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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, but I'm sorry, I couldn't finish this one. I grant it two stars because there was nothing that angered me while reading - I love the premise and the general character design, but goodness, the writing and dialogue was so stilted. Here's an interaction that made me want to put the book down:

"Hmph," Ves snorted. "Even we can't travel as far and fast as a trastere stone."
"You're right about that. Well, Ves, I don't suppose you have a trastere stone of your own hidden somewhere on your immense person?" she asked the other vampire.

I made it through a quarter of the book, and it sadly did not get any better. There was nothing especially compelling about the world, story, or characters. It makes me sad, I really really wanted to like this one.

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I really hoped I would love this but to be completely honest I really struggled to get through it.

Transparently, it’s not my usual taste in books and I’m sure that has a significant influence on my opinions, so do keep that in mind. I generally reach more for fantasy books where romance plays a very minor role (if present at all), but I actually found myself wishing that there was MORE focus on the romance. It felt like a strange point in limbo between being plot focussed vs romance focussed in a way where I simply could not quite get invested in either. I get the vibe that the author’s specialty is cozy fantasy romance with less significant plot and I kind of wish they had leaned more into that.

If you’re into cozy fantasy and a fan of caitvi vampire fanfic you will probably really love this a lot more than I did (and I hope that you do)! There will never be enough sapphic vampires in the world.

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Let me preface this by saying thank you so much for the ARC!

Here is my honest review:
I did begrudgingly finish this book. It is a poorly edited work that was not ready for publication. There are too many grammatical mistakes and inexcusable typos. Fixing these issues would have made this a solid 2-star book. It might even be three stars if it were transformed into a YA novel. The writing was too simplistic for adults, and I did not appreciate being told and not shown. It felt lazy and it made me feel lazy reading it. Simply removing the sex scenes and softening some of the violence would turn it into a YA or even middle grade novel.

The premise was promising with plenty of opportunities for character development. As it is, I did not feel invested in any of the characters. Once I learned of their history, it was too far into the story for any empathy to development.

This reads like an outline to a book with strong potential.

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'A Ballad of Slayers and Monsters' is an action-packed sapphic take on the Witcher, complete with plenty of strong women, monsters to slay, a host of companions and animals to follow along the adventure. Unfortunately, as strong as the premise of the book is, the execution fell short of expectations.

Kas is a Slayer, driven by a need for revenge against the Vampyrics who killed her family in front of her. However, when she encounters Claudia, a half-vampyrics in possession of a relic capable of ending the world, it quickly becomes clear that that there is safety in sticking together. Especially when Claudia’s vampyric half-sister is on their trail and desperate to reclaim the relic and free the dragons it keeps locked away. As Kas and Claudia keep on the move, they find themselves embroiled with new companions, a variety of intimidating monsters, and no shortage of danger. At the same time, they find themselves drawn to the other despite their natural enmity.

This book had all the set-up to be something I really enjoy. I am always looking for action-packed sapphic stories, especially when said story comes with a motley mix of found family and a few fun companion animals. Unfortunately, the execution of this book often lacked the weight that would give this story any meaning. The book is very focused on action first, with character development often falling to the wayside. A lot of the story revolves around a long journey, but the reader just jumps between action scenes without ever seeing the quieter moments in the middle. Relationships can be built in the heat of battle, but without establishing what is ‘normal’ in the weeks between written scenes, it is impossible to tell what about a scene or encounter is special. For example, at one point a character is shocked that another is willing to speak of their past, alluding to them always being too closed off to share details about themselves. However, because the book only shows the points of high action and high emotions when they don’t know if they’ll make it through, that character actually shared an awful lot in all the scenes the reader has seen. A lot of the book is like this: characterization often happens off-page. This is especially clear for the companions: the book is so fast-paced that what time it has to make the character relationships meaningful is almost solely devoted to the main pair. For example, the book expects the reader to be deeply attached to a companion animal that has been present throughout the story but, as the reader rarely sees the animal interact with the people in any particular or interesting way, it is hard to feel connection to it.

