I had never read anything by Ruby Dixon before so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to review Bull Moon Rising. I am so happy to say it did not disappoint in any way! I absolutely loved the characters, the story, and the writing. This read was fun from start to finish. Can't wait to read more!!

4.5 Give Me All The Minotaur Rutting✨'s

In a world where magic used to be plentiful, Lady Aspeth is determined to bring her family back to its glory as she runs away to become an artificer, an adventurer who explores ancient underground ruins to find magical artifacts. Wanting to join the only artifactual guild, Aspeth puts all of her hope into becoming a member. However, when she is rejected for simply being a woman, Aspeth agrees to marry Hawk, one of the teachers, if he will vouch for her, and in return she will help him through his upcoming heat. Despite their obvious distrust in one another, as Aspeth and Hawk begin training and get to know each other, Aspeth must decide if she can be fully honest with Hawk about herself and her family.

This was an amazing start to a new romantasy series! It was completely unlike anything from Ruby Dixon I've read before, but still had her signature charm and smut. I loved all the worldbuilding and adventure in the plot, and I cannot wait to explore more of this magical world. The romance was so sweet, Hawk was so very grumpy and obsessed with Aspeth, the minotaur was just completely feral for her. The secondary characters had so much personality, and the found family was everything, I loved how everyone bonded with each other and were willing to put themselves at risk for Aspeth. I absolutely recommend this unique romantasy to enjoyers of magical adventures, horny monsters, quirky characters, all the foreplay, and a captivating plot!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley and once again Ruby Dixon has given us another series to obsess over.

I loved everything about this, from the plot to the characters and all in between. The stakes were high but the story was still light and enjoyable thanks to the bonds formed between characters, comedic moments, and one very fluffy cat.

I can’t wait to read more from this series!

Ruby Dixon doesn’t usually disappoint but this time she did. I had the hardest time getting into this book and once I did it took me two weeks to finish it. As the kind of reader that can’t put a good book down until it’s done this is unheard of for me. I will still be a loyal reader of ruby dixon but maybe I need to skip this series.

This book surprised me. I really loved the world building and all the fun and quirky misfit characters. I can't wait for the next one. This is going to be a fun series!

“How am I supposed to seduce someone? Sit on them and recite Old Prellian poetry until they give in? I don’t know the first thing about being appealing to men.”
You’re absolutely going to need this slow burn Minotaur romance by Ruby Dixon. Bull Moon Rising is set in a historical fantasy world where magical artifacts power strongholds, Taurians save the humans behinds daily, and a powerful rut season only happens once every 5 years on the rise of the Conquest Moon.

Aspeth is our plus-size heroine. Not only is she determined to salvage her home and father’s reputation by joining the Royal Artifactual Guild to obtain artifacts from Old Prell that will secure her family’s hold, Aspeth is also an obsessive scholar in her own right, knows how to read ancient runes, and can spot a fake artifact like a professional. I adore Aspeth. She’s intellectual, she’s got gumption in spades, and when her family has let her down countless times, her determination is stalwart.


The Mummy Rachel Weisz via Tenor
“You’re not seriously offering to have sex with me just to get into the guild school?”
After being laughed out of a male-dominated Guild meeting, Aspeth makes a bargain with Hawk, a Taurian who is currently attempting to help out his friend and Guild Master, Magpie, by teaching her class of fledglings. If you’re wondering what a Taurian might be: it’s a Minotaur descendant who hold just higher standing in the Guild than that of women. Every 5 years, a Conquest Moon rises and causes the Taurians to go into a red-eyed rut. If Hawk marries Aspeth, she can become a fledgling in the Guild and Hawk has himself a mate for the rut. Wins for everyone, right?

It’s not as easy as that. Aspeth’s fellow fledglings consist of a motley crew of misfits: A slitherskin, Magpie’s drunkard of a niece, Aspeth’s friend and maid in her household, and a woman who desperately doesn’t want to be sent to their world equivalent of a convent. Magpie, the actual guild master, is on the brink of being cast out due to her own drunken actions. Nearly all the other teams work against Aspeth’s team in order to better their own chances. Aspeth is also in danger of showing her cards to her husband whom she just can’t seem to stay away from.


