✨BOOK REVIEW✨

Swipe for GoodReads synopsis.

WOOOOOOOOOW!!! Wow wow WOW! When I tell you I DEVOURED this book and am currently in a book hangover/possible reading slump, I am SERIOUS. I’ve been trying to write this review for 5 days, that’s how much I loved it and couldn’t stop thinking about it because AAHHHH!!

I honestly went in blind with this book and SO happy I did! With that being said though, I know this book won’t be for everyone and I will get to that in a sec. But can we talk about how UNIQUE this book was?! First off, I’ve never been huge into folklore/mythology/religious books. Usually when I read fantasy, those elements just don’t exist in my head (obviously some have elements of it, I just mean implicit vs explicit). BUT THIS BOOK CHANGED THAT FOR ME! First off, if you didn’t know Piper has a MA in Folklore WE LOVE A SMART QUEEN! And she used those powers for DRAMA! Because OMG how she used her knowledge (and part of her personal experience) into this book. I’ve never been so fascinated with a universe in my LIFE! Second, our MC Miss Marlow is 1000000% the definition of a realistic human in a fantasy novel in the BEST way! I LOVE how throughout the book she was like “um, it’s not that I don’t believe what you’re saying, but wtf is happening?” Because if •I• were in a fantasy novel, I too would be VERY confused. And that made her SO relatable to me! Third, Piper writes about mature content but does it in a way where you’re actually LEARNING as you read (minus the spicy scenes because hehe).

Anywho. I LOVED this book and can’t wait for book 2 to pub! Which sucks because I’m writing this for the pub of book 1. I HIGHLY recommend the audio and to go in with an open mind with this one!

Content Warnings: sex work, religious trauma, light stalking, mental illness. I’m happy to talk in my DMs if you need to!

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the free ALC in exchange for an honest review. Pub Date 5/7/24.

Holy cow. I can't wait until the next one comes out. It's GOT to be a series because it kinda, sorta leaves you hanging! I love the premise, the characters, and the history. I can't wait to get back to them all!

I loved the way it was different from anything I’ve ever read or heard the god and fae elements were a great touch to the story , the voice actors and the details made you feel like your watching a movie and not reading a book . Can’t wait I’ll book 2 .

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for this ARC Audio Copy!

I have been looking forward to this book for a long time. I have read other books by this author and loved them all. This story is much different from her other series, but wonderfully different in a good way. Set in the modern day with mythical creatures, demons, and angels, it is a beautiful created world that I really enjoyed immersing myself into.

I really enjoyed the narration as well, she did a great job with really immersing the reader into the world.

I could not put this down! I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed the narrators. Marlow is an author with religious trauma from her childhood. She grew up poor and has to create her own way into the world. Throughout everything, she has the Prince of Hell to help her get through. Believing she’s crazy and has created him in her mind, she learns that words are binding in the world. She dives deep into the paranormal world to find her prince and gets more than she ever bargained for.

I was excited to read this book because I had been itching to read more fantasy. But I don’t think this one was for me. It had too many storylines going on at the same time which made hard to keep up.

NARRATION LOVE
♥️♥️♥️♥️
3.75 of 5
rounded up

STORY LOVE
♥️♥️♥️♥️
4 of 5

SPICE
🌶 mild(ish)

RECOMMEND
💳 yes ~ for a certain audience only

I recently listened to Piper CJ’s “The Deer and the Dragon,” a romantasy that explores the complexities of mental illness and religious trauma against the backdrop of a centuries-old war among gods, angels, demons, and mythical creatures of various religions and lore.

Marlow has the ability to see angels and demons. This gift, passed down from her devout mother, challenges Marlow’s perception of reality as she tries to escape from her family and the male presence that’s been a constant companion in her life.

“The Deer and the dragon” touches on themes like self-awareness, courage, morale conflict, religion, and unseen forces that shape our lives. It’s a reflection of the real-world struggles many of us face.

Piper CJ’s personal experiences seem to influence the story and Luna Rey’s narration vividly captures Marlow’s characterand the colorful ensemble of characters.

Thank you, NetGalley and RB Media for the opportunity to listen to “The Deer and the Dragon” in advance.

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.
I 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.O. 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.

The audiobook was fantastic and I loved the narrators.

