Book: Monstrous Serpent
Reviewed by ErikaWasReading
Rating: 4/5
Wow…this one was an absolutely wild ride. It’s been a bit since I was in my dark/bully romance era, but when I read the description for this one, I was immediately intrigued.
When Cody, a member of the Titans hockey team, discovers his girlfriend is lying to him, he follows her to what ends up being a primal play night. In his attempt to discover who she is cheating with, he stumbles into the path of Atlas and Hunter, two members of the Serpents, a rival hockey team.
While Atlas and Cody have traded blows on the ice before, something about that night’s tussle is different for all three men. Atlas and Hunter are determined to make Cody theirs, but their complicated past adds another barrier to making this budding polyamorous relationship work.
First, I was surprised by how much hockey was in this hockey romance! The game is well integrated into the plot, and ice time (penalty box time?) is important to the larger story. I liked that, in addition to the schools having a big rivalry, Cody and Atlas were known to chirp at each other and fight before the inciting incident.
I was also not expecting Hunter and Atlas’s backstory! It added a dark element to the book, especially with how it connects to their other teammates’ stories. I’m definitely keeping this spoiler-free, but I liked how it drove the story, both in how Atlas and Hunter interact with Cody and the final conflict.
While Monstrous Serpents is book one of a new series, I think it helps to have read the North Shore Titans Hockey series, as there is significant crossover. The story can absolutely be read and understood as a standalone, but the couples from the prior series appear or are mentioned in the book.