📖 - 280 pages

3 chili peppers 🌶️ on the spice scale.
Genre: monster romance (maybe a little thriller, maybe a little sci-fi)
POV: Single 
Ending: HEA

I absolutely LOVED this book! As someone who reads monster romance and horror almost exclusively, this was such a great story! 

I loved the tension in this book, there were so many details that added an undertone of concern or fear as you get tiny bits about what is going on in the bigger picture as you follow Jules and Mack as they go from online friends on a fish forum to a romance neither can deny despite knowing their tiny worlds have their limits.  

For the first half of this book it doesn't feel like a romance, it feels like a thriller, possibly because of Jules agoraphobic personality seeing most of the world as scary, but as the plot progresses and the outside world gets involved. there are so many little but concerning things happening that make you worry for Jules then once the romance happens you almost forget about them until you realize it's not in her head and actually happening. The ending was so not what I expected considering the start of this book. What a wild ride of a story. 

Tropes - 
Mental health rep
Fish daddy 
People becoming monsters
Fancy equipment 
Fated mates
Multiple worlds
Stalker neighbor
Healthy poly rep 
Fish puns 
Slow burn
Self love/accepting yourself rep 

Content warnings - 
Stalker neighbor 
Abuse of power 
Toxic parent 
Deep depression
Suicide attempt (on page, unsuccessful)
Bodily harm
Talk of SA (past tense, not described) 
Hate speech (against monsters)

My Spice Rating - 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
1 🌶️- May include hands, more kissing, "fade to black" scenes. No open door spice.
2 🌶️🌶️ - Spice happens, but it isn't often. May include open door scenes but they're infrequent or rare.
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Spice happens more often and it is more detailed, Spice is part of the plot, or the book is 50/50 spice to plot.
4 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - More spice than plot, may contain kinky themes.
5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Absolute smut. Very little plot, sex heavy. The spicy scenes are very explicit, may contain triggering or dangerous themes, Dark romances and erotica.

Thank you to the author for my copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. You can find more of my reviews on all social platforms under the username ThisCryptidReads.