The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

By: Eva Chase

Narrated by: Amber Lee Connors, Aiden Snow

Length: 34 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Three brutal monsters came to my rescue. Now who's going to save me from them?

Every beat of my heart is the tick of a time bomb, reminding me to squeeze as many thrills out of life as I can.

A horde of nightmarish monsters jumping me in the middle of the night? Nope, that's too much even for me.

So when three demonic figures leap out of the shadows to my defense, my choices are trust my unexpected champions... or die. Not exactly a tough decision.

The beastly men wrench me away from my home, claiming they'll keep me safe. They say there's something special about me—something the others want to devour and they mean to protect.

My monstrous saviors are just as brutal as the creatures they fought off, damaged in ways I'll never understand. But the more we dig into the mysteries surrounding my existence, the more I catch glimpses of tenderness beneath their vicious exteriors.

And the touch of their fangs and tentacles makes me feel so shockingly alive, it's hard to remember why I ever feared them...

Until I discover the real reason they're protecting me—and a power that could either save us or doom the entire world.

*The Heart of a Monster is a thrilling urban fantasy series with a daredevil heroine and morally gray monstrous men who'll do anything to protect their woman. This set contains all four books in the series—Chosen by Villains, Courted by Beasts, Defended by Demons, and Hailed by Fiends—as well as a brand-new bonus epilogue.*

©2022 Eva Chase (P)2022 Eva Chase

Wonderfully Enjoyable Series

It is wonderful to see the whole series and the new bonus epilogue all together now for our listening pleasure. I was hooked by this series after listening to the first book, I loved each one and had to keep listening.

Chosen by Villains - Having listened to Flirting with Monsters already the concept of Shadow-Kind is not new to me and so when I saw that Eva Chase had written a new series, featuring different shadow-kind I was intrigued enough to want to listen. This first book introduces us to Quin a young woman, the recipient of a heart transplant some years ago, who knows she is living on borrowed time because her new heart has a limited life expectancy. Because of this she always pushes herself to achieve her goals and always tries to make a difference and leave her mark.

When one night she is attacked by monsters she is unable to defeat, she's happy when three yet bigger more frightening monsters come to her aid. She finds herself whisked away to an island by a gargoyle, where the villains/monsters who are Higher Shadow-Kind tell her they will try to keep her safe from the other shadow-kind hunting her.

Quinn is fierce in a way that you can easily relate to, she knows her limitations and recognizes the danger she is in but refuses to give up fighting. I love how she accepts the strangeness of her situation and doesn't let it get to her too much. The three guys are interesting each a different species of shadow-kind who whilst in the mortal realm retain one of their shadow-kind features when they take their human form.

Torrent is their leader and is quite intriguing with his abnormal looks, we have yet to learn what species he is but he does have tentacles! Lance is a dragon, and the feature he retains in his human form are claws, then there's Crag, a gargoyle, who can't hide his square jawline, he's my favourite so far! though I'm bound to change my mind as we get to know the guys and their backstories more.

As the story progresses we find out why she's being hunted, and why the guys were there to "rescue" her, as with all of Eva's books we are left holding our breaths by the cliffhanger situation she leaves us in. But there is no need to worry about that now as this set contains the whole series.

Courted by Beasts - This book picks up where the first book left off and continues at a rapid pace. Quinn and the guys are forced to flee, but they end up in the clutches of Rollick, the demon who sent Torrent, Lance and Crag to watch her in the first place. But having chosen loyalty to Quinn over loyalty to him Quinn is forced to make a deal to ensure her and their safety.

Quinn's personality is developing, she's not only learning what her powers mean she's forced to face the fact that she just can't walk away and go home, We still don’t know who or what is controlling the shadow-kind coming after Quinn or what their end game is.

In the end, she's forced to trust Rollick but we still don't know his plans for her, I for one am dying for the answers to these and many other questions.

I have to say that the ending shocked me, although I partly understood why Quinn did what she did, being cruel to be kind but it still seemed harsh!

Defended by Demons - This book picks up the story shortly after the startling ending of the second book when Quinn using her magic compels Crag, Lance and Torrent to leave her side for their own protection. This left Quinn alone with Rollick, can he be trusted? Rollick has a plan which he hopes will lead to more information, but what they learn is almost more than Quinn can handle.

The more time they spend alone without the other guys around the more Rollick allows Quinn to see the man as well as the demon but in doing so he begins to realise that there is much more to Quinn than he thought possible, Whilst they are fighting their battles with evil and learning more about who is controlling the shadow-kind Crag, Lance and Torrent are tracking Quinn waiting for her magic to wear off so that they can return to her.

When the team, now reunited confronts one-half of their enemy they realise they have a bigger battle than ever to fight going forward.

Hailed by Fiends - In this instalment, Quinn and her monsters have one last opportunity to defeat the Leviathan, but her transplanted heart, the organ which has been at the centre of this whole story seems to be growing weaker and isn’t handling the stress well. Their only chance is to build an army to defeat their enemy before her heart fails, something we've known from the beginning is inevitable. But will this be possible?

You can't help but feel for all five in this relationship, how will the guys cope when the inevitable happens even if they have somehow managed to defeat the Leviathan? How must Quinn feel knowing that her life is coming to an end soon?

I'm not going to say any more about this book, no spoilers from me, but what I will say was Eva, yet again, managed to surprise me, I loved the ending.

This book brought to an end a series that fans of paranormal reverse harem stories will love, each of her guys/monsters if you will is uniquely different not only in appearance and skills but their characters too, they are all truly individuals. Each of them brings something else to the table and even the baddies are wonderfully different too, I don't know how Eva keeps coming up with such exciting and different storylines, but I for one am glad she does!

I have been enthralled by this series, I've loved every single book in it, and each one ended on a cliffhanger which made listening to the next book a total necessity. Eva Chase always comes up with characters and storylines which are engrossing and different.

The new bonus epilogue takes place about 11 years after the original story finished and brings us up to date with what Quinn and the guys are up to as well as what their plans for the future are. It rounded off the series beautifully.

The narration by Amber Lee Connors and Aiden Snow is excellent, I love how Amber brings out Quinn's vulnerability and her strength and how Aiden manages to bring to life all the shadow-kind creatures we meet.

On the fence about liking or not

I’ll start off with saying I love Eva Chase’s books… but I am kind of disappointed in this audiobook. I am not 100% sure if it is because of the story line or the narrator.

Throughout the whole book, the narrator made the FMC sound like she was one moment away from crying about everything. If that is what Eva Chase wanted the FMC to be like then I am disappointed in the series & if it was just the narrator than I don’t like her at all.

Beware the whole second book was nothing but listening to the FMC have one pity party after another. I won’t lie, I skip through a lot of that book because it was the same pity party again & again. The second book could have been cut in half, if all the repeated pity parties were taken out. Super annoying. Does that make me seem harsh & sound like a b**ch, probably… However, I have gone through a major life event that left me in a wheelchair & after a decade of living with a disability, those types of pity parties are few and far between. So it was too unrealistic to me.

After the second book, I tried to make the narrators voice sound different in my head to try to give the story line a honest chance. I would like to think if the narrator didn’t sound like crying all the time, the series may have been better but who knows.

Not a book I will listen to again & would t of even used a credit for if I knew I would feel like this afterwards.