I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an audiobook arc of this potentially intriguing book in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: ⭐⭐
Spice: not determined

A short synopsis of the book 📑
Marlow, a character who can see supernatural entities like angels and demons, initially believes she's losing her mind. However, her life takes a dramatic turn when an entity reveals a startling truth: she's been involved with the missing Prince of Hell. This revelation drives her into a centuries-old war between powerful mythological beings from different pantheons. To emerge victorious, Marlow must confront her deepest fears, embrace her true identity, and embark on a personal journey to uncover the mystery of the missing Prince.

My thoughts 💭
Although the synopsis of the audiobook I listened to seemed promising, I needed motivation to maintain interest in the story after the second chapter. While Marlow, a central character, was initially intriguing, I found her focus on sex work uninteresting. Despite the author's attempts to build tension with her relationship with a demon, I could not become invested in the story. Although disappointed, I appreciate the author's effort and creativity in their work. I hope to find another title by them that better suits my taste.

(I uploaded my review to my Goodreads account and will share it on my socials)

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I mean, demons and angels and gods, oh my!! This had a little bit of everything, from different pantheons of gods to Marlow literally being in love with the prince of Hell.

To start, let me say that this book had a lot of twists and turns I did not see coming. I was invested in the character because of her attitude towards the world, but she makes some seriously dumb comments at times. With that being said, I was shipping her and Caliban from the very moment we met him.

My issues with the plot were minor in the grand scheme of things, but there were some things that I had to just push through. This book was really a trust in the process kind of thing for me, and in the end, it kind of worked?

But like, Marlow, honey, stop being stupid.

I'll definitely be reading book 2 when it releases.

Lastly, the narrator for the audiobook did a fantastic job bringing this book to life.

This was a good fantasy romance novel. The adventure was so fun and I loved the characters except it took my a while to understand the story and what was going on.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Tantor Audio for the ARC audiobook of The Deer and the Dragon by Piper CJ.

A coworker mentioned CJ to me as we were talking romantasy, and how she is a compelling voice (on a podcast? or TikTok? I can't remember) as she has a master's in folklore so she is able to view the genre from a wider and more focused lens. When I saw the audiobook appear on NetGalley, I immediately hit "request" based solely on this. I truly was interested in an author who could really technically take on the subject matter in a new and interesting way.

From there, I feel a bit conflicted. I was engaged in the story - I LIKE the story, but I was also equally confused. What I can say, is that the description is just the barest hint at what the book is about, and at no point could I predict what would happen next because the story goes in a very variable trajectory while also engaging in a lot of backstory and flashbacks. There is a LOT of varied mythology and religion throughout the book. A LOT. As someone who is not religious but understands the impact of religious trauma, Marlow, our main character, is sympathetic in that respect. That's about as far as my understanding went as it relates to the rest of the book's mythos and religious wars - once the Phoenicians were included I had no clue where any of these things fell in a religious order, in addition to not understanding how multiple realms of gods and hell and angels all interacted with each other. I think the book would benefit from more significant and clearly established world building.

Marlow herself is a confusing character. We begin with her being sex positive, and the first 12% of the book has a lot of sexual moments. We see Marlow as a young woman traumatized by her poor, aggressively religious and abusive upbringing who breaks free of that cycle through working as a high-level sex worker and then as a massively successful author of mythological based books. We see her as someone who is very medicated as she thinks Caliban, her lifelong friend and lover, is a figment of her imagination and that she is mentally unwell. From there, Marlow as a character ebbs and flows on who she is from paragraph to paragraph. She is an author of massively popular and researched mythology novels, but she still doesn't understand the power of a name or of a bargain. She is very pro-sex, but then is embarrassed by two other characters flirting in front of her. She talks about how she can put on the mask of her different aliases, while at the same time being so incredibly unsure of absolutely everything while then also declaring that people she has met within the week after she is able to see her sigil are her best friends and she trusts them implicitly. She is all over the place. She is oversexed, scared of sex, stand offish, super friendly, ultra competent and entirely nonsensical. I wanted to shake her so often. There were some hints around her flashbacks at the end of the novel, as well as some things said about the penultimate final scene, that make me think Marlow is going to skyrocket to the top of the female savior role we see so often in romantasy, but she has no character progression or trajectory toward this. The most similar comparison I can make is to Jennfier Armentrout's books, where Armentrout is just pulling the next most convenient plot with no respect to the current one or the true growth of the characters. Is it entertaining? Yes. Do I know what's happening? Not really.

We see very little of the Prince of Hell - so that was also a direction I did not expect. I wish we got more page time with the two of them instead of all the flashbacks we received instead.

I think if the plot were slimmed down a bit, or maybe the worldbuilding was slimmed down or clarified, that this would read a lot more clearly and more engagingly. The book ends on a cliffhanger - but it is light compared to other books I've read - it feels like something that will be resolved within the first 2 pages of the sequel. I am still curious to know what happens next, and I love urban fantasy and a range of authors who write it, but I would hope things are tightened in the next iteration so I'm not just completely lost in the entire plot, just like Marlow. And again, I generally liked the book - I wished it wasn't the audio version because I probably would have read it in 2 sittings - it's just on reflection I can see some pain points that didn't stop me from reading, but also didn't put this at the top of my list.

