discardeddustjacket's reviews
315 reviews

This was so sweet! I think one of the marks of a fantastic novella, is when you feel like there’s a whole full-length novel’s-worth of character arc, complete with tension and buildup. 

This book surprised me in that regard. It really felt a lot longer than it was, not because of pacing issues or anything, but because Hibbert achieves so much emotional investment in such a short amount of time.

I wanted to love this book so so much. I really tried to, but I just didn’t. I loved the first book with my whole heart, but something just felt missing with this one.

Maybe I just don’t do mysteries, because this story had a very who-done-it murder mystery vibe to it. I don’t know enough about that sort of genre fiction to know whether or not the sort-of claustrophobic setting is a staple of these types of stories, but the entire book taking place on the ship made it a bit boring to me.

I really really liked the romance. Violet and Maud’s relationship was one of the high points of this story for me, as well as the the reluctant alliance of Hawthorne and Ross.

It was just that overall, the plot progression felt like wading through molasses. 

This is a beautiful, surprisingly tender story about queer love. The plot is very… contained, if that makes sense. It’s simple; localized. 

There’s a lot you, as the reader, don’t know and are never told about all the events prior to the beginning of the book, and while that seemed a bit distracting at first, once I discarded my need to have the entire backstory explained to me and simply focused on appreciating the story being told for what it is, I began to really enjoy it.

If I can nitpick for a moment, I will say I thought the characters developed very strong feelings for  one another unbelievably fast. I was surprised at times toward the beginning by their level of affection, when there hadn’t seemed to have been enough preliminary interaction to warrant it. I understand this is a short book though, so the pace is going to need to move quickly.

I don’t know why I allowed this to sit on my TBR untouched for so long. It was an utter delight—a pleasure to read.

There’s some authors whose writing style make reading their books like swimming upstream. Not that it’s bad, but it just feels incongruent with the way your mind works, and so digesting the words takes effort and concentration. Then there’s some who just have a way of crafting sentences that feels so satisfying. Like a scalp massage. That was the way it felt to read this book, for me. 

The prose was so elegant and yet accessible. And the characters! So achingly endearing, it almost hurt. I loved this book. A lot.

Wow, Elliot is such a good writer! This is a tough book, and the some of the stories shared in it are pretty gut-wrenching, but his talent for writing with depth and emotion really shines throughout.

I’ve seen people discussing how the non-chronological organization of the chapters made it hard to follow, but I didn’t have much of a problem with that. I saw this less as a “here’s the story of my life from beginning to current events laid out in linear fashion,” and more of like “here are a collection of snapshots, moments in time laid out across the floor, that form a picture of my life.”

This book re-wrote my brain chemistry.

When I opened it and saw that the content warnings included (among other things): fem-dom top, FMC with vaginismus and aversion to penetration, pegging, etc. I thought “idk about this..”

It was certainly like nothing I’ve read before, but I loved it. LOVED it!! I highly recommend it, even if (or maybe especially if) it doesn’t sound like “your thing.” I didn’t think it would be mine either, but these characters are so sweet and desperately lovable.

I really really appreciated that Lily Mayne wrote an FMC with vaginismus, because that’s something that doesn’t get enough representation in romance/erotica considering how common it is in real life. Not only that, but she chose to make that character someone who isn’t interested in penetration anyway, because she didn’t want to make the FMC’s condition something that needed to be “solved.” I respect that decision so much! It was absolutely the right call. There is no limit to the ways sexual intimacy can look between consenting adults, and heterosexual sex that doesn’t involve p-in-v penetration is so valid!!

I also really really cannot stress enough how much I thought the soft fem-dom/sub-bottom dynamic not only fit perfectly with these characters, but also how important it is to include that sort of representation in monster romances specifically. 

I think one of my biggest complaints about monster romances that I’ve read, is that they tend to fall into this trap of gender essentialism (the masculine-presenting character must be, by nature, the dominant one in the pairing), since you usually have an MMC who is big and strong and could crush the FMC if he wanted. (I understand that primal kink typically has a large role in these types of stories, which, by its nature, leans into gender essentialism quite a bit.)

But including an MMC who is soft-spoken, anxious, tender-hearted, and whose primary desire is to get high, watch tv, and eat takeout—who is not only sexually submissive, but who struggles with a lot of shame over his desires because society as a whole as well as previous partners have made him feel lesser for it?? How IMPORTANT that representation is, specifically within the context of a monster romance.

Not to mention the book itself is well-written and the pacing is perfect. The narrative doesn’t get bogged down by unnecessary, tedious scenes like work shifts (which, a book this long, easily could have), and instead focuses mostly on the relationship. There’s  very low stakes, no third-act breakup, just a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and sweetness.

What a delightful little treat. I’m glad I didn’t give up on the series after disliking the second book, because I really enjoyed this! 

Are there holes in the plot that left me with some questions? Absolutely.

Like why have we still not gotten any real explanation as to who Alexis is? And why does she always seem to just appear out of nowhere, serve whatever purpose she needs to in order to further the plot, then just… disappear suddenly like the author didn’t want to bother coming up with something to do with her?

 

But it you’re just looking for a light, fun read (assuming you’ve read the other installments in the series), this book delivers.

Truly, the brilliance of this series cannot be overstated. Like any second installment in a trilogy, this book could have easily plateaued, but it didn’t. The added perspective of additional points of view kept the plot engaging (and, per the norm for this series apparently) heartbreaking.

This was such a unique story concept and world; I was pleasantly surprised by that. A steampunk underwater city occupied by selkies? So cool! The disability representation as well as trans and non-binary representation was really great as well. 

The reason it didn’t get a higher rating from me was more a matter of personal preference. Sometimes I struggle to push through fantasy in first person POV when it spends a large chunk of the narrative waxing philosophical inside the protagonist’s head. That’s just a me thing though. I would for sure recommend this to anyone who enjoys queer sci-fi/fantasy.

I just KNEW as soon as we met Kenan and Lotus in the first book, that I wanted to read their story as soon as I finished. And this book did not disappoint; I liked it even better than Long Shot.

As always, Ms. Ryan breaks our heart but she puts it back together. I cried so many times during this book, and the love story is so beautiful (the Song of Solomon quotes? Are you kidding me?? *sobs*)