Unique debut romance with monsters who wrestle and commercial breaks! (3.5 stars)
High praise to author Elaine J Daniels for the unconventional elements of this book: different kinds of 'monsters' who wrestle in a professional league, chapters that are commercial breaks from the action and drama, characters with multiple names and nicknames they go by, and at least one bold place for the mains to get it on, to name a few.
There is a content warning at the beginning of the book letting readers know which chapters contain steamy/explicit scenes in case they want to skip them; I read the entire book and suggest you don't skip anything unless that kind of content is an issue for you. A character appendix is also included but it only covers the names, species and roles the wrestlers play in and out of matches; those characters each have multiple names (given first and last names, a stage name, and a nickname in the ring) so mark that page to refer back to when you need it. I had to use it a few times while reading since the names used depend on where the character is and who's interacting with or referring to them in the story. There are a couple of human characters but the bulk of the cast are monsters of differing types. The story is set in the monster realm and information about the human realm is limited and not always accurate; the monster realm also lacks mobile phones so there's no texting between characters.
Chapters are told primarily from the POV's of main characters Iris and Lena, and are tagged accordingly; other chapters are either from the POV of a match commentator or are commercial breaks, the latter of which are reminiscent in places of classic North American TV ads from long ago and a great source of comic relief. There is humor elsewhere in the book along with a bit of angst and drama to break up the action in the match ring. I frequently forgot the characters were monsters until there's a mention of a tail, wings, or horns; ironically the monsters here are more 'human' (in the best sense of the word) than the actual human characters. There is a bit of terminology relating to wrestling moves that comes up but nothing too deep in the weeds so if you know nothing about wrestling it's easy to look up the words online for clarification or just gloss over them.
I read thru the book fairly quickly. It's an easy read with predictable moments in the plot and different kinds of grand gestures to provide feel good moments for the reader and story characters alike. I did question why some characters didn't get more time on the page (Lucy the Cerberus for one) and if some minor details relating to other secondary characters were brought up and then seemingly forgotten in order to wrap up the story in a particular way. The mains and their friends were presumably in their thirties yet their behavior often read as more juvenile so this may be a more appealing read for adults in the younger end of the age scale although older adults may enjoy the commercial breaks for the echoes of nostalgia; also the audience chants for one of the wrestlers were weird and a bit creepy to my ears. For a debut novel it shows promise given the creativity and imagination of the author displayed on the page so I'd be interested to see and read her future stories to see where it takes readers and to also note the growth and development in the writing.

This an amazingly fun story. If you are a fan wrestling and sapphic romance, this is for you..
I really enjoyed the narration of the matches too, as well as the commercial breaks for a bit of hilarity.
Will absolutely be reccomwnding this and reading the authors other works.

I love romantasy! Especially monster romantasy.
In this case, it challenged my imagination by imagining how a Harpy could love a Minotaur while reading this book.
I loved it!
It's definitely a fun enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance.
Full of prejudice, false impressions and misunderstandings at the beginning and then a tentative approach that turns into a hot and sizzling inferno!
These two feuding EMW wrestlers can't be in the same room without being hostile towards each other and now have to train together to put on a mega show.
Not only that, they are forced to spend time together in private to get their refinement out of the way and at least be civilized with each other.
Who could have guessed what they really think of each other and how they feel.
Of course, a lot of it revolves around wrestling, but in my opinion it is not overarching and the story is concentrated on Iris and Lena.
The explanation at the beginning of the book was very helpful. I'm not a wrestling expert, but I liked it now and then. I would have liked to watch these two ;)
Thanks so much to the Author and Ylva Publishing for this ARC! This is my honest opinion and review.