Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was an... interesting read. It had a unique plot with questionable characters. My issue is that the pacing felt a bit messy and it was as though the plot of the story was lost about a quarter of the way through. I also don't love That the FMC was diagnosed with something akin to schizophrenia and then it turns out that what she was "hallucinating" was actually real. This is
something that can be harmful. I also don't like when she says that she listens to books that aren't good so that she can avoid making their mistakes. The way it is said makes her seem condescending and self righteous. That's not something I like to see in a main character was also not a fan of how she kept bringing up how fulfilling her time as a sex worker was. She started
saying it so much that I stopped believing her and began thinking that maybe it wasn't as good as she's describing it as I also wish that Calaban was part of the story more. I think that the premise of retrieving your S.0. only works if the characters have an established relationship. We only see them together for such a small portion of the story which made me care very little about what happened to either one of them. I Think this book could use some pretty major rewrites but it has potential as a series if the author makes the FMC a bit more likable.

Thank you for letting me listen to this audiobook. This book has some cool sceans. But in parts it felt as if the author keeps the reader at arms length from the story. So I couldn't really get a feel for the story.

I love a good fantasy steeped in folklore and religious mythology. This is a dark story and not just because a large portion of it takes place in hell. Marlow believes herself to be crazy and no one would blame her after the abuse and religious trauma she dealt with as a child and into her adulthood. When she banishes her "imaginary" lover and he turns out to be completely real and a prince of hell, her and a couple of characters straight out of legend go looking for him.

This was an interesting and well-realized take on the romantasy genre that I really enjoyed and will look forward to reading more of!

“How does a human girl lose the Prince of Hell?”

Ever since Marlow was a small child she’s seen him. Whether in the form of an Arctic Fox or a white haired man the being she dubbed Caliban has always been by her side.

Her extremely religious mother believes she’s possessed, Marlow thinks herself insane. In a moment of panic after a near death experience Marlow banishes Caliban, only to soon discover her “visions” are very much real.

With an angelic soldier on her tail, she joins Fauna, a Nordic skogsrå (nymph) and Azrames, an avenging demon, to track down her Prince through the veil and across Pantheons.

I’m so excited that Piper CJ is jumping into Urban Fantasy, Hazbin Hotel meets Crescent City? Sign me up!

She’s done an amazing job of weaving multiple mythologies together into this fantastic tale! The story also dives into surviving religious trauma and shows the toxicity & destruction that can come with blind faith. The writing is beautiful, I adore Piper’s lyrical style.

I loved the main character Marlow, her internal dialogue had me both laughing and crying. She is deeply relatable to anyone who grew up outside the “norm” and struggles to exist in society while not being neurotypical.

Luna Rey’s narration was impeccable, her voice was the perfect choice to complement the vibes of this book.

~ The deities you call aren't always the ones who answer. ~

What a rollercoaster of a book! So many twists and turns, mixed with layered mythology and lore, I was on the edge of my seat for most of my time listening to this ALC. I thought Piper CJ did a terrific job setting up Marlow as a character with her complicated backstory, involving religious trauma and mental illness (or at least what she believes to be the case). I particularly loved the way the author unraveled things for Marlow as she worked through everything she dealt with as a child and how she moves forward with it at present. I personally found aspects of Marlow's experience that I related to and honestly felt very seen in Piper's writing.

My one qualm with the book overall is that it just felt a little long. At least, longer than it needed to be in my opinion. For the plethora of twists and turns throughout, there were some lulls in the story that felt like they could have been cut from the book altogether and not affected the plot or Marlow's overall journey.

As for the narration, I thought Luna Rey did a fantastic job! Most of why the length only slightly bothered me was because Luna's narration made me want to keep listening on when those lulls in the writing happened at times. The different voice personas she employed for the variety of characters were really engaging to the listener. The serious moments were handled really well in my opinion, just as much as the comedic banter was fun to listen to. Would absolutely listen to another book Luna narrates.

