What an incredible read filled with twists, turns and well put romance. I hope the author releases more books within this realm. The book captured me from start to finish; it didn't start off slow or require build-up--there was immediate annoyance with Aspeth's plight and I was rooting for her and her fellow fledglings the entire time. Surprise twists of fates were brilliantly rendered. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and know that fantasy readers will enjoy this, as well

Ruby Dixon is for sure an acquired taste but I love her books and this was no exception. It is unique and wild and just a really good time. Interesting characters and the plot kept me entertained the entire way. Will be recommending and adding to our library!

I think I’ve just fallen in love with monster romance books. It’s not a genre I’ve really explored before, but seeing the humanity in Hawk (our main male Minotaur character, or MMMC for short) has made me want to explore more of this genre.

Aspeth, our main female character, is a 30 year old spinster who needs money and/or magical artifacts to help protect her homeland. Through a turn of events, she ends up under Hawk’s tutelage in artifact hunting.

The romance was a delicious slow burn and is one I’ll definitely recommend to my podcast listeners. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Wowowow this book was amazing!! I love everything by Ruby Dixon but this was so new and fresh in terms of plot and characters! Hawk was so sexy and caring and protective and Aspeth was smart and funny and together they had great chemistry. Unlike her IPB series, pregnancy is optional, and Aspeth chooses her career over babies for the time being, which I appreciated. This was also virgin FMC done the right way, in my opinion. I really liked this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Edelweiss for the ARC! I love you Ruby Dixon!

If there is one author I can trust to never let me down, it’s Ruby Dixon. Whenever you think “I wonder if she will go there…” she does, and 9 times out of 10 goes beyond there.

🌑🌘🌗🌖

Synopsis:

Taking place in a post-magic realm where power resides in ancient relics, and the elite "Holders" thrive on their acquisition. Within this world, the Royal Artifactual Guild stands as a beacon of exploration, its members tasked with delving into buried ruins to unearth these mystical treasures.

Aspeth, a sheltered Holder's daughter, after spending all of her life researching and learning everything she can about the Guild, finds herself seeking this dangerous world when her father's reckless gambling jeopardizes their standing. With their legacy and lives on the line, she sneaks out with the intent to join the Guild recruits with hopes to secure a valuable artifact and save her family from ruin, all without revealing her identity.

Amidst the guild's hierarchy, Hawk, a Taurian minotaur, grapples with his own challenges. Despite his exceptional skills in the tunnels, he faces discrimination and is relegated to a menial role within the guild. His mentor is an alcoholic with no interest in training the recruits, he assumes the role to attempt to keep up his Guild Master’s legacy, while also trying to keep her from losing her position. This year’s recruitment is particularly strenuous as it falls within weeks of the upcoming Conquest Moon: an event that happens once every five years where all female Taurians go into heat and all males go into rut. Essentially rendering them mindless sex machines (and yes … there are 🪢).

While he tries to grapple with how he will balance training his misfit gang of recruits in order to keep his old mentors guild from being disbanded, while also not going completely insane with the upcoming Conquest Moon, a woman eager to join the guild shows up to his door with a shedding orange cat and a proposition: marry her so he can act as her chaperone and give her permission to join the guild, and she will see him through his Conquest Moon rut.

🌑🌘🌗🌖

Going into this book, I had not read the blurb. All I saw was a gorgeous standard first edition book with a minotaur and human on the front alongside Ruby Dixon’s name and knew I had to have it. When I tell you the squeal I let out when I realized a few chapters in that this was a marriage of convenience driven by an upcoming rut... FERAL (Chloe has the voice notes to prove it). I got to that point at 11:00 PM and subsequently stayed up till 5 AM devouring the rest of this book.

Some highlights for me:
- Aspeth is 30, and has lived an extremely privileged life, and it shows!!! She is not some athletic superstar when she joins the training, nor does she become one over night. She instead relies on her other skills to help her through her journey. So refreshing!!
- RD said in their authors note that the tunnels and guilds drew inspiration from games such as Stardew Valley and I 100% got those vibes and loved every minute of them.
- The element of found family between the “misfit” recruits, while definitely not as focused on as the marriage-of-convenience plot, was very endearing. And there are definitely lots of doors left open for some of the other characters stories to continue.

My initial thought is that if you enjoyed Bride by Ali Hazelwood, but felt like you wanted more (in every sense of the word), I think this is perfect for you. It has it all, lots of steamy scenes, but still gives heart wrenching romance and angst, all set in this treasure hunting/explorer back drop that just hits so good.

I genuinely can’t wait to reread this, multiple times. Pretty sure this is my top read of 2024 thus far …

I have only one request. My dearest Ruby Dixon, pretty, pretty please, provide us with a bonus novella of the ring ceremony. I am on my knees.🧎‍♀️

Aspeth Honori is in a bind, she's a noble but her prospects are limited because her father has gambled everything away. Their money, the priceless artifacts that support their noble standing are all gone, plus the man she was supposed to marry only wanted her for her money. Well, joke's on him. Aspeth runs off to the city with her Lady's Maid turned best friend and her round orange cat, to join the Royal Artifactual Guild. Her problems only seem to increase as the guild won't admit her to train until she has a chaperone, so she marries a Taurren (see minotaur) who is also to be her teacher. The icing on the cake is when he agrees but only if she "helps" him during the upcoming rut he will be going through, how could her carefully laid plans have gone so quickly off the rails?

