Rating: 2.25 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Vessel knows he’s always been different. As the lowest of the low, he knows he has little to offer his Warlord and the other Denizens of his clan. He spends most of time trying to stay under the radar and to keep from becoming the next host to the Warlord’s flesh consuming larvae. But when he’s given the charge of caring for a human prisoner, Vessel finds himself captivated.

Clarien knows he has no chance of escaping his captors, but at least he has some kindness in the gentle Vessel and the two share plenty of conversation before the end comes. With Clarien dead, Vessel finds himself on the wrong side of the Warlord’s wrath. He is forced to shape shift into a human form and abandoned on the surface.

Mistaken for the now dead Clarien, Vessel finds himself aligned with two hunters whose life work is tracking down Denizens. Vessel is accepted for the first time in his life and quickly develops real affection for Rhys and Sera and they for him. But Vessel lives in fear of the day when they discover who and what he really is.

This book was just bonkers and not in a good way. From the very start, Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters was by turns convoluted, bizarre, and just plain silly. Poorly rendered characters and oddly constructed world building left this story struggling to find its feet.

Vessel is perhaps the only truly sympathetic character, being something of an odd fish out amongst the brutal Denizens to whom he is related. He’s kinder and gentler than the others of his kind and desperate for some measure of affection. The fact he finds it amongst his supposed enemy is rather sweet and this is the strongest aspect of the book. Even though Vessel, Rhys, and Sera don’t feel fully developed as characters, they do work together on some level and I appreciated their relationship, even if it wasn’t believable. The fact that Sera and Rhys completely accept Vessel, even when they find out what he is, strains credulity. I mean, they don’t even blink at his real identity, which never makes sense. But that’s in line with the rest of the story, which often seems half finished or missing in key details. A good example of this is Vessel’s ability to suddenly be able to fight, just from reading Clarien’s journal. Rhys and Sera never question him because Vessel just magically knows everything he needs to in order to pass as Clarien. The writing and overall narration lack finesse and failed to draw me in as a reader and I just never believed in what the author was trying to create.

The world building can only be described as chaotic. It’s layered with rules that are either never clarified or don’t make sense. There are various dimensions, shape shifting, and quasi-cannablism, and rather than the author trying to explain how these bits and pieces actually fit together, we’re just told that they do. The end result is too cluttered or nonsensical to make for an immersive, believable, fantasy world.

Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters struggled to communicate its message effectively. While the main trio does a have a certain sweetness to their interactions, that’s about all this book has going for it. The plot and world building are too jumbled and there wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. I’d have to recommend giving this one a pass.