Thank you to NetGalley, Rita A. Rubin, and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for allowing me access to the e-arc.

4.5 stars

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a cozy fantasy romance with many slaying monsters and fighting scenes. I will say the feeling of this book reminded me of the way Godkiller felt. I liked the plot of this book but the characters made me love it. Kas is a monster slayer who was traumatized by an attack on her family by vampires. Claudia is half vampire half human. She is an outcast on both sides. They end up having to work together to protect humanity. I would have liked to see Kas learn to slay monsters. I also wish the ending wasn't rushed. I wouldn't have minded spending more time with the characters.

✨Sapphic
✨Trans Rep
✨All Female Cast of Characters
✨Sibling rivalry

TW: Grief, gore, and transphobia

I would highly recommend it!

“A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters” by Rita A. Rubin is a sapphic fantasy novel, featuring the main characters of Kas, a monster slayer, and Claudia, a half “vampyric” monster. The two form an unlikely alliance to stop, Serisa, a full vampyric from using a relic to reawaken dragons and doom humanity.

Between fierce battles, the heart of the story is a lovely romance between two sworn enemies. Both carrying the baggage of traumatic pasts, they reluctantly team up and realize, along the way, that they have more in common than they once thought.

The novel has a good premise, especially with a classic enemies-to-lovers trope, and has an interesting world full of monsters. However, the way so many magical creatures were included felt like going through bullet points or a list of monsters. I also assumed (my fault) that the book is YA, but the slaying and battle scenes can get quite violent. So, if you, like me, assumed the age range based on the cover, just know this book does include fairly explicit scenes of violence and sex.

The book includes multiple perspectives from characters including Kas, Claudia, and Serisa. I enjoy reading multiple perspectives but the switches in this book were often sudden and short-lived and slightly overlapped each other. I found that switching so often took me out of the story a bit, especially when reading the same dialogue as the previous page.

Although I had some issues with the pacing and wished some things were given more time to flesh out, I enjoyed the book. I think “A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters” is a super fun fantasy and romance novel with lots of action scenes too. I love the inclusion of queer characters and I am a fan of the star-crossed lovers, enemies-to-lovers, vibes. I think the book feels a bit like a dnd campaign, so if these vibes are for you, I definitely recommend reading!

I truly enjoyed this book. While I have some minor complaints, I was completely engaged in the story from start to finish. The pacing is perfect for 90% of the book—it maintains a break-neck speed and hits all the high notes! There’s never a dull moment.

I also have to praise the strong, predominantly female cast, which makes the feminist themes feel naturally integrated rather than forced or dumbed down. It felt refreshing without being heavy-handed, which is ALWAYS a pet peeve of mine in such books.

That said, while I wouldn’t call the plot predictable, I do feel the book lacks a major plot twist or a gasp-worthy reveal. The final battle felt like it dragged on, which was disappointing because the pacing had been so tight until that point. I was also a bit disappointed [MAJOR SPOILERS, Part IV-ch. 7/89%] || <spoiler>by the resolution of Serisa’s arc. She’s on the verge of achieving her goals/winning the big battle, but suddenly crumbles because of the necklace McGuffin? That felt anticlimactic. While her ending is emotional and beautifully written, the way she gets there broke my suspension of disbelief to be honest.</spoiler> ||

Part IV is really my only complaint, though, in what was otherwise a truly amazing book. I felt like I went on a real adventure with these characters, and it’s a story I’ll remember fondly for many years to come!

3,75⭐️

A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters by Rita A. Rubin is a fast-paced fantasy romance.

I was drawn in from the beginning by the cover and the premise; The Witcher but make it sapphic and with vampires? Say less.

I was very taken with the story so I consider this novel a pretty enjoyable read overall.
Nonetheless, I would’ve liked to see a deeper exploration of the characters and perhaps of the romance between the two protagonists.

While I wasn’t particularly fond of the ending, I would still recommend this book to any fantasy lovers, especially those who love a pretty much all-female cast of characters.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

no one is more sad than i to say i will be dnf’ing this one for now :(

i must say i was immediately drawn in by the cover (which i unabashedly related to vi and caitlyn from arcane- sue me!) but i just was notttt connecting with the characters or their motives and that was a big turn off. that is not to say this is a bad book and i would still 100% recommend for those looking for a solid queer fantasy, i will simply just have to sit this one out!

