A review by emwgrace
The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert

medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Picked this one up to do a buddy read with a friend, as this is not usually the type of book I'd choose to read on my own. It was my first experience in the monster romance genre, and unfortunately I was disappointed and frankly, bored. No seriously, I must be the only person in the world to fall asleep to tentacle porn. 

Catalina was insufferable and I couldn't bring myself to care about her. If she wasn't being stuffed with tentacles, she was complaining about stairs. Thane's chapters were less annoying to me, but I wasn't interested much by him either. Both characters were insanely insecure and horrible at communicating due to traumas from their past, but neither backstory was explored well enough for me to care. 

I was really thrown off by the abortion at the end and how it was handled. First of all, it was pretty obvious Catalina would become pregnant, as there was a lot of focus on the fact that humans could reproduce with krakens to create apparently very powerful half-human offspring, as well as Catalina's flat-out statement of "I have no intention of getting pregnant." However, the discussion about Catalina's choice to terminate the pregnancy felt out of place both tonally and thematically in the book. While I am vehemently pro-choice and do agree with all the characters' views, it almost rubbed me the wrong way how Thane practically mansplained reproductive rights to Catalina with his whole "you're not a womb" speech.
It just felt like the author was being too overt with a political statement in the last 10% of a book that otherwise wasn't set up to facilitate this discussion. It felt forced and unnecessary.
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