Welcome to THE MONSTER BOTHERER!

We are thrilled to welcome back Emma Penman, who exclusively reviews monster romance, and has returned for another week of Monster Bothering. We decided that as all her reviews have a specific aim, we’ll house them all in one handy feature-cage!

Whilst not necessarily bothering many monsters herself, Emma will be letting us know which monster romance books are worth bothering with…

Content warning: These books are usually explicit unless stated otherwise

Charlie has just accepted a job assisting a werewolf professor with research for his next book, much to her mothers chagrin, but it’s a great step forward in her career and she may have been harbouring a bit of a crush on him since she heard him lecture at her college. Professor Max Hunt is working on his next book and needs some help. Hiring Charlie was the perfect idea, but he thought she was a guy, it would have been safer for him if she was a guy.

Max has been suppressing his wolf. He doesn’t meet with his pack, distances himself from everything and everyone that could trigger his true nature and keeps himself solitary for a good reason. His mother taught him that was the right thing to do, that he was better than the feral animals he shared a species with. He didn’t have to drag himself down to their level.

As soon as they meet, Max can feel his wolf, as well as other things, stand to attention, and due to the wolfy sense of smell can tell she’s pretty into him as well, but of course he can’t touch, can’t have, because that would be “wrong” and succumbing to his baser self. Ever want to slap a character round the head for being a dumbass? Yeah, there’s a lot of that. Maybe too much?

A slow burn until they kind of get together, but they don’t, but they do. You know the drill. Every two steps forward Max takes a step back but gradually and gently, he comes to accept his true nature and to allow himself to have what he wants.

Despite my frustrations, the story was genuinely good. Max and Charlie work well together, and finding out about Motham City’s history was a lot of fun. I do love some worldbuilding. While I feel Charlie herself could have used some more page time, the romance between them was sweet, though a testament to Charlie’s patience and understanding of Max’s issues. The story really was an exploration of how a parent’s prejudices can transfer onto a child, causing problems for them unless they learn how to break free. This was reflected in Charlie’s life too, though her mothers intolerance of monsters didn’t pass to her, having the opposite effect in fact, while Max was  deeply ashamed of who he was and what he could be.

Despite the large amount of soul searching and self discovery, there was plenty of sexy werewolf time too, from misbehaving in the dark amongst priceless artifacts and tomes, sweeping contents off of desks, “please sir’s” and an incredibly hot chase during the Solstice Rut. Even if it does take a while to get to it, it’s worth it. I liked the balance between the two sides of Max reflected in the spice. Sometimes it’s very student-teacher cliche, sometimes it’s just pure werewolf passion and I’m here for all of it.

It’s all a journey. While Max was just at beginning, Charlie is already fully formed. She’s confident, happy with who she is and knows where she wants to be, she just needs to get the final pieces in place. She is the catalyst for Max, but not the whole answer. By the end, they have their happily ever after, knots and all.

I would absolutely bother. It’s a romance story, albeit irksome at times, but there’s a lot to get out of it. There’s nothing shallow and empty about The Wolf Professor and it will keep you thinking long after you close the book.