Shortly after finishing Ice Planet Barbarians, I discovered that Ruby Dixon had just begun a new series, Royal Artifactual Guild, which started with Bull Moon Rising. Like Ice Planet Barbarians, this is a monster romance with a human heroine and a fully non-human hero. In this case, he’s a minotaur, with fur and horns and all. Bull Moon Rising is also a fantasy, with magic and a complex new world.
Aspeth Honori’s noble house is in shambles. Her father has sold all their magical artifacts, the most precious currency in their realm. They have no funds and no defenses. To fix the problem, Aspeth heads to Vastwarren City to join the Royal Artifactual Guild, where she can try to replenish House Honori’s artifact holdings.
It’s recruitment day at the Guild, and Aspeth is hoping to find a mentor to train her to explore the ruins for artifacts. Unfortunately for her, thanks to her gender, the guild master has no intention of letting her do so. That just means Aspeth has to find another way in.
All she needs is a mentor who will allow her to train, and she’s almost in luck when she’s led to Hawk, a Taurian artificer who needs more members for his team. But Aspeth still needs a chaperone, not to mention this year’s recruitment falls just a month away from the Conquest Moon — a tricky time for Taurians. Every female goes into heat, and every male is hit with the need to rut.
Aspeth’s solution is a wild one. If she marries Hawk, he can be her chaperone, and he will have someone to be with while under the influence of the Conquest Moon. It’s a plan bound to go awry, especially when Aspeth starts to fall for her minotaur husband. With so much on the line, Aspeth will have to get clever to avoid total disaster, but if she succeeds, just maybe all her dreams will come true.
The characters in Bull Moon Rising are quirky and easy to root for. Aspeth is curvy and bespectacled, and decidedly normal looking, which is always fun to read when the hero thinks this regular girl is the sexiest thing he’s ever seen.
The romance in this book was an unexpected slow burn, with lots of teasing and build-up. The characters only fully consummate their relationship at the very end, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in spice.
Like previous Ruby Dixon books, theres a certain suspension of disbelief in regard to sex between these two charactes being physically possible.
Monster romance always just feels so much spicier, for some reason. If this wasn’t a minotaur having sex with a human, this would be relatively middle-of-the-road spice-wise, but the non-human elements add extra heat.
Bull Moon Rising was so fun to read, its just a joyous, entertaining adventure. It’s light and quick; and easy page turner, and perfect for a summer day.
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