Mortal Skin

This book had a ton of elements I love in a fantasy novel. I'm very much into Faerie and it was great to read Mayne's take on it while enjoying that they kept a lot of classic elements and “rules”. This was a book I didn't want to put down and went through the over 300 pages in a single day.

While I absolutely adored this book and am excited to go to the next in the series, I was left with a lot of questions. This book ends on a pretty devastating cliffhanger but the few issues I had with this book came before that. Like almost all MM books, there is a lack of communication here between the male leads that results in a lot of misunderstandings. Here, we use can use the excuse of magic that is considered canon in Faerie lore - Folk/Fae cannot lie, cannot defy vows or promises, and use wordplay to skirt around both. However, the one point in the book where I wanted to throttle Ash was when Lonan tells him he's been all Ash's animal companions over the years. This is a huge bombshell Mayne drops towards the end of the book before the big climax but Ash just... accepts it. And then they have sex. Well, Ash, you should have asked a lot more questions. This means that Lonan has seen you grow up as a Fae literally your same age. So when you were 10 he was 10 and was creeping as a moth outside your window? And you have no further questions? You've known Lonan for, maybe, 6 whole months but he's known you nearly your entire life and you have nothing more to say? Bizarre and stupid. As the book went on but before this reveal, I was hoping the cat and wolf were different than Lonan, but maybe "working" for him. Their actions just didn't match up and Lonan's excuse that "it's easier to act differently" as those animals didn't make total sense with what we read throughout the book. For being told over and over again not to trust literally anyone, he puts his trust in Lonan very easily and you have to keep in mind that all this takes place in a single season. I guess Ash isn't the sharpest crayon in the box.

Despite that, Ash as a character is pretty complex but I just feel that he was a bit too accepting and complacent. I empathize more with Lonan, even after the ending. He was as helpless as Ash because of the power his mother holds over the entire Unseelie court. Ash was the one who didn't ask the right questions or any at all and kept his own council.

Also, where's Coam? Who does he work for? Why was he so giving with Ash, sex or no? I hope we learn more about his motivations in the next book.

Besides all that, still absolutely loved this and can't wait to go through the series, and I plan to read more of Mayne's other work.

4.5 stars

Before I get to my thoughts on this book, I wanted to tank Michelle for recommending it to me because I don't think I would have picked this book up on my own otherwise and I definitely would have been missing out on a great book. 

This is the first book I have read by this author, and it definitely won't be the last. I enjoyed this so much more than I was expecting to. This is a Fantasy MM Fae Romance, and it was amazing. It was slow going in the sense that not a whole lot was happening plot wise that didn't have to do with the budding romance. I recently read a fantasy romance book where that same thing happened, and it was a negative for me however in this book that wasn't the case. I didn't care that this one was mostly about the romance because I loved it that much. 

I could have done without the repetitiveness and how much Ash was in his head so much, but I think that's the only negatives I had for this book and even then, it obviously didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book all that much. This book is super steamy. I normally don't mention specific sex scenes in my reviews because I mean it's a sex scene and there's never really anything special about them, but their first romantic encounter was one of the best ones I have ever read. I can't really go into detail about why because of spoilers but I'm sure if you've read it you will understand. 

We are left with a cliffhanger which I don't typically like, but I was expecting it and honestly the reveal didn't come as a shock to me. I totally saw that one coming but I'm not happy with where the romance is at the moment, and I really need to read the second book. If I wasn't participating in Tropeathon right now I would have immediately jumped into book 2. 

If you haven't read this book yet I would highly recommend it. Don't let the cover deter you from it like it almost did me. I loved this book so much!!

I was going to give this book a 4.5, but it let me down a little, all the way to a 3.75.

FYI not spoiler free.

I'll start with a few nits. The first is more of a half nit. The word is byproduct, not biproduct. I was like is this some sort of bisexual pun why tf is there a spelling error in a published book? It's small but looked so wrong.

Now the real first, the phrase “insolent mouth” is used to describe Lonan's mouth too many times, and it isn't even true. Lonan isn't mouthy, or a wordsmith or a snaky spy or anything. And this is a first person story, so Ash has absolutely nothing to go on when he meets Lonan and is like, you know what, that silent mouth is insolent. I cannot.

Second, I believed from the blurb that Lonan would be a dangerous man. The kind that you know, justifies the number of warnings about him. But he's so young, too young to have the reputation he has. He doesn't have the “bad for you” vibe that I expected, and thus I was disappointed. We don't even see him physically harm anyone. And Ash's constant “he'll probably drive a blade through my gut” felt unfounded, almost bizarre. Like no, he doesn't really seem violent man, calm down.

Third, on God there is barely any chemistry between Ash and Lonan. It didn't feel like a romance novel. It felt like a regular fantasy novel where two characters get together even though there's barely any chemistry and you're just like, whatever, I'm more interested in the plot anyway. I don't buy the desperation or lust. And Lonan is constantly appearing out of nowhere. The first time, I'm like, I guess he does that... Subsequent times I'm just like, of course, of course he shows up. Of course he hears the conversation. It's too convenient.

Fourth, I'm not a huge fan of characters who like to start fights with their love interests. Or of sentences like “Boiling anger flared through me,” as a reaction to a sad but not unexpected revelation. Or of adult characters “stomping” when they are upset. Or of characters asking others to shut up when they are clearly about to clarify something important.

I'm extremely disappointed the development of Caom (Caem?)'s character. Dude remains flat. No growth, nothing. Hoped he'd become a true friend.

I'm intrigued. I want to see how Ash and Lonan's story will be resolved. Here's hoping book 2 has more plot, aside from party fuck party cook fuck party last act.

Also if I had a quarter for everytime an SFF MC lost an arm, I'd have many quarters by now.