Minotaur gif via Tenor
“I’d rather take an honest man with no kisses than a liar with a sweet tongue.”
I loved the storyline of Bull Moon Rising. I loved that I never knew what would happen as Aspeth and Hawk fell slowly for each other. While their relationship stems from convenience, both show each other equal amounts of tenderness and affection. These two idiots are my favorite kind of romance. While their horniness is apparent, the way Ruby Dixon approaches their inevitable coupling during the rut was both sweet and romantic. I wish I could describe it better, but I’m here for the vibes, and the vibes are immaculate.

With every wrong turn in Aspeth’s journey to helping her father, it only cements the bond with Hawk even further. Bull Moon Rising is a historical fantasy, it’s an ode to Victorian Archaeology, full of feminist themes (yes, Queen!), and it’s a slow burn romance that is so horny you’re not going to miss out on any of the spice while Aspeth and Hawk figure out their situation.

“Before leaving home, I had no friends. Now I have four of them, and it feels like I’m the richest person in all of Vastwarren.”
Bull Moon Rising is out soon, and if you haven’t seen the gorgeous hardcover special edition, then you better hippity hop over to your favorite retailer and get in on the action before the opportunity is over. Ruby Dixon, I cannot wait to experience more of this world with you! Aspeth and Hawk won me over (and Squeaker too), and I know they will win over other readers as well. Happy Release, Ruby!

do you want to go on an adventure?? bc if there’s one thing you can count on with Ruby, it’s an epic journey from page one. 🤩 I had the *best* time falling into the world she created for Aspeth & Hawk & co!

it’s a Romantasy with Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider vibes where an adorably curvy and bookish heroine sets her stubborn sights on righting the wrongs of her father by joining a special guild who procures magical artifacts. but in order for her to even start this mission, she must find a chaperone aka husband to gain entry. enter her reluctant accomplice and off-limits *teacher* —the broody & grumpy Taurean who goes by Hawk. 😏 and you may think you know what happens next, but spoiler alert: he’s also going into rut so you probs don’t. trust me. 🤭

SO. MUCH. HAPPENS! which made it entirely unputdownable and insanely immersive. a band of misfits as side characters and a furry feline companion that turns Hawk into a cat daddy had me cackling into my fist. and those “teach me “ moments when the spice was spoicinggg?! sweaty and wetty, y’all. 😮‍💨🫠 I cannot wait to relive this when it goes to audio! such a fun time!

𝘁 𝗿 𝗼 𝗽 𝗲 𝘀 :
📖 curvy & bookish FMC
🐂 minotaur MMC
💫 he’s her teacher
💖 romantasy
💍 marriage of convenience
🪢 “teach me” + knotting
🌙 adventure & spice!

Thank you to @prhaudio, @author.ruby.dixon, @berkleypub, and @netgalley for the gifted copy 🩷

💭t͜͡h͜͡o͜͡u͜͡g͜͡h͜͡t͜͡s͜͡ 💭

Full Moon Rising was a fun read! 😍 I loved Asbeth’s accent, Hawk’s deep voice 😌, the dual narration, and the pacing. I came for the monster romance, but the plot was plotting!! Asbeth, an emotionally neglected holder's daughter wants to join the Artifacts guild and is getting shut down because she's a woman. The only way to solve this problem? Marry the strong, Minotaur guild teacher to be her chaperone in exchange for companionship during the Bull Moon. 😁

I feel like this book was more fantasy than romance, which I enjoyed. There was a lot more world-building and detail than I expected, and the romance and spice were on point. If I have one complaint it would be to grab Asbeth by the shoulders and say, “Girl! Put your dang glasses on!” 🤣 I get why she chose to walk around blind for 80% of the book but, man! I felt blind just watching her. She gets it together eventually, so all's well that ends well. 🩷

💍 Marriage of Convenience
♉️ Human/Minotaur
💫Forced Proximity
👓 Found Family
🐂Curvy FMC
🩷 HEA

This was a really fun book that I enjoyed reading!! It was a very different Ruby Dixon book but I’m excited she’s branching off in this direction. It was pretty long, but it was paced out well. I LOVED, absolutely loved, the main character. Her relationship with Hawk, the MMC was very sweet and well-developed. There are some great side characters as well, but I wanted to connect with them a little bit more. Otherwise I thought this one was great! 4.25 rounded up!

