it's gritty YA urban fantasy lesbian romance between Naomi, a republican senator's daughter, and Ryn, essentially an elder god in human form.

A warning right off the bat, It can be dark (TW: Discussions of rape and paedophilia, and some fairly brutal violence) but it walks a delicate line of not dipping into being gratuitous or bleak, with the enough levity to balance the darkness without being tonally inconsistent.

The story proper begins when, after bringing a village girl back to life, a weaken Ryn is captured by a gang of nuclear arms smuggles, and the later rescued by the US military. The military mistakes her for a feral child, and brings her back to the US. There's an ancient spell that makes her subject to human laws, so she can't just escape from the institution they place her in. Luckily for her, 18 months later, funding cuts force the institution closed, and Ryn is released into a group home. With her newly regained freedom, she goes back to her purpose in life; Hunting and consuming monsters both human and supernatural. On one of her night time hunts, she runs across Naomi and finds out that a cabal of spirits is targeting her for assassination. Naomi is rather pretty and her soul smells nice, so Ryn makes an unbreakable vow to protect her, and the story goes from there

I love Ryn so much. She's an anti hero that doesn't "tolerate the stink of torture, rape, and murder, the screams of the innocent weak, or the arrogance of the evil strong". She's powerful and old beyond human comprehension, but her time in isolation has left her in a state of arrested development putting her emotionally in line with the age she looks. Part of her want'd nothing to do with humans, but another part of her is lonely and just wants to be accepted, and she's worried that if she shows Naomi what she really is, she'll be rejected.

Naomi on the other hand, slowly falls in love with Ryn, but won't admit it to herself due to having a bad case of compulsory heterosexuality. She has her whole life planned out, and being gay wasn't on that plan.

It's honestly my favourite book, and as a librarian, that means something. It's free on kindle Unlimited if I've peeked your interest. Thanks for reading.

Hmm, that does sound pretty interesting - gayngst without getting too bleak, with some fun horror mixed in. It's gotten good reviews, too. Apparently it's the first in a series, but looking the author's social media pages there aren't really any mentions of a sequel. Does the book end in a cliffhanger?

Does the book end in a cliffhanger?

It does not, it's a complete story, but there are dangling plot threads.

Becasue I need to prepare for writing essays and papers.

The secret tech is to somehow finagle the book into being related to the topic of the paper, so reading it then becomes "research".

I'll sign off on that. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's good fun.

Sequels is in the works too (author's FB has more on that). Hopefully it won't turn too YA.

e: I forgot, "if you liked Monster Easter", you might also like Elizabeth Watasin's Monster Stalker. It's a bit wackier and less YA but remarkably similar in some regards.

last edited at May 2, 2019 10:15AM

Thanks for the heads up. It was a fun read, and I hope the author makes good on her intentions to write part 2. Incidentally, do you have any more recommendations for other books along these lines?

Edit: After reading a few more similar titles that were suggested by Amazon using the kindle unlimited trial, it's made me realize just how much of a cut above this book is compared to its peers. I actually didn't realize this was done by an independent author. It really is a solid little novel.

last edited at May 16, 2019 10:17AM

I just thought I would add another solid suggestion for a dark fantasy series with yuri elements that you can read for free with the kindle unlimited trial. The Sting of Victory (Fallen Gods Series) was a compelling read once it got going.

Although the first book gets off to a slightly wobbly start, once the author finds her rhythm in her prose it is a great character driven dark fantasy story with inhuman characters and a compelling and unusual romantic pairing. This series is on about par with "The One Who Eats Monsters" when it comes to how graphic and dark the story can get which is to say its not for those people who are looking for slice of life romantic fluff. It is a mature title.

last edited at May 16, 2019 3:26PM

wow nice story.