I also felt that the writing style detracted from the book. The sentence structure is often awkward, with incomplete sentences being a major writing device. However, the use of choppy, incomplete sentences was not used to add to the tension of a harrowing scene, to depict an incomplete perception of an event, or in any other way that would have contributed to the feeling of reading the book. Instead, they were mostly random and often felt jarring to read. When a character is recalling an event from earlier in the book, the reader is not trusted to remember the event or put pieces together; instead, the character’s every thought is spelled out in a way that loses subtlety and comes across as awkward. Also, major events in the book are given little weight. There are multiple times where a chapter ends with a moment where a character should, for all intents and purposes, have died from their injury; however, the very first line of the next chapter assures you that everything is completely fine and there was never anything to worry about in the first place. It causes the big moments to lose a lot of their impact as it becomes clear that the characters are not facing any major risks. Finally, this book often chooses to tell rather than show.

I am giving this book 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. I think there’s an interesting plot amid the distracting writing style and poor characterization. This is the kind of fantasy book that I could see appealing to readers who enjoy an action-focused story. Also, as a queer woman, I have a great appreciation for someone seeing parts of popular fantasy archetypes that feel very influenced by the male gaze and flip it around. More books should have a bunch of badass ladies running around, kicking butt, and being hit on by the local ladies.

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This was a fun premise and it was so refreshing reading a fantasy so sapphic and centered around women!

Unfortunately, it felt lacking in depth to me and I wish I could’ve felt more invested in the plot or characters

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Thank you to NetGalley, Rita A. Rubin, and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for allowing me access to the e-arc.

4.5 stars

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a cozy fantasy romance with many slaying monsters and fighting scenes. I will say the feeling of this book reminded me of the way Godkiller felt. I liked the plot of this book but the characters made me love it. Kas is a monster slayer who was traumatized by an attack on her family by vampires. Claudia is half vampire half human. She is an outcast on both sides. They end up having to work together to protect humanity. I would have liked to see Kas learn to slay monsters. I also wish the ending wasn't rushed. I wouldn't have minded spending more time with the characters.

✨Sapphic
✨Trans Rep
✨All Female Cast of Characters
✨Sibling rivalry

TW: Grief, gore, and transphobia

I would highly recommend it!

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“A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters” by Rita A. Rubin is a sapphic fantasy novel, featuring the main characters of Kas, a monster slayer, and Claudia, a half “vampyric” monster. The two form an unlikely alliance to stop, Serisa, a full vampyric from using a relic to reawaken dragons and doom humanity.

Between fierce battles, the heart of the story is a lovely romance between two sworn enemies. Both carrying the baggage of traumatic pasts, they reluctantly team up and realize, along the way, that they have more in common than they once thought.

The novel has a good premise, especially with a classic enemies-to-lovers trope, and has an interesting world full of monsters. However, the way so many magical creatures were included felt like going through bullet points or a list of monsters. I also assumed (my fault) that the book is YA, but the slaying and battle scenes can get quite violent. So, if you, like me, assumed the age range based on the cover, just know this book does include fairly explicit scenes of violence and sex.

The book includes multiple perspectives from characters including Kas, Claudia, and Serisa. I enjoy reading multiple perspectives but the switches in this book were often sudden and short-lived and slightly overlapped each other. I found that switching so often took me out of the story a bit, especially when reading the same dialogue as the previous page.

Although I had some issues with the pacing and wished some things were given more time to flesh out, I enjoyed the book. I think “A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters” is a super fun fantasy and romance novel with lots of action scenes too. I love the inclusion of queer characters and I am a fan of the star-crossed lovers, enemies-to-lovers, vibes. I think the book feels a bit like a dnd campaign, so if these vibes are for you, I definitely recommend reading!

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3,75⭐️

A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters by Rita A. Rubin is a fast-paced fantasy romance.

I was drawn in from the beginning by the cover and the premise; The Witcher but make it sapphic and with vampires? Say less.

I was very taken with the story so I consider this novel a pretty enjoyable read overall.
Nonetheless, I would’ve liked to see a deeper exploration of the characters and perhaps of the romance between the two protagonists.

While I wasn’t particularly fond of the ending, I would still recommend this book to any fantasy lovers, especially those who love a pretty much all-female cast of characters.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

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This was really good, the witcher but for the girls and the gay. The first chapter immediately pulls you in, it was so gruesome. I liked the romance even tho it went from 0 to 100.

