This book surprised me. I really loved the world building and all the fun and quirky misfit characters. I can't wait for the next one. This is going to be a fun series!

“How am I supposed to seduce someone? Sit on them and recite Old Prellian poetry until they give in? I don’t know the first thing about being appealing to men.”
You’re absolutely going to need this slow burn Minotaur romance by Ruby Dixon. Bull Moon Rising is set in a historical fantasy world where magical artifacts power strongholds, Taurians save the humans behinds daily, and a powerful rut season only happens once every 5 years on the rise of the Conquest Moon.

Aspeth is our plus-size heroine. Not only is she determined to salvage her home and father’s reputation by joining the Royal Artifactual Guild to obtain artifacts from Old Prell that will secure her family’s hold, Aspeth is also an obsessive scholar in her own right, knows how to read ancient runes, and can spot a fake artifact like a professional. I adore Aspeth. She’s intellectual, she’s got gumption in spades, and when her family has let her down countless times, her determination is stalwart.


The Mummy Rachel Weisz via Tenor
“You’re not seriously offering to have sex with me just to get into the guild school?”
After being laughed out of a male-dominated Guild meeting, Aspeth makes a bargain with Hawk, a Taurian who is currently attempting to help out his friend and Guild Master, Magpie, by teaching her class of fledglings. If you’re wondering what a Taurian might be: it’s a Minotaur descendant who hold just higher standing in the Guild than that of women. Every 5 years, a Conquest Moon rises and causes the Taurians to go into a red-eyed rut. If Hawk marries Aspeth, she can become a fledgling in the Guild and Hawk has himself a mate for the rut. Wins for everyone, right?

It’s not as easy as that. Aspeth’s fellow fledglings consist of a motley crew of misfits: A slitherskin, Magpie’s drunkard of a niece, Aspeth’s friend and maid in her household, and a woman who desperately doesn’t want to be sent to their world equivalent of a convent. Magpie, the actual guild master, is on the brink of being cast out due to her own drunken actions. Nearly all the other teams work against Aspeth’s team in order to better their own chances. Aspeth is also in danger of showing her cards to her husband whom she just can’t seem to stay away from.


Minotaur gif via Tenor
“I’d rather take an honest man with no kisses than a liar with a sweet tongue.”
I loved the storyline of Bull Moon Rising. I loved that I never knew what would happen as Aspeth and Hawk fell slowly for each other. While their relationship stems from convenience, both show each other equal amounts of tenderness and affection. These two idiots are my favorite kind of romance. While their horniness is apparent, the way Ruby Dixon approaches their inevitable coupling during the rut was both sweet and romantic. I wish I could describe it better, but I’m here for the vibes, and the vibes are immaculate.

With every wrong turn in Aspeth’s journey to helping her father, it only cements the bond with Hawk even further. Bull Moon Rising is a historical fantasy, it’s an ode to Victorian Archaeology, full of feminist themes (yes, Queen!), and it’s a slow burn romance that is so horny you’re not going to miss out on any of the spice while Aspeth and Hawk figure out their situation.

“Before leaving home, I had no friends. Now I have four of them, and it feels like I’m the richest person in all of Vastwarren.”
Bull Moon Rising is out soon, and if you haven’t seen the gorgeous hardcover special edition, then you better hippity hop over to your favorite retailer and get in on the action before the opportunity is over. Ruby Dixon, I cannot wait to experience more of this world with you! Aspeth and Hawk won me over (and Squeaker too), and I know they will win over other readers as well. Happy Release, Ruby!

do you want to go on an adventure?? bc if there’s one thing you can count on with Ruby, it’s an epic journey from page one. 🤩 I had the *best* time falling into the world she created for Aspeth & Hawk & co!

it’s a Romantasy with Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider vibes where an adorably curvy and bookish heroine sets her stubborn sights on righting the wrongs of her father by joining a special guild who procures magical artifacts. but in order for her to even start this mission, she must find a chaperone aka husband to gain entry. enter her reluctant accomplice and off-limits *teacher* —the broody & grumpy Taurean who goes by Hawk. 😏 and you may think you know what happens next, but spoiler alert: he’s also going into rut so you probs don’t. trust me. 🤭

SO. MUCH. HAPPENS! which made it entirely unputdownable and insanely immersive. a band of misfits as side characters and a furry feline companion that turns Hawk into a cat daddy had me cackling into my fist. and those “teach me “ moments when the spice was spoicinggg?! sweaty and wetty, y’all. 😮‍💨🫠 I cannot wait to relive this when it goes to audio! such a fun time!

