Reviews From This Past Week
The Company of Fiends by Kathryn Moon
Release Date: June 23, 2022
Content Notes
Poly Romance
Pet Play
Daddy Dom
BDSM
Fluids
Exhibitionism
Parental Emotional Abuse
Loose Serial Killer
Off-page Sexual Abuse
If you enjoyed A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon, you need to pick up a Company of Fiends. Moon has polished her approach to poly romance while turning up the heat on Birsha. The second installment of the Tempting Monsters series is settling up the pieces for what sounds like a thrilling third installment.
If there was a missing piece to A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor, it was romantic relationships between Esther‘s gentlemen. Moon could have easily explored the sexual relationship between Dr. Underwood and Auguste more deeply. The Company of Fiends feels like she may have thought the same. The company makes Hazel’s polycule even more tightly joined than Esther’s. The orgies are more frequent. The scenes are hotter. They are varied. If you get bored with all the different scenes, I stand in awe of your greater imagination.
I’m looking forward to what Moon will do with Isabella and especially Asterion, who I have been rooting for a HEA since A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor. Isabella has been introduced as a character with so much development to achieve. I will be curious about where the story ultimately goes.
Monsters in Love #2: Lost in the Dark
Release Date: September 29, 2022
Levels of spice will vary.
Content Notes
Murder
Somnophilia
Fated Mates
Life-endangerment
Past Trauma
Darkness
My top story picks for this anthology in no particular order:
🖤 “Sins and Sirens” Clio Evans
🖤 “Hold My Heart ” Dee St. Holm
🖤 “The Filled Vessel” CM Nascosta
🖤 “The Dalwick Demon” Ashley Bennett
The timing of this anthology’s publication has been ideal. The “darkness” theme is perfectly suited for the autumn-into-winter time of year as days shorten. I especially recommend this anthology for those who want to explore stories with demons while getting that usual bang for their buck and discovering new authors when it comes to buying up anthologies.
This anthology personally felt rather demon-heavy. I wasn’t surprised by the amount of page time nighttime gets in this anthology. I was surprised perhaps by the emphasis on demons and demon-like characters. In retrospect though, it doesn’t not make sense. Demons aren’t known as creatures of the light. They just aren’t the only creatures associated with darkness.
It was an enlightening reading experience because I’ve discovered I’m not as big of a demon fan as I thought. Does that mean I don’t like demon stories? Hardly!
I did find it interesting I was most excited by “darkness” interpretations like “Hold my Heart” and “Sins and Sirens” which focused on dark environments and characters in the moral as much as physical sense. Also, the creatures in those stories are not demons (trolls and mermaids respectively). I’m probably just a dark romance freak like that so keep that bias in mind as you read this review.
Currently Reading
ARC Read!
Release Date: November 4, 2022
To Be Read
Housekeeping
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