fredbooklover's review
4.0
*This is a 3.5 stars review round up to 4 stars
Beloved Monster is definitely a creative story. When I asked to review this book I was a little worried that it would be a copycat of Frankenstein, but I was really impressed with Karyn Gerrard work. I really loved the underlying ethical dilemma that was present in this story. A man is brought back from the dead, what should be done with him? As long as there is a heartbeat, it is considered a human being. While doing its experiment, Professor Reed never thought that someone would be living again.
The Viscount Ravenswood is hated by a lot of people. All he thought about was to have its way with women. Pleasure is his ultimate goal. There are a whole lot of rumors and stories about him. When he died, there were not a lot of people that were shedding tears for him. Professor Reed stole Viscount Ravenswood body from its casket and decided to do an experiment on him. His cousin Glenna showed up in his laboratory and decided to help him. They never thought that Viscount Ravenswood would come from the dead.
Let me get something out of the way right now: I am not a fan of a virgin main character. In fact, I am usually running away as fast as I can from those stories. There is no need to say that after having read a couple of pages and realized that Glenna was a virgin, I thought I would be in for a painful time. I have to admit that Karyn Gerrard did a really good job with Glenna character. Glenna was romantic and a little naive, but she got a wilder side too. From time to time she was a little annoying, but for the most part, I liked her. I especially liked the bond that she had with Luke (previously known as Viscount Ravenswood).
Luke came back to life with no memories of who he was before. He has scars and his skin is gray. He is not the handsome man that he used to be. He also has a completely different personality. Little by little he is learning again to talk, to walk and so on. Reed and Glenna kept him hidden in their basement. As soon as he saw Glenna he fell for her, but he looks like a monster he can’t believe that Glenna could feel the same way. As time goes by, Glenna fell in love with Luke, but her cousin Reed is not happy about that at all.
It is a truly entertaining story and it was a pleasure to read it. The pace of the book is perfect and its character development is great. Overall, it is a great story. From time to time I was getting irritated with Glenna character but other than that I love this book. I’m curious to see what direction the author will take in the second book of the series.
*I was gifted this book by Jeep Diva in exchange for an honest review.
Beloved Monster is definitely a creative story. When I asked to review this book I was a little worried that it would be a copycat of Frankenstein, but I was really impressed with Karyn Gerrard work. I really loved the underlying ethical dilemma that was present in this story. A man is brought back from the dead, what should be done with him? As long as there is a heartbeat, it is considered a human being. While doing its experiment, Professor Reed never thought that someone would be living again.
The Viscount Ravenswood is hated by a lot of people. All he thought about was to have its way with women. Pleasure is his ultimate goal. There are a whole lot of rumors and stories about him. When he died, there were not a lot of people that were shedding tears for him. Professor Reed stole Viscount Ravenswood body from its casket and decided to do an experiment on him. His cousin Glenna showed up in his laboratory and decided to help him. They never thought that Viscount Ravenswood would come from the dead.
Let me get something out of the way right now: I am not a fan of a virgin main character. In fact, I am usually running away as fast as I can from those stories. There is no need to say that after having read a couple of pages and realized that Glenna was a virgin, I thought I would be in for a painful time. I have to admit that Karyn Gerrard did a really good job with Glenna character. Glenna was romantic and a little naive, but she got a wilder side too. From time to time she was a little annoying, but for the most part, I liked her. I especially liked the bond that she had with Luke (previously known as Viscount Ravenswood).
Luke came back to life with no memories of who he was before. He has scars and his skin is gray. He is not the handsome man that he used to be. He also has a completely different personality. Little by little he is learning again to talk, to walk and so on. Reed and Glenna kept him hidden in their basement. As soon as he saw Glenna he fell for her, but he looks like a monster he can’t believe that Glenna could feel the same way. As time goes by, Glenna fell in love with Luke, but her cousin Reed is not happy about that at all.
It is a truly entertaining story and it was a pleasure to read it. The pace of the book is perfect and its character development is great. Overall, it is a great story. From time to time I was getting irritated with Glenna character but other than that I love this book. I’m curious to see what direction the author will take in the second book of the series.
*I was gifted this book by Jeep Diva in exchange for an honest review.
cuddlesome's review against another edition
1.0
DNF at 30% in, I can't take this anymore. Fun, well-worn concept with embarrassing, hot garbage execution.
Word to the wise, when you're doing a Frankenstein-inspired piece, either don't address the source material or DO address it and give it the credence it deserves. DON'T do this weird thing this book does where it's like "Frankenstein??? Lmaoooooooo--"
I've seen this trope a few times where a promiscuous guy gets memory loss and then ends up in a monogamous relationship and frankly it feels... not great. Rather than accepting that sometimes hot people can and will have a lot of sex and it may or may not be with you there's this fantasy of destroying the person's personality and isolating them so that they won't be as sexually indiscriminate. Like hey, that's kind of messed up, don't you think? From what was established in this story, minus a false rape accusation, which is its own level of messed up, the dude had consenting partners and, when rejected, left. He's not doing anything wrong by playing fast and loose, yo. The female lead got heartbroken by him and I just... that's your problem, sis!! You knew he's slutty but you thought you could """"fix"""" him!
The romance, what little of it I could stand between the female lead and the amnesiac reanimated corpse, is... awkward. No steady build to anything, just dropping weird, cumbersome affection into the reader's lap along with way too much emphasis on ~ masculinity ~ and ~ femininity ~
Final note: there were so many exposition dumps. People would rattle off entire backstories with little prompting to contextualize behavior. Absolute amateur hour.
I don't know, maybe I'll come back and read the rest of this at some point, but OHHH my god I'm so frustrated with it, it had so much potential but the way it's carried out is so bad...
Word to the wise, when you're doing a Frankenstein-inspired piece, either don't address the source material or DO address it and give it the credence it deserves. DON'T do this weird thing this book does where it's like "Frankenstein??? Lmaoooooooo--"
I've seen this trope a few times where a promiscuous guy gets memory loss and then ends up in a monogamous relationship and frankly it feels... not great. Rather than accepting that sometimes hot people can and will have a lot of sex and it may or may not be with you there's this fantasy of destroying the person's personality and isolating them so that they won't be as sexually indiscriminate. Like hey, that's kind of messed up, don't you think? From what was established in this story, minus a false rape accusation, which is its own level of messed up, the dude had consenting partners and, when rejected, left. He's not doing anything wrong by playing fast and loose, yo. The female lead got heartbroken by him and I just... that's your problem, sis!! You knew he's slutty but you thought you could """"fix"""" him!
The romance, what little of it I could stand between the female lead and the amnesiac reanimated corpse, is... awkward. No steady build to anything, just dropping weird, cumbersome affection into the reader's lap along with way too much emphasis on ~ masculinity ~ and ~ femininity ~
Final note: there were so many exposition dumps. People would rattle off entire backstories with little prompting to contextualize behavior. Absolute amateur hour.
I don't know, maybe I'll come back and read the rest of this at some point, but OHHH my god I'm so frustrated with it, it had so much potential but the way it's carried out is so bad...
More...