🌈Queer rep: FF secondary relationship, brief mention of MM relationships.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for a copy!


After I finished this book I had to sit and think about my feelings because they are very complicated. I absolutely loved the story and all of the characters. Even after finishing I'm still itching to reach for it and read more. The book follows Aspeth as she attempts to save her father's hold, what I'm understanding as very similar to kingdom of some sort. She wants to join the guild, to try and bring more artifacts to her father and help replenish what he's gambled away. She then makes a hasty marriage and deal with a minotaur, he becomes her chaperone, she'll help him with his upcoming rut.

It started really slow and I was honestly expecting not to enjoy it too much, but it turned into the opposite. Things were happening so fast, it felt like I was missing a small parts of different situations. We could get lore drops and they would be super nice, sweet and simple, but then I felt like I was missing out on something else. The world was so big and had enough lore that i do truly believe it could have been longer, however it would have bee too long then. In the end I felt like all of her problems were both wrapped up too perfectly but also seemed a little much. I think she deserved what she got but I also believe it could have set up for another book, or even a collection of short stories.

While I loved Aspeth and she's been one of my favorite main characters as of late, I couldn't help but feel she was immature, It's mentioned she was at least 30, and while it made sense and I could understand that, her actions spoke more of someone in their early twenties or late teens. The entire cast minus Hawk felt like they could be teens if you over looked anything.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and believe a novella or two could really make all the difference. 4.5 stars.

In a world of magic (and misogyny), unmarried and unchaperoned women aren't allowed to become part of the Royal Artifactual Guild. With this in mind, and her family's fortune and good name at stake, Aspeth makes a deal with a current guild member and they both get something out of this marriage of convenience. Unfortunately, Aspeth catches feelings but still has to contend with the fact that her family is in near ruins and she has to pass the Guild test.

The design of this book is a 100/10. It's so beautiful. The magic system was intriguing, but unfortunately, this one failed to keep my attention. I hope to try again with this book in the future. My library has already purchased a copy and I can't wait to see the actual design of the book in person.

This was my first Ruby Dixon book, and she definitely lived up to the hype. witty & magical! starts off a little slow imo, but pays off as the story builds!

What a fun new world from Ruby Dixon!

I’ve got to be honest, I thought this was just going to be minotaur romance and didn’t think too much deeper about it but it turns out it’s one part fantasy, one part romance, and one part adventure which adds up to a pretty exciting new series!

It’s a fantastical world, full of magical artifacts and those that hold them are like the aristocracy of the world. Aspeth is the sheltered daughter of a holder on the brink of ruin. She decides to join the Royal Artifact Guild to hunt down more artifacts to save her father and their land, but it’s not as easy as she assumed it would be and ends up marrying a minotaur teacher who will sponsor her going through Guild training..

I really enjoyed it! It took me a little bit to get into which is true of all fantasy (especially when I didn’t realize it was fantasy going into it) but I was genuinely into it and really enjoyed both Aspeth and Hawk, and also all the side characters. There’s a real found family between them all that I loved. You get action, adventure, and a slow burn romance that leads to some heat so I was very pleased!

I look forward to more from this world!

I saw the author name on this one and requested it out of curiosity. The worldbuilding piqued my interest to some degree-the concept of noble families hoarding magical artifacts in order to maintain political and military power exhibits a degree of sophistication. On the other hand, many other parts of the book were not to my taste at all. Thanks very much to Ace for the complimentary eARC; all opinions are uninfluenced and my own.

Read This Book If…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

Genre: monster romantasy
Series: Royal Artifactual Guild # 1
Spice Level: 5/5🌶, 5+ explicit scenes
Setting: fantasy world
POV: dual, 1st person, present tense
Tropes: marriage of convenience, virgin, rutting/knotting, voyeurism, “my wife”

My Thoughts:
This was such a fun read! I really liked the fantasy world introduced (even if it is super misogyny) and the creatures and magic system within. This book did a great job of balancing smut with an interesting plot.

