lex is 47% done with The Knight and the Moth: this is an absolute delight

"it¡¯s been awhile since i read a paranormal romance, so why not???

>> thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc <3"

"I've purchased this book since the first time I read this book and it has become my favorite fantasy novel since the first read-through.

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The book follows Althea, who is a vampyr with a rejected mate. After her mate rejected her, she went off the deep end and began a killing spree of humans that she didn't realize at the time were criminals and the like.

Most vampyrs in this universe can only feed from each other once they become fated mates and the rejection of the mating can lead to extreme pain and madness. It can also lead to the vampyr who was rejected to catch a blood disease that will ultimately kill them. Althea ends up with this disease along with the pain from the rejected mating while she is on her killing spree.

She is captured by the Court of Nightmares and is found to be guilty of countless murders against humans. She is sentenced to death, where she meets the soul of her mother, who gives her a choice to come back to life and serve as a judge in the Court of Nightmares, which is a hidden court that not many people know about until they are brought to the court for judging for crimes against humanity or the vampyr community.

She becomes the fated mate of all 7 other judges in the court and finally has the chance at the life she missed out on after the rejection of her original mating.

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This has become my favorite fantasy novel since the first time I read it in late 2024. I will probably end up reading it again at some point. I think my favorite aspect of this book is seeing just how strong the FMC becomes as the story moves along.

I still think this book is mostly smut and no plot. Yes, there are some pressures the FMC and MMCs deal with but they're put in place very easily. I think this book is mostly just smut dump, which I don't have a problem with, by any means.

I'm happy with the ending of this book and I think that's pretty evident since I kept the last two paragraphs of this novel highlighted in my Kindle. lmao I got into that habit in 2024 and I still do it sometimes when the last paragraph is powerful enough for me to warrant that.

I ended up crying a lot through the first half of this book, which I normally don't have a problem with when reading a book. I normally don't see smut-dump novels as tear-jerkers but this was a clear exception. Not that I mind, of course. lmao

I am looking forward to getting into book #3 but I hope we get more of Althea and her men in the rest of the series. I was hoping for more than just the glimpse of Althea that we got in book #2. I'm still feeling rather petty about that, actually. Yikes.

Yes, I'd obviously recommend this book, especially if you enjoy smut the way some of us do. If you aren't okay with smut or if you're looking for more of a plot-driven book, you might want to avoid this series. Just a fair warning. lol

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Original review: I found this book on Kindle Unlimited and decided to give it a try. The book follows Althea, who is a vampyr with a rejected mate. After her mate rejected her, she went off the deep end and began a killing spree of humans that she didn't realize at the time were criminals and the like.

Most vampyrs in this universe can only feed from each other once they become fated mates and the rejection of the mating can lead to extreme pain and madness. It can also lead to the vampyr who was rejected to catch a blood disease that will ultimately kill them. Althea ends up with this disease along with the pain from the rejected mating while she is on her killing spree.

She is captured by the Court of Nightmares and is found to be guilty of countless murders against humans. She is sentenced to death, where she meets the soul of her mother, who gives her a choice to come back to life and serve as a judge in the Court of Nightmares, which is a hidden court that not many people know about until they are brought to the court for judging for crimes against humanity or the vampyr community.

She becomes the fated mate of all 7 other judges in the court and finally has the chance at the life she missed out on after the rejection of her original mating.

¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C

Holy moses, the smut in this book is intense! I knew what to expect when I started this book since I've already read Den of Vipers by the same author. I knew there would be a lot of smut since this is technically a reverse harem book but holy shit! I think this book is mostly smut with a cute HEA at the end, which was nice.

The only thing I think I struggled with is the craziness of some of the sex positions. It feels like a lot of it was implausible but that's just me. I was left scratching my head quite a few times but I still enjoyed it all the same.

There was almost no struggle or high stakes, which is what I think I missed in this book. I don't feel like there was anything that kept me biting my nails, so to speak. I will be continuing with the other books in this universe, of course, but I'm hoping there will be more "oomph" in them, for sure."