“The Deer and the Dragon,” by Piper CJ

Marlow has lived her entire life thinking she suffered from delusions. She now finds our creatures exist; angels, demons, fae, gods and all. She also finds out her imaginary man of her dreams is really a Prince of Hell. The Prince of Hell has now gone missing, and Marlow is determined to find her way back to him.

This book is readable, and I did not hate it, but I have a lot of things I didn’t like about the book. I did like the concept of someone who has maladaptive daydreams struggling with real life and figuring out what is real and not real. What I didn’t like was that FMC is stupid. She told him to go away twice! Even after the first time she regretted it she still decided to do it again, like what?! Also, she writes fantasy, so she has knowledge of supernatural lore but then finds out the supernatural is real, so she acts like she’s never heard of anything non-human ever, it was actually pretty annoying how her personality did not line up a lot of the time. And then last is it was marketed as Hazbin Hotel meets Crescent City, and I’ll be honest… it did not give me enough of those vibes to consider it anything like it. I listened to the audiobook version and the audiobook narration was good and I enjoyed that part of it. 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley. ( )

3.5 ( )

The first reviews I read for this book kept saying that this book was their new favorite from Piper. As someone who ADORES the Night and its Moon series, I could not fathom anything topping my love for Nox and Amaris.

About two chapters in, I fully understood the hype. Piper has such a beautiful way of crafting a world that fully immerses you. Our main character, Marlow, makes the kind of impulsive and (often) reckless decisions I'd fully expect from a 26 year old, and I cannot get enough of it.

I saw so much of myself in Marlow and how she handles anxiety and trauma. The way she describes her history with men made me feel so deeply seen. Piper handles the complexities of unpacking emotional and religious traumas in a way that makes the character seem incredibly vulnerable and strong at the same time. This is a world I find myself daydreaming about weeks later.

I would absolutely go to Hell and back to get my hands on the next book in the No Other Gods series! Already excited to start a reread of this one. ( )

Prior to picking up The Deer and the Dragon I had not read any works by Piper CJ, but had heard of her online as being an author who wrote spicy fantasy novels that built into more epic style series. As such I was very interested when I saw that she had a new novel to kick off a new series releasing, and even more so when I heard it would be being based off mythology.

As such it was a small shock to go into this novel and it be significantly less spicy than I was expecting and more based of Demons and Angels then anything else. Despite those two small shocks the novel was enjoyable and I can definitely see how the authors books could become a touch addictive with all the plot twists and turns she lead us down.

I would add a word of caution that this novel deals heavily with religious trauma, and sexual awakening. As someone who has quite a mixed relationship due to my own experiences growing up I found those sections of the novel relatable and at times a touch overwhelming. The book has a large section of its plot dedicated to sexual awaking and the experiences of Marlow when she had been an acting sex worker and her own mixed emotions around sex work and the men met through it.

Marlow herself is a bit of a mixed bag, framed as a highly independent woman who cares deeply for her chosen family, yet the novel sees her acting in opposite of this time and time again. In many ways she was one of the more frustrating elements of the novel as she would believe one thing about herself deeply and then not care at all about how she was behaving in the opposite direction of the belief or if she hurt her own life and career she built while perusing a man.

I would recommend this novel to those looking for:
- A Spicy romance novel with more plot than spice
- A world with Demons and Angels
- Religious Trauma processing 101
- A new shadow daddy to fall in love with
- Side characters that hold their own in the plot

I received an advance review copy of this book and I am leaving this review voluntarily and all thoughts and opinions are wholly my own and unbiased. ( )