Author: E.P. Bali

Series: Her Vicious Beasts

First Published: 30 September 2023

“I’m a predator. I’m a beast like no other.”

In a world full of Vicious Beasts, if you are not a predator, you are prey.

With my life going down in literal flames I ran from everything. From my father, from a forced marriage, from my mates.

Now, charged with a crime I didn’t commit, they’re all hunting me . And they’re all furious.

The dangerous deputy headmaster of Animus Academy manages to catch me and along with three of my five mates we’re taken back to the prison-school they use to teach feral beasts how to be civilised. Now I’m locked up with the very men I’ve been trying to avoid all my life.

No one can know who my mates are. No one can know who I really am. Because if they do, it’s lights out for me. I’ll be chained up and bred until I die. And I refuse to allow that to happen.

Her Feral Beasts was a wild ride. I am completely hooked. I cannot get enough of this world. And that ending? My heart aches for Aurelia. I am in love with everything about this. It has all my favourite things – a school setting, a why choose romance, rival shifter courts with a high-stakes plot.

Aurelia is the banished daughter of the Serpent King. Ever since her thirteenth birthday, when she did not present as a serpent and the oracle advised that she fated to have five mates from five different orders. Something unheard of. Her father raised her in fear that she would be hunted down and bred if anyone were to discover what her beast was. Her father drags her into one last job weeks away from Aurelia’s escape to an animalia/human university, where she plans to change her name and find a new life. She quickly realizes she’s nothing but a pawn to her powerful father. In quick succession, she is sold into marriage, on the run and framed for murder. Aurelia has no plan beyond trying to survive. She’s intercepted by the dangerous deputy headmaster of Animus Academy,  who offers her sanctuary in the reform school for rabid and criminal animalia. She has no choice but to accept the offer. After enrolling, she was not expecting to be trapped in the academy with her mates. The men she’s taught to avoid her whole life and the men who were hired to hunt her down and bring her back to the Serpent Court for execution.

Poor Aurelia! She has been thrown into this situation and is way over her head. She does everything she can to keep her beast hidden, including shielding her scent from everyone and hiding her mate mark from her mates. I love that she gets space to figure things out at the academy. She becomes quick friends with her roommate, Minnie. It was beautiful to see her finally having someone on her side.

Savage, Xander and Scythe are her mates and are rulers of a crime gang. Savage is a wolf animalia who is a beautiful mix of golden retriever vibes and an utterly unhinged psychopath, a combo I never knew I needed but could not get enough of. He was raised in a fighting ring and is his brother’s head enforcer. Scythe is Savage brother and a shark animalia – yeah, we have every shifter type imaginable and I love it! He is cold. He is ruthless. And he is the head of the criminal enterprise. He seems intrigued by Aurelia but, at the same time, also hates her. Xander is the money man of their operation and is our dragon animalia. He needs to listen to music constantly or risks going into berserker mode. And he hates Aurelia with a fiery passion. Of her mates, Xander is the one who will hand her over with no remorse. And then, have the deputy headmaster, Lyle, our lion animalia. I do love the banter between them. It will be interesting to see how he will get along with the other guys.

As you can imagine, the romance is a slow burn. Aurelia is the Regina – or centre of her pack – but complicated and mixed assumptions are causing some delicious tension. Savage is the mate who struggles the most with not claiming his mate. He gives her gifts and takes items with her scent to soothe his mating urges. He will 100% be the one to crack first. It will be interesting to see how Aurelia’s relationship with Lyle, Scythe and Xander develops throughout the rest of the series. Also, we will need to figure out who her fifth mate is – maybe he’s a bird since that is the order missing from her mates.

I loved getting to learn about the different Animalia orders. Each animalia has a different magic type that they control. For example, wolves are telepaths, eagles are healers and cats have telekinesis abilities. Also, at the academy, Aurelia and other female animalia have tiny fluffy creatures called nimpins who are there to help calm them down. Honestly, they sound so adorable. I want one. The classes help rehabilitate rabid animalia so they can live safely in society. There are subjects on how to act in public alongside mandatory therapy sessions. It was so much fun. I cannot wait to see more of this.

Overall, I completely adored this. This is over 500 pages, and I read it in 2 days while also working. If you love a dramatic, why choose paranormal romance with rival courts and a school setting Her Feral Beasts is the book for you! And, thankfully, the sequel, Her Rabid Beasts, is already out because, trust me, you will need it. I pick the sequel up right away. I needed to know everyone was okay!