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If I’m being very honest, nothing makes me happier than reading a book by an author I love, then checking out their backlist only to find even more amazing books like the one I just read and enjoyed.
I absolutely love going through an author’s backlist, and I really encourage people to do that.
As much as I love keeping up with new book releases every single month (you can check out my other post where I talk all about the new books coming out this year), I always recommend going back to an author’s previous books.
First, because you’re supporting them; second, because you’re helping keep their books in circulation; and third, because you’re having fun doing what you love most – reading.
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And, you don’t have to keep waiting for new releases when there’s already a whole lot of their older books to enjoy in the meantime.
Anyway, I read The Longing by this particular author a few days ago and I loved it so much that I decided to get three more books from her catalog.
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I’ve read all of them and loved them so much, and I’ll be dropping reviews for each one.
This is the first of the three that I read, and let me tell you – it’s simply the most monstrously amazing monster romance novel ever.
I’ve been on a bit of a monster romance binge recently, and this particular author really stands out of the many I’ve read. In The Longing, I adored the characters and just knew I needed to read more by her.
Though I will tell you now that in all her books (at least the ones I’ve read), the primary conflict tends to get resolved in a rather lukewarm way. It doesn’t ruin the book at all, but it does soften the tension slightly. Still, the romance, the chemistry, and the characters’ growth more than make up for it.
This author always makes her characters work for their happily-ever-after, and that’s no different here.
In this story, our male lead, Blain, is essentially indentured as a fighter, while our female lead, Izzy, was kidnapped from Earth and brought to this pleasure planet to work in a brothel. But she plans to leave as soon as she’s saved up enough money.
Our male lead hates being touched and is extremely violent due to years spent in the fighting rings. His overseers don’t like this situation and try to fix him by bringing him to a pleasure house to see if any of the girls can break him.
Through a series of events, our female lead ends up in his room and he becomes obsessed with her.
This is when their romance truly starts. From here, we get to see Blayn slowly piece together the fragments of memories hidden in his mind to figure out who he really is. We also see Izzy reach for the life she actually wants and hold it tightly with both hands.
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There’s a lot of development happening for both of them at every point in the story, which, as I said earlier, this author always does to perfection. Her characters are never just sitting around waiting for love to find them; they’re always on the move, working toward their happiness.
Just like in The Longing, our male lead here isn’t very aware of what sexual attraction is.
He doesn’t really understand much about mating because, remember, he’s been brainwashed into becoming a ruthless gladiator for his overseers.
So when he meets our female lead for the first time, and his body starts reacting in ways he’s unfamiliar with, it’s something he has to grapple with.
But the two of them figure things out together. She gently explains to him what attraction means and helps calm him in a way that makes him less aggressive toward touch, which was her intention from the beginning.
The villains in this book are his overseers, who are reluctant to let their best gladiator go. So there’s plenty of fighting and drama, so they come out of it not unscathed, but better for it.
While reading this book, I couldn’t help but think about this Chinese drama I watched a couple of years ago, Love and Redemption. The male lead in that drama also had big wings – even though he was more of a pacifist, which is totally the opposite of what our main character here is. But I just couldn’t help drawing the line between them.
So, if you like winged male leads and you’re not opposed to watching Asian dramas, you should probably check out that Chinese drama. It made me cry buckets, but it was worth every minute. (It’s pretty long, though – if I remember correctly, it’s over 50 episodes.)
As usual, this author made me super curious about all the other characters in the book. I want to read all their stories as soon as possible. I’m definitely going to make sure I get copies of all the books in the series that are available. That’s how hooked I am.
I really love it when side characters are made interesting in a natural way that is neither forced nor overly obvious.
It’s not like their stories are being shouted in your face, and they don’t even necessarily get full POV chapters. But they’re still so compelling. I love when that happens, and I really want to check out all the other gladiators’ books.
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All in all, this was such a sweet romance, as I always expect from this author. And as I said before, I’m definitely going to check out all the other books in the series.
I really love monster romance novels – I think it’s my favorite sub-genre at this point – so I’m always looking for recommendations.
If you’ve read any lovely, sweet, super spicy monster romances you think people (and I) should read, drop them in the comments below.
And if you want to check out even more amazing monster romance books, I’ve written a post with all my top recommendations.
But if you want to see my detailed thoughts on the ones I’ve been reading and loving lately, just head over to my Book Reviews page – you’ll see that’s basically all I’ve been reading recently.