Overall, I did really enjoy this audiobook despite it being a little longer than I would have preferred. Will absolutely continue reading on in this series! I need to know what happens next 👀

I truly struggled to get through this… there are several very heavy topics discussed in this book. So just a heads up. Truly I think this book just wasn’t for me. I felt that numerous points were made that didn’t further the plot but perhaps the authors own personal points and preferences. The narrator did a great job, unfortunately it was the writing that I struggled with… I felt like I was in a fever dream for the first 10-15 chapters. The books seemed to have potential but truthfully I didn’t fully finish it, I just couldn’t. I struggled to make it as far as I did if I’m being transparent. I do feel there was a level of inclusivity with sex work and that I loved. I don’t feel this topic is ever shed in a positive light and for that I tip my hat, However, I do feel the reality of the dangers and not so great parts were not included. Giving it an unrealistic feel… There was so many parts of this book I just felt were a stretch.
Overall it just wasn’t for me, that isn’t to say it may not be for you. I think this is just one of those reads you either love or don’t love so much. I appreciate the opportunity to listen and hope this finds it’s audience 🫶🏻

I was waiting for dragons the entire time. Spoiler alert, there's no dragons.

I really enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook and the way she approached this story, which I think made listening to it so much easier. I wanted to love the plot and give this book and author another chance, but I still felt like the story was lacking that 'oomph' feeling that I get when I read a book I truly love. It reads a lot like a self insert, Marlow basically being Piper? Yeah I'm good, I'd like my fantasy to be just that: FANTASY.

This story has so much potential and I'd love to see Piper continue to grow as a writer and really take this story by storm. There's honestly a lot going on in this book and once again a lot of triggers and issues as so casually brushed past without a thought which made listening to it extremely tricky and often times I found myself cringing at some of these reactions. A lot of the reactions were just so tactless and problematic. Sometimes it's okay to not have EVERY trigger or issue (misgendering on purpose, being drugged for the purpose of having non consensual sex, etc.) in a book if you can't even address them in a classy way or show how characters might heal after these extremely stressful/triggering events.

Like other works by Piper, it glosses over issues the same way she did in her first series and I unfortunately don't know why I'm shocked.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC!

3.5 stars but rounded up.

Thank you netgalley for this arc audiobook in return for my honest review.

I think that that’s a lot of room for the author to grow. She definitely is good at tying mythology in with a religious spin. I think she has a lot of potential. I did enjoy her world and character building. As well as, the pacing of the story.

The narrator did a great job. I would listen to more of the books she has read.

I live tantor audio, been listening to many audiobooks from them FOR YEARS, mostly historical romance. Therefore I have 0 problems with the way this book was delivered. 5 ⭐ s for Luna's impeccable voice.

The problem I have lies in the story.

This monster is 15+ hours long, and I've wasted that chunk of my time listening to this book. The only thing that kept me until the end was the top-tier narration. Otherwise (if this book was somehow an epub), I would have DNF'ed at Chapter 1's "cringeworthy".

The story didn't start with a list of triggers, which was a big fat L in my book. This one has religious trauma, misgendering, and stalking among other things. If that sounds like your tiggers, DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THIS BOOK.

The second problem I had was actually one of the triggers. At one point in this book (spoiler ahead:) The FMC had misgendered a side character, and even when they had corrected her, she just brushed it off as nothing. There was also another character that annoyed and creeped the hell out of me. She's supposed to be the quirky, sunshine and rainbows character, but ended up saying something like "I love queer culture" in a way that had sexual undertones. Not sure if the author wrote it that way, but either way it was a stunner (and not in a good way).

The 3rd problem I had was pacing. It was incredibly, painfully slow... For NO APPARENT REASON. It picks up halfway through the book, pushing away readers to DNF. If you still want to read/listen to this book, just keep in mind the good stuff is in the middle.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed how Marlowe thought she was imagining Kalaban and figured it was a part of her mental state, but she turned out to be wrong. This book was dark and chock full of mythology and I really enjoyed this concept of heaven and hell going against each other with Marlowe in the middle. I look forward to the next book in this series.

This was a really fantastic read! It's dark and sexy and I had such a great time in this world, with these characters. To have all these pantheons, and factions, and this look at the bible and Christianity, yeah, I had to know what was going to happen next!

Marlow was pretty fantastic, she was a sex worker, and now she's an author, who thinks she's insane because of her imaginary friend, Caliban. To find out that he was real, that she wasn't crazy, entering this world, yeah, that was pretty eye opening for her! So of course she goes on a quest to find him.

The way that she treated him after that incident, where he tried to get her to not say something that she would regret-and she did-she blocks him from her life. Which, I mean, I know why she did it, but she was the one that put those restrictions up, he wasn't able to help directly because of them.