𝘁 𝗿 𝗼 𝗽 𝗲 𝘀 :
📖 curvy & bookish FMC
🐂 minotaur MMC
💫 he’s her teacher
💖 romantasy
💍 marriage of convenience
🪢 “teach me” + knotting
🌙 adventure & spice!

Thank you to @prhaudio, @author.ruby.dixon, @berkleypub, and @netgalley for the gifted copy 🩷

💭t͜͡h͜͡o͜͡u͜͡g͜͡h͜͡t͜͡s͜͡ 💭

Full Moon Rising was a fun read! 😍 I loved Asbeth’s accent, Hawk’s deep voice 😌, the dual narration, and the pacing. I came for the monster romance, but the plot was plotting!! Asbeth, an emotionally neglected holder's daughter wants to join the Artifacts guild and is getting shut down because she's a woman. The only way to solve this problem? Marry the strong, Minotaur guild teacher to be her chaperone in exchange for companionship during the Bull Moon. 😁

I feel like this book was more fantasy than romance, which I enjoyed. There was a lot more world-building and detail than I expected, and the romance and spice were on point. If I have one complaint it would be to grab Asbeth by the shoulders and say, “Girl! Put your dang glasses on!” 🤣 I get why she chose to walk around blind for 80% of the book but, man! I felt blind just watching her. She gets it together eventually, so all's well that ends well. 🩷

💍 Marriage of Convenience
♉️ Human/Minotaur
💫Forced Proximity
👓 Found Family
🐂Curvy FMC
🩷 HEA

This was a really fun book that I enjoyed reading!! It was a very different Ruby Dixon book but I’m excited she’s branching off in this direction. It was pretty long, but it was paced out well. I LOVED, absolutely loved, the main character. Her relationship with Hawk, the MMC was very sweet and well-developed. There are some great side characters as well, but I wanted to connect with them a little bit more. Otherwise I thought this one was great! 4.25 rounded up!

🌈Queer rep: FF secondary relationship, brief mention of MM relationships.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for a copy!


After I finished this book I had to sit and think about my feelings because they are very complicated. I absolutely loved the story and all of the characters. Even after finishing I'm still itching to reach for it and read more. The book follows Aspeth as she attempts to save her father's hold, what I'm understanding as very similar to kingdom of some sort. She wants to join the guild, to try and bring more artifacts to her father and help replenish what he's gambled away. She then makes a hasty marriage and deal with a minotaur, he becomes her chaperone, she'll help him with his upcoming rut.

It started really slow and I was honestly expecting not to enjoy it too much, but it turned into the opposite. Things were happening so fast, it felt like I was missing a small parts of different situations. We could get lore drops and they would be super nice, sweet and simple, but then I felt like I was missing out on something else. The world was so big and had enough lore that i do truly believe it could have been longer, however it would have bee too long then. In the end I felt like all of her problems were both wrapped up too perfectly but also seemed a little much. I think she deserved what she got but I also believe it could have set up for another book, or even a collection of short stories.

While I loved Aspeth and she's been one of my favorite main characters as of late, I couldn't help but feel she was immature, It's mentioned she was at least 30, and while it made sense and I could understand that, her actions spoke more of someone in their early twenties or late teens. The entire cast minus Hawk felt like they could be teens if you over looked anything.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and believe a novella or two could really make all the difference. 4.5 stars.

In a world of magic (and misogyny), unmarried and unchaperoned women aren't allowed to become part of the Royal Artifactual Guild. With this in mind, and her family's fortune and good name at stake, Aspeth makes a deal with a current guild member and they both get something out of this marriage of convenience. Unfortunately, Aspeth catches feelings but still has to contend with the fact that her family is in near ruins and she has to pass the Guild test.

The design of this book is a 100/10. It's so beautiful. The magic system was intriguing, but unfortunately, this one failed to keep my attention. I hope to try again with this book in the future. My library has already purchased a copy and I can't wait to see the actual design of the book in person.

