This was big Indiana Jones vibes and I absolutely adored it. The characters were fleshed out and witty which is my favorite. I look forward to continuing this series

Aspeth has snuck away from her noble family to join the Royal Artifactural Guild, a place she has studied and dreamed about being a part of her whole life. Joining and finding artifacts to help her broke family is her mission, but she arrives and finds out that women are not welcomed. In order to get a chance at becoming an initiate she finds herself marrying a minotaur teacher, one who is about to go through a few days of uncontrollable rutting when the Bull Moon rises every five years. She doesn't expect herself to start having actual feelings for him, or to become such fast friends with her fellow group of fledglings.

Okay, this was a fun read. It was super spicy with a plot that kept me invested, a great magical world system, and a FMC that I enjoyed following. I had no idea minotaurs could be so sexy. Digging for magical artifacts in a buried ancient civilization was so unique, I loved the variety of powers that artifacts could possess (from an endless supply of peeled onions, to controlling the ocean tides). There are also really cool lizard people named "slitherskins," and i think Kipp has a piece of my heart (but he has to share that honor with the fluffy orange cat). What a gorgeous cover reveal as well. Dixon did such a great job at world building, and the way she has given the characters so much personality is wonderful.

If you like Indiana Jones-esque books with a lot of action (of every kind lol), you should give this a try. It's very Grumpy/Sunshine and Marriage of Convenience. There is knotting. I am excited to see that this is book 1, because I will gladly read more in this setting! I received this book as an eARC for my opinions.

4.5 Stars

3.5 - good book but had some underdeveloped areas that dragged.

I enjoyed this book, read it quickly but maybe didn’t enjoy it as much as her Ice Planet books. The archeology plot was super interesting! Loved having our FMC be so knowledgeable and table about old languages and learning about the Guild and trailing was all so fun! We could have had more of that plot line and less repetition of our FMC secrets and insecurity imo. Their romance was sweet and I appreciated that she didn’t jump right into sex with a virgin but they experimented and talked to one another. I think the side characters stole the show however. They were fantastic! Our little lizard friend may be the favorite.

There were a couple things that needed fleshing out a bit more. I like Hawk, our MMC, however his being a Minotaur didn’t work. It just wasn’t fleshed out much and honestly I mostly forgot he was one until she’d kiss his nose.

Overall a good book but not as strong as the others I’ve read by this author.

Y'know, I didn't think about minotaur romance before this book. I don't know if I'll go out of my way to read another minotaur related book, but if I had to read one I would definitely pick this one. I loved the characters - they had a depth to them i wasn't expecting but definitely appreciated. I think this is an interesting Fantasy Romance book, and I think it deserves a read!

This book was so stinking cute. That is the best way I can describe it.

I love the FMC. Aspeth is so nerdy, so clueless about life, so spoiled, so fun, and is out here living her best life trying to learn from her mistakes.

Hawk is so nice. He will do anything for Aspeth. He is a minotaur, strong AF, will do anything for his guild, and has the best character ever!

The side characters are what makes this book even better. I want to know more and more. Kip, like I need to see some character art of this house. Aspeth's best friend, Gwenna, I want everything and more for her.

If you like fantasy, with romance, and an array of characters this is a book that is definitely worth checking out! Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Quote:
"I'd rather take an honest man with no kisses. Then a liar with a sweet tongue."

4/5 ⭐
5/5 🌶️

First, I have to say I was able to listen to the audiobook while reading the digital copy provided via NetGalley and I think it made a huge difference in my enjoyment.

The production and narrators did a fantastic job. I thought the narrators provided a level of emotion and humor that didn't completely translate on the page. the duel narration delivered by Felicity Munroe and Hiro Diaz was immersive (*blushing*) and I especially appreciated the different voices Hiro Diaz provided for the male characters. I thought his delivery clearly defined the male cast of characters with each having a unique voice.

I went in blind on this book. Obviously, the cover provided some context clues but I couldn't help but be a little surprised. It was more than I anticipated and in the best ways.

Ruby Dixon created a page turning world with her archaeology/Mummy/Indian Jones vibes. Her cast of characters were fantastic and endearing. The Marriage of convenience and inexperience tropes were written incredibly well. I loved the female rage and perseverance. I thought she balanced the spice and plot.


