How to Ruin a Librarian
The Hollow Heart Series: Book 2
Tansy Applewood

Very cute, whimsical romantic comedy fantasy

Blurb

A cozy spicy monster romance with small town autumn vibes, found family, and a gnome book club.

I’m Roslyn Vellore. Librarian. Lorekeeper. Emotionally repressed human-shaped disaster.

I do not have time for monsters who flirt with their eyes and unpack your trauma with cocoa-dusted confidence. I especially do not have time for Santos Wildmere, Wren’s Hollow’s dangerously tender Velvarkin chocolatier whose magic-infused truffles taste like everything I’ve tried to forget.

My boundaries are ironclad. My wards are gnome-certified.

And I’ve never once accidentally made out with a man behind a bookcase.

Until now.

Because the soulbond between us? It’s real. It hums beneath my skin every time he looks at me like I’m made of sugar and starlight. And when ancient tomes go missing from the Loreloft, stirring long-buried magic in Wren’s Hollow, I’ll have to work with the one monster who makes my knees weak and my shields glitch.

Together, we’ll chase down forbidden magic. Unravel the mystery. And I absolutely will not kiss him in the back of the library.

Or the chocolate shop.

Or… okay, listen. This is getting very inconvenient.

A spicy cozy monster romance about a feral librarian, a chocolate empath Velvarkin with wreck-me eyes, and the most dangerously sweet soulbond Wren’s Hollow has ever seen.

This is filled with very whimsical similes and metaphors that mean we can only guess what. But I like them. It makes me feel immersed, like I’m part of this world, so I should know what they mean. For example, “Sharp with cinnamon want. Laced with spice and sorrow.” And, “And it tasted like library dust and bare skin, whispered arguments and pressed spines.”

This is a very sweet romance and is SAFE. No cheating, Other Person Drama, or coercion. Santos is very patient and waits for Ros to come to him.

Because he’s patient and tender and absurdly respectful and I HATED HIM. (Not really. Just enough to want to climb him again and set myself on fire.)

Ros takes an emotional journey to get to Santos, cheered and jeered along by a great many gnomes, small creatures that can hide within bread boxes or ride dogs. They have a Smut Book Club and provide commentary. I feel like the gnomes are us readers. “your gnomes are reading reverse harem again.”

“You’re the future star of this week’s reading,” Letty said cheerfully.

“I am not in the book,” I said immediately.

Every gnome screamed like they’d been hit with a romance novel cliffhanger.

It’s filled with terrific humor. I highly recommend this for a feel-good, entertaining read. I really liked it and will definitely read more in the series. But I don’t think it’s a future re-read for me, so 4 stars.

Contains graphic sex scenes.

Occasional foul language.

1st person past tense from Ros and Santos.

Errors: 10 – 3 punctuation, 1 spelling, 2 tense changes, 1 inconsistency, 1 transposed words, 1 missing space, 1 missing word. Totally readable.

I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

270 Pages

$3.99 at Amazon and part of Kindle Unlimited.