Blurb: In an aging Victorian on a tree-lined street in Oldetowne, the Brackenbridge witches have practiced the craft for generations in a circle unbroken — until the chain was passed to her.
Ousted from her coven, hurting for clients, and struggling to keep her aging family home from falling into disrepair, painfully awkward witch Ladybug is at the end of her rope. When she rents the attic bedroom to an unsmiling, spider-like araneaen, she hopes her fortunes are making a change for the better. But Ladybug knows nothing about the secretive spider-folk; not what they eat, what goddess they worship — or anything about their mating needs. The blustery winds of Autumn usher in the rain and the second harvest . . . and a strangely enticing smell that seems to permeate the seams of Ladybug's very existence. The darkness beyond her bedroom door hungers, and she is helpless to offer herself up as its feast.
Review: You think you have a line that you won't cross. And you think that line is sex with a spider-man. Not spiderman. A spider dash man. You are wrong. The truth is that the line no longer exists. You are one with monster romances. You will read anything...and you will like it.
I know CM Nascosta's writing at this point so I wasn't expecting the raunchy, borderline pornographic writing of some of the other monster romances I fancy. Nascosta's style is more of a slow-burn erotic sensation sweeping across your senses and drowning you in lyrical writing. And this book was no different.
Mabon Feast was unique in that 95% of the book is the heroine's internal dialogue. Ladybug is a loner with no friends or family to speak of and lives alone in a big, empty house. Enter: hero. Anzan is a half-spider (bottom half), half-man (top half) with two extra arms and four extra eyes. This frail, sickly man is looking for a place to live and Ladybug's empty attic is the perfect place. Anzan takes introverted to the next freaking level, so if dudes that are so quiet that you think they might be dead are your thing then you are in luck. The two of them exchange few words throughout the novel, but it turns out you can communicate without words pretty easily.
Mabon Feast is a novella, so the sex takes some time to work up to and then once it's there it's like one long scene. One long scene filled with spider webs and strange cocks and fangs and venom and a very, very willing victim. It was wicked creative and unbelievably sexy.
At the end of the day this was a beautiful romance between two quiet, introverted people who have no one else in the world but one another. It was sweet and sultry and dangerously touching. First you felt their bone deep loneliness--tugging at your heart with incredible force--but then there was the sweet relief of two lost souls finding one another in the midst of their darkest time.
If you're looking for spider porn, go elsewhere (but like...let me know where you end up, kay?). If you're looking for an emotional, heart string tugging read that gets beautifully creative with the kinky stuff, then take a pit stop here for an hour and enjoy yourself.