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COVER REVEAL: Money Shot by Eden Finley & Saxon James (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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BLOG TOUR: Leaving Winter for a Desert Sky by Skylar Lyralen Kaye (Excerpt + Q&A with Author)
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REVIEW: The Monster of Elenhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
The Monster of Elenhaven – Jennifer Giesbrecht
The city of Elendhaven sulks on the edge of the ocean. Wracked by plague, abandoned by the South, stripped of industry and left to die. But not everything dies so easily. A thing without a name stalks the city, a thing shaped like a man, with a dark heart and long pale fingers yearning to wrap around throats. A monster who cannot die. His frail master sends him out on errands, twisting him with magic, crafting a plan too cruel to name, while the monster’s heart grows fonder and colder and more cunning.
These monsters of Elendhaven will have their revenge on everyone who wronged the city, even if they have to burn the world to do it.
The Monster of Elenhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht is my Halloween read, and what a fabulously creepy little novella it is!
Elenhaven is a German-flavored coastal city of a fictional kingdom in the north. Its sea is black, and eldritch creatures are said to crawl out of its depths. Its factories are almost gone, and the city is barely recovering from a plague that struck some years ago. The sun makes its appearance a few short months after winter, which is most of the year.
Unknown to the residents, a monster is lurking in the shadows. This monster cannot be killed, not even with bullets, knives, or being dropped from a tower. This monster, who calls himself Johann, took a special interest and began stalking a gentleman named Florian Lichenbloom, who harbored his own dark secret.
The world-building is eerily atmospheric. I can easily picture the forboding coastline, grey overcast skies, and Elenhaven, which seem to be perpetually sinking in the shadows. The lore is detailed enough to answer questions and complete the narrative, but also left me wanting another visit to Elenhaven for more because it’s hella fascinating!
There is romance here, but this is not romance, so we know what that means for our couple. Still, this was so good, I didn’t mind. The ending was bittersweet and satisfying, and also creeptastic if you think of all it implies.
This is horror, and if there is such a thing as cozy horror, this novella is the epitome of one. After all of Johann’s skulking around and his confrontation with Florian, the two played house and proceeded to kill me with Johann’s outrageous flirting and Florian’s adorably blushy tsundere-ing.
All while secretly carrying out Florian’s devious plot for revenge, which at first glance was just an eye-for-an-eye thing but is really one of the most insidious plans one could unleash on the whole world.
The cuteness was on a different level that I momentarily forgot there’s devilry afoot. As the story progressed, we learn of Florian’s tragic past and a surprising connection to Johann, a full circle built on grief, rage, despair, and dreams. It was devastating and beautiful, painful and sweet, and ultimately, a gift to be carried wherever the monster went.
Overall, The Monster of Elenhaven is a story of kindred souls, revenge, and tragedy. It began with curiosity and ended with a gift. A spine-tingling tale where dreams come to life as a nightmare that fulfils the heart’s deepest, darkest desires.
Rating:
5 Stars – absolutely perfectSoundtrack: Black Water
Artist: Of Monsters and Men
Album: Beneath the Skin
If you like my content, please consider using my Amazon affiliate links below to buy your copy of The Monster of Elenhaven. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
THE MONSTER OF ELENHAVEN: Kindle | Audiobook
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SERIES TOUR & NEW RELEASE: The Heaven Trilogy by Reni Stankova (Excerpt + Character Interview)
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BLOG TOUR: Our Uncle’s Promise by Ruta Levu (Excerpt & Q&A with Author)
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PROMO BLITZ: Full Tilt by Becca Seymour
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RELEASE TOUR: The Sinner’s Son by Aimee Nicole Walker (Excerpt)
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RELEASE TOUR: Maybe by Fearne Hill (Excerpt)
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REVIEW: His Bane by Courtney W. Dixon
The District: His Bane by Courtney W. Dixon
PLEASE READ THE BLURB AND WARNINGS IF YOU’RE SENSITIVE TO TRIGGERS! And please, please be careful of spoilers and giving away endings of books. Use spoiler tags.
He is mine. I don’t care how long it takes. I will have Malik Amin.
Sullivan Beauchamp
Some people call me a monster. A psychopath. As if I care what others think. So what if I relish in the mayhem of slaughter or enjoy feeling the life blink out of someone? I am who I am. It was Malik who eventually brought me to his home and trained me to hone my skills to work under him as an assassin. Malik Amin is my equal, and he will be mine in all ways as soon as I can chip away at his ridiculous and completely unnecessary self-loathing.
