Opal Reyne

5 ⭐

“Welcome to the horny Duskwalker club.”

This was a hard but satisfying read for me compared to A Soul to Keep. Delora is our FMC. She's a plus-size woman who suffers from anxiety and depression because of everything going on with her life. Unlike the first book, Delora gave her soul to the Duskwalker about 10% into the book, but it doesn't mean the couple hadn't faced any difficulties. I'd say more than Reia and Orpheus, Delora and Nameless had deeper and riskier conflicts.

Nameless show more (he'll have a different name later on) is a Duskwalker who is both naive and feral due to his lack of humanity. His Mavka brother Orpheus is intelligent and can understand humans better, which is more often than not a source of Nameless' envy towards him. Because of these traits and Delora's deepening depression, they face many rocky hurdles in their relationship, and one of them is handling a Mavka pregnancy and raising it (yes, this has a pregnancy trope).

While I saw many people hating on Delora, especially in the first half of the book, I cannot say I agree. In fact, I have never read a character I've related to so much than Delora. I might not have murdered my (hypothetical) husband and his mistress, but I have struggled so much with my mental health and weight that showing it on paper was both hard and liberating to read. I had to put down my Kindle many times in order not to cry outright (I still did). The way she climbed out of her depression and eventually let go of her guilt and pains made me feel less alone in my struggles.

Hence, it took me almost a month to finish this book. But it was incredibly worth it.

Overall though, I love this book. I have never felt more seen and heard in my whole life reading a book before. There are very few (good) inclusive books published today, and I just read one of them. To my plus-size girlies struggling with their weight, mental health, and self-worth, Nameless and I hope that you feel as warm and accepted in this book as I have if you decide to read it. show less

By far my least favorite of the series. It’s almost hard to believe it was written by the same author as the rest with the exception of the section about consent.

The reason why this series is so fun is that the men aren’t like human dudes. Jabez, the MMC, is too human for this to work. It’s all the worst parts of patriarchy and tropes. Grumpy vs sunshine, age gap with the dude being hundreds of years older than the woman, she’s young and naïve and he wants to manipulate her. He’s show more all excited she’s never slept with anyone else. He’s literally the worst. And she just forgives all the horrible things he does and follows him like a child. Her only real agency is that she’s horny as hell. It’s like a pedo’s dream. Honestly I wish the series had ended with book 7 even if it meant never resolving the conflicts. show less

Another intriguingly dark monster romance. The narrators were fantastic. I adore the monsters and am pulled between sympathy and frustration at the mfc's depression, guilt, and passivity. There is some growth and change for both the FMC and MMC. It's well done how the author makes us sympathize with a being that eats humans. There are some heart heavy scenes as well as some sweet ones and extremely steamy ones. A lot of this story is a struggle and full of sexual frustration but it is lovely show more to have cameos from the previous story. show less

Oh. My. Gods!
I'm a sucker for a morally grey character who is absolutely devoted to his mate and Orpheus is just that. Yes, he is a dark monster that occasionally eats humans, but he is kind and thoughtful and caring. Halfway through the book and I was absolutely in love with Orpheus and hoping that Reia would fall for him too!!

I got swallowed into the story and read it in one evening. Seriously I started the book after work and the next thing I knew it was 3am! The world building and show more storytelling was easy to follow and I just absolutely fell in love with these two.
I got it on KU and as soon as I was done, I went back and got myself a copy to keep because I know I will want to reread this again and again! show less