Den of Monsters by Avery Song

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I woke to the soothing sound of a peaceful serenade.
Except there’s nothing peaceful about being kidnapped after being sold to the Devils of Sin.

This never should have happened, because I did everything right. I accepted the invitation, attended the masquerade in the depth of the forsaken forest, and danced with whomever requested. The longer one remains, the more debt is cleared from the family name, so I danced through the night.

I survived to the final note — and let me emphasize the “survive” part — but I’m starting to realize where the real problem lies. I didn’t dance with one suitor…I danced with five Devils, and each immediately laid a claim on me.

Joaquin. Talon. Dagger. Croix. Creed.

Now here I am, kidnapped and held for ransom by sick men with bigger debts and troubles than my bankrupt family and their dark organization combined, but I’m no damsel in distress.

I’m actually stalling.

There’s a rumor that the Devils of Sin are dangerous men of royal stature during the day and ruthless monsters at the peak of the night. I want to see them again…to touch and enjoy the illusions that left me panting for more.

I’m willing to enter the den of monsters to escape the true demons lurking in the shadows of desperation.
All in exchange for my freedom.

Den of Monsters

A bit disjointed!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 😠😘🤓
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Esmeralda (a.k.a. Esme) – she remembers legends from her younger years about the Loring Serenade, where you are kept captive while your body is touched in a number of ways (gentle touches, claws digging into you, and more intimate touches). She seems to be going through this Loring Serenade, though it might be some sort of dream state where it is all happening to a copy of herself. She yearned for the monsters to take her away from her life, especially the main monster who was directing the action. Though we find out later that it is just a recurring sex dream she has.

The Story: This book starts off quite weird, with the heroine going through this ceremony, it gets steamy quickly, but the reader doesn’t really know what is going on. I have to say, I wasn’t too fond of how it began. Also, I wasn’t too fond of the fact that the blurb states this is a standalone, but from the blurb on the next book, it doesn’t seem to be true. The same characters are in that book, and it looks to be continuation of this same story.

It turns out Esme is from a wealthy family; her father joined the mafia because he was bored. Though now they have to come up with seventy-five million dollars by the end of the year (9 days) or all their assets will be taken. Esme and her siblings can’t believe there are going to be poor. They grew up in a lavish lifestyle and don’t want that to end. They are definitely a weird family, including a half-brother Claude who had strange circumstances of his birth and is the same age as her older full brother Lucas.

Their father’s solution to their predicament is the Masquerade of Sin which is coming up shortly. Two types of men are invited, bidders and observers. Bidders can participate in the dances to which they have the option to claim a woman and observers bet on which women survives on the dance floor the longest. It happens in the shadowed depths of the forbidden forest. The invitation will go to the first daughter of the family, which is Esme’s sister Antoinette, whom nobody has ever wanted to dance with. It turns out this is not a fun and jovial even, but an event used by monsters against people who are in debt. It is known that a set of royal bidders with lots of money will be in attendance.

It turns out that the Masquerade had some oddball rules, which changed at the last minute and because of Esme’s father’s machinations to keep her safe, she needed up as one of the contestants, and she had to be in the top five of the women at the end of the night, if she wanted to save her father’s life. It was all very complex and the lead up to the masquerade was longer than I would have expected, but all that did set up Esme’s background quite nicely. We found out that she is very intelligent, wily and fierce.

The Heroes: Talon, Joaquin, Dagger, Croix, Creed – They are The Devils of Sin.
Talon – He is a 6’3” Korean prince, slim but with muscle mass and has teal colored hair. He is Sinful Night (his true monster trait) – the ruler of defense and power in the form of combat.
Joaquin – He is the Sinful King, the leader of their den of monsters (The Devils of Sin).
Dagger – he is a serial killer for fun. He likes to lead the police and FBI on a merry chase. He is the Sinful Assassin.
Croix – he is a prince and an identical twin to Creed. He is the Sinful Advocate.
Creed – he is a prince and an identical twin to Croix. He is the Sinful Negotiator.

It is a bit confusing on how the guys have a monster side. I wasn’t quite sure if they were some kind of shifters, or if they had glamour which hid their monster sides, or if they were only monsters in dreams at first and it wasn’t explained very well. Like everything in this book, it took a while to get it. Things weren’t explained all that clearly. I never really got a decent picture of what they looked like in their monster forms. Some had weird tails and crazy features. I also thought this was unnecessarily long, with a lot of filler where not much happened, and much could have been eliminated, since I found myself bored at times.

This audiobook was told in multiple points of view via dual narration. It was narrated by Keira Stevens and Gregory Salinas. Keira Stevens has done quite a few reverse harem audiobooks I have listened to before and I like her voice. She seems age appropriate for the heroine as well. Gregory Salinas has a deep pleasing voice, though I do wish there were different narrators for each of the Heroes. Although he does a good job at different voices for different characters.

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