Malik Amin
Sully lost everything as a teenager on my order. When I found him covered in blood four years later, I should have put him down, knowing what he was. Instead, I took him in to train him. It works for us until he wants me more than as a mentor. I cannot allow it. But if Sully is anything, he is a master at persuasiveness and discovering my weaknesses.
Reading in order will add more pleasure to the reading experience since some of the books end in a series cliffhanger. But they can technically be read as standalones.
CW: internalized homophobia of MC, murder of family, off-page molestation and rape, psychopathy, murder, torture, consensual sexual mutilation between MCs, betrayal.
His Bane is the second book of the dark assassin romance series, The District, by Courtney W. Dixon. This is a found family of queer assassins founded by Malik Amin and Sid Virgil that takes any jobs, no questions asked. The only rule is no hits on children.
Sullivan Beauchamp is the only survivor of an assassination of his family when he was 12 years old. He was put in foster care only to be sexually abused by his foster father. When the abusive asshole killed Sully’s favorite foster brother, Sully took immense pleasure in ending the bastard. While on the run, he was tracked down by Malik and taken under the older man’s wing.
Malik has been monitoring Sully since he went in foster care, but not close enough to know about his home life. Noticing the teen’s psychopathy and his potential, he offered the 16-year-old board, lodging, and training. He might have gotten more than he had bargained for because Sully kept pushing his buttons and pursued the older man with the kind of obsessive-possessive determination only psychopaths possess.
I loved Sully from the get-go! With so many bad things done to him at a young age, from his cold, harsh father to the abusive foster parent, Sully learned to rely on his instincts and intellect, harnessing his rage as a physical force to defeat bullies and bad guys. His favorite weapon is his 25,000$ knife gifted to him by Malik. His favorite music genre is disco.
Sully is immensely self-aware, constantly evaluating himself and learning about emotions and relationships so he can give Malik what he needs. He doesn’t expect other people to understand him. But far from angsting about it, I loved how unapologetic Sully is about who he is. Malik gets him, and that’s all Sully cares about.
Malik is of Syrian descent and a former member of a Syrian gang. The man is 19 years older than Sully, and unlike his self-assured protege, Malik is a mass of self-pity and woes rooted in childhood trauma.
It’s one of the reasons he keeps putting Sully at arm’s length, even though he wants the younger man. He’s also carrying the guilt from a big secret that he should have revealed to his mentee early on, but he didn’t, so it came to bite him in the ass in the form of a Sully meltdown.
Compared to the first book, His Death Bringer, this is a tad less disturbing but still as dark. Please heed the content warnings, especially if blood play is not your thing, because Malik and Sully are heavily into that.
This is not a romance of warm fuzzies. This is a complicated relationship between a traumatized older man who’s touch-starved and hungry for affection, even if he has a hard time admitting it, and a psychopath who doesn’t feel many emotions. This is a slow-burn of 13 stubborn years and a hot/cold dance of one step forward, two steps back, where the hurt comfort comes with a knife and scars are tokens of love.
Sully did all the heavy lifting while Malik is mired in what Sully calls “pathetic self-pity.” There were hardly any private interactions that didn’t devolve to sex, while Malik hopes they can be a normal couple that is more than just sex, a.k.a. the old man needed hugs and cuddles.
There were hardly any proper communications. I say this one is on Malik, who has his electric fences up while Sully was asking Luca (His Death Bringer) for advice and reading romance novels, trying to grasp the mechanics of being in love and the to-dos in a relationship. Our boy was really trying, bless his psychopathic heart!
Something to watch out for is the content-warning confrontation scene between Malik and Sully. It was nothing short of powerful and cathartic! Sully’s jumble of emotions was intensely palpable, and his breakdown was heartwrenching. Malik finally pulled his head out of his ass, but still left me partly unconvinced.
So I didn’t squee, but I rooted hard for Sully. His growth and resilience as a character, his single-minded determination to go after what he wants, and his willingness to go beyond his “limitations” as a psychopath for Malik are what made the book 4 stars for me.
His Bane is a story of kindred souls, warring feelings, and lifelong devotion. It is not a fairytale romance, but love at knife’s edge, painful, intense, and all-consuming.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Knife’s Edge
Artist: Tiger Army
Album: V…_P.S.
I’m ridiculously thrilled about how spot on the book model is! Red hair, copper penny eyes, and all black suit: that’s our Sully!
The District is best enjoyed in chronological order. Meet Luca, survivor, bunny cuddler, and sweetest soul ever, and his dark angel, Dante, in His Death Bringer.
If you like my content, please consider using my Amazon affiliate links below to buy your copy of His Bane. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
If you like my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi or PayPal. Your donations will help keep this website going. Thank you so much!
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: The Coach’s Daughter by Alex Winters (Excerpt & Giveaway)