The wonderful Ruby Dixon can world build and create a magic system and provide the most unspeakably hot spice like no one can! Bull Moon Rising was a delightful read. The plot had me hooked from chapter 1. I was so into the story and the characters that I forgot about the spicy scenes until they were happening and I was not disappointed. I do hope there will be more novels set in this world because it felt like there were more stories to be told. I really enjoyed Aspeth as a character because she's the sweet hurricane of mess that we all are at times, and having a big heart is not a bad thing. I highly suggest if you enjoy and of Ruby Dixon's other books you give Bull Moon Rising a read ASAP!

I am a HUGE Ruby Dixon fan and this one did not disappoint! Aspeth was such a relatable and driven character! I loved the found family aspect and I hope to see more of this world from different perspectives!

3.5 stars

This was my first time reading a Minotaur romance. And that’s a sentence I never thought I would write.

For what it’s worth, I honestly forgot at times that the guy was a Minotaur, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But when I was reminded about it, it was usually during the very *ahem* descriptive scenes, if you know what I mean.

Will I ever read another Minotaur romance? No. But I also think you won’t find a better one than this one. The characters are pretty well developed, there’s an interesting cast of secondary characters, and the plot I actually found to be interesting because it surprisingly had little to do with the central romance. This is definitely more FANTASYromance instead of fantasyROMANCE, which is what I prefer. So think about picking this up, especially if you have already read and liked her other alien romance books.

Side note to those who have read this book:
If someone could please draw me a picture of a slitherskin and its house, I’d appreciate it because that was just one thing I couldn’t picture in my mind.

I received a free ARC of this book through NetGalley, but this didn’t impact my rating or review.

𝔸ℝℂ ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝔹𝕦𝕝𝕝 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝔹𝕪: ℝ𝕦𝕓𝕪 𝔻𝕚𝕩𝕠𝕟


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️

𝕋𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕤:
♉️ marriage of convenience
🌙 monster romance
✨ found family
🐦‍⬛ cinnamon roll mmc
🌘 one bed
💫 strong, relatable fmc

Synopsis: Aspeth, a daughter of nobility, runs away from home to join the Royal Artifacts Guild, an expedition group who scour ruins for magic arcane artifacts, in an attempt save her home. She learns she is only able to join with chaperone supervision so enters Hawk. A marriage of connvience later and so the plot plays out.

Ok so monster romances are not my thing. I requested this one with the expectation I would review a rejection email within a few minutes. But the opposite occurred so here I am reviewing a Minotaur romance 😬

There was wit, interesting plot, humor, relatable fmc, a surprisingly swoon worthy romance. I appreciated that the relationship was not instalove. The found family trope within the group of misfits of Aspeth’s class was one of my favorite aspects of this read.

Some descriptions were repetitive, world building was a bit fantasy/paranormal generic and was left wanting to learn more. Overall the pacing was excellent with an interesting character driven plot.

I don’t know how the author combined cozy/fantasy/and monster smut in one, but it worked. This is generally not my cup of tea but I finished all 416 pages in 24 hours so I am taking it as a sign that I enjoyed it.

Thank you Berkeley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Pub date: 10/15/24

Aspeth's journey takes her through treacherous lands and dangerous encounters as she navigates the intricate web of alliances and rivalries between the guilds and tomb raiders. Despite her initial reluctance, she finds herself drawn to the enigmatic Minotaur, whose gruff exterior hides a kind heart and a deep well of knowledge.

As they work together to uncover the secrets of the ancient tombs and unlock the mysteries of the guilds, Aspeth and the Minotaur forge a bond that transcends their differences. But as the Minotaur's mating season approaches, tensions rise and their relationship is put to the ultimate test.

Caught between duty and desire, Aspeth must confront her own feelings and decide where her loyalties truly lie. Will she be able to save her family's estate and find love in the most unexpected of places, or will the forces of politics and tradition tear them apart before they can truly be together? Only time will tell as their story unfolds in a world where danger lurks around every corner and love knows no bounds.

I loved their romance! It was so sweet and this book quite a fun time! Definitely recommend it for fans of monster romances!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Here is yet another remarkably entertaining book from Ruby Dixon.

While I am familiar with her Sci-Fi inclined romances (after many a trip to Not-Hoth), this will be my first foray into her fantasy writings.

This romance is a triumph with interesting and well-thought out worldbuilding and that sense of community in a larger group of characters.

Something that makes Dixon's writing so enjoyable is that she is skilled at pacing and creating circumstances that realisticly drive the romance. It feels natural and nothing inhibits the flow from plot point to plot point.

I might actually prefer this moon-based system of romance than the soulmate-like resonance that she is quite known for.

Definitely a reccomended read for preexisting Dixon fans as well as newcomers.

I loved the world building it was great through out the entire book. It wasn’t an insta-love situation (which I loved) but I do still feel like their story was on a bit of a short time crunch? Not sure how else to describe it! This was also my first book by ruby dixon but i was in fact not disappointed! Spice is on point!

