My rating: 4 of 5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars
🌶️🌶️ 2 Spice
Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own and given honestly.
I'm going to start off by saying I read the first book a while ago and was wondering if I should have reread that one first before reading this ARC of book 2, and I can tell you, hand on heart, there is no need. It was very clear that this is interconnected with the first book but can happily be picked up and read all on its own without you feeling like you are missing part of the information. I would say, as someone who has read both, it's TOTALLY worth reading the first book even if you don't need to because Lilly's story is a fantastic start to this series. Now back to book 2.
This book, much like the first, makes me feel some sort of feelings that I have never felt with other books. It totally holds up to everything I want as a reader. Is there a storyline? Yes. Are there good characters? Yes. Is it easy to read? Yes. Is it emotionally impactful? Yes. And will it stay with you after reading it? Yes. But there is something about this book that just gets you.
What happens after we are gone.... We have all thought about this.... We all have different ideas and theories, but none of us know for sure. But this book gives you a world of what could be there.... a system and deeply detailed world and a beautiful idea of the beyond once you've taken your last breath. I can't help but find myself pulled in and enraptured by the idea and hoping maybe that would be waiting for me. I found the world comforting and something I would have never even thought up myself in my wildest of dreams, but when you are reading about it and getting to see the full scope of this world, it seems so real that I hope it was fact for those moving on.
Death in books is normally the end, where you as a reader are left hollow inside.... crying and totally torn up because the character you loved is gone and the book is just about done. But with this book, death is the start, the place it begins and takes you, which is so unique.
The story has so many layers, and I think a lot of lessons can be learned about pain and trauma, how someone can lose themselves in it and cut themselves off. The book gives great examples of letting people in, talking to friends and seeking help from professionals, taking little steps to try and work through stuff, that it's OK to not be perfect and just take it one day at a time, and that was pure gold to me.
Now, I would like to note this book has all the heart and feels of a cosy monster romance, but the book has many places and times where it can be dark. Our lead is carrying a lot of the weight of her life and trauma with her, and you see, as you follow the story, her working through some of the hardest things that can happen to a person. You see her at her worst, where her thoughts are so painful that it will make your own chest ache, to slowly learning her worth and working through her trauma.
She had such a strength to her, but I think sometimes, as readers, when you think of strength, you think of someone able to fight or sass, but her strength is so much more than just that. She had weathered so much, and she was still trying to put one foot in front of the other, still trying even when it was so hard, and I think she was so amazingly strong, even knowing she could not see it. She was so likeable, and I just wanted to wrap her in a hug and make everything right. Penny, for me, was a great FMC.
The story in this book was very clear. I loved the corporate take on one of the things going on in the book and how this affected all those within the pages of the book, and the slow unfolding of it over the course of the book. The romance side ran side by side with that, with a sprinkling of tasteful but hot spice nearer the end that really did top the whole thing off.
While the book had a lot of impactful stuff going on with the darker stuff and stuff going on in Hell, the book was not just doom and gloom and pain. No, it was overwhelmingly funny at times and had more heartwarming moments than pain. The found family in this book is top class, and the great unfolding love story made me smile so hard it ached.
I would say that I would have loved more happening in some parts. There were a few patches where it felt too drawn out and would make me have to pause and start again, and there were a few times I felt there might have been too much information given at one time when it needed a little breather in between. But other than that, for me, it was a really great read.
I would say, going into this book, if you are after something with more action and blood and gore, this is not for you. I would say this is more cosy with a side of dark than a full dark read.
I would say, for me, it was monster romance (or demon romance) with a cosy slice-of-life feel, with massive emotional depth and a sprinkle of spice and a bucket of trauma and darkness.
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