My Selling Pitch:
Marginally better than the first, but still a generic, cozy, urban fantasy, queer, monster romance that progresses too quickly to read as anything other than instalove with a distracting amount of disordered eating.

On my do not read list.

Pre-reading: Samantha, if you didn’t like the first one, why would you continue? Because I’m a slut for cute covers and stupidly requested the second before I finished the first one.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on) Thick of it: Me last book: there’s no point to the brother! This book: he’s the mmc Me: well shit.

Dude, what is with her drinking water fetish haha? It’s like the only casual dialogue she knows how to include.

Kinda weird to meet someone and immediately draw soft core of them. Just sayin.

You know, not my kink, but I respect it. The dirty talk kind of kicks.

What kind of conspiracy theory is it that every emotionally stunted man’s favorite food is lasagna?

This book just will not chill with the disordered eating!

He’s got a lot of autism coding for someone that doesn’t read as autistic in the text. The dialogue is not working for me.

Imagine being 600 years old and still insecure.

I’d try a drug, maybe it would heal my childhood trauma is crazy work. Men will do anything but therapy lmao.

Now that she pointed it out, how does the Kraken go to the bathroom because don’t some sea creatures do it out their mouths or something? (Samantha watches too much Nat Geo.)

Post-reading: Look, it was better than the first one, but it’s still not good! Even though this book had the relationship move publicly slower, it still felt like instalove in private. Fated mates is a hard trope to slow-burn, but I’m not even asking for that. I just wanna see more development than oh shit, they’re hot, guess I want to spend my entire life with them. I feel like this book was hinting that Reece might have autism, but it never felt like it. I need some better dialogue or public shutdowns or stimming activities besides an offhand comment that he doesn’t like wearing socks. Especially when you’ve got Heated Rivalry and Ali Hazelwood leading the charge on that representation front.

The urban fantasy world continues to be neglected with no monster-friendly accommodations made. We get infodumped about the alternative anatomy, but she fails to mention how Krakens go to the bathroom, and now I’m left wondering if it’s a functionally immortal like a jellyfish sort of situation, because both squids and octopi have buttholes. A wild thing to write in a review for sure, but I like my fantasies to keep their logic tight. It’s sexier.

Which, speaking of, the smut in this wasn’t bad. Distinctly not my kink, but a better time than last book’s doggy style. Believe me, we’re all surprised.

Unfortunately, the generic cozy romance of it all is once again overshadowed by incredibly disordered thoughts about food. They’ll send him to therapy for his daddy issues, but someone needs to get on this town about their obsession with maintaining a calorie deficit. I will quite happily take less abs if I could stop hearing about how every date is a cheat meal.

I think if you’re really into tentacles, you can kill a few hours with this and not be outrageously disappointed, but if that’s not your journey, I think you can safely give this a skip.

Who should read this: Cozy monster romance fans

Ideal reading time: Summer

Do I want to reread this: No

Would I buy this: No

Similar books:

• Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch-urban fantasy, queer romance, enemies to lovers, family drama
• Sweet Berries by C. M. Nascosta-cozy, urban fantasy, monster romance
• The Build-A-Boyfriend Project by Mason Deaver-contemporary, queer romance, trans, autism
• Taken by the Alien Next Door by Tiffany Roberts-cozy, urban fantasy, alien romance
• Transcontinental Breakfast by Thundertail Slapbush-urban fantasy, object smut, queer romance, family drama

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.