My biggest complaint is of the petty variety. There were times that the language used felt to modern day or colloquial when compared to the overall setting. Dixon created a world that had the regency era vibes but used turns of phrases and language I associated with present day while mixing in unique phrases to her world. It felt disorienting at times. There were also times that I felt like the inner monologue for both POVs was repetitive.


At the end of the day it's a 4 star read from me because I kept having to turn the page and lost sleep to know what would happen next.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing a digital copy for review!

I really wanted to love this book based on the synopsis, but it just didn't hit with me. The world building was slow and the beginning of the story seemed a little repetitive. The spice was good, when it finally did happen, but could have been better.
I did like the unique romantasy story and the found family group of characters.
Overall the story was okay with room for improvement.

This is such an interesting book, one that I would like to return to later on in life. Is it a monster romance? Yes… Is it also a very interesting story? Also, yes. I really liked the aspect of the artifacts, the idea of the guild was so unique. Even though this is a fictional book, I found that a lot of research, thought, and time went into figuring out how to best represent what surrounded the guild and the artifacts. Sparrow was a headstrong, stubborn yet very naïve FMC, and Hawk was a grumpy yet very kind Minotaur, and somehow their relationship worked very well. The Five were such an interesting rag tag group of kindred spirits who went through this whole process together, and stuck together through the very end. Very, very cool.

This was my first Minotaur romance and I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. I will admit the spicy scenes took a bit to get used to, but I really loved the story around it and was kept wanting to know what would happen in the guild storyline and that was enough to keep me interested in the book. I'm even considering reading the second book.

Fun with a LOT of sex scenes but seemed a bit long for what it is. Dragged in the middle and the spice felt rather repetitive.

Bull Moon Rising is such a hilarious romantic adventure featuring a somehow-swoony minotaur and a noblewoman just trying to save her family.

Aspeth, a member of a noble family, wants to join the Royal Artifactual Guild in order to seek out magical artifacts to bolster her family's crumbling fortune, but there's a problem--she's a woman, and she needs someone to essentially chaperone her. Enter Hawk, a Taurian warrior and artificer (aka a minotaur)--with a marriage of convenience scheme.

This was a departure from Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians series, but I enjoyed the world building, and the, ahem, mechanics between Aspeth and the minotaur were amusing but somehow plausible. For those who want to dip their toes into monster romance, I think this would be a great place to start. I thought it was hysterical when she tried to teach

Thank you, Berkley Romance, for the gifted e-ARC.

This was my first Monster Romance and while I did enjoy the FMC, I hate to say that I wasn't not a fan of the MMC or the side characters. The plot was not interesting enough for me to stay invested. The villains were not evil enough, and I was more than 50% in and I continued to wait for the story to get interesting. I unfortunately could not finish this book.

Thank you, @Author.Ruby.Dixon and @BerkleyRomance for my free @NetGalley ebook. #BerkleyPartner #BerkleyBookstagram #Berkley

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Bull Moon Rising (Royal Artifactual Guild, Book 1) by Ruby Dixon
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 432 / Genre: Romantasy
Release Date: October 15, 2024

As a Holder’s daughter, Aspeth Honori grew up spoiled and entitled, but also ignored and lonely. So when she finds out that her father has gambled away the magical artifacts that make them wealthy, she decides to run away and join the Royal Artifactual Guild in hopes of finding some more magical artifacts and save her family. Although she’s not used to being on her own in the real world, Aspeth is smart, practical, and quick-thinking. When she finds out she can’t train because she’s a woman, she enters into a marriage of convenience with a grumpy Minotaur, who’s a teacher and in desperate need of a rutting partner for the upcoming Conquest Moon.

Fully aware that this was going to be a super steamy read given Ruby Dixon’s reputation, I was a little disappointed for the first 20% of this book. It read more like a YA adventure. Once it got going, it ramped up pretty quickly though. I really liked Aspeth. She’s bold and motivated but also open to other people’s ideas. She’s also no damsel in distress, she goes after what she wants in a very practical way. I still prefer aliens over Minotaurs but this was an enlightening read nonetheless. Now I’m looking forward to the sequel, By the Horns, due out in September.

Definitely a trickier read for me as the world building is unique but also a bit overwhelming if you aren’t an experienced fantasy reader! This was my first of Ruby’s books that I’ve read and was a freebie scoop up netgalley offered a few months back! It was an entertaining read and the romance was great. It released last October but it was still fun to experience and now I feel like I need to pick up ice planet barbarians asap!