The audio narration was fantastic - I feel all characters were given very distinct voices that paired well with their descriptions. CJ also has images of the characters on her website, and I feel like both the audio and visual meshed really well with what I was thinking of the character's individually.

Rating: 3.5 ⭐️

That cliffhanger though!
.

I will definitely read the next one and hopefully we get more development in Marlowe (plz make her less annoying). Can’t wait to see what battles begin between the realms , the prince and her relationship develop, Az and Fauna, and more.
.
.

Side note you can tell that she definitely brought out things from her lived experiences into her characters backstory so if that sort of thing bothers you (clearly this character is bot so loosely based off herself), you probably won’t want to read 😅. I know some people hate that sort of thing but frankly it’s a fictional story so why shouldn’t an author be able to put them self in the story 🤪
.
.
.
.
#mythology #folklore #godsandgoddesses #angelsanddemons #reader #romantasy #no other gods #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

Tropes:
Romantasy
Angels and demons
Mythology/folklore
Religious trauma
Human girl finds out she’s part fae and the guy she’s in love with is the Prince of Hell
Ends in a cliffhanger

Good, interesting storyline but I just couldn’t get into the book or the FMC.

1.5 stars

While I didn’t enjoy Piper CJ’s last series, I wanted to give her other works a fair shot and to see how she’s progressed as an author. I’m glad to report that there’s been some improvement in terms of craft but sadly not enough to meet my standards. If this wasn’t an ARC, I would have DNF’d very early on.

CJ’s writing style suits urban fantasy much better than high fantasy, and she has dialed back the gravitas somewhat for the modern setting. Even so, my evergreen complaint remains: a lot of the prose is needlessly overwrought, melodramatic, and/or confusing. The very first line nearly made me put down the book entirely.

While CJ has many imaginative and promising ideas, I am continually disappointed by the execution. Unfortunately, the premise is the strongest part of this book. In actuality, the plot comes across as meandering, strangely paced (in part due to long flashback chapters), and lacking forward momentum and proper setup for the events that unfold. The logistics of the world make little sense to me (How does every single pantheon exist without having major effects on the human realm? Have the various deities taken specific steps to prevent disrupting the human realm?). By nature of including multiple pantheons, much of the information about mythology feels quite surface level.

Further, the main character Marlow, who should be compelling in theory, lacks agency in her own story and generally reads as unlikeable because of her behavior and what the author has decided to do with her character. It felt like the author tried to cancel out Marlow’s traumatic upbringing, which would likely resonate with many readers, by making her remarkably successful, wealthy, and special while mistreating and looking down on those around her. I wasn’t fond of any of the other characters either. I also felt like I never got to know the love interest character because he doesn’t receive a lot of page time, resulting in a lot of telling instead of showing about his relationship with Marlow.

I will not be continuing with this series.

DNF @ 22% | chapter 10

This is so all over the place. I tried going in with an open mind but can’t keep track and enjoy this. This is so self-insert that it hurts. 🙈

Audiobook narration was great, however, the source material is NOT IT.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐⭐⭐ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬). 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐈 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐰, 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 “𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲” 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐚𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐰’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧.

𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐂.𝐉. 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫. 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬!

𝐻𝓊𝑔𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒫𝒾𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝒞.𝒥., 𝒯𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜, & 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

I went in being very curious about this book as it is something very different from the author's first series. But she did such a fantastic job. There are elements to this series that were extremely relatable to me that I thought I'd never read (or listen to) in a book and it felt like a giant hug. The narrator was exactly how I imagined the main character to speak and did a fantastic job narrating this book.

This was an interesting and unique world that explorers a very different look at heaven and hell. The story itself is a bit disjointed but it does all start to come together toward the last third of the book. I would be interested in book 2 of this series because there is a cliffhanger at the end of book 1.

The narrator and audiobook made this book worth listening to. If you're trying to decide the format to read this book I would suggest getting the audio version. The narrator brought the characters and stories to life.
This is an interesting new paranormal romance. I think the book is easy to read, fast-paced with interesting multi-dimensional characters. So the plot is about a human girl who has been seeing someone in her room that no one else sees. She kinda starts falling in love with him when she realizes that he’s a demon/ prince of hell. The romance is cute, the stakes are high and there is a lot of religious mythology about demons, angels, and gods along with the religious trauma and questioning the fmc faces. This was a solid first book, the characters and plot were okay and I think it had potential. Thanks to the publisher for this alc for an honest review.