This was my first Ruby Dixon book, and she definitely lived up to the hype. witty & magical! starts off a little slow imo, but pays off as the story builds!

What a fun new world from Ruby Dixon!

I’ve got to be honest, I thought this was just going to be minotaur romance and didn’t think too much deeper about it but it turns out it’s one part fantasy, one part romance, and one part adventure which adds up to a pretty exciting new series!

It’s a fantastical world, full of magical artifacts and those that hold them are like the aristocracy of the world. Aspeth is the sheltered daughter of a holder on the brink of ruin. She decides to join the Royal Artifact Guild to hunt down more artifacts to save her father and their land, but it’s not as easy as she assumed it would be and ends up marrying a minotaur teacher who will sponsor her going through Guild training..

I really enjoyed it! It took me a little bit to get into which is true of all fantasy (especially when I didn’t realize it was fantasy going into it) but I was genuinely into it and really enjoyed both Aspeth and Hawk, and also all the side characters. There’s a real found family between them all that I loved. You get action, adventure, and a slow burn romance that leads to some heat so I was very pleased!

I look forward to more from this world!

I saw the author name on this one and requested it out of curiosity. The worldbuilding piqued my interest to some degree-the concept of noble families hoarding magical artifacts in order to maintain political and military power exhibits a degree of sophistication. On the other hand, many other parts of the book were not to my taste at all. Thanks very much to Ace for the complimentary eARC; all opinions are uninfluenced and my own.

Read This Book If…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

Genre: monster romantasy
Series: Royal Artifactual Guild # 1
Spice Level: 5/5🌶, 5+ explicit scenes
Setting: fantasy world
POV: dual, 1st person, present tense
Tropes: marriage of convenience, virgin, rutting/knotting, voyeurism, “my wife”

My Thoughts:
This was such a fun read! I really liked the fantasy world introduced (even if it is super misogyny) and the creatures and magic system within. This book did a great job of balancing smut with an interesting plot.

The romance between these two was beautiful! They are so well matched and supportive of each other and I really liked both of their personalities.

And the SPICE! It’s everywhere. And it’s so good! I was clamoring for the final scene for wayyyy too long.

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

This book feels like if Stardew Valley and D&D came together and had a super cute and funny child in the form of a spicy romance book featuring a hot minotaur, found family, treasure hunting, a hodge-podge cast of characters thrown together by circumstance and a very cool and unique fantasy world that I'm excited to get to explore more of.

Aspeth is an only child who grew up a holder's daughter (very wealthy and in high society but also pretty lonely and isolating because her dad is literal hot garbage). The wealth and power of her family, however, is a lie at the beginning of the book because her father has gambled away all of their money and the magical artifacts that were intended to keep their hold safe. So Aspeth (a bookish girly who is obsessed with old Prell) - along with her lady's maid Gwenna, decides that she's going to go and join the guild of individuals that go and find these magical items in hopes that she can steal some away to keep her hold safe. But her expectations are rattled when she learns that it won't be very easy for her because she is a woman and they aren't taken seriously within the guild and the only way that she can even try to become part of it is by joining the only group led by a woman and with the help of a marriage of convenience to the Taurian teaching assistant for their group.

This book just shows me that I need to never doubt when it comes to a Ruby Dixon novel. If she writes it, I'm going to love it. Aspeth, from the get go, was a flawed character that I absolutely adored. Her heart is in the right place but the execution of everything she does tends to be messy and chaotic which only made me love her more. Her friendship with Gwenna is one of my favorite aspects of the book, their banter together is absolutely hilarious and I desperately hope that we get a book in Gwenna's point of view because she is a DELIGHT!

The marriage of convenience aspect of this book was literally so fun and Hawk is actually the love of my life now. I would literally do anything for that Taurian. And if you think that this book might not be for you because he is a minotaur, I assure you that you won't even be thinking about that in a negative way by the time you're done with the book. He is loveable and grumpy and he literally had me swooning so hard over him sooooo many times. Ruby Dixon just really knows how to write a male main character.

The plot of the book was also really captivating. I was obsessed with the history that she wove throughout the chapters and the intricacies of the magic and how it works within their world has me really interested to see what happens in the next book.

