A review by booksalacarte
Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3⭐️3.5🌶️

First person
Present tense
Romantic Fantasy
Grumpy/sunshine
Mythical creatures
Marriage of convenience
Forced proximity
Guilds
Patriarchy
Training 


The book cover is beautiful! 

I went in completely blind with this being my first Ruby Dixon book. I know, I know… how is that possible? I’m not too sure. But here I am.

The plot was decent. There aren’t many archeological rom coms out there, so it was definitely unique. But I found things a little too repetitive in descriptions and internal dialogue. But the world building was well done and I found the setting to be engaging. Interconnected standalones in this would will be interesting.

The main characters were fine, but nothing to write home about. Nerdy/Curvy woman (who refuses to wear her glasses) is attracted to big and burly/grumpy minotaur. She seemed a bit too naive and immature for her age. And he didn’t have much of a personality at all. 

The discussion about this looming Minotaur mating moon, overshadowed the plot just by how often it was mentioned. The spicy scenes that were present were fine, but lacked a level of intimacy due to the lack of kissing… because Minotaurs don’t have lips/can’t kiss… which makes sense… but still. There was knotting, but meh. I guess I need the romantic lead to have lips. I learn something new about myself every day.

The secondary characters were fun and a good diverse group of personalities. It was a good found family trope. 

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.


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