Aspeth Honori's home is teetering on the edge of financial ruin. Her father has gambled away all their artefacts, leaving her home undefended. In a desperate bid to save her people, Aspeth joins the Royal Artifactual Guild, hoping that her book smarts will serve her well. Instead she finds a corrupt organization with rules meant to keep her out. Undeterred, Aspeth marries the minotaur Hawk and throws herself into training while hiding her social position. How long can she hold everything together before someone figures it out?

Great world building, interesting characters. Ms Dixon loves a monster hero - Hawk is well-developed (in many ways). Explicit content consistent with her other books.

Yet another Ruby Dixon book to be obsessed with!

I loved literally everything about this book! The found family between the Five, the relationship that built between Aspeth & Hawk, even all the floofy cat mentions were perfectly done. Ruby Dixon never disappoints with the smut either. I was left with the best kind of book hangover after this one.

For what is essentially minotaur smut, which is not something I have sought out before, I really loved this book. I felt like the world-building was really well done. I wanted to know more about slitherskin and Taurian history and traditions. And I would pay a substantial amount of money to learn more about the Old Prellian society, their magic, their many artifacts, and how they went extinct. I want to know so much more about the world in general, but it was fleshed out to the point that I could picture it quite easily. I also loved the characters! Aspeth and Gwenna's friendship with each other and the Five was fun to see. Even the bad guys are fleshed out characters with clear motivations for their bad behavior.

The meat of the story is Hawk and Aspeth's relationship, and for the most part, this was also enjoyable. Although the two meet and marry quickly, for convenience, I felt like the relationship itself had a good build up, with the two talking and learning more about each other. Obviously, it was a bit spicy, with a lot of foreplay and then the "rut." I don't mind spice, but could have done with a bit less, personally. The only issue I really had with this story is frustration with Aspeth as she continues to mistrust Hawk, even after he has proved himself trustworthy.

I haven’t read Ruby Dixon in about five years so I was looking forward to her foray into trad romance. I was pleasantly surprised and thought this was a sweet book, if not a bit too long!

Anything Ruby Dixon is an automatic read for me, and this title did not disappoint. While the story was different than most of her other books, it still has all the wit, humor, and swoonworthy romance you would expect from her work. Definitely recommend picking up this book!

whew! This is h o t.

Readers do not need to be familiar with the author's other works-- this book takes place in its own universe. The setting is a kind of generic European-medieval-based fantasy world; not a lot of the structure of this is explained, so readers should have a passing familiarity with the fantasy genre (if you've watched LotR or Game of thrones, that might be enough).

Tighter editing would have raised this to a 5-star read. Some descriptions and explanations are needlessly repetitive-- they almost made it feel like this had originated as some kind of serialized story, expecting that readers may jump in towards the middle or accidentally miss a chapter here or there.

While this ticked all the boxes for my favorite tropes, it might not be a slam dunk for all romance readers. Like the author's Ice Planet Barbarians series, the reason for the marriage of convenience is biologically-based-- it gives pon farr vibes, although the frequency lines up with a lunar event. In a nice change from the Ice Planet Barbarians series, although the marital activities are required, pregnancy is not, and this book ends with the FMC choosing to employ birth control and continue her career.

eARC from NetGalley.

I don’t know how I was lucky enough to be sent an eARC for my faveee author but I’m so thankful to Ace, Berkley, NetGalley, and Ruby for the chance to read and review this!

I LOVED this. It was a book I felt I wanted to take my time with and savor. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, who were all so unique and fun! The friendship between Aspeth and Gwenna felt so real and natural. Their banter was wonderful. Lark, Mereden, and Kipp were such fun additions to the team.

Marriage of convenience and found family are the big tropes, also maybe throw in a sprinkle of a magical college vibe? Like it’s not reeeeaally that, but it feels like it.

There is a good deal of world building, but it is written in a way that doesn’t feel like a slog to get through. It’s interesting and engaging throughout and I’m eager and hoping to read more of this series to learn more (im hoping it will be a series anyway?)

Aspeth is fun and relatable as a lead, even with her essentially being a spoiled princess, Ruby has such a talent for writing relatable characters. Her passion for history and artifacts made me feel like I was on the adventure along with her.

Hawk 😮‍💨 What a hunk. At first glance he comes off as grumpy and surly but I love how we can tell how much he cares for Aspeth from the beginning. I love how straight forward they are with eachother with everything.

Spice-🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Girlllll I was blushing. The chemistry and the actual spice was 🥵 🪢


All in all, an easy 5 stars. I felt like I was playing through an rpg. Like I was on a dungeon crawl with besties. 👏🏻 I can’t ask for more than that in the book.

Ruby Dixon does it again, and Bull Moon Rising does not disappoint! Aspeth and Hawk are going to be one of my favorite couples of 2024! You've got marriage of convenience, one bed trope, minotaur, academic (type) setting, and one ferocious heroine. I loved this book, and it made me giggle and kick my feet. I didn't expect the ending, but it wrapped up so well and i can't wait for more stories in this universe!