Overall, this book was a really fun time. I laughed a lot more than I thought I would because it's literally just so hilarious and swooned so hard but also had to put the book down because I was finding myself frustrated about how some of the characters do things but I think that just goes to show how great of a book it was since I was so emotionally invested.

Definitely pick this one up for yourself!

Thank you @netgalley and @acebookspub for an ARC of this book!!


Review:

This is my first time reading a Ruby Dixon book and it was a fun time! The story was funny, cute, and a little quirky. The characters are very entertaining to read about and the world building (which there was a lot of) was done really well.

The spice was fun, but I did want more of it. Oh, and for it to happen faster (😂🤷🏼‍♀️). I know, slowish burns are fine, I’m just a glutton 😉. I definitely want to read more Minotaur smut after this though, as well as more of her books! 🔥

Y’all should definitely check this one out if you want something fun, a little light hearted, and steamy to read! And yes, you have to be okay with monster smut. 😂

Fun mythological romance. If you enjoyed Ruby Dixon’s IPB series, you’ll enjoy this book!

Things to know:
Dual POV
She basically wants to be Indiana Jones
He’s her teacher
Marriage of convenience
Forced proximity
Where’s my wife?
Spicyyyy

4.25 stars

I just love Ruby Dixon!

I love the naive and well-meaning FMCs and the grumpy cinnamon roll MMCs. I cannot get enough.

This was super fun in a nerdy kind of way. Our whole world is set on archeology which is fascinating in the real world, but given some fantasy magic it is just extra fun.

This was my first Minotaur book and I get it now. Plus, who doesn't love knots?

Super fun read!

I have read Ruby Dixon's novels in the past and enjoyed them, but this one felt very overwritten and bloated.

This one wasn’t for me. I’ve been trying to start it for over a week and the opening is so chaotic that it makes me put it back down every time. I finally pushed through the first three chapters and found myself skimming a bunch of details because there’s just SO MUCH to take in. It could very easily just be me and the mood I’m in, but it’s a no for me.

Ruby Dixon is my number 1 monster romance author.
I love her so much!
This book was no exception.
If you like IPB or any of her work. Scoop this up!

*Monster Romance (Minotaur)
*Cute fmc
*World building
*Marriage of Convenience

I loved this book. I ate it up! Her characters and character development are always spot on!

This was so cute 😍

~Aspeth's only goal is to save her family from ruin. Marrying a minotaur is the least of her problems.. at least for now. Hawk knows this woman is up to something but he's not sure what. He has his own problems to worry about..~

I love how determined Aspeth is during this whole 'adventure'. She may be a bit naive but she doesn't let anyone or anything slow her down or change her mind. The friendships she makes are so sweet and wholesome too. I just wanted to wrap her in a big hug.

Hawk definitely starts as a question mark, especially with everything he has going on, but by the end I loved him so much. Where can I find my own minotaur?!

human/minotaur x marriage of convenience x teacher/student x forced proximity

*I received an ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review with my honest opinion.*

Thank you Berkley and Netgalley for a copy of Bull Moon Rising!

Let me start off by saying this is one of the prettiest covers I've seen in a long time and it's right up my alley. Huge props to the cover artists.

I absolutely love Ruby Dixon. I inhale all of her books. This one just didn't hit the same. The plot felt like it was a great YA plot if it didn't have some smut sprinkled in. Ruby's writing had sucked me in as usual, day dreaming at work about what some of the plot points could be and I was excited to fall in love with the main characters. Instead I just felt like the ending felt flat and the entire book left me with something to be desired.

What I WILL say is that Ruby flexed her world building muscles and I loved it. I actually want to learn more of this world and the Prellians. (Will we get a book 2?) Also a 30 year old FMC who isn't conventionally attractive? I'll eat it right up everytime.

Spoilers:
I felt like the Conquering Moon was built up to be this big thing, and then it just kinda happened once on page and then the rest was an after thought. For something that comes around every five years, I would have expected so much more to come from it.

I also didn't like how the only female guild member ended up being a bad guy and was kicked out of the guild, thus leaving no females in the guild, even at the ending. For Aspeth to go through everything she did and with everything she wanted to stand for, it kinda sucks that this is how the guild was left. Not even Gwenna being let in. Just given the opportunity to try again next year.

All in all, this book was fine. Maybe I'm more of a Not Hoth girlie.