1.5/5

This was a really fun read, and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading book two! Piper CJ did a great job creating a really unique world, and a spin on religious pantheons I hadn't seen before. This might have been five stars if the pacing was a *little* bit faster, and there was a little bit more spice, but it wasn't enough that I ever wanted to put the book down. I really enjoyed how sex-positive this story is so far, and I absolutely LOVE Luna Rey as a narrator.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGally for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

Okay--this is my first novel by this author, and maybe my experience was hindered by it being via audio instead of on page/screen, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd expected? Granted, I might not have been AS MUCH in the mood for fantasy as I would have hoped, and coming off of the CC3 train a few weeks ago, this may have been a bit *too* close for me. However! I enjoyed the writing, the atmosphere was enjoyable, and I will definitely give the next book a shot (maybe physically). If you enjoyed CC by Mrs. SJM, I think you should at least give this one a shot.

Would recommend

Thank you so much to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the audio arc. All thoughts are my own.

I was super hype on this good at the recommendation of Apothecary 19 and wasn’t disappointed. There is just a whole lot going on and a lot to keep track of. Different Gods, 3 different names for the main character, etc.

Some spoilers below!

Marlow is a best selling author of the Pantheon series. She’s had a “guardian angel” her whole life, but more the shadow variety. She was raised by her devoutly religious parents and ran away to become an escort until she had enough money to follow her dream of writing a book series. She made the mistake to of telling her guardian angel to leave her alone, and so we take the rest of the book trying to get him back.

Fauna is introduced as a Norse God and her demon boyfriend Azraemus (which I didn’t really love their whole relationship dynamic?) Marlow has Norse ties so Fauna acts as her guardian as they try to refind Kaliban. Separated lovers is my least favorite story line and that’s what this all is. This ends on a cliffhanger, and I’ll definitely be continuing the series.


Editing to add that I loved the narrator. The different voices were great and helped me get fully immersed in the story. A few words were pronounced strangely but didn’t fully throw me off.

This was an incredibly conflicting listen. First, this narrator was AMAZING. I can't tell you why she was so engaging for me but the sensual nature of her voice and the variations she used for the other ladies just all worked (I'm not usually a big fan of female narrators).

This book may only be interesting in audio format though. The pacing is a bit weird and there was, what felt like, a lot of self insert. There seemed like a lot of down time in the plot. For me I could feel the places where I would have had to force myself through the pages.

**Minor spoilers***

Not having the MMC in most of the book was frustrating and the fact that no one would explain to the FMC the rules of literally anything. And Fauna, Goddess love her, why did she become a mean girl all of a sudden?

Were there trigger warnings? This probably needs trigger warnings. Nothing made sense at the end and the cliffhanger was obnoxious.

This is such a great concept but I think it needed more time to be developed. I'm not sure if I'll pick up Book 2 just because I don't want to struggle through book one again to get to what *might* be a really good plot.

Thank you so much to Tantor Media, Piper CJ and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this title. I received an ARC copy of this audiobook and am leaving my review voluntarily and honestly .

I couldn’t get into this book. The narrator was annoying and wouldn’t admit to anything and only wanted this god. The writing wasn’t great either.

They say write what you know it’s seems like Piper took that to heart with this one. Overall, a fine read (or listen, in this case). This is the first of a series and ends on a cliff so if that’s not something you’re ok with, reader be warned.

The story follows Marlow as she comes to the understanding that the world around her is not what it seems and her imaginary friend is in fact a prince of hell. There is queer rep, SW positive. Basically if you’ve seen any of CJs posts of her personal life, you can guess what this book is about. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation.

The narrator was solid, I enjoyed the voices for some of the minor/side characters more than the voice for Marlow but that’s entirely personal preference and i listened on 1.5 speed which warps things a bit. Thanks to the publisher for an early copy of this audiobook.

This was such a unique fantasy! I don't think l've read anything like it. I was so interested in the idea of this book from the moment I saw it that I HAD to request it on @netgalley. I DO NOT REGRET IT! I did initially think the pacing was a little bit slow, but the time it takes to get to know Marlow is so necessary. The mythology and folklore is top tier as this story unfolds into a war of worlds. The narration by Luna Rey was just perfect. I preordered a copy of this book just a few chapters into it. I need book 2 !! It's absolutely haunting me!!

Yeah this wasn’t for me. This was my first time reading this author and I hated the style of writing in this book.

I listened to the audiobook and I couldn’t tell if I hated the narrator or if it was the authors writing style… but the narrator definitely didn’t save the story either.

I found myself eye rolling to several parts. The are several times that brands are name dropped in the story, which just kill the overall fantasy aspect for me and felt like an ad. It was incredibly hard to root for the romance plot when he is MIA for the entire story and the author didn’t really do a good job of filling in those gaps. Also the spice was cringe.

