Review: Muscles & Monsters by Ashley Bennett

Posted July 14, 2025 by Lola in Fantasy, Review, Romance / 6 Comments

Muscles & Monsters (Leviathan Fitness #1)
written by Ashley Bennett
narrated by Stephanie Rose and Jack Calihan

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Monster Romance/ Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Leviathan Fitness is known for monsters, muscles, and wolven who rescue damsels in distress.

After a wedding cake catastrophe, local decorator Tegan finds herself being helped by a solid wall of fur and fangs named Atlas. She’s never met anyone like him and finds herself enamored by his wolfish charm. After their sweet encounter, Atlas invites her to his gym anytime she needs his cake-lifting services.

Tegan decides that instead—she wants to lift the cakes herself. She signs up for a membership with Leviathan Fitness, determined to build her strength.

Primal desires emerge as Atlas and Tegan test just how much their new love can lift—and if there are any limits to what monsters and humans can do.

My Review

I was having a tough week and feeling very stressed and just wanted something easy and fun to listen to. I saw this one on someone’s blog and thought it sounded exactly like what I wanted to read, so I impulse bought it and started listening. I enjoyed this one even more than I had expected. I expected a short and steamy read with not as much character depth, but while it was short and steamy, it also was very fun and sweet with more character depth than I had expected.

Muscles & Monsters is set in a world were monsters and humans live alongside each other since recently. Human baker Tegan meets wolfmen Atlas after she fails to carry a wedding cake into her truck and it falls on the floor, Atlas helps her clean up. He owns a gym and invites her to sign up. There is instant lust and connection between the two and their romance developed quickly and heats up soon, but I could feel their connection and the further the book gets the more it builds on that. There are also plenty of sweet scenes, these two were just so sweet and cute with each other, i hadn’t expected this book to be so sweet. I liked the banter and flirting between these two and how even during the steamy bits they were very sweet and considerate of the other too. I thought the blend between sweet and steamy was well done.

I thought it was interesting how Atlas is a wolfmen and actually looks like a humanoid wolf all the time, I don’t think I’ve read about this in books before. He also has some wolfish instincts and there is a bit with mating and how the full moon impacts him.

There is a good amount of depth and personality to both main characters. I liked getting a good feel for both of them as well as who their friends and family are. Atlas has some body issues due to being chubby while growing up and has a nasty ex. Tegan is fully confident in her body, but has struggled with body issues in the past and she has a brother who doesn’t approve of her dating a wolfmen. There is a bit of potential conflict with Atlas’ ex, but it’s very low drama and gets resolved in a very mature way with the characters actually talking about things.

Both of the narrators were new to me. I liked the dual narration for this book and both narrators were pleasant to listen to. I liked how they both had a good range of different voices for the various characters, which made it easy to listen to and know who was talking.

To summarize: I wanted an easy and fun read and this book delivered exactly that. I enjoyed it even more than I had expected. This book has a perfect blend between sweet and steamy, with no drama and only a little bit of conflict that gets resolved in a very mature way with them actually talking things through. The romance develops quickly and turns steamy early on, but I liked these two together and could fee their connection. There’s enough to get a feel for both characters and these two were just so sweet together. I bought the next two audiobooks in the series after I finished and look forward to listening to those soon.