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Reviews From This Past Week
The Ogre’s Pet by Kassandra Cross
Release Date: August 18, 2022
Content Notes
Human-eating MMC
SA/SH Survivor FMC
Off-page murder
On page sexual harassment
He eats her (out)
Kassandra Cross took The Ogre’s Pet down a messed-up path that I’d have to call this a low-key good Halloween pick. It is both grim and somehow validating for survivors of sexual assault and harassment.
Readers should be ready for a bit of a macabre story that is one part disturbing but also satisfying for anyone who has dealt with sexual assault. The Ogre acts like a morally grey harbinger of doom for the men and represents those who did the FMC wrong.
My hesitancy in giving a five-star rating isn’t the gore. I have a strong stomach and it felt like a kind of grim fairy tale. I felt the FMC had to carry the brunt of the story development. The ogre doesn’t experience growth. There’s always a foreboding sense that one day he might tire of the FMC and eat her, too. That deflated the sense of victory I felt for the FMC.
Made Beast by Charlotte Powers
Release Date: December 14, 2022
Content Notes
Beauty and the Beast Retelling
On-page Torture
Mafia Don MMC
Alphahole MMC
Marriage of Convenience
Mafia Romance
Forced Proximity
Enemies to Lovers
Made Beast by Charlotte Powers is a dark, but sexy retake of Beauty and the Beast. If you can take the mafia-appropriate violence and misogyny this is a fun read.
This book kept me on my toes for a good chunk of the story. Especially when the FMC is in danger, I had a hard time putting down the book even as I was suffering a migraine! That’s how addicted I was to the action!
If I had a singular complaint, I would have liked a crap ton more groveling. There is some groveling, which is great. The MMC does apologize, but a part of me wanted Lucia to make him work for it a little more. Possibly though it had to do with how young she is (only about 20, going on 21). I am a woman over ten years older than that so that might be my bias there. I cross my fingers for even better groveling in the next book about the MMC’s brother.
Currently Reading
To Be Read
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For more information about this newsletter’s spice and star system, check out this newsletter’s About Me page.