What did I just read? Hilariously bad - dinosaurs and Mormons and armpit licking. Amazing.
Thanks Net Galley for the review copy, it was an experience!

All I Want for Christmas is Utahraptor by Lola Faust is a unique and captivating love story that defies all expectations. Holly Grant is trapped in a loveless relationship with Thad, a wealthy and unfeeling man. Her life is perfectly manicured, but her heart longs for an escape. Enter Rocky, a majestic Utahraptor, and Holly's former lover. Their reunion ignites a fiery romance that defies not only the laws of nature but also the conservative norms of Holly's Mormon community.

The story takes place in a snow-dusted hometown, and the festive lights twinkle, adding a magical and romantic element to the story. The love story between Holly and Rocky is passionate and controversial, and the book explores themes of desire and decorum.

The book's unique premise and unexpected love story make it a must-read for romance enthusiasts. The author has done an excellent job of creating a story that is both heartwarming and thought-provoking. All I Want for Christmas is Utahraptor is a perfect read for the holiday season, and it will leave you rooting for Holly and Rocky's love story.

Overall, All I Want for Christmas is Utahraptor is an unconventional and captivating love story that will leave you questioning the norms of society and what it means to follow your heart. This book is a must read!

2* What on earth did I read?

A literally sentient dinosaur who can talk, drive, somehow email but not operate a smartphone, and a human falling for each other, like they started to in their teens.

He smells of fish and of forests, which doesn't compute, has meat breath that she finds delicious. Ick.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a dinosaur christmas romance, but having read Lola Faust before, I was somewhat prepared. My expections for reading another one of her books were definitely met lol

The story takes place over the Christmas holidays. Holly reunites with an old school friend, Rocky Raptor, who she clearly had feelings for.

The book isn't long, but it is entertaining in somewhat of a way. While it is about dinosaurs and humans falling in love and having relationships, a lot of the way things were described or spoken about felt quite applicable to real-life interracial, interfaith or LGBT+ relationships/marriage which was interesting to see done. I think for what the book was, I wasn't expecting anything like it which was a nice addition to it's already funny idea, which could be seen in certain descriptions when Holly and Rocky were getting down to it.

Overall, a funny, lighthearted, Christmas dinosaur read with some interesting and unexpected applications to our lives.

This book was very.. interesting.. to say the least. It was probably one of the most unique reads I have read in 2023 and definitely the first I've read from Lola Faust. Would I read it again? Not sure. Would I recommend it? Already have.

So this novella is an absolute scream, it’s a satire with Rocky the Utahraptor, who can be substituted for a member of any marginalized or disenfranchized group, but he’s not that, he’s absolutely a dinosaur who went to school with Holly 👀

Home in Utah for Christmas (where there’s cake topped with ‘happy birthday, Jesus’ in looping cursive), Holly divests herself of her dopey fiancé, a sad, selfish knucklehead called Thad.

Before that, she has a very loving and moist encounter with Rocky. This steamy moment is surprisingly graphic, a little bit physics-defying, but just hysterical as the author plays with the physicality of 12 foot tall Rocky – gazing at Holly with one eye, fluffing his feathers, soaking her in his thick, sticky fluids…

Anatomy is reminiscent of a 1970s Mills and Boon, “…meat-breath that bathed her face in a delicate mist of saliva”. I was caught between Rocky’s lickstravaganza and pale shaft, and Holly’s love swamp.

After trying my hardest with some dark romance, and accidentally reading some miserable mafia millionaire mantoddlers growling ‘crawl to me’, I couldn’t get enough of respectful Rocky!

This is just so joyful and ridiculous and silly. Happy late Christmas to everyone and to me 😀

Thank you so much NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

*BOOK REVIEW*

BOOK: All I Want For Christmas Is Utahraptor

AUTHOR: Lola Faust
PLOT: Holly Grant is in a loveless relationship with her boyfriend, Thad. He's extremely wealthy, but barely shows that he truly cares about her, and he obviously doesn't understand her in ways a boyfriend should understand his girlfriend. Holly decides to go home to spend Christmas with her father, and their family friends in order to get away. during her time home, she reconnects with an old friend from school. When Holly was in high school, her school took part in an exchange student-type program where dinosaurs would attend her school, yes, literal dinosaurs. Her best friend was named Rocky, and she reunited with him while she was in Utah for Christmas. When they reunite, they find themselves falling in love with each other, and things get hot fast! If you're not into reading about relations between dinosaurs and humans, this won't be the book for you. I absolutely loved this book and as weird as it seems, I fell in love with Rocky as well. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd say I fell in love with a dinosaur, but here we are! I definitely plan to read more of Lola's dinosaur romances because this one was such a fun read!

