I got this idea from miggrator after an anon asked about a lesbian monster and she suggested a selkie girlfriend 🙂
***
You toss your bag on the floor next to the door and sigh in
relief. You really needed a holiday and you couldn’t believe your
eyes when you spotted an ad in the paper saying there was a cottage
at the sea for rent at a amazingly low price.
It didn’t take long to organize the trip and you found yourself
on a train only few days after, excited to have some time off of
work. You always loved the sea, its beauty, the sound of waves
splashing on the sand.
On the first day in the cottage you made a quick check if
everything was alright with the place, went shopping to the tiny
grocery story nearby, and changed the sheets in the bedroom. Then you
put on a light dress and went on a walk along the beach, just as the
sun was setting, its warm light reflecting in the water. You sat on
the sand, letting the sound of water sooth your soul and enjoyed the
view until it got dark.
Next day you took a basket with you, planning on eating your lunch
at the beach, and as you spread a blanket on the sand, you noticed
someone in a distance, behind the rocks. It was a woman, bathing.
Thinking it was probably a local person, you returned your attention
to the food and the book you brought with you. After some time you
looked there again and noticed she was bathing, and throwing glances
at you.
“I have one final question,” he said. “How did you create these in the fields?”
The figure placed a bowl on the floor between them, and her bones creaked as she leaned in to look. A cluster of black rosebuds sprouted from bloodied ash.
“I’m sorry if I did something I wasn’t meant to do,” Eris said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“You’ve seen this land,” he said. “It’s made of sand and ash. Nothing grows here. I’ve tried for… for a very long time, to cultivate life back. The panther was one such success, but you’ve taken it from me.”
—
The full process and reduced PSD files are available to my patrons on Patreon!
The cover doesn’t really do it justice. It’s dark. It’s got depth. It takes its time building the plot so when things really get moving you care what happens to the characters.
It really is dark. It’s got violence, references to rape. People get attacked and assaulted. It’s not fluff, but it’s so good.
This book was so intense, it literally gutted me and I LOVED IT! It was also recommended by @fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains and I’m so glad I’ve read it.
But seriously, this book is really dark, it had me crying a few times so be prepared to suffer!
Hey guys, they’ve also wrote a book called The Last Hour of Gann. It’s one of my favorite books of all time! It’s about a plus size woman on a pilgrimage with a badass religious lizard man and a bunch of incompetent human assholes. She writes some of the best character you will Fuckingloathe. The main character Amber is my spirit animal and her lizardman Meoraq does not put up with human’s bullshit. Plus, it’s HELLA long. You have time to get super invested in all the characters. I love it.
However, I need to warn that if anyone has suffered from sexual abuse they may want to skip this read. It’s well written, but there is an entire chapter that will trigger some people. Smith’s books are always VERY dark and not for the faint of heart. That chapter is very uncomfortable, but if you can get past it then please give this book a chance.
I was kind of looking at The Last Hour of Gann(Which is over 1,000 pages) and also Heat* (about 600 pages). Both are by R. Lee Smith. All the books by this author look somewhat heavy, and like they deal with darker themes; the shittier sides of humanity, rape, torture, and brutal deaths, so honestly if you want happy fluff please steer clear.
As one person described it in their reviews; “If you’re used to reading romance, it’s going to be really dark. If you’re used to reading horror, it’s about average.”
*Heat gets its own disclaimer as being extra dark even on the scale of this author. One of the main characters is an evil sadist. Tread carefully.
I can absolutely confirm everthing that’s been said about this author. I’ve read three books by R. Lee Smith so far and I have to say that there are hardly any writers out there that got me invested that much in their characters. The plot, the descriptions, the world building, actually everything is unbelievably good.
Imagine my surprise when I started The Last Hour of Gann for the space lizard-man alien erotica but got so much more. But yeah, it left me emotionally drained. The themes and descriptions are VERY intense.
