A review by xxivo
The Nettle and the Nightmare by Alora Black

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Oh gosh this book was so much fun.

This novella starts off with a lot of fighting and I really enjoyed those scenes. They're flashy and fun and had the right kind of excitement while never feeling overwhelming (as I sometimes struggle with). The fighting isn't constant through the book and definitely happens less in the later half of the book, but this novella more than makes up for it by making them high stakes and very intense. I enjoyed the way the bodies were described moving and all of the tension throughout the fight. For me this was definitely one of the strengths of this novella.

Then for the romance that I'm sure a lot of readers pick this up for I have to say it totally delivered. This book has such a good femdom romance interest I ate it up. The love interest is dominant in the right ways and so absolutely caring it made my heart melt. There is so much tenderness right from the start I couldn't help but root for them to come together. I liked it a lot as well that the love interest was polyamorous and this only added to the love shared between the main character and her. They all just fit really well together.

To end with the absolute best part of this book I have to mention a certain scene while trying not to spoil too much. So there is this smutty exhibition scene and my god that was hot. I love love love how that scene went down. It was so erotic to read the main character watching all what went down and then her reacting to it. Gosh my kink in this might run deeper than I expected but damn folks it was something. So if this is a kink of yours, just pick up this novella, you can easily read it in an evening while having a lot of fun *wink wink*.
 
I received an eARC and this was my honest review.