 ⭐️

[Bon]

At first I was a little hesitant at the power dynamics here, but by 30% I was all in. So much juicy plot crammed into so little book. And Raukra was a really unique monster 👀 And full claws, teeth, and tail?! YES.

[Izzah ꒰Duchess of Cabria ಇ ⭑✧ ᴏɴ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ ✧ ⋆꒱]

Wuss hero

Chosen for the 2024 reading bingo challenge ✧˖°.🎧📖

You know why I read monster romance? Because they are monsters. They scare the bad guys out there. Hell, they are the baddest guyest out there!
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🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[K.C.]

Hot croc and his lady!
An unusual encounter with lots of steamy scenes, monster love, and just enough plot to keep it together. ♥👌🐊 A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Be sure to get yourself the bonus scene too! 🔥

[Angelique Migliore]

I've never one-clicked a newsletter subscription [in order to get bonus content] so fast in all my life.
Can't wait for the other stories in the universe!

[V.P. Nightshade]

Great Monster Novella!

This is the first book I have read by this author and I must say that I enjoyed it very much. Though a short read the characters were quite well developed. This is a pretty steamy read! If you like short steamy monster romance then I recommend that you try this series!

[Desirée Niccoli]

Crocodile demon + wildlife park manager. Outside sexy times are my favorite, and we get one of those here ;) This was an enjoyable little monster romance, and the All Yours bonus epilogue for email subscribers teases more in-universe monster romance in 2022 with a wicked cliffhanger. I am so looking forward to reading more!

[Poppy || Monster Lover]

Weird, but has its moments

So the spice was fun and the characters had some good chemistry. But I want to understand the draw between them. Or the MMCs powers.

Spice: 4/5

Triggers: dubcon, attempted murder, grief

[m.]

3 STARS

It's gonna sound weird but considering the long list of "triggers" for this one (which are definitely presented as more of a tease of what's supposedly in the book than as a proper warning), I was expecting the smut to be a lot darker and more deliciously depraved? But there was really none of that whatsoever and instead the smut was kinda really vanilla. Or like, what vanilla people think "kinky" is... lol. 🥴

That being said, if you don't get too excited about the "trigger warnings" like I did and just read it for some quick and sweet monster smut, then you'll probably enjoy it!

[Honest Mabel]

2.5 rounded up

It’s okay. I mean I didn’t find it particularly juicy because it was slow to build up with background but rips right into the sexiness quickly. I find a balance is perfect for the shorter ones and this didn’t have that balance

[Theo]

Starts off pretty sexy and then gets increasingly silly. Cleo, the zookeeper, falls for a crocodile man, who may be a demon from another dimension that can grant immortality, and they must fight an evil capitalist.

[Wicked Fox ✨️]

All Yours with a crocodile demon monster? Sign me up.
✔️ Dirty talking
✔️"Pet"
Such a fun read 💜

[Tieraney]

heinous hours brings you this gem

LOL man wtf 😂😂

[Phylicia]

The Daddy Croc you didn’t know you needed!

Wow this is a really hilarious and creative read! Daddy Croc energy with a sassy brat! Loved it! Very random monster read but good plot and storyline to match the randomness! First of mine from this author and I enjoyed it!

[Katie O’Reilly]

I absolutely love how this author goes all in with the monsters. This is not a man with some scales, this is a straight-up crocodile demon with a snout.

Loved every leathery bit of him, the only problem was that the FMC Cleo spent much of the novella begging and hoping for Raukra to have sex with her, and I wanted some more power and dominance from him, instead of being cock-blocked by the zoo owner. Still, I really enjoyed it!

[TreeFlower]

⭐️⭐️💫 (2.5)
🌶️🌶️

This short, spicy read was a lot of fun! The storyline progressed a little rapidly but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It definitely set the tone for the series and I can say that in all my monster romance reads I’ve never encountered a romantic interest quite like this one.

[Elizabeth Litch]

Me lo he leído un poco de jajas la verdad, por despejarme del bloqueo lector. Me ha hecho gracia porque es todo muy intensito

[Meagan]

A pretty mindless read. For something that is labeled as a steamy monster romance there was barely any steam and the romance was meh.

[Rachelqueenvixen]

Here for the vibes and spice

[guapito.reynolds04]

reseña pendiente

[Sop]

1,5 stars. This was boring af. I only finished it because the book was short.

[sharron Whales]

A monster, a villaIn and a Lover!

All entwined in this fast paced, well written, short story. Compelling and imaginative, Cleo fears abandonment and finds romance in a most unusual partner. A real roller coaster of emotions and desires. Loved it!

[Funkypinkpat]

This was a quick fun read. Was it perfect? No. The power dynamics in the beginning were a little iffy for my taste.
However...
Did I enjoy this crocodile looking demon smut? Yes, yes I did.
Will I read more of these? Probably

[Angela]

Despite giving it only 3 stars, I did enjoy it. To a point. The length of it,in my opinion, hurt it. And it just ended. No epilogue. Nothing. So much potential. Not as satisfying as I had hoped.

[Darva Green]

I’ve been excited since I heard about this novelette—I mean, a crocodile demon who’s into spanking and praise sounds like a great premise to me.
But damn, sometimes a story really lives up to the hype and ends up being even more fun than you were hoping for, and this was one of those stories.
I loved Raukra and his instant connection with Cleo. I never thought I’d be wishing for a giant crocodile man to sling me over his shoulder and show me who’s boss, but here we are.
In addition to the steamy scenes this story was great in general and Cleo was surprisingly relatable. A fun quick read you should definitely pick up.

[Kat Turner]

Super steamy with just the right amount of plot and wonderful characters, All Yours is a perfect bite-sized story for monster love fans.

[Tori]

This is batshit. In the best way. Like...he's a crocodile demon that ends up meeting our FMC when a mysterious dude moves in and takes over the zoo the FMC has put her heart and soul into. And he's like skulking around the zoo at night and sneaking in bangarangs with the FMC. AND there's a portal to the demon world in the zoo?? Alright cool cool. This was darker than I expected in the like..demon summoning and sacrifice way, but it was also really fun and smutty without taking itself too serious. It's novella length and I think novellas are the hardest to write and give a satisfying story. But I enjoyed it so much! Vicky Walklate has one hell of an imagination because this was a REALLY cool set-up with a like. happy for now ending? I don't want to spoil anything but I hope our FMC gets murdery. All I'm saying.

[Courtney]

The Apex Series features monster demons who are very smitten and protective of their humans! These demons are not humanoid at all and by default are terrifying… but the love and tenderness they show for their mates is so sweet! This series gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me!

I got the first book, All Yours, for free on a BookFunnel promo and oh my god I was immediately hooked. I instantly bought the whole series because I couldn’t get enough of the world that was built up and these demons!

There’s magic, demon portals, primal/feral demons, strong FMC’s, and some badass fighting! Also the spice is sooooo good! Who knew spicy scenes with horrifying looking demons could be so hot! 🥵

Each book intertwines with their plots and characters so I definitely recommend reading in order. For instance, the FMC’s in books 1 and 3 are sisters! I also love the set up for what might be the next book! 🦑?