The Orc From the Office by Kate Prior

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

After reading Love, Laugh, Lich, I immediately had to jump into the 2nd book in the Claws and Cubicles series by Kate Prior, The Orc From the Office. I was able to use this for the prompts Cinnamon Roll Hero for Fall in Love, Indigo (nerdy/geeky/brainy character) for Color Me Romantic and #BeastMode (monster romance) for Bang in the Night. My theme song for Bang in the Night was Frank Sinatra's Moment to Moment from Reprise Rarities Volume 3.

Janice works for Evil, the company, in Human Resources. When she is struggling to open a file cabinet, Khent, an orc that works in IT, is walking by and offers to help. Janice accidentally elbows Khent in the face during their encounter and it's hard enough to draw blood. What she doesn't realize is in drawing blood from Khent, she's initiated a mating bond between them. They have to meet with MR (monster resources) and sign some paperwork that it was accidental. They are pushed to stay away from each other and not complete the bond, but as the mating instinct starts to affect them, Janice starts to do some research. After stumbling across some "videos" of mating between orcs, Janice finds it harder and harder to stay away from Khent.

Oh my gosh, this book was so good. I absolutely loved Khent, the cinnamon roll nerdy orc that works in IT. He was just so freaking sweet but when it came to the bedtime he definitely turned it up. I loved the way that he really just stepped back and let Janice do what she felt she needed even though he was really struggling with wanting her as his mate and feeling the relief that he found someone he could mate with. Honestly, the only thing that made me dock this down from a full 5-stars was the 3rd act conflict. I know that Janice was struggling and had baggage from her previous relationship, but I just felt like there was enough internal conflict between them that was worked through them getting together in the first place that the extra conflict wasn't needed. That and there was a little bit of confusion for me when they get back together and they may or may not be getting physical on the side of a building (the physics just got a me a little).

Even though I had some issues with Love, Laugh, Lich, I'm so happy I continued this series. You definitely don't have to read it first before this one (I just like to read in order). This book was so fun and I cannot express how much I love Khent. This book really outshone the first and I highly recommend this if you enjoy monster and/or office romance. It really helped too that they weren't in a power dynamic because of their employment. Seriously, check this book out!

Have you read The Orc From the Office?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Orc From the Office, Kate Prior, 4.5 stars, 0 days, eBook, 143 pages, published in 2022, indie published

Love, Laugh, Lich by Kate Prior

⭐⭐⭐💫

To start October, I had some time to mood read before the start of the Love in the Night Readathon. I decided to focus on prompts for the Bang in the Night reading challenge and look through my KU list for some monster or spooky romances. Love, Laugh, Lich was in my recommendations. This is the first book in Kate Prior's Claws and Cubicles series. I used this to cover the Bang in the Night prompt for Skull on the Cover, Fall in Love prompt for 2021 Release and Color Me Romantic prompt for Green (Green on the Cover). The theme song I chose from Frank Sinatra's Reprise Rarities was Life's a Trippy Thing from the 5th volume and is a duet with Nancy Sinatra.

After the apocalypse, Evil has won and taken over. Lily works for Evil, the company. The CEO is Soven, the Lich. Lily is his secretary and is finding herself more and more intrigued by the spells he casts and how he looks under his robes. When her office is undergoing renovations after an assassin attempts to take him out, she is working from a cubicle area with other employees. The separation between them causes some things to change between them and Lily starts to get jealous over Soven. When she broaches helping him out with his spells instead of contracting out, things start to shift between them.

This was such an interesting take on a monster romance, but for the most part worked. I really loved the almost tongue-in-cheek style of monster romance and office romance mash-up. I also thought it was really kitschy, in a good way, that Evil won and is a corporation. Now despite the fun-ness of the story, there were some parts that were a little off for me. I thought that this was more lust based than emotion based and wasn't quite 100% into them reaching their HEA. I also felt like there wasn't enough tension between them, even from when they are talking about the past. It felt more like Lily has been lusting after Soven but being sent to work in the cubicle sections of the time and not able to see everyone that enters his office kind of made her a little unhinged in a jealous type of way. There was also talk about her being innocent and a virgin and the way that she was just open to doing all these things with him (and his double peen plus extra appendage) just felt off to me. Not that you can't be lustful and a virgin, but the physicality of it didn't match for me. Plus I didn't really find their physical acts that hot or titillating; part of that could've been that I really couldn't picture what Soven actually looked like.

Despite not quite enjoying 100% of Love, Laugh, Lich, I was intrigued enough to continue on in the series (and spoiler alert, I'm really glad I did). If you are looking for a more fun take on a monster romance, I think this series fit that to a tee. I'm not the biggest fan of office romances, but I definitely enjoy it more with this fantasy/paranormal take on it. I just thought this one just didn't quite hit everything I want from a romance novella. Definitely check it out though, it's certainly worth giving a try if you have Kindle Unlimited.

Have you read Love, Laugh, Lich?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Love, Laugh, Lich, Kate Prior, 3.5 Stars, 0 days, eBook, 87 pages, published in 2021, indie published