Mantras & Minotaurs (Leviathan Fitness #3)
written by Ashley Bennett
narrated by Shirl Rae and Connor Brown
My Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Fantasy Romance/ Monster Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f
Blurb:
Leviathan Fitness is a sanctuary for monsters, muscles, and a widow on a journey of self-discovery.When Pam Rollins decides to shake things up after her kids leave the nest—she makes two major changes. Starting yoga classes and joining a dating app. After her daughter urges her to connect with other singles, Pam meets a minotaur who is ready to sweep her off her feet.
Alistair Reid is the kind of swoon-worthy monster that every woman dreams of. He’s kind, funny, and a wonderful dad.
The only problem is—they live states apart and have thriving lives of their own.
However, as romance blooms, it becomes harder to envision a future without each other in it. Will Alistair and Pam discover that their hearts can grow together despite the distance between them?
My Review
I really enjoyed the first two books in this series. This series has been a great fit for my reading mood this year and I am hoping there will be more books to come. Mantras & Minotaurs follows Pam Rollins, who is the mother of Teagan and Reece, who got their stories in books 1 and 2. I hadn’t realized this book would follow their mother, but I thought it was great seeing her find her romance and get her happy ending too. And Alistair, the minotaur, is the father of Chai, who was a side character in the earlier books.
This series has a great blend of super sweet and steamy that works so well. There are just so many super sweet scenes and despite the romance developing quickly I really felt their connection. There’s also plenty of steam and even some more kinky steamy scenes as well. I like this blend of sweet and steamy and think it works really well and I hope to find more books that do this mix well.
Pam hasn’t had the best experience with romance as her late husband wasn’t always a nice person. She loves romance books, but doesn’t believe she can find that type of love for herself. I liked seeing her meet Alistair and seeing them fall in love. Alistair in only in town for a little while to help his daughter Chai recover. Pam and Alistair meet on a dating app and decide to go on a date before he moves back to Colorado, they both want something casual, but don’t expect the sparks that fly when they meet. They hit it off immediately and decide to try long distance dating. I really liked seeing their romance develop, these two were so sweet together and there are some great scenes with the two of them. I liked how supportive they are of the other. I also liked reading about Pam’s cat Remy.
Both of these characters also had their own character development arc going on. Pam gets into mantras and yoga and slowly starts to accept she is worthy of love. I liked seeing her develop like that and embrace the love she found with Alistair. While Alistair has a difficult decision to make about his career and whether he wants to move to be closer to Pam. Some of these topics only got resolved toward the end, but I liked how it still felt pretty low on the drama and it was really clear to me early on how this would resolve.
These were two new to me narrators and I enjoyed listening to this book. Both did the various voices well and I thought their voices fit the main characters well.
To summarize: I had a great time listening to this one. The mix of super sweet and steamy in this series is so well done and they are easy and fun listens. I liked reading about Pam and Alistair, seeing them meet and quickly grow close. I liked seeing their romance develop and they both have their own character development arc too, which I enjoyed seeing playing out. All in all I really enjoyed all 3 books in this series and hope there will be more!
Leave a Reply