A review by thiscryptidreads
Faun Over Me by B.L. Brown

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25


2.5 chili peppers 🌶️ on the spice scale.
Genre: monster romance
POV:Duel
Ending: HEA 

Tropes: 
Miscommunication 
Friends to Lovers 
90s vibes
HEA

Content warnings:
Religious Trauma
Injury (on page) 
Misogyny 
Anti-LGBTQ+ family member

Review:
This is described as a reluctant friend to lovers Sapphic romance, set in a summer camp in the Appalachian mountains. Cricket and Avery seem to have an instant attraction physically but spend the first half of the book emotionally charged and assuming each one hates the other until the monster stalking the camp brings them together in a steamy moment while hiding. 

once they get together and start trying to pool their knowledge to save the camp their relationship is very sweet, but no one ever seems on the same page, so I feel this is more miscommunication than a reluctant friends to lover's trope. Avery is working through a lot of religious trauma while stubborn Cricket is learning to embrace the outside world and branch out from her very close-knit and cautious faun family. 

I liked the mystery and feel of everything connecting and falling into place by the ending. The book starts a little slow, spending a lot of time setting up the dominos to bring Cricket and Avery together but really gets going at about the halfway point. I had a few issues with repetitive wording. Crickets cousin Bramble was simply referred to repeatedly as "my cousin" while they are off page so much, I struggled to remember their name until they were finally there as a present character.

The Appalachian lore isn't as in-depth as I expected, but there were some definite themes there with type of inhuman (monster species) characters and thoughts about growing up in the woods. "If you heard something, no, you didn't) 

In total, it was a very sweet Sapphic romance.

  
My Spice Rating - 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
1 🌶️- May include hands, more kissing, "fade to black" scenes. No open door spice.
2 🌶️🌶️ - Spice happens, but it isn't often. May include open door scenes but they're infrequent or rare.
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Spice happens more often and it is more detailed, Spice is part of the plot, or the book is 50/50 spice to plot.
4 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - More spice than plot, may contain kinky themes.
5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Absolute smut. Very little plot, sex heavy. The spicy scenes are very explicit, may contain triggering or dangerous themes, Dark romances and erotica.

Thank you to the author for my copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. You can find more of my reviews on all social platforms under the username ThisCryptidReads.
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