One thing that I noted was just how descriptive Marlow's reactions were. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, because she was frequently in situations that were panicking, and I know that I wouldn't do any better, but it's not something that I loved to read.

That ending was just evil for us readers! To end it like that, not knowing the outcome, I mean, sure, it's probably likely that those we're rooting for made it out okay, but we haven't seen it yet, and to have to wait until the next book is going to be awful!

I had a great time reading this book and I can't wait to continue on!

3.75 stars. Im so glad to see that Pipers writing has improved since The Night and its Moon series! I was instantly hooked on The Deer and the Dragon, I really enjoyed that she made good use of her Masters in folklore and talked briefly about other religions and deities. One thing that kept me from rating the book higher is that I find Pipers writing to be very wordy.

I would definitely recommend if you are into fantasy, I personally cannot wait for the second book.

I enjoyed this one. This is a paranormal/fantasy set in the modern world. Once the plot was set up it was easy to get into. I think it's important to know that it is heavy on religious theology and folklore.  This is something I didn't know so this one may not be for everyone.  I easily found myself invested. Although I don't personally agree with some of the viewpoints, I can't hold it against the writing.

The various characters, locations, and quests created a solid read. It kept my attention the entire time and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next.

If you are interested in folklore, theology, and Mythology this one is for you. (This is a romantasy with spicy scenes).

Listening to the audiobook was an added bonus. The narrator, Luna Rey, does a fantastic job portraying not only the main character, but also with her ability to change her voice to distinguish the other characters.

This was a decent read/listen. The audiobook was enjoyable. The story was good! I am really hoping this author can keep up her growth.

4 Stars
Wow this book was such a great surprise! It was so engaging, layered and well written. Some parts were super scary too. It ended on a huge cliffhanger though! I cannot wait for the next book in the series. The Narrator did an amazing job!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the physical copy as well as the audio arc!

I really enjoyed this book. It was such a fun and entertaining adventure. I loved our female main character, and her character development throughout the book as well as from her past was super nice to read. I also really loved the side characters humour and what they added to the story.

I wished we had more time with the two main characters, as it was hard to connect with their love story because we only really get told about their past, not really shown, and they spend 90% of the book apart. But it was still super fun overall, and the narrator did a great job!

Looking forward to continuing and reading more by Piper CJ

3.75 stars <3

Thank you For the ARC.

Omg. Ok. Like imagine the prince of hell someone you know personally goes missing. What do you do? This book just dives in head first and I'm obsessed!!!! Piper CJ the amazing author you are.

Marlow is twenty-six, a famous author, comfortably wealthy, lonely and mentally ill. Or at least she thinks her nightly visitor, who she cannot see, is due to mental illness - an issue that runs in her family. However, after a series of unexplainable and very real events happen, Marlow realizes that what she has had her whole life is really clairvoyance and a relationship with a Prince of Hell. As she tries to square this circle, she is thrown head first into an even bigger problem - her prince is missing.

This is a very well done audiobook and I enjoyed the narrator. The pacing was well done and Marlow’s voice was captured perfectly.

The novel itself was good too. It took me a bit to get on board with how Marlow’s story unfolded, but once the cards were laid out it was much easier to follow and accept as a plausible. Fauna makes for a great & hilarious side character who does a nice job of moving the plot along while simultaneously educating the reader. Her and Marlow’s dynamic as friends is well balanced. The underlying romance doesn’t really come into full swing until later on so if you like steady action through a novel, just know that the spiciness does come back.
4 stars.

Review based on a Advanced Audiobook provided by RB Media/Tantor Audio and NetGalley. Thank you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
3.5/5 STARS

Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance

This is my first book by this author and I listened to it on audio. It’s about a girl who always sees someone and that someone turns out to be the Prince of Hell who goes missing and she tries to find him in another world.

This book is full of angels/demons, set in a modern world. The first 30 % of the book is mostly background for the main character and then it takes a more paranormal turn and they go to another world. I liked the paranormal/gods stuff the best. The MC was an author and worked her way up from nothing. I think the first 30 % could be cut in half and gave the book a different vibe that I didn’t love. I did enjoy the spice and the quest to find Caliban though. There is a bit of a twist towards the end that was good. There is going to be another book as this one ends setting up for a war.

