Review: Rescuing Krampus by Robin Jo Margaret

Rescuing Krampus
by Robin Jo Margaret

My Rating: 3 stars

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

Blurb:
Naomi has always had a soft spot for others, including her big family and chaotic friends, but often feels like her city life is lonely and uneventful.

Krampus is used to mindlessly following orders from his superiors in Hell, a fate that he has inevitably accepted, and has resigned himself to never expect more from his own life.

When Naomi’s neighbor passes and unexpectedly includes Naomi in her will, she takes a holiday to explore her newly-inherited chalet in the mountains. But when she finds the beast unconscious in the snowy woods, she takes him back to the house to save his life.

The krampus becomes her guest as Naomi nurses him back to health, and as they stay in the chalet together, they form an unlikely relationship that begins to get steamy and… complicated.

My Review

I picked this one up during a multi author book sale and this book was tagged as having a neurodivergent character, so I decided to give it a try. And I thought the snowy holiday themed story would be a fun read during this time of year. Rescuing Krampus is a quick read that follows the points of views of Noami and a Krampus who later goes by Kilean. Noami has inherited a cabin in the mountains and when she goes there she finds an injured Krampus and she takes care of his wounds. Once he wakes they grow closer and get to know each other.

I had expected there to be more steam in this book based on the content warnings and while there certainly is plenty of steam, there are also some really sweet moments as well as quite a bit about the demons and how that all works and them figuring out a way to be together. I thought it was interesting learning a bit about hell, demons and Krampus. I liked Naomi and Kilean together and seeing them connect. I especially liked the scenes of them cooking together and decorating the Christmas tree, there’s also a very thoughtful gift Kilean gives Naomi later on.

There are some big time skips in this book, but I thought it worked well with some information about what happens in between. I did wish I would’ve learned more about the characters, but I thought the author actually handled that pretty well with them both still having plenty of personality and depth. Kilean is neurodivergent coded and I thought that was handled well.

While I enjoyed most of the book I struggled with the ending, the warning at the start said it was a happy, but slightly bittersweet ending, but I thought the ending was just sad and depressing with a bit of hope. There is an additional more happy ending and the note in the book implied they will have a happier ending there, but this is what the author intended as the ending and for the bonus ending you have to join their paid Patreon. I think stories should be complete and contain all the content. And for a romance book I did feel the current ending didn’t really work.

To summarize: I mostly had fun reading this book. I liked reading about Naomi and Kilean and learning a bit about demons and Krampus. This one is quite steamy, but I was actually surprised it wasn’t more steamy as from the blurb and note at the start I had expected an even steamier read. There are plenty of sweet scenes and some about them figuring out a way to be together. This one has some large time skips, but I thought those worked well. And I thought reading about Kilean who was an neurodivergent coded Krampus was interesting. I did struggle with the ending and that did diminish my enjoyment of the book as I thought it was quite sad and depressing, with a bit of hope, instead of the slightly bittersweet the author note cautioned about and bonus ending is only available for paid Patreon members, I am not a fan of this marketing strategy and think it should’ve been included in the book.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.