Captured by the Monsters
by R.L. Caulder, M.J. Marstens
Our leaders said it’s an honor to be chosen to go to The Below.
I said f*ck that.
So close…I was so f*cking close to aging out of the selection process to be offered up to the monsters from The Below. We never knew when we could be taken. It wasn’t some annual date we could mark on a calendar and avoid like a plague. We were at the complete whims of the monsters and their demands—demands that have increased over the past few years.
Rumors say the monsters ate all of their sacrifices, that their appetites weren’t easily appeased anymore, but I wasn’t convinced that was all.
What I did know for sure was that anyone selected was never seen again. Two days before my twenty-fifth birthday, my name was drawn—only forty-eight short hours from becoming exempt. How could life be so cruel? I refused to accept this fate. I’d run. I’d fight. I’d do everything but give in.
Yet, The Below is a hostile, foreign terrain hellbent on killing all humans. Our bodies aren’t designed to survive there. My only chance of living long enough to escape—give in to the monster's desires. Only they could give me what I needed. In return, they’d use me for their own needs. Needs that I shouldn’t want, but found myself craving.
When they claimed I was their salvation, I started to second guess myself. They revered me like their queen with soft touches and a protectiveness that made my knees weak…I wondered if I wanted to leave anymore. Was this why no one ever returned to The Above?
Spice Level: 3.5/6 | Story Score: 6/10 | Rating: 3.5/5 |
I wanted a RH, preferably fantasy/PNR, but where all the guys were good to the girl. No enemies to lovers, no alphaholes, etc. My friend Katie recommended this one. She’d tried to get me to read it previously, but I kept finding others to put ahead of it, so this time I made sure that I read it.
Set after a war with monsters from The Below, this book is the story of a girl who is chosen for the lottery to be sent to The Below as a tribute to keep her world safe. She is 2 months from turning 25 and being taken out of the drawing but, for some reason, they’re doing drawings more regularly, and her luck has run out.
Once sent to The Below, she wakes up in a cave and watches as several triads of shadow-like monsters approach. After being tested, she’s found to be one triad’s mate and she goes with them. The Below is toxic to beings that are not from The Below or belonging to beings from The Below, and so she has to make the decision to be marked by her monsters.
As she gets to know her monsters, she finds out the history of their people, their political turmoil, the actual reason for the war with The Above, and her place in all of it. Action and action ensue. I’ll put more details in the spoilers because I’m not sure how much to put here.
Katie was absolutely correct. All of these monsters were awesome. The storyline was good. The characters are all likable. If you’re into PNR, nice guys, and RH: I suggest reading this book. It’s a standalone and goes by quickly. My biggest complaint is that there is NO description of the monsters anywhere in this story that I can remember. She describes their eyes, but it’s not much and honestly reminded me of a creepy Star Trek character. Nonetheless, without a description, I was able to imagine them the way I wanted and that was fine too.
-SPOILERS-
Detailed explanation: Upon landing in The Below, she realizes that air hurts her and while trying to make a run from the transport vehicle, she passes out. She wakes up in a cave with 2 of the other girls that were sent, 2 had already died. After her monsters find her, the other girls are killed. I was a lot more upset about this than you’d think I would’ve been. Anyway, her monsters get her away from the other monsters.
She was required by the government to be a virgin until she was 25. She hates the way that she’s been controlled her entire life and despises feeling like her life isn’t her own. When the monsters tell her that to mark her, she needs to have sex with them, she explains her issue. Her virginity is the last thing about herself that is hers to give and she doesn’t want to. Understanding her plight and promising her that she can choose, they basically cover her in their cum…marking the outside of her instead.
Years ago, the monsters from The Below used to go to The Above to find their mates, but The Above wanted them to stop for fear that they would take all their women. A war started that nearly depleted both populations so an agreement was started for The Above to send the monsters tributes. Since there weren’t enough mates being sent, because not every woman is a mate, a triad broke into the castle and killed the queen and her triad. When they did this, the energy that the queen fed to this mystical stone stopped, and that stone had been powering their whole world. Without her, things began to die and the monsters became shadows.
After every pairing, the newly mated couple must go to the castle and present themselves to see if the mystical stone will recognize that mate as the new queen. However, any un-marked mates may be fought over and taken. The FMC doesn’t want a different triad. She is drawn to this one, so she makes the choice to give them her virginity.
When this triad takes the FMC to the castle, several other groups are there and there is one un-marked. They put the new mates in a side room so that they don’t have to witness the bloodbath, but some desperate shadows steal the mates and drag them to the mystical stone. More girls die and I’m equally sad about it.
Anyway, after being saved, they go to the stone and it recognizes her as the queen. The FMC doesn’t want to announce the finding yet because she wants to go to The Above to tell the world what her government is doing.
They go, they save the day, ta da!
The fun thing in this book is that the FMC also can’t live off food from The Below and therefore must resort to her mates’ cum. Yup. BJs for everyone! Lol. And each of them taste like a dessert. One tastes like chocolate, one marshmallows, and one cinnamon rolls. Now, don’t you think you’d start to miss savory things? I feel like I would just be sick all the time and complaining of a bellyache. Anyway, it was a hoot.
Standalone | 412 Pages | Trope Challenge: -Not on Challenge- |
His hot breath fanned across my neck once more as he nipped at the edge of my ear. “Do you understand that I’m going to cherish you forever?” He punctuated his question with a tendril somehow lifting to brush against my clit.
I had never thought myself an exceptionally emotional person, but there was something about feeling so damned cherished by this monster that had me unraveling under his touch. “I want that,” I admitted between moans.
“Good,” he praised. “Do you know what I want?”
“Hmm?” I asked as the tingling sensation began to overwhelm me and words were hard to process.
His voice dropped an octave as he answered, “I want you to cum on my cock, beauty. Right now.”
- Captured by the Monsters by R.L. Caulder & M.J. Marstens
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