Cottonwood was a light fun read in comparison. Although this still might not be the the book for you if you are easily triggered.
Unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me in comparison to the two other books. The writing is still top notch, I simply wasn’t overly invested in the main characters. The male main character has a harem (yes, yes he’s lonely and tortured and a man’s gotta cope…) and the heroine is a mix between a “sacrifice everything for the cause” and a “stand by your man” type. I’m into neither of those things. Still, great writing, far above the average fare within this genre (or any genre, actually). Don’t let my personal taste deter you from reading! 😉
For centuries, there has been a legend of a hidden school where magic is taught by the demons who dwell there to anyone who seeks them out, but they ask a terrible price: Anyone who reaches the door of the Scholomance may enter, but the Devil takes every tenth student who tries to leave.
A hidden school. Demonic masters. An inescapable fate for one out of every ten graduates. But Connie would do anything to have the magic her best friend was born with.
And Mara would do anything to get Connie back.
X-rated Harry Potter but with a female protagonist and demon sex? Yes, please!!!
As far as I could glean from the reviews on Goodreads this might feature a love triangle, a trope which I normally loathe (unless it ends in a three-way, then it’s fine). But if there’s one author I’d trust with the execution of a love triangle it’s R. Lee Smith.
Fifteen-year-old Alys is not a witch. But that doesn’t matter–the villagers think she is and have staked her out on a hillside as a sacrifice to the local dragon.
It’s late, it’s cold, and it’s raining, and Alys can think of only one thing–revenge. But first she’s got to escape, and even if she does, how can one girl possibly take on an entire town alone?
Then the dragon arrives–a dragon that could quite possibly be the perfect ally… . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/372807.Dragon_s_Bait
********************************************
Finally I have found a book with a dragon I really like.
Although it’s a YA fantasy, and probably one that’s geared at an even younger audience than many of the contemporary YA books, it’s an absolute delight to read even for adults.
The themes of this book are revenge and responsibility and the wonderful thing is that the author doesn’t spell out every message hidden in this little gem of a book. Like the heroine, the readers have to come to their own conclusions.
Neither the heroine nor the dragon are morally pure to begin with nor are they by the end of the book. But both are changed by each other’s company.
The dragon in this book can change into (a very handsome) human form, so the monstrous aspect of the dragon is secondary. What makes him alien is his personality. He doesn’t adhere to human morality and his motivation is mysterious at best. His character really conveys a feeling that dragons are truly otherworldly creatures.
The interactions between the heroine and the dragon are delightful. There is bickering, there is jealousy and there is romance but it is very subtle.
Furthermore the book avoids all my personal YA pet peeves: no neverending self-indulgent introspection of the heroine, no over explaining of everybody’s motivations, no first person narrator and no fucking love triangle.
My only criticism: It’s too short. Otherwise it’s perfect.
Vivian Vande Velde is one of those YA authors whose works I’ve loved but who I always forget about. What this means is that whenever I’m reminded of her, I get this burst of happy nostalgia for her writing.
Companions of the Night was one of hers after I finished Blood & Chocolate (by Annette Curtis Klause.) Don’t watch that stupid movie. Read the damn book. Much like Ella Enchanted or Howl’s Moving Castle, the book is far superior.
They’re not Terato, but A Well Timed Enchantment and A Hidden Magic were both books by her that I’ve loved. (At least, they’re not terato that I remember.)
If you’re looking for more Dragons, check out One Good Knight (by Mercedes Lackey, it’s part of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, but it doesn’t really need to be read in order.)
Or for Dragon-shifter-smut there’s always Ruby Dixon. She writes some dirty stuff. (Her Fireblood Dragons series is specifically what you want if you like Dragons, but Ice Planet Barbarians is all naked aliens wooing human women if that’s your thing.)
Now that I’ve totally derailed this with stuff about other books, to get back to the original point. YES! I agree, OP!
Monsters and Villains 