The hunt for magical artifacts turns especially horny in Bull Moon Rising, a noblewoman-meets-minotaur romantasy by Ruby Dixon (Bound to the Shadow Prince). Bookish Aspeth is desperate to replace the magical artifacts her father has gambled away over the years, so she can recover her family's standing and secure their holding. Though she has spent her life studying and successfully avoiding marriage, she travels to Vastwarren City with her lady's maid, Gwenna, to join the Royal Artifactual Guild and earn the right to hunt for artifacts.
Hawk has worked for the renowned--and perpetually drunk--Magpie since he joined the Guild, and now he trains Magpie's fledglings, the income from which supports them both. Unfortunately, this year's group is shaping up to be the worst yet. Hawk knows that during the impending Conquest Moon, he--like all other Taurians--will go into a mating frenzy, and he needs someone to help him through it. So, because Aspeth needs a chaperone to be eligible for this male-dominated trade, and the others are completely unfit, she proposes a solution to Hawk: a marriage of convenience.
Bull Moon Rising is a fascinating mix of adventure, patriarchal anthropocentric bureaucracy, and spicy monster romance. Dixon expertly balances clever world-building with steady character and relationship growth, while humor and sexual tension keep the pages turning. Tough days of training and fending off the advances of a fortune hunter are offset by cozy evenings with the found-family vibes of novels such as Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, and positively steamy nights. Fans of paranormal romance novels including Lana Ferguson's The Fake Mate and Ali Hazelwood's Bride will devour this. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian