Manga Review: Monster and the Beast, Volume 1, by Renji

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: June 2019

Volumes: 2+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cavo is a hideous monster with a pure heart. Liam, on the other hand, might look like the perfect gentleman, but he's a beast on the inside, and he has an eccentric personality to boot. When Cavo rescues Liam from an unfortunate situation in the forest, the paths of the monster and the beast cross for the first time. Will their meeting be a fleeting encounter or a timeless entanglement? And will Liam succeed in leading the innocent Cavo astray?

Review:

We meet Liam as he's being attacked by some men in the woods, and Cavo comes and saves him. But we quickly discover that Liam had agreed on a trip with those men and now doesn't know which way is out, and that he's familiar with using his body to get what he wants and to get affection.

I was intrigued at the first idea of a Beauty and the Beast take with a gay relationship. I'm a little disappointed with how this pans out, though.

Liam is definitely the monster of the relationship, despite being a handsome gentlemen. Cavo is a “terrifying creature”, and yet he's gentle and sweet, and simply wants to stay by Liam's side. How Liam treats Cavo with so much uncare, and even disdain at times, really puts me off. He seems to humor Cavo at times to let him come along with him, but he doesn't act with any real kindness or affection toward him.

The ending makes me think there'll be a little twist thrown in next, but I don't know if I'm all that interested. I liked Cavo enough, but I really didn't like Liam, and I didn't really get the chemistry between them, either.

Novel Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy Romance, Fairy Tale Retelling

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)

Release Date: January 2014

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the adventure of Graceling in a dazzling fantasy novel about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. For fans of bestselling authors Kristin Cashore and Alex Flinn, this gorgeously written debut infuses the classic fairy tale with glittering magic, a feisty heroine, and a romance sure to take your breath away.

Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known that her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny. But on her seventeenth birthday when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom's mountaintop, nothing is what she expected--particularly her charming and beguiling new husband. Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can't resist the pull of her sworn enemy--who's gotten in her way by stealing her heart.

The Cover:

I absolutely love this cover. The interwoven rose petals and staircase is gorgeous, and very fitting. It shows the story very well--with it being a Beauty and the Beast retelling, as well as the place that Ignifex lives, with all the exploring Nyx does. It fits the book so well, but it's beautiful on it's own. It caught my eye before I even knew what the book was about.

Review:

"If you desired someone, if he comforted you, if you thought he might leech the poison out of your heart, was that love? Or only desperation?” (Paperback, pg. 127)

I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book. I should have picked it up forever ago—I know I heard enough good things about it.

Nyx was chosen before birth to marry the ruler of her kingdom, the man who everyone hates and fears, who is the reason they are all stuck inside this bubble of a world. And she’s been trained to kill him, even if no one truly believes it’s possible.

There’s a lot of darkness in this book. Nyx has been harboring hard feelings for her twin sister, for her father and aunt, and for the dark king she is to marry. The dark king, likely, also harbors some hard feelings for his people, the people who command him, himself. They understand that in each other.

Nyx sneaks around a lot, trying to figure out the house, to figure out how to do what her sister wanted of her. There’s the shadow for her companionship, and sometimes during the day, the king, Ignifex. It’s interesting, the house he lives in, and the world outside it. The whole world that Hodge has created is beautiful and enchanting, and I’m so intrigued. There’s a lot of mythology interwoven in the story, some magic, and I loved it. I’m sure a lot of it flew over my head, but it made me intrigued, and I liked what I understood. Even though it was a little slow, it was never boring, and it was even a little surprising near the end.

There’s also a lot of swoon. I tried not to like Ignifex from the beginning, but he surprised me at the start. He’s fun, smart, very steamy. I really liked those scenes, but there was also a lot of chemistry. I’m pretty happy with the ending, even if I don’t quite think it made sense? Either way, I’m happy with how the story ended.

The writing was gorgeous, and the characters were so complex and believable. I loved this book, and am really looking forward to reading her others.

Novel Review: Enslave: the Taming of the Beast by Cathy Yardley

Genre: Erotica Contemporary Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: HarperCollins (Red Avon)

Spoilers?: No/Minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A desperate beauty enslaved . . .
Nadia Bessonova's career-criminal father has deadly enemies--and to save him, his devoted daughter is willing to make a bargain with the devil himself. She will surrender completely, body and spirit, to the dangerous Dominic Luder, and submit to his every whim.

A tormented beast enthralled . . .
Haunted by inner demons and hiding away in his dark, secluded manor, Dominic is mesmerized by his sensuous prisoner who inflames his bestial lust. But Nadia is no mere plaything. At once fearful, willing, and wildly passionate, she brings his most breathtaking erotic fantasies to life--and thaws his cold, wounded heart.

A perilous path to a happy ending . . .
But Nadia never dreamed she'd become slave to her own desires in a savage game of seduction and revenge. And now that he has tasted ecstasy, will a jealous, magnificent beast be able to relinquish his prize?

Review:

I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much I liked this book. I try not to hold erotic or adult romance books on too high a level, mainly because I’m usually not very impressed with them. They usually have the characters jumping into things too quickly, or not very enticing characters, or not enough chemistry. They’re not usually very amazingly written stories. But sometimes I get surprised, and this book surprised me.

Now, I’m not saying that this book was amazingly written, with great characters or any of that stuff. And I’m sure that there are going to be several people that look at this book, and that read this book, and do not like what happened. But, for some reason, I did.

I found this book by chance, and thought it sounded good. And it’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which I didn’t know until I’d already started it. Finding this out made me pay more attention to certain things, and yet still didn’t make me dislike the book any more than I already did, which was not much at all.

Enslave’s main character is Nadia, one of three sisters, whose father deals with crime. And when her father goes a bit too far and ends up in Dominic’s debt, Nadia gives herself to Dominic so he won’t kill her family. And so Nadia ends up as a slave to Dominic, while her sister Jelena is trying to find a way to get her back.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the relationship between Nadia and Dominic. I probably shouldn’t, but I rather liked Dominic. He’s rough around the edges, but he actually does care for Nadia, and I liked the ending. And I liked Nadia, as well. She wasn’t too selfless, and she stood up to Dominic when it needed to be done. They had some problems with the whole, being-locked-up thing, but that worked itself out.

I was definitely surprised by what happened with Jelena. That was not a plot-line that I saw coming, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d have liked. She’s really quite the bitch, and goes overboard even if she thinks what she’s doing is right. I’m not going to say too much more on this, though, because that could be major spoilers.

I did not like Nadia and Jelena’s father. He’s, just, pathetic. And despicable. I didn’t like him, and felt the sisters should have stuck up to him way before they did.

One problem that I did have with the story, is that I wasn’t quite sure what time it was set in. Nadia’s family is from Russia, and one of them was sold as a mail-order-bride, and where they live and how they live hints at an older time, but they have very new cars and cellphones… This very well could be set in modern times, but it felt like it should have been in the past.

Oh, also: sex. There is a lot of sex in this book. Not only between Nadia and Dominic, either. And there’s some kinky stuff happening, and a threesome, and some lesbian stuff. There’s sex in almost every chapter, too, but mixed in with actual plot movement.

And even with all the sex and Jelena, I read this book really fast. It was a while ago, but it was in less than two days, I know. I was surprised with how quickly the book went by, how easy it was to get through.

So, yea, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. And if I ever stumble upon another of Yardley’s books, I will be getting it.