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

After stepping in and saving the world, the Fae have one request, that they are allowed to mate human women as female Fae are rare. A big ask, but yeah, I get it. Some humans have indicators in their blood that will allow the mating, and transformation into fae, to happen so it makes sense for a survival of the species kind of deal. However, quite a lot of humans find the idea off-putting, so “The Society” (leaders of the Fae) decide to make it more appealing and turn it all into a reality TV show. Suddenly, everyone loves the fae, and the world is watching as human women find their winged mates. “The Fae Bachelorette” is incredibly popular, but some older Fae men, the ones close to fading away because they haven’t met a mate yet, are a little too volatile. They need something rougher, something more aggressive so “The Society” decide to start a new show.

Molly’s time is up. She’s been chosen to take part in the next series and she really doesn’t want to go. With no freedom due to her blood status, she accepts the inevitable, at least she’ll be able to live it up in a swanky home for the next few weeks. After saying goodbye to the bodyguard who has lived with her and watched over her for the last two years (compatible women are valuable) she is on her way, but instead of the lush mansion, she’s drop kicked from an aeroplane and onto an island. Molly is the first woman to participate in Fae “Survival”.

If you’re not familiar with the show that this is inspired by, a group of people are left to their own devices on some remote island or whatnot, and have to complete tasks, vote each other off and survive with little to no supplies given, hunting, building shelters and not dying are the name of the game. Now add horny fae guys and the prize is Molly who will be the new mate of whoever triumphs. At least she gets to pick the guy she likes from the final three.

It’s a fun twist on the usual forced mating trope and honestly, the Fae running reality TV shows sounds completely in character. All those tricks and surprises are definitely fae territory. While Molly doesn’t really need to participate, she’s there to observe and reap the rewards with the winners of the challenges. On the fae side, some are excited and throw themselves into the game while others strategise and plot to try to succeed. I found myself wondering who I would choose if I was in her position.

Her choice is pretty obvious from the start, but I’m trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible. What seems like a betrayal becomes a boon, and Molly begins to play her own game in order to help her choice reach the final three. There’s danger there. These fae are dying so they are desperate to win, it’s really their last chance to get a mate, but Molly has protection, both from the host of the show and her chosen mate. We are shown what happens to a contender when they don’t play nice and it ain’t pretty.

I would think it would be hard to get one’s rocks off in this kind of situation but Molly manages, despite being surrounded by incredibly possessive fae that would sooner kill or maim rather than let someone touch her, so the spice is sporadic during their time on the island. She does manage to have the best orgasm of her life with her clothes still on and that’s really sad and really awesome all at once.  Snatched moments, little looks and touches are all they really have though barring that which just builds the tension, so that’s fun. Once they are off the island it’s a completely different matter. There’s a scene involving pasta and oral (cunnilinguine?) that I don’t know how to feel about, I’ve never tried eating dinner while anyone goes down on me, maybe I need to try, for science, but on the whole it’s fun.

I really enjoyed that the fae weren’t just the stereotypical pretty boys. They had a human form, a fae form and some had a beast form. Their wings indicate what power they have and it just made them a bit more interesting. I’m not saying pretty isn’t enough, but this is a monster romance, and the ability to turn into a phoenix or have horns instantly makes someone so much hotter.

While the story is fairly predictable, it didn’t really matter. It was well written, the characters were enjoyable and ticked all the boxes for a good monster romance. It, like the TV show it was inspired by, was just pure escapism. You cheered for your favourite fae winning and cheered when the horrible ones got kicked out. Barring the actual competition, it was fairly drama free and just so perfect to relax with. I would absolutely bother with Lust and Lollipops, and I have to say after reading more of her work, the author Lola Glass has become one of my favourites.