Review: Five Star Review by Marie Reynard

Posted August 23, 2024 by Lola in Fantasy, Review, Romance / 4 Comments

Five Star Review
by Marie Reynard

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: m/m

Blurb:
Gravity, love, and other inevitable falls.

Aiden Lucas is used to a steady stream of discreet packages arriving on his doorstep. It’s part and parcel of living with one of the internet’s most popular adult toy reviewers, but nothing could have prepared him for the next toy his roommate receives—something that hits a little too close to a secret Aiden has longed to confess for years.

Zayn Parvin has never found a toy worthy of five stars until an anonymous viewer sends him something downright magical—a mysterious model called the Richard Knotz that’s not listed anywhere on the internet. The moment he gets his hands, and other parts of his anatomy, on this particular product, he can’t stop raving about its special features.

But Zayn is human and shouldn’t have been sent merchandise meant exclusively for the supernatural community. His review threatens to expose significantly more than what he usually shows in his videos, and it forces Aiden to make a choice: confess to Zayn, or let a mage wipe Zayn’s memory of all things supernatural… including Aiden.

Five Star Review is a 25k steamy best friends to lovers, roommates to mates novella featuring two geeky astronomy majors, some very realistic merchandise, years of pining, a lot of astrophysics homework, and knotting. This stand-alone M/M paranormal romance is set in the Elemental Bonds/MateHub universe and guarantees a HEA for its main couple. It does not contain mpreg.

My Review

I read MateHub: Legend by this author earlier this year and really enjoyed, so after I got this free novella through the author’s newsletter I didn’t wait long before reading it. This was such a fun short read. It follows Zayne and Aiden who have been best friends for years. Zayne is a human and Aiden a werewolf, a fact he hasn’t revealed to Zayne yet. They both study astronomy and are roommates as well as best friends. I liked all the references to astronomy and how their language often included galaxy and astronomy related words and comparisons.

This story starts when Zayne receives a sex toy meant for the supernatural community that he shouldn’t have access to. Aiden finds out and has to make a choice on whether to tell Zayne everything or let a mage wipe his memory, which might mean he forgets him too. Despite the premise the story is actually low on drama. It’s a fun friends to lovers romance with some heat toward the end.

I like the author’s writing style, it’s an easy read and I got quickly pulled into the story. I thought the premise was an interesting one and I liked seeing things play out. I like the friends to lovers trope and enjoyed that aspect here. The dual timelines and point of views worked well with Aiden’s point of view in the here and now and Zayne’s point of view in the Then chapters showing some pivotal moments in their friendship. I liked how this allowed the reader to get a feel for their friendship and I thought it was a nice touch, although the time and pov switches took some getting used to. The ending was well done and wrapped things up neatly.

To summarize: This is a fun m/m friends to lovers romance between a werewolf and human. When human Zayne receives a sex toy for the supernatural community werewolf Aiden has to decide whether to reveal the truth to him or let a mage wipe his memory. The book is told in dual point of views and with dual timelines, Aiden’s chapters are Now and Zayne’s chapters Then. I liked getting to see some pivotal moments in their friendship in the past and seeing their relationship turn into romance in the now chapters. I liked these two together and I liked the friends to lovers trope. There are some steamy scenes and one involving knotting toward the end. I like the author’s writing style and quickly got pulled into the story and enjoyed reading it.