Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon

I’m about two weeks late in writing this review because ~life~ always seems to get busy around this time of year and I’m constantly playing catchup. However, I haven’t stopped recommending this book since I finished reading it so you might be able to say that I’m a fan. Truly the photo is courtesy of a friend who I gushed about the book to so she went out and got it. 

I might be one of the few romance lovers who has yet to dive into Ruby’s Ice Barbarian series, and I won’t lie I picked up this book solely on the description and cover alone and it wasn’t until I was half way through the book that I decided to look at the author. I went in expecting for this to be a fun spicy romcom with a hot Minotaur. Maybe about the same size as Bride by Ali Hazelwood? Not a 400 page genre bending delight. Because not only is it a fun and spicy romcom with a hot Minotaur, but it is also a slow-ish burn, high fantasy with excellent world building and an full cast of characters that all seem to hold their own. Both? Both. 

Romance readers are often fans of tropes (not all of us I know, but this one is so hear me out). Walking into this story you are going to be delighted to get found family, a sort of runaway princess, spunky women standing up to the patriarchy, a marriage of convenience, as well said Minotaur husband who is going to be going into *ahem* rut and therefore has needs, oh and magical grave digging archeology. 

While this is a fun story, it also hits on some very deep real life learning moments. Our heroine is a thirty year old spinster trying to save her lands ~alone~. Well, her version of alone means with her best friend / lady’s maid, and their complicated relationship makes my heart happy. Because I think often times many of us don’t want to impose on others, or understand their motivations, but others love us despite deserving it in the way we think that is needed, instead they cherish and love the relationship because we are there, as flawed as we are. Aspeth is sheltered, determined, funny and I loved getting to watch her character grow. 

I think I am still just so blown away by the history and the archeology element, and while I don’t want to deal with the rats or spiders, I too would follow Hawk her hulking mentor-turned-husband-of-convenience who also needs to learn that others will care for him. His gruff but practical demeanor paired with Aspeth’s romantic yet tenacious ideals were so fun to watch as they dealt with one another. Also hot, this was so very, very hot and deserves all the spice emojis. 

I’m not even doing just surrounding the relationships in the crew, which I won’t lie in the beginning I wasn’t sure they’d ever find the trust in each other that they’d need. But this whole story was somewhere between a ‘coming of age’ and a ‘coming to power’ where they each had their own issues, and had to deal with more. While the found family aspect was a side plot, it wasn’t any less important than the romance and probably led to why I was so impressed with the book as a whole. I would probably say that the relationships shined as the star of the writing but Ruby juggled the multiple plot lines, expansive world building, brought in the tried and true conflict of miscommunication, and had all the spice of some of our favorite romcoms. 

I was so impressed, and yes I stayed up past 2 am because I just had to finish the story. I hope other have picked it up, or if you haven’t this makes you look closer at doing so because I would love to yell with you about it!

Looking to find Bull Moon? Here you go:

Bookshop.org ~ Libro.fm ~ Goodreads ~ Storygraph

This novel was provided to me as an advanced readers copy by NetGalley. All thoughts are my own. As a side note, some of the links to Bookshop.org or Libro.fm will either provide me or an indie bookshop I support a portion of the affiliate sales if you use them to buy a book I recommend!