(Monstrous Guardians, #1) Held by a Monster by Kenzie Kelly Review

 

Held by a Monster by Kenzie Kelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

⭐⭐1/2 - 2.5 Stars
🌶️🌶️1/2 - 2.5 Spice (Because it was honestly hard to focus on the spice in this book)

I stumbled across this book while browsing my Amazon list. I’d never heard of it or the author, but I grabbed it to give it a try. It didn’t take long to read, and it throws you straight into drama and action for the first few pages you’ll have zero idea what’s going on, but strangely you won’t really mind yet.

But then… the pacing hits breakneck speed. One thing after another after another. I swear I was getting whiplash trying to keep up.

I don’t mind a fast-paced read, but this one had a clear problem: there’s no time to breathe.
No time to connect with the characters.
No time to feel the trauma, fear, or tension.
No time for anything to land emotionally before the story jumps to the next scene.

The writing itself is simple, so you won’t get lost but nothing has weight. Scenes don’t settle long enough to feel meaningful. And then, on top of that, the book throws in a ton of spice… often in moments where there is no possible universe where those characters would realistically be rolling around like that. It yanked me right out of the story every time, which is a shame because the framework and core idea of this world is genuinely fun and interesting.

I kept thinking:
If this had been slowed down… if the pacing had been spread out… if we’d been given time to bond with the characters… this could’ve been such a good book.

As it stands, I read the whole thing, but I never really felt connected to it. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. It just… existed in this strange in-between where the potential was there, but the execution didn’t land.

What I Liked:
The core story idea
The monsters (genuinely cool concept!)

What Didn’t Work for Me:
The extreme fast pacing
Scenes thrown too close together, making time feel meaningless
No immersion impossible to settle emotionally into anything

Would I Recommend This Book?
Sadly, no.

Would I Reread?
I don’t think so.

How I’d Sum It Up:
A book with so much potential, but the overly fast pacing and simple, rushed execution made it hard to connect to anything. It could’ve been great but it needed time to breathe.

View all my reviews