There was no character development throughout the entire story. Literally no likable characters… this story had nothing going for it.

I honestly just found myself not caring wtf was happening in the book. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone… I should have DNF’ed but it was an audiobook so I just increased the speed and powered through.

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me with an ALC. My opinions are my own (obviously lol) 💖

Thank you NetGalley, Tantor Audio, and Piper CJ for an ARC of this audiobook! We follow Marlow, a former sex worker turned best-selling author (Piper CJ clearly pulling from her own lived experiences for most of Marlow’s backstory) whose novels are focused on the “mythology” of various pantheons around the globe. Little does Marlow know that it’s all real, tucked away behind a veil that most people cannot see through. I loved the way this book challenged Marlow’s ideas of reality and morality, and forced her to confront the restrictions of her religious upbringing time and time again. I’m hoping we get more exposure to the various individual gods and pantheons as the series continues. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure where this book was going for the first 20%, but then it hooked me and I couldn’t put it down.

This sounded like an interesting new paranormal romance. The cover and synopsis sounded intriguing. I honestly have nothing positive to say. I dnfed this book at 30%. The narration wasn't awful but neither did it grasp my attention. Marlow as a character gave off such dislikable "not like other girl" vibes that it was a struggle to even care about her. Calliban wasn't developed at 30% for me to even find him appealing. This just wasn't my thing.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced listening, copy of The Deer and the Dragon. I will start this off by saying I am very conflicted about this book, however, that it no way has anything to do with the audio performance. Luna Rey provides a great single narrator performance covering a wide variety of accents, emotions, and range.

This book has so much potential. I love the premise and as soon as I heard about it, I thought this is what Neil Gaiman’s American Gods would be if it was a romance. Taking the commandment, “thou shalt have no other gods before me” to its extreme implies that all of those other gods do exist. Every pantheon is real. However interpretation and reality differ depending on who is telling the story. I like most of the supporting characters, and by the end was invested in where their stories were heading.

Beyond what it had the potential to be, there are issues. Mostly to due with the protagonist, and I will elaborate after making one point/raising a warning.

I don’t know if this is the case in the physical book, but the audiobook did not have trigger warnings. While I am personally privileged enough to not typically need them, there are definitely topics that this book touches on or that are heavily involved in the plot that could be triggering.

These include:

– Religious trauma
– Sex work
– Psychological abuse
– Sexual trauma
- Mental illness
- Graphic violence

And I’m sure there’s others that I haven’t thought of.

In addition to the lack of warnings, my biggest problem with the novel is that the female main character is incredibly unlikable. From what I know of the author from her own social media presence, this seems to be a very thinly veiled self insert situation. I wouldn’t have a problem with this if the characterization actually made sense. How can I believe that someone well read and knowledgeable enough to write an incredibly popular mythology based series actually knows so little beyond the Judeo-Christian canon that every word out of her mouth and decision she makes gets her in trouble when encountering anything beyond the Christian god or his angels? The same character also finds the supernatural in a Christian context to be completely believable, and everything else must mean she’s insane. She believes this to the point that a presence that has physically been in her life and influencing it for 20 years she assumes is in her head.

I don’t have a problem with the main character who has to learn from their mistakes and who changes over the course of their story. In fact, I think this is necessary to crafting a good story. The main character here did not feel like she grew in understanding, empathy, or experience, despite having the impetus, opportunity, and means to do so. I’m glad that the love interest admitted to easing her path because the advantages she achieved would make no sense otherwise given her own actions and abilities, but I can’t see her appeal to him even if he tries to explain why she’s different. Their connection is not believable.

I plan to continue this series with the hope that the female main character grows and earns the reverence that the supporting characters seem to attach to her. The premise remains interesting enough to convince me to give it a chance to improve, and I will read for the mythological angle rather than the romance. The bones of a really fascinating story are here and I hope will be worth sticking with it.

The Deer and the Dragon by Piper CJ is an interesting combination of folklore of fantasy encompassing both of this author's big strengths. As the first installment of a series, it does an excellent job of setting up the world and characters. I particularly appreciated the way Piper CJ represented our main female character dealing with religious trauma. While the pacing was a bit uneven with exposition being given very rapidly in the start I feel the story did come together really well by about the 20 percent mark. I do think this book will be a great read for those who are already fans of Piper CJ's previous series but this will also be an excellent entry point for those new to the author's work.