Heat Haze | Fluffy Dark? MM Romance Review

I was basically frothing at the mouth for a decent spooky read. I ended up finishing this arc on Halloween.

After their car breaks down on the side of a hot Texan road, L.A. born Nico Marín and his friends are offered help by an all too friendly stranger. But after the Tavera family farm is turned into a slaughterhouse, Nico finds himself hiding in an old closet just praying he isn’t next. When the closet doors open and he’s face to face with Toro Tavera, the alarmingly big but mute black sheep of the family, he’s greeted not with words but with one sound.

Sh.

Then he’s left there. With a heart beating so fast he can barely breathe, he sits for what feels like hours. But when Toro returns he isn’t there to finish the job. Instead he drops down, unspeaking but not unfeeling, lifting Nico’s hand up to his head in an attempt to be pet. He doesn’t want to hurt him, but he does want something: to be loved.

Heat Haze is a single-POV standalone novel between a loveless L.A. city boy and a mute cannibal killer who craves genuine love. Two men with more in common than they realize learn to love and grow together in this HEA romance that turns a grim start into lots of fluff. This novel is lighter dark romance, with lots of affection between the leads and not as much ‘dark’ content. A full CW list is included inside!

HEAR ME OUT. I kinda liked this one….

**I apologize I meant to post this review earlier but I forgot. Forgive me.

It opened exactly like a classic horror film—Texas Chainsaw Massacre? (idk)—and I was sooo excited. Yes, this is it. Exactly the spooky read I wanted for Halloween.

The premise alone had me immediately signing up for the ARC. A fluffy/cozy cannibal killer romance??! I mean, how do you not want to read that? I was a little worried about the writing, but it ended up being fine.

Honestly, this delivered exactly what it promised, so I guess I can’t complain too much. I did think there were some unnecessary plot points, and this easily could’ve been shorter or at least given some explanation for why any of this was happening… because by the end I was getting bored with all the coziness. Like, can we circle back to the cannibal murder part? I needed more drama.

This one definitely got 4 hearts because I just desperately wanted a decent Halloween read. If I were giving it a star rating, it would probably be much lower because… yeah, it has a lot of issues. And the MC is all over the place in terms of…. oh look my lovely boyfriend… but that man literally ate his friends.

Despite clear issues, I still really got into reading this and finished within a day or two. SOOO I definitely liked this one. I just wish it was a bit more polished overall.

In conclusion:

I don’t even know if I can recommend this, but I’m trying to be more chill with my reviews. So if you like cannibal romances, I guess give this one a try? Idk, man. What is life anymore. Anyways, can someone rec me similar reads? lol

Bonus:

I cackled at this review on goodreads:

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