Thank you for making this an open offer and allowing me to read this one!!

Aspeth is a Holder’s daughter meaning that she has always been sheltered and kept away in her Father’s hold. She spends all of her time researching the royal artifact guilds, learning old language and identifying glyphs. When she learns her father has gambled away all of their holds’ artifacts she devises a plan to slip away and join the royal guild with her maid. However unbeknownst to her women aren’t normally welcomed. She finds herself having to go about things a bit differently, like by propositioning a Minotaur into marriage.
Hawk is used to working extra hard and having to prove himself just because he is a Taurine. Although he is suited best for the tunnels and constantly having to assist in rescue missions he isn’t treated well enough by the guild. He has even had to step up recently and teach newcomers because his mentor the notorious Magpie has been failing every single time she is suppose to teach. With a conquest moon cycle approaching he would prefer a partner he knows and Aspeth’s suggestion of a marriage of convenience might be the answer to his most pressing problem.
A very entertaining fast paced romance with a bunch of fun adventuring. I enjoyed the friends Aspeth made along the way, especially her friendship with Gwenna. I also loved learning about the authors inspirations for creating this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This book was truly delightful. I loved the main characters and the secondary characters, and especially the cat. I do feel at some point the romance became separated from the main plot and they became two stories shoved in one. I loved the moments of Hawk and Aspeth together and would have appreciated more of that. Overall, very fun and entertaining adventure story splashed with a Minotaur romance.

MUCH thanks to Ruby Dixon, Berkley, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beware spoilers

I'm a recent Ruby Dixon fan, and I knew I wanted to read this book the moment I first read the premise and saw the pretty cover last year. Life happened and I wasn't able to read it right away when it came out last fall, but when it appeared in a NetGalley email this spring, I've never clicked a link so fast.

It wasn't what I expected. They very much gloss over the feudalistic setting in the blurb and cover. Opalescent rainbow has no relevance to the story, it's merely eye-catching; constellations aren't so much as mentioned in the story; and the character art does not at all represent medieval-style clothing. The only hint of feudalism in the blurb is vague mention of guilds and holds. I haven't read Dixon's work extensively (give me time) but my impression is that she doesn't do much in a historical-esque setting, more futuristic and alt-modern. So I was expecting something relatively modern, and was taken aback to find horse-drawn carriages, lady's maids, chamber pots, unprocessed food, and rampant sexism. But it was well done, in my opinion. The world-building was fantastic, every unwashed, plague-ridden crevice of it. God, people had to stink back then. The <i>diseases</i>. *shudders*

Hawk and Aspeth's relationship wasn't super well developed; it really felt to me like she was nothing but a pest to him until close to the end, when a switch was flipped--everything she says and does annoys him, he doesn't trust her an inch, they're barely friends, he's just tolerating her, then suddenly garsh-golly-shucks, he lurrrrvs her. He was reasonable, they talked a lot, he was patient with her sexually, he made an effort to establish a relationship--but he never made her laugh. He never went out of his way to make her feel better, unless it was having some form of sex. When it counted, he made her feel worse, actually. He was serious and proud, not an ounce of fun in him. He's a nice, upstanding guy, but I feel like, as silly as Aspeth could be at times, and with her high anxiety, she needed someone who could relax and play a game and <i>laugh</i>. They struck me as an incompatible couple. Perhaps if he'd found out who she was earlier and he'd had more time to get over that betrayal and grow fond of her as her honest self . . . maybe if she'd improved in her training at all and he took note and encouraged and admired her . . . but that didn't happen.

The obvious caveat being the Conquest Moon--he wasn't himself, he was stressed, he was tense, he was frustrated, he was just an overall crabby patty. I understand, but he was still a bore; don't expect me to like him much if that's how he's presented.

Aspeth was more sympathetic but no saint. She kept a lot of secrets, and even after she and Hawk fought over her secret-keeping, even after all her secrets were exposed, she kept more from him right up to the end, which he uncharacteristically overlooked. I was very disappointed in her. It's like no one learned from their mistakes in this book.

