Afterglow: Monsters of Moonvale, Book 2

So beautiful. Dealing with realities of anxiety and trauma and chronic pain while exploring the beauty of appreciating love and healing and living in the now. It's also very sexy and gets the psychological aspects and connection in bdsm. It was just done really well and was such an enjoyable read!

I truly did adore this book. As always, I love reading Emily’s stories and seeing the world and characters that have been created. Blair and Grace are such an amazing couple and I loved their chemistry to one another. I also enjoyed that Grace’s “issues” were something that was not mentioned once and then brushed to the side. During the climax of the book, I didn’t really think it was fair how Blair was being treated.. I really feel like her concerns with ~that~ were incredibly valid. But besides that.. everything else was great and I enjoyed the story.

This was just an amazing, couldn't put down read! 5 stars! Going on my top reads of the year list for sure. Blair and Grace are some of the most relatable, thoughtful characters I have read in a long time. Flawed, struggling, hopeful and true. Grace is recently divorced and still very much hurting from the devastating blows of that. She is trying to "find herself" while also dealing with chronic pain issues, body size fluctuations and questioning her sexuality. She is introduced to the enigmatic Blair through their mutual friend Mona (Behold Her) as exposed to monsters are real and among us and opening of s*xual k*nk/club. Blair is our resident d*minatrix vampire who has her own traumatic intro into monster world and that of s*x working/k*nk. She has drawn the boundaries of her life in such a way that nothing is outside of her control somewhat to her detriment in that she doesn't have many true genuine connections just exchanges. We get to go on the amazing ride of discovery for both characters. I don't want to spoil the joy of this book by saying too much just that this book is a revelation to read...even if you think Sapphic stories aren't your thing. This was an amazing story period and I encourage everyone to read regardless of your orientation. Truly one of this authors best works. This book will live with me for a long time. It has the laughs, banter, heat, emotions and so much more. Please do yourself a favor and read this! What you will find: Friends to Lovers…

This book was such a nice comforting one. It dealt with so many different hard topics and did it in such a way that was heart melting. Thank you for this Emily!

Afterglow is the third full length book in the Monsters of Moonvale series by Emily Antionette. It’s a spicy FF monster romance between a vampire, Blair & a plus size human, Grace. They have a domme/sub dynamic. Emily’s writing style is fast paced & fun, with great banter & great friendships. However, I gave this book 3 stars because I feel like every time I turned the page Grace was complaining about herself & how “pathetic she was” & it just got kind of old. Spoiler: there is a third act break up & I also didn’t care for the secondary character Samantha, who came end right at the end out as a way of getting Grace & Blair back together. Felt there could have been a better way for them to reconcile. The spice was about a 2 for me personally. It was my first FF book & it just felt like there wasn’t “enough” spice. But overall, Emily is a great author & if you’re into monster & alien romance, you should definitely check her out.