This was really good, the witcher but for the girls and the gay. The first chapter immediately pulls you in, it was so gruesome. I liked the romance even tho it went from 0 to 100.

I picked this up for the premise, which sounded promising. There was a lot of potential with this book, but unfortunately I found the execution very poor. I won’t get into everything for the sake of brevity, but I will mention my two biggest gripes. First, the writing was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Talk about belaboring the point. Over and over again. Using italics for emphasis, just in case we missed it the first dozen times. I felt practically infantilized. Second, the character work was uninspired. Every character just had some sad, horrible thing happen in their past which they revealed in expository dialogue. That is not enough to make them interesting. They need to be interesting in the time the narrative is actually taking place if I’m supposed to care about them in any way. As it was, I found myself very underwhelmed.

I went in with high hopes and I was sorely disappointed. I love enemies to lovers but I felt as if it was too fast and not really compelling. I also noticed many mistakes throughout it that bothered me. I felt like I was reading a fanfiction.

Characters: 3/5
Plot: 1/5
Romance: 1/5
Writing: 1/5

I really wanted to like this!

ＮＥＴＧＡＬＬＥＹ
ＲＥＶＩＥＷ

𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
- slayer x vampire
- sapphic
- enemies to lovers
- the witcher and castlevania vibes
- dragons, monsters and different types of creatures

𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:
Unfortunately, I’ve decided to DNF this book at 12%. I would still rate it around 3 stars (average but not outstanding), because I can see how the premise, world and characters could be enjoyable for the right reader. However, I struggled too much with the writing style to fully engage with the story.

My main issue is with the grammatical structure of the sentences, which felt too unnatural or fragmented. For example:
“It didn’t take long before Claudia reached the edge of the forest, where she was greeted by a small farmhouse. With clothes left out on a washing line.”
“ It was an arduous trek up the mountain that no human would make lightly. Making the old castle an ideal lair for vampyrics.”
Sentences like these appear way too frequently, where a short sentence is followed by an additional fragment that should have been part of the original sentence. This sadly disrupts the flow and made the whole story feel choppy.

Additionally, the writing is quite simplistic, often telling rather than showing. This way I as the reader didn’t feel immersed in the world, unfortunately pulling me out and making me take double takes in a way that makes the prose feel flat.

All that being said, I do think readers who can look past these writing quirks might still enjoy the story and characters.
If the book gets another editing pass, I believe the reading experience would improve significantly, making it easier to appreciate the underlying story.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

☆ Fun Factor 5/5
☆ Writing Style 3/5
☆ Characters 4/5
☆ Plot 2/5
☆ Setting 1/5
☆ Feels 2/5
☆ Spiciness 4/5 (several sex scenes and a really sweet slow burn romance)

Ultimate verdict ☆☆☆☆/5

☆☆☆Best Character Award goes to:☆☆☆ CLAUDIA my girl!!!!

Review: LETS GO LESBIANS!!!

Marketed as a sapphic Witcher homage, you get exactly what you're asking for. Kas is Geralt-ing all over the place with TWO silver swords mind you, except she's not as philosophical, conflicted, or nuanced as he is. For a majority of the book, she sees a monster, it dies. And just like Geralt, every woman on two legs thinks she's the hottest thing in town; it was oddly endearing and refreshing to see a lot of the tropes from such a masculine genre as monster-slayer fantasy reflected with a 95% female cast of characters. Everybody here is lesbians, and I love it!!! It's unapologetically a play on a very dude bro dominated genre and I was having a blast.

There's some kind of monster for Kas to kill in pretty much every chapter, from griffins to merfolk to DRAGONS. Yea, if you read the Witcher series and complained "he spends too much time being sad and not enough killing things," your prayers have been answered.

Claudia, Kas's half-vampire love interest, gives off massive Alucard of Castlevania energy, and not just from her beautiful platinum hair and cool rapier either. She's got the same sort of sadness Alucard does about a mortal parent dying and the grief the immortal one went through at the loss, and then without spoiling anything, this becomes a save the world plot because of grief for a beloved lost. It just worked.

Have we seen these tropes done before? Ohhhh yes. Did I care? No. Not at all. Did this start it's life as a Witcher x Castlevania fanfic but with lots of lesbians? Maybe, but good for Rita. This was a really really fun read.

Ultimately though the romance between Kas and Claudia is the real heart of everything. Their banter, the gradual gains in trust and respect for each other that ultimately turn into love. It's just incredibly sweet.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!