Creature Comforts

Demigod Monsters of Protheka, Book 1

De: Celeste King

Narrado por: Tyler Darby, Kingsley Rose

Vengeance made him a monster. Love will make him my mate.

Deknol has sold his soul to The Deceiver. I can see it in the powers that he now wields. Far stronger than any magic present on Protheka. It excites me.

Because he will use his power to rescue me. To protect me. To pleasure me. The value of my life on Protheka is less than worthless. But when I stand next to Deknol, whose godlike powers crackle the air around him, I am a queen.

His queen.

With all of our enemies seeking to tear us down, one question keeps nagging in my mind. With all of this power, Deknol has a body that can fight, a mind that can do magic . . .

But does he still have a heart that can love?

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Celeste King (P)2023 Tantor Media

This one was very different than I expected!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💜💚❤️🩶
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍
Character development: 🤓😋😀😍
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The Hero: Deknol - he is a dark elf and a personal chef for a wealthy dark elf family. He is looking for justice for the disappearance and possible murder of his sister. Deknol figures she was killed by her boss, a man named Arsheko, a wealthy merchant. Narnoni had previously told Deknol she was afraid of her boss since he had been harassing her and had been becoming increasingly violent. Soon after telling Deknol about that, she disappeared. The courts didn’t believe Deknol since he was from the working caste, called Zagfer.

The heroine: Poppy - she is a slave and works at a spice shop. She was ok with her job working for Arsheko, since previously she had worked for some Orcs and they are libel to eat you if they are not happy with your work, at least with Arsheko, she had food and a bed. So, she keeps her mouth shut about things she sees and about the way she is treated by her boss and co-workers of higher caste than the slave labor of humans. She knows that she is forbidden from speaking, on threat of having their tongues cut out. She also knows not to be caught alone with her boss. She liked Narnoni, even though they never talked. Narnoni was nice to her until she suddenly disappeared.

The Story: Deknol goes to the temple of the god called The Deceiver. He asks for the god’s favor to seek vengeance. He promises that he will live out the rest of his days as a tool for the god, if he is granted powers that will allow him to get his revenge. That same morning, Poppy is woken early because the master summons her. She isn’t happy to be brought in front of Arsheko alone, but she is a slave, so she has no choice. He tells her that she will be moved to the front of the store since Narnoni is gone. He tells her she might be seen and bought by wealthy elves, though he will have to break her in first. Poppy seriously considers hanging herself at the prospect.

The next morning Deknol’s mind is spinning, and he tries to walk off his excess emotion. He ends up at the spice shop and finds a pretty human at the counter, looking terrified. She mistakes Deknol for Kasuth (upper caste), and he lets her believe it. He tells her that her master has committed a crime, and he is looking for evidence. When she balks at helping him for fear of being beaten, he tells her that he will buy her if she helps. Poppy agrees but is fearful of what she got herself into.

One night The Deceiver comes to Deknol in a dream and tells him that he has five moons to solve his sister’s disappearance, or his soul will belong to The Deceiver. I did like the premise of this book, but I don’t know that I would ever ask for or trust any help that came from a god called “The Deceiver”. Trusting a god with that name is like handing your soul to a snake and hoping it doesn’t bite. It adds an ominous ticking clock to the story and raises the stakes not just for Deknol’s revenge but his very self. I also worried about Deknol’s ability to help Poppy out of her situation once he makes things worse for her. I won’t give up more of the plot, but this book did keep me interested.

This setup has such a gripping emotional core. The dynamic between Deknol and Poppy crackles with tension—two people trapped in different versions of powerlessness, drawn together by trauma, vengeance, and a very uneasy alliance. Deknol’s desperation bleeds through every choice he makes and pairing that with Poppy’s quiet resilience makes for a deeply compelling contrast. The book also balances dark world-building and social commentary, too—particularly with caste systems, systemic injustice, and the hierarchy of value assigned to different races. And Narnoni, even in her absence, continued to anchor the emotional weight of the story.

This audiobook was narrated from multiple perspectives, done in dual narration by Kingsley Rose and Tyler Darby. Tyler Darby has a deep, gravelly voice that I really like and is very expressive, though he does read at a slower pace, than I like sometimes. Kingsley Rose has a soft, slightly scratchy sounding voice and I really enjoyed her narration.