Read if you like:
- Paranormal romance
- Religion mythology
- Demons/angels
- Very modern world
- Queer characters

I couldn’t ever really sink into this story because I could find the identity. I just tried to write a synopsis, but couldn’t even decide what the plot even was. When I try to formulate a description, the best I can do is say that a group of characters, that may or may not be human, travel around together and may be changing planes/stratospheres, but between travels we see flashbacks of the main characters past which include her heavy handed upbringing, sex work, perceived mental illness, and imaginary friends as the group tries to save all of existence.

Sex is talked about a lot in this book and it is clearly meant to be sex-positive, but the spice is what I would call closed door for the readership that prefers strong allusions to spice without details. The world building is difficult to follow, which my brain interpreted as word salad, and is provided by conversational info dumps so not really woven into the story, contributing to the compartmentalization of the plot elements and difficulty in melding it all together.

For the librarians: This book would not ever be an appropriate addition to our library collection. The author has created a mashup of mythology, but has also included representation from Christianity. While I understand many people consider Christianity another flavor of mythology, it is fairly bold to use it as plot fodder in a fluffy fantasy series. I am not opposed to using biblical characters in stories (Sue Monk Kidd’s Book of Longings did it well) nor am I a practitioner or participant of any organized religion, but this was gratuitous and did not add any meaning or integral context to the story. While I am not personally offended, I wouldn’t be able to justify purchasing something intended for broad appeal that would only interest a small fraction of patrons.


Good audio narration.

This fantastical romance was extremely descriptive. The characters were diverse and engaging, but my favorite was Fauna. She was so blunt and honest I had to laugh and shake my head at some of her comments. I wish Marlo had been a stronger more confident personality. She had been a call girl for years and used that to springboard a popular writing career. She should have exuded confidence and strength. Over all a good story with strong character and world building.

I usually try to finish every ARC I receive but this was just so poorly written I couldn't stomach it. Marlow was insufferable

4/5⭐️
2/5🌶️
Narration 4/5⭐️

Thanks so much to Netgalley/Tantor audio for providing me with this audiobook!

This book was so fun to read! It had a super interesting world with great characters and some very intense and sometimes spooky moments!
I really liked how Piper CJ wrote the FMC in general but especially how she experienced her anxiety, it was so realistic it made me a little anxious with her. The handling of everything going on emotionally with the FMC and her religious/regular trauma was really thoughtfully done and I really liked the main character overall. I did feel like there were a few moments that I was frustrated with her going back and forth if she believed what was happening was real or not but I understand why that choice was made despite me getting tired of it.
The plot was super interesting despite being pretty slow to progress but I was not a fan of getting so little time with the main love interests together. I think that killed their chemistry a bit for me just simply because the MMC was not present for what felt like the majority of the book. The ending also felt very abrupt to me and I wish we had cut out some of the slower scenes in the middle to get a bit more time with the main characters together before the end (and also maybe some time put into the storyline with her friends that was never really addressed although I’m sure it will be covered in the next book.)
Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot and I am super excited for the next one!

**ARC provided by NetGalley**

This is my first book by this author. It took me a little bit to get into the story as I wasn't quite sure where the story was going as there were a few elements I liked and others I didn't or was confused by. But it didn't take long for me to be drawn in and invested but not for the main character but as much as the side characters. I especially loved when Fauna was introduced. She cracked me up and I loved her character so much!

There were points where the plot didn't really make sense and it felt like a few different plot lines meshed together until about the halfway point. We had a creepy paranormal romance vibe with weird monsters and serial killers and while they served a purpose to the plot a little bit it almost felt a bit too out there?

I liked the mix of mythology and religion to create a solid worldbuilding of the realms in the book.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

There was nothing wrong with this book, I just realized that romance isn't the genre for me.

This was a fun romp. If you’re a fan of Lara Thalassa’s Bargainer series you’ll really enjoy this. When you fall in love with a prince of Hell how do you deal? I absolutely loved Fauna! I really enjoyed the audio & narrator, which is always a huge plus. AND with that ending I can’t wait for book 2!!!

Piper CJ does it again. She has completely hooked me with this book. I could not put it down. I was lucky enough to get an ARC audiobook from NetGalley. I had been eagerly anticipating Piper's 2nd series. Piper writes beautiful and vivid prose that makes me want to live in every world she creates. She uses wonderfully descriptive language to completely immerse readers into Marlow's world. The characters are complex, flawed, and lovable. The plot is the perfect mix of levity and joy with heart-wrenching and tense moments.
Piper does an amazing job weaving mythology with the story. I can't wait to learn more about the pantheons in future books. I'm also looking forward to spending more time with all the characters and I'm so glad this is a series. Piper is so intentional with her foreshadowing. The Deer and The Dragon is full of delightful breadcrumbs. Piper excellently sets up the series and the ending had me on the edge of my seat.
Luna Rey was also an amazing narrator. She powerfully captures the emotion of each scene. And she makes each character sound distinct.
If you are a lover of romatacy, I highly recommend The Deer and The Dragon. This is the best modern fantasy/mythology book I've read. This is a book that I plan to reread over and over, including as soon as I am finished with this review. See you in hell!