Book Review: Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube

Peaches’ Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ — Sweat Through Your Sheets and question your morals.
Tropes: Monster romance, gothic romance, forbidden love, cursed hero.
Trigger warnings: Violence, body horror, explicit sex with a monster hero.

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Oh honey, this was a wild card on my TBR list, and I loved every cursed, slithery second of it. If you’ve ever scrolled Tinder and thought, “men are disappointing, give me something… other,” Lindsay Straube heard your cries. And she delivered. Not a bad boy. Not a morally grey billionaire. A basilisk.

This book is pure gothic indulgence. Picture it: looming castles with shadows that seem to breathe, a heroine who knows she should be terrified but is secretly curious, and a cursed hero who is both monstrous and magnetic. The tension builds like candle wax dripping slow and hot, pooling until you’re desperate for the release. Straube writes atmosphere like foreplay — lush, decadent, and thrumming with danger.

And then there’s the spice. Darling, when it hits, it hits. Serpentine kisses that make you blush, monster stamina that has you clutching your Kindle, and primal hunger so intense you’ll have to take a breather. It’s dirty, it’s weird, it’s wonderful. This isn’t just smut, it’s an experience. One that makes you sweat, squirm, and — let’s be honest — question whether you’ve just unlocked a kink you didn’t know you had.

What I adored most was how unashamedly it leans into the monster romance fantasy. There’s no half-measure here; it’s indulgent, forbidden, and just the right amount of unholy. This one, my darling, was the fever dream we didn’t know we needed.

Peaches’ verdict: For when human men just aren’t cutting it — let the basilisk rearrange your insides and thank him later.