Trapped By Claws by Jessica M. Butler
GREETINGS STACK WORMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today I am reviewing:
First things first, I'd like to thank Jessica M. Butler (the author) for providing me a free eARC to read and review. Now, if you've been reading my blogs for a bit then you know I always give my honest opinion on what I read. This will be no different.
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duh...
TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Toxic parenting (don't @ me)
-Blood
-Death
-Violence
-Moisture
-Mold
-Tight, dark, damp spaces
-Claustrophobia
-Cuteness overload
-Torture
-Lies
-Poisoned/Diseased
-Jellyfish
-Dense MCs
-Mature Language (if swearing bothers you then you shouldn't be on my blog)
-Fae (I guess people are getting sick of fairies)
-Insta-love
REVIEW:
Mena is rather weary of her life hunting for her sister, Erryn. One that she took on so she could watch over her mother's health. She's rather lonely and feels unseen, that is, until Corvin a mer-eel fae shapeshifter. And his very cute otter companion, Tagger. BUST the door to her heart wide open.
Corvin is mischievous in his interest in Mena despite her playing at being annoyed. She doesn't know what to do with his compliment and forwardness but denies his invitation to visit his home. Well, at first, then the boat she is on passes over a barrier of jellyfish (?) This breaks the pact of the Sea King so Corvin now has to destroy the ship. To save the dwarves left on the ship she agrees to visit his home.
Corvin's home is a ship graveyard in a cave. Not at all what Mena was imagining but she makes it a little cozier by finding a stove and tons of wood. With it she can bring heat to the chilling cave and make better food (if all I had to eat was fish I'd starve).
She does try to escape only to meet Tamatoa in one of the other caves leading away from Corvin's. No, I'm not joking, Mena encounters a giant blue decapod. I literally swore I heard the book sing. Corvin comes to the rescue but Mena does end up injured which he easily heals.
Even though, he shouldn't be able to heal anyone except his mate. Which he INSISTS that Mena isn't.
This goes on for far too long. It's like boy how dense are you? Mena gets it and she's a stubborn mule (I mean that in the best way possible). Sure he doesn't want to put Mena in danger because of some stupid ass Sea King, but come on, we know he's going to admit it in the end anyway and they're going to battle the Sea Kings soldiers. Oh, look! That's exactly what they do.
With knowledge passed to Mena from her (absolute c*** of a mother), Mena can save them by getting them through magical stairs! When this plot came into play I was like, Creepypasta? Random magical stairs that appear out of nowhere that could lead you somewhere or hurt you sounds like:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iex1h/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Either way Mena, Corvin, and Tagger kill some fae. Happy ending!! Corvin is now able to appear more 'human' and is a raven dragon. Mena gets a mate. Tagger...gets lots of belly rubs.
LIKES:
-Tagger. How can you hate an otter? If you do, well then I'll Batman slap fire from you.
-Corvin and Mena have cute banter. Their chemistry you could say is...eelectric
-Mena is savvy, she uses what she can find to her advantage which helps her out in some precarious situations.
-Mena's cook spoon actually turns into a macguffin. Funny, the spoon she was bitter over actually saved her life.
-Fish Wings. In the book, he's called Blue Ridges but the way he's described made me think of a flying fish. I really only like him because of his description.
-Corvin (at first) calls Mena's mom out on her shitty parenting.
-I made so many movie and fandom references in my notes. Then going back over them I actually made myself chuckle.
-The book is short and fun with (mostly) likable characters. The marketing art is what caught my attention.
-Mena's attitude is a bit like mine. I'm sarcasm and salt all day. Though I can't cook worth a damn.
-The first time Mena meets Corvin she defends herself with a...cook spoon and she uses it to bap Corvin's mer-eel snoot. SHE BOOPED DAH SNOOT!!!!!!!!
-There is a system of tight tunnels that one has to swim/crawl through and while the characters didn't like it, it made me nostalgic for caving. I loved going through these kinds of tunnels when I was a kid. So many cool mini-creatures I found. Yes, I understand I'm weird.
DISLIKES:
-*breathes* Mena's mother. Just...no. She treats Mena as less than the barnacles on the bottom of a ship. Mena dares question her, then Mena is betraying her family. She doesn't even tell her daughter she's proud of her until the end of the book and that's a flimsy way of trying to make her less of a miserable piece of slag. It doesn't work with me. You don't completely go animal cracks and ignore one child to find another who probably ran away when she realized she couldn't have a career in singing. You upended your entire life, making your other child that you should have been caring for, feel obligated to follow. You aren't the only one grieving you stupid inconsiderate bint!!!! Nothing you say will convince me this prickette is a good (even a flawed) parent. She's terrible.
-Corvin giving Mena's mother a pass at being a terrible parent.
-Corvin being denser than osmium. He lists many examples of how he'd know if Mena was his mate...which he's experienced...and still denies it!! Imma Batman slap this one too.
THOUGHTS:
I loved this book. It was so much fun and I kept smiling. Sure I sound harsh on it a bit above but really I enjoyed it. The author, Jessica M. Butler, is a peach.
Now, I did this review a bit later than I usually do after reading. Mainly because after I had finished I got COVID!!! I got absolutely nothing done, no reading, no writing, just slept and felt like I was dying. I'd meant to write this review up and then post it closer to the publication date. This is not how things turned out, sorry.
That's probably why I was more vague in my summary. Also, why I was less than enthusiastic in my review. But it's still an honest opinion. Fun story.
On Goodreads, I gave the story a rating of 4 stars (because fuq Mena's mother) and there were things not answered in the book that I felt weren't going to be answered despite them being ginormous plot-related questions. However, JMB, did mention that there would be a continuation of the story with questions answered. So, when I do a re-read after I get the physical copy and the other part of the story I'll probably update the rating.
Now, I'm going to finish SATAN RIDES YOUR DAUGHTER.
Here is the music pick for this book:
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