ARC Review: The Musician and the Monster by Jenya Keefe

Blurb:

Hatred is a spell only true love can break.

Ángel Cruz is a dedicated session musician, until loyalty to his estranged family forces him to work for Oberon: the feared and hated envoy from the Otherworld. Overnight, Ángel is taken from his life, his friends, his work, and trapped in a hideous mansion in the middle of nowhere, under constant surveillance, and with only the frightening fae for company.

Oberon’s poor understanding of humans combined with Ángel’s resentment and loneliness threaten to cause real harm to the pair. Then a long winter together in the mansion unites them in their love of music. Slowly, Ángel’s anger thaws, and he begins to realize that Oberon feels alone too.

Gradually, these two souls from different worlds form a connection like none other. But hate and prejudice are powerful things, and it’ll take all the magic of their love to stop the wider world from forcing them apart.

Todd's rating:

I'm generally a sucker for Fae stories, so I was excited to read this one; however, I only really ended up "liking" the story, instead of it being true lurve.

I found that I kept putting the book down, instead of rushing back to read more, so it took me 7 days to read, which rarely happens.

Both Angel and Oberon were likeable characters, but the story's 300 pages could've been edited down a bit to help speed up the pacing, and I would've probably enjoyed it slightly more.

Once the major attack on Oberon happened, the pacing improved, but it also seemed to turn slightly more... Disney?

The Sleeping Beauty’esque kissing[ Sleeping Beauty’esque kiss (hide spoiler)] scene at the end, well, that may’ve also come very close to giving me a huge convulsive eye-roll, and came across as uber-cheesy.



The angst and steam were both pretty manageable, but the tip-to-taint “oozing” dick lube thing? *shudders* That was approaching an MPREG birthing “membrane” moment for me there, so eww. No bueno.

The book was loosely based on "Beauty and the Beast", but it also seemed as if the very ending scene was a sugary recreation of "All the Who's in Whoville".

Overall, I liked the story, but there were some things I would've changed for sure, so I'd rate it at around 3.5 *Stretch-Armstrong-penis-and-mobs-with-pitchforks* stars.

My ARC copy of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.

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