RATING: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Honestly it wasn’t what I expected and it was pretty boring in my opinion. I know it’s weird in itself being dino erotica but it wasn’t even really that. I don’t know I was just completely underwhelmed

Not my usual genre but I wanted to see what all the talk was about. I am usually down for anything & feel like you can bring any kind of crazy to story to life with good writing… but this just wasn’t that. But her, to each their own. I’m sure there is an audience out there for this kind of thing!

Did I expect to be reading a mormon adjacent dinosaur romance at Christmastime this year? Absolutely not. Was it a goofy fun fever dream? Absolutely yes. I read the first book in this series, Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer, and had a good time with it, but *spoilers* there is some dismemberment/eating of said dismembered limb that I was not a huge fan of. This book was much fluffier with zero blood and gore for those that are worried about it.

Was a 42 page long dinosaur Erotica novella EXACTLY what I wanted for Christmas? No.
Do I regret reading this book? No.

It’s entertaining, and it made me laugh out loud.

Mormon Raptor Romance! I saw this pitch perfect Harlqeuin cover parody and had to read it. I kept reading for the strange world where humans and dinosaurs live in harmony and sometimes mate together; an anti-Jurassic Park. As you’d expect, the steamy discriptions are very amusing, or likely very erotic to some readers.

Of course most of humanity rejects Raptor Romance. They cannot admit the truth: love is love. But I think Holly Hottie and Rocky Raptor prove the bigots wrong.

Lola Faust has published a dozen more dino-romances in case you try this one and find out it’s you need more. A perfect XXXmas read by with an 8.5/10 heat level fireplace.

honestly the majority of the cast being mormon was wayyyy more offputting than the fact that the love interest is literally a dinosaur

(i had the netgalley tab open for So Long before finally deciding to just go for it in the final hours of christmas day. zero regrets, this was fun)

the worldbuilding in this story was surprising in its detail, i wasn't expecting there to be any explanation as to why a dinosaur just so happens to be a viable love interest but damn if it wasn't explained lmao. i had fun reading this! it's not highbrow literature, nor is it trying to be, but anything containing the word 'lickstravaganza' deserves to exist because WHAT A WORD. dino body in relation to hers could've been described more though, really lean into the monsterness of it all!!!!!! the cast being mormons and praising god at every opportunity was weird though. somehow i don't think there's gonna be much overlap in those audiences

I don't know what I just read...
At only 42ish pages, it's a short, weird read.
Nothing ever excuses calling a lady's 'parts' a swamp though.

This book was very interesting and I loved reading another dinosaur romance. Surprisingly the relationship between the two main characters was really sweet.

I loved the dinosaurs anatomy…

I always love a Christmas episode, haha. This was pretty mild and fluffy overall. Rocky is a cinnamon roll sweetheart of a raptor and Holly is an endearing FMC. I would've preferred a bit more dino smut, but that's just me!

Ha ha ha this was crazy and funny and very different. Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy all thoughts are my own. 3 stars 🌟

This was a really weird story...although....that should be obvious by its title, even with that considered this was WEIRD.

A Halmark movie with dinosaurs that features one incredibly raunchy smut scene and then some weirdly religious messaging at the end?

Look the writing wasn't half bad, although I could have used more time with the dinosaurs and less time with the rich jerks at the beginning.

Not sure why I keep putting myself through this, but here we are again. The content wasn't good and the writing isn't good.

All I Want for Christmas is Utahraptor is absurd...and it is also absurd how much i enjoyed it! This is the second Lola Faust book that I have read. I am a pretty big dino nerd and even did some research projects on them in college- so i went into these infamous books looking to have a good laugh and do a "biologist reacts" series on them. The dinosaurs are anthropomorphic and integrated into human society in this universe, so there is truly not meant to be anything realistic about them. This book was basically like the classic hallmark movie formula ...but make the small town high school romance rekindled one between a girl and a dinosaur, lol.
Yes, there is dinosaur smut. Something i am still wildly unsure. Cringiest quote award goes to : "He traced his tongue from her upