This was a highly enjoyable cozy fantasy. Honestly, one of my faves in the genre that I have read. Also reinforces my growing hypothesis that the best cozy fantasy exists despite the dark things in life instead of in the absent of those dark things.

Oaklin is a great protagonist who has a very understandable reason for rejecting his powers and wanting to keep them a secret. The town is also a place that feels so lived in and wonderful. There are also characters here that I would love to read more about.

You can tell the author is familiar with farming and the communities formed amongst people who do it because I enjoyed how farming isn't treated as just cute aesthetic backdrop. The farmers meetings and Oaklin working with them is such a great subplot too.

This one took me a bit to get into but the 2nd try made me realize why. Kianthe and Reyna don't really take the situation seriously despite that us, as the readers, are able to tell that something serious is happening. It gave the beginning a weird tone where I knew things were getting serious Kianthe and Reyna weren't treating it that way.

Once everyone got on the same page, I was able to breeze through and enjoy it a lot more.

Read this for bookclub through audiobook but finished it before realizing it was the indie version so then reread the trad published version.

I did enjoy this more than the previous book in this series. It was also interesting seeing the difference between the Indie and Trad pub versions. In the Indie version, Reece had a scary run in with a Mothman type monster but monsters were not integrated yet so his abusive dad and no one else believed him giving him the chip on his shoulder about monsters. This is completely removed in the Trad published version which I don't necessarily agree with because it makes Tegan feel a bit more petty retroactively. I felt his arc handled him processing that his distrust of monsters was misplaced anger towards his dad. I think this was removed since it seems like the trad pub version removed that monsters integrated into society recently which doesn't really work in this version of Reece's book.

The Trad published version also fixed my main critique of the original version where Tegan's and Reece's relationship got better off screen. The added scenes between them and their mom where sorely needed even if I really wish the Trad published version of Tegan's book got more room to breath on her relationship with their shitty dad.

This is a fun, short, sexy monster romance and I am excited to read the next book with the growth that Bennett has shown in this book.

While there are some tropes here that aren't my favorite, I absolutely believe that it nails the ending. There are a lot of complicated feelings going on understandably with the runaway bride, feelings that had never been spoken between daughter and father, and everything Jacob and Neelu has going on. I don't need a romance to be realistic but I do want to be swept up in the fantasy of the situation which I feel the back half does very well. I do feel people who are fans of these tropes will have a great time.