I have to mention the cat. I generally like cats, but I don't have one because I know what a mess they can make, not the least of which is the amount of hair they shed. I mentally cringed at every mention of hair coming off that cat. Clumps of it. Everywhere. Stuck to everything. It made my nose tickle just reading about it. Gross.

I wish there'd been more treasure hunting and magic wielding, less miserable weather and training montages. We heard so much about wondrous artifacts and the cool things they could do, but saw very little of them. The Magpie Five were underdogs and had plenty of conflict and setbacks, that's great, but they never got any better. Aspeth certainly didn't. They were incompetent from start to finish, and that's unsatisfying storytelling, for them to go through all that only to wind up exactly where they started or worse. They didn't get stronger or smarter. They didn't even luck into victory at the end. I wanted those human men, all those stuffy, bullying guild members to fucking eat crow. But they didn't. They were proven right, in fact, and boy did that hurt to swallow. Aspeth didn't triumph and achieve her goal against all odds, her family situation just kinda took care of itself. It's almost like the story ended at the black moment plot point, followed by a half-assed denouement to tie up ends. Very unsatisfying, though Aspeth and Hawk did more or less get a happily-ever-after, which was nice. So points for realistic consequences, I guess, but it was disappointing.

While Magpie herself can rot in hell--it's unfortunate the only woman held in any esteem in the novel was a murderous, backstabbing drunk--I loved the Magpie Five, especially scene-stealer Kipp. He was kind to everyone, he was positive, and he never gave up. I <i>adored</i> Kipp. Though I wasn't entirely sure how to imagine him--lizard, snail, human child? He could have been better described. I kept picturing a bizarre cross between a human child and a gecko that lives in a giant snail shell. At one point I wondered if I was supposed to imagine someone with dwarfism, but he wasn't described as a short-statured adult, he was described as adorable and child-sized. So I don't know. Gwenna was no-nonsense and loyal to her dying breath. Lark had no filter but was a team player and grew on me. I kept imagining Mereden as a mermaid more than a priestess; I suppose because of her seaside home and "mer" in her name.

However, I can't say I liked any of them well enough to want to read sequels focused on each of them, but that's Dixon's MO and that's what we'll get. If we get a Kipp book, though, Dixon really needs to work on her description of him, because I can't stomach the thought of a childlike creature having graphic sex. But I have to say, after reading the blurb for By the Horns, which is about Gwenna and Hawk's friend Rapter, I'm intrigued. Even looking forward to it. If any of the Magpie Five is going to shove the guilds' dicks in their mouths, it's Gwenna. If whoever at Berkley is reading this also has power over NetGalley approvals, please approve my request for By the Horns!

who knew I'd read a RD book and want more plot??

while i get that the "conquest moon" was like a fire starter to the rest of the plot happening, it felt so 'meh' by the time we got to it. i wasn't really convinced on their romance; aspeth seemed way too cool for him and hawk was just boring. i wish we had gotten to see more of the five's dynamic and the romance could be more secondary. it felt like, dare i say it, too much smut alongside a pretty decent plot. now i just want a book about Old Prell, especially the couple who gave each other those rings. i don't care about any other Taurians getting partners. i want to learn about the ancient magic, explore the ruins, and see what those artifacts were created to do.

I picked this up on a whim because I needed something different to get me out of a slump and I actually really enjoyed this story. I liked the mix of adventure and romance. Aspeth was such a cunning character and I was invested very early on in both her ability to join the guild and her marriage of convenience with Hawk. I knew from the way Hawk spoke about Aspeth very early on that he was gonna be such a secret sweetheart.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you, to NetGalley and the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon is an EASY Five Star Read for me (maybe even the elusive six stars, if I am perfectly honest), and I am so glad that I took a chance on reading this book. If I am honest, it is rare that a Romantasy book rates this high for me, as it is not my favorite genre. I prefer more high fantasy or strictly romance, but this one hit the right notes and made me laugh, cry, and feel all of the things.

I have been thinking about Aspeth and Hawk constantly since I finished the book. The world-building was first-rate in this book, and I love that there was a significant amount of information about the past of the royals and the artifacts, and how everything intertwines together. I need to go back and read this again and annotate all of the history and things that may come back up in the next book.

This was my first read by Ruby Dixon, and it will not be my last. I genuinely cannot wait to read the next installment of this series when it releases. I have already pre-ordered it because I am so excited to see what happens next.