The romance between these two was beautiful! They are so well matched and supportive of each other and I really liked both of their personalities.

And the SPICE! It’s everywhere. And it’s so good! I was clamoring for the final scene for wayyyy too long.

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

This book feels like if Stardew Valley and D&D came together and had a super cute and funny child in the form of a spicy romance book featuring a hot minotaur, found family, treasure hunting, a hodge-podge cast of characters thrown together by circumstance and a very cool and unique fantasy world that I'm excited to get to explore more of.

Aspeth is an only child who grew up a holder's daughter (very wealthy and in high society but also pretty lonely and isolating because her dad is literal hot garbage). The wealth and power of her family, however, is a lie at the beginning of the book because her father has gambled away all of their money and the magical artifacts that were intended to keep their hold safe. So Aspeth (a bookish girly who is obsessed with old Prell) - along with her lady's maid Gwenna, decides that she's going to go and join the guild of individuals that go and find these magical items in hopes that she can steal some away to keep her hold safe. But her expectations are rattled when she learns that it won't be very easy for her because she is a woman and they aren't taken seriously within the guild and the only way that she can even try to become part of it is by joining the only group led by a woman and with the help of a marriage of convenience to the Taurian teaching assistant for their group.

This book just shows me that I need to never doubt when it comes to a Ruby Dixon novel. If she writes it, I'm going to love it. Aspeth, from the get go, was a flawed character that I absolutely adored. Her heart is in the right place but the execution of everything she does tends to be messy and chaotic which only made me love her more. Her friendship with Gwenna is one of my favorite aspects of the book, their banter together is absolutely hilarious and I desperately hope that we get a book in Gwenna's point of view because she is a DELIGHT!

The marriage of convenience aspect of this book was literally so fun and Hawk is actually the love of my life now. I would literally do anything for that Taurian. And if you think that this book might not be for you because he is a minotaur, I assure you that you won't even be thinking about that in a negative way by the time you're done with the book. He is loveable and grumpy and he literally had me swooning so hard over him sooooo many times. Ruby Dixon just really knows how to write a male main character.

The plot of the book was also really captivating. I was obsessed with the history that she wove throughout the chapters and the intricacies of the magic and how it works within their world has me really interested to see what happens in the next book.

Overall, this book was a really fun time. I laughed a lot more than I thought I would because it's literally just so hilarious and swooned so hard but also had to put the book down because I was finding myself frustrated about how some of the characters do things but I think that just goes to show how great of a book it was since I was so emotionally invested.

Definitely pick this one up for yourself!

Thank you @netgalley and @acebookspub for an ARC of this book!!


Review:

This is my first time reading a Ruby Dixon book and it was a fun time! The story was funny, cute, and a little quirky. The characters are very entertaining to read about and the world building (which there was a lot of) was done really well.

The spice was fun, but I did want more of it. Oh, and for it to happen faster (😂🤷🏼‍♀️). I know, slowish burns are fine, I’m just a glutton 😉. I definitely want to read more Minotaur smut after this though, as well as more of her books! 🔥

Y’all should definitely check this one out if you want something fun, a little light hearted, and steamy to read! And yes, you have to be okay with monster smut. 😂

Fun mythological romance. If you enjoyed Ruby Dixon’s IPB series, you’ll enjoy this book!

Things to know:
Dual POV
She basically wants to be Indiana Jones
He’s her teacher
Marriage of convenience
Forced proximity
Where’s my wife?
Spicyyyy

4.25 stars

I just love Ruby Dixon!

I love the naive and well-meaning FMCs and the grumpy cinnamon roll MMCs. I cannot get enough.

This was super fun in a nerdy kind of way. Our whole world is set on archeology which is fascinating in the real world, but given some fantasy magic it is just extra fun.

This was my first Minotaur book and I get it now. Plus, who doesn't love knots?

Super fun read!

I have read Ruby Dixon's novels in the past and enjoyed them, but this one felt very overwritten and bloated.