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

When Hayley moves to Hallow’s Cove she’s determined to find her fated mate. In fact she’s desperate. After the ultimate betrayal (catching her boss and her girlfriend in the act) she’s feeling a bit unlovable, and after countless dates that lead nowhere, that feeling is getting worse. Even her lucky panties have given up on her and they make their way to their final resting place in the dumpster outside. Until they’re “retrieved” by a rather perverted little raccoon who can’t resist the scent.

Yes really. It’s a trash-panda shifter romance. Yes it’s as unhinged as it sounds.

Monster enthusiasts are always looked upon as being a bit kooky when it comes to the romance genre, but we enjoy what we enjoy. I feel that that is the spirit of this book, letting the freak flag fly high. Hayley and Jake are the free spirits, the quirky ones, the ones romance books don’t usually focus on, but we get to see their funky little relationship grow despite the fact Hayley doesn’t actually know what Jake is until the end of the book, or what his raccoon side “Beans” collects from the trash.

The writing style reflected the theme so well, it was blunt and shameless, the cringe was loud and proud, it felt like the author summoned pure raccoon energy to write this book and it works. It may not be the hottest shifter romance, you know I prefer my monsters big and mean, but it was cute and it felt like an actual love story. Our main characters are so awkward it hurts sometimes, but they are awkward together, they both value the same things and that dumpster date might have been the sweetest thing I’ve read in a long time. Characters like this are often resigned to being in the background, the friend, the co-worker. It was nice to see the weird shine in the spotlight.

Spice wise, Love is Trash is moderate, but felt like part of the story rather than just thrown in with abandon to make the smut level higher, but the best bit? It was still awkward! They didn’t instantly transform into Mills and Boonesque lovers whispering sweet nothings as they boned the night away, they were still themselves. This was at its core just pure romance. The description of Jake’s err anatomy was interesting to say the least. Apart from what I learned from Studio Ghibli’s Pom Poko, I don’t know much about raccoon members and I am certainly not googling that for this review.

I googled it. Jake does not have a raccoon cock, his equipment is of the author’s own imagination, which is lucky as apparently their baculum are used as lucky charms, jewellery and most disturbingly toothpicks. #Themoreyouknow.

While I don’t think I’ll be fantasising about raccoon shifters any time soon (I do think I have an aversion to anything cute in my smut books) I genuinely did enjoy it even if it was only because it was different. Jake wasn’t powerful, rich or a tragic character looking for someone to save him. He was a chaotic, feral little beast who found his chaotic, feral life partner (I also learned raccoons are fuckbois who will absolutely not stick around with a significant other). While Hayley comes across as desperate for love and maybe a little trashy at first, all she needs is someone to appreciate who she is, and Jake (and Beans) appreciate her a hell of a lot. So would I bother with Love is Trash? Yeah, I would. It was a fun read, even if I didn’t really see the characters in a romantic way myself, it was a really sweet love story with some well written, funny and slightly insane characters. It plays with expectations, we all know what shifter romances are like and theres definitely no alpha posturing. Just a bin raking, taco eating, ridged and big balled raccoon and the gal who loves him.