Read this if you like:
angel/demons, urban fantasy, paranormal romance,

Thank you Bloom Books for the gifted copy & RB Media for the audiobook!

This was a rollercoaster of a feelings and a whirlwind of events that somehow made me sit on the edge of my seat waiting for the next thing to happen. It is full of demons and angels, nymphs (a.k.a. sugar goblin) and witches, gods, goddess, pantheons, realms, and I feel like that is only scratching the barest of the surface. Needless to say, it's a whole lotta whole lotta happening in this book. And all I could do was buckle up and hang on because, just like Marlow experiencing this stuff, it was a lot to grasp as it was being tossed at us. But the mix of mythology, magic, and reality made for such a fun read!

Now, I'll be real, the beginning of the book is on the slower side. There is a lot of explaining and showing who Marlow is and the life she is currently living. She thinks she is half crazy (like a step from a hospital help crazy) and in love with an imaginary friend. She rarely goes anywhere or wants to interact with people other than short conversations with her two bffs and her editor. And that about sums up the first 1/3rd of the book. Then hell breaks loose in her life and things start to get cooking. We do have a long "run around and find leads" feel happening but it was so cool to see the world develop out. We get to visit another realm and it was totally wicked! I did want more realm jumping to happen, but I can be patient for the next book. Speaking of, the ending was mean and left me grumpy. "Lets be sunflowers," the fuck! I wanna know what happened! Who's gonna clean up THAT mess? No, I don't wanna be a fucking flower with you. I want more of my wicked, sexy demon prince and hell's assassin. I need that next book!

I think the number one thing I had to recover from was the shear loudness the author has in the religious abuse Marlow went through growing up. It is one of the biggest character points in Mar's background. We are constantly faced with her aversion, struggle, or perhaps religious fear(?) of anything that might come across as blasphemy. So when Fauna (our friendly neighborhood Nord who is obsessed with sugar) just causally drops the whole "all those myths you've studied and write about are real," then harshly expects Mar to just jump on board with that bomb, is odd to me. And it isn't like this is a singular occurrence, Fauna does it multiple times after Mar has explained the why/what. There is certainly growth that happens from this trauma which is beautiful to see, but it was a rough road to get there. But i guess when it turns out the Prince of Hell is your bae, your reality does tend to shift.

The writing was full of beautiful descriptions and smooth conversations - when we weren't going on a full minute of internal dialogue and thoughts. I'm really glad that we only stayed in one POV the entire time for this story. That is something I don't say often either. If we had to jump around and everyone got the same level of internal monologuing that we got from Mar, I might not have been able to finish the book. I was afraid of forgetting the initial conversation that started her internal drifting already. Then you add more POVs and those personalities?? Nah, I'm good. I was already drowning in the level of self deprecating thoughts this woman had which is really sad. I don't know if I could handle other character's POVs that have deep developed backgrounds. I wished we saw mar grow a bit more with her personal view. She is a strong, independent woman who has traveled the world, super successful career, two of the greatest friends who are her chosen family, and won't have any money worries ever again. Yet, she is constantly questions and pushing down her sanity and her right to just be herself. And then a full 180 happens with the pep talks sprinkled in to bring some light to the heavy decision moments.

The men are freaking SEXY and damn they are FINE. The women are too, don't get me wrong. Basically, everyone from the other realms are sex on a stick. They are willing to either act on your dirty thoughts or play with you while having the naughty thoughts. There are some smutty moments happening, but overall I'd say this is a relatively quiet smut read, which I found surprising. More of a teasing and foreplay read for us. It makes me wonder what the next book will have in store if this was only the first one in the series. No, I'm not reading it for the smut! This is genuinely a great book to read, but if there is a little heat happening, I'm certainly not going to complain!

Overall, this was a great read! Left us on a cliffhanger that I'm not happy about. The characters were fun to interact with even if Fauna was a bit on the aggressive with her words. Loved our boys from Hell. I'm interested in our loner from Heaven. I'm already wondering when more pantheons are going to get involved. I want to jump realms more. And I really want that next book! Side Note: The title doesn't make any sense with the story. I guess Marlow is the deer and the Prince is the Dragon? Or is Fauna the deer and Marlow the Dragon? There could have been something better to name it. Something with the Fox? (when you read it you'll understand that one) Or maybe her mythology writings?