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I picked this up for the premise, which sounded promising. There was a lot of potential with this book, but unfortunately I found the execution very poor. I won’t get into everything for the sake of brevity, but I will mention my two biggest gripes. First, the writing was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Talk about belaboring the point. Over and over again. Using italics for emphasis, just in case we missed it the first dozen times. I felt practically infantilized. Second, the character work was uninspired. Every character just had some sad, horrible thing happen in their past which they revealed in expository dialogue. That is not enough to make them interesting. They need to be interesting in the time the narrative is actually taking place if I’m supposed to care about them in any way. As it was, I found myself very underwhelmed.

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I went in with high hopes and I was sorely disappointed. I love enemies to lovers but I felt as if it was too fast and not really compelling. I also noticed many mistakes throughout it that bothered me. I felt like I was reading a fanfiction.

Characters: 3/5
Plot: 1/5
Romance: 1/5
Writing: 1/5

I really wanted to like this!

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NETGALLEY
REVIEW

𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
- slayer x vampire
- sapphic
- enemies to lovers
- the witcher and castlevania vibes
- dragons, monsters and different types of creatures

𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:
Unfortunately, I’ve decided to DNF this book at 12%. I would still rate it around 3 stars (average but not outstanding), because I can see how the premise, world and characters could be enjoyable for the right reader. However, I struggled too much with the writing style to fully engage with the story.

My main issue is with the grammatical structure of the sentences, which felt too unnatural or fragmented. For example:
“It didn’t take long before Claudia reached the edge of the forest, where she was greeted by a small farmhouse. With clothes left out on a washing line.”
“ It was an arduous trek up the mountain that no human would make lightly. Making the old castle an ideal lair for vampyrics.”
Sentences like these appear way too frequently, where a short sentence is followed by an additional fragment that should have been part of the original sentence. This sadly disrupts the flow and made the whole story feel choppy.

Additionally, the writing is quite simplistic, often telling rather than showing. This way I as the reader didn’t feel immersed in the world, unfortunately pulling me out and making me take double takes in a way that makes the prose feel flat.

All that being said, I do think readers who can look past these writing quirks might still enjoy the story and characters.
If the book gets another editing pass, I believe the reading experience would improve significantly, making it easier to appreciate the underlying story.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

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☆ Fun Factor 5/5
☆ Writing Style 3/5
☆ Characters 4/5
☆ Plot 2/5
☆ Setting 1/5
☆ Feels 2/5
☆ Spiciness 4/5 (several sex scenes and a really sweet slow burn romance)

Ultimate verdict ☆☆☆☆/5

☆☆☆Best Character Award goes to:☆☆☆ CLAUDIA my girl!!!!

Review: LETS GO LESBIANS!!!

Marketed as a sapphic Witcher homage, you get exactly what you're asking for. Kas is Geralt-ing all over the place with TWO silver swords mind you, except she's not as philosophical, conflicted, or nuanced as he is. For a majority of the book, she sees a monster, it dies. And just like Geralt, every woman on two legs thinks she's the hottest thing in town; it was oddly endearing and refreshing to see a lot of the tropes from such a masculine genre as monster-slayer fantasy reflected with a 95% female cast of characters. Everybody here is lesbians, and I love it!!! It's unapologetically a play on a very dude bro dominated genre and I was having a blast.

There's some kind of monster for Kas to kill in pretty much every chapter, from griffins to merfolk to DRAGONS. Yea, if you read the Witcher series and complained "he spends too much time being sad and not enough killing things," your prayers have been answered.

Claudia, Kas's half-vampire love interest, gives off massive Alucard of Castlevania energy, and not just from her beautiful platinum hair and cool rapier either. She's got the same sort of sadness Alucard does about a mortal parent dying and the grief the immortal one went through at the loss, and then without spoiling anything, this becomes a save the world plot because of grief for a beloved lost. It just worked.

Have we seen these tropes done before? Ohhhh yes. Did I care? No. Not at all. Did this start it's life as a Witcher x Castlevania fanfic but with lots of lesbians? Maybe, but good for Rita. This was a really really fun read.

Ultimately though the romance between Kas and Claudia is the real heart of everything. Their banter, the gradual gains in trust and respect for each other that ultimately turn into love. It's just incredibly sweet.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

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