What Dwells by Jeanette Lynn – A Book Review

Posted June 23, 2020 by Booksandblurbs in Fantasy, Reverse Harem, Reviews, Sci-Fi / 0 Comments

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What Dwells

(Wickedly Winged – Book 1)

by Jeanette Lynn
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Medium Burn, Sci-fi/PNR RH, Stand Alone within Series
Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited

Down & Dirty

A strange and oddly beautiful dive into the unknown and the unusual love that comes from it. Free on Kindle Unlimited.

What is it about?

(Blurb from GoodReads)

It was just another boring day monitoring The Mists, the strange murky clouds that hover in the canyons below the Up Top. Until it wasn’t.

They say whatever enters the mysterious mist is lost to The Mists. When Novara finds her schooner suddenly being sucked into the clouds of death, she’s expecting the worst. She’s going to die.

When Novara finds herself thrust into a world below her own, instead, never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined she’d come face to face with one of the Great Beasts, let alone an entire colony of the humanoid bat beings, the very creatures she’d been obsessed with for years. Great Gwog, what were the chances? If ever there was a time her love for dead languages could come in handy, this was it.

And she would be needing it, because this was her new home now.

Citoc isn’t too keen on taking on the odd, funny faced wingless beastie that had literally dropped down atop him, spewed out from the skies, yet he finds himself drawn to the mouthy, witless creature.

He isn’t the only beastie intrigued by the many tongues speaking newcomer.

Beasts of the Murke, Greats Beasts of Bellinor, a whole new world and all the mixed bat cultures forming the melting pot of the Alcove, Novara will need to learn to navigate it all fast if she’s to stand a chance.

Eladrathuil preserve her, what’s a stranded Mists pilot to do? Acclimate. But her stubborn buns are going to do it her way. May the madness ensue and the odds be in her favor.

Thoughts on What Dwells

3.5 Rounded Up

This is a strange book, and strangely beautiful. I can’t ever really say that I found a bat hot before, but there is something about the way Lynn writes that changed my mind… mostly. I am all about unusual dynamics and relationships that don’t work on paper, but I am NOT about manipulative attitudes, gaslighting and emotional angst. Seems that no matter the species, some similarities span the gamut when it comes to an insecure male mind.

Set on a world that harbors multiple species of bipedal, intelligent souls, this book throws a pleasantly plump and somewhat unsure Nova into the literal depths of this planet… far below a layer of mist that hides deep fissures and canyons none have ever seen, or at least none from ‘up top’. Drafted to service in order to pay off her debt, debts incurred by taking ancient language studies – an area unsuitable for most work. She is a pilot monitoring the easiest areas of the mist… until said mist somehow drags her in and down, destroying her ship and landing her among caves her brain can barely fathom. There Nova meets a collection of bat like people, and finds a fate more dicey than any she could have imagine before.

Nice… but…

So, this is a GOOD book, with interesting characters and lush world building. My issue? Nova is inconsistent. One moment she is a strong, sure female who stands up for herself. The next? She is weak willed and insecure, falling into patterns of mental abuse and victimhood. It bothered me. I am not sure if it bothered me more because I could actually relate to it… because there was a odd sense of reality to her actions… or because I expect FMC’s in these types of books to be Bad@ss, regardless of setting. But that is just me.

Perspective:

First Person, Single POV

Ending Type:

HEA

Rating:

Mature… very mature.

Romantic Dynamic:

MMMMF

Character Age Range:

Almost 30+

My Final Verdict on What Dwells

A mix between fantasy and sci-fi, this is an interesting approach to the RH genre, infusing bipedal people who are definitely NOT humans. It was fun, unique and complete, though there were a few character flaws that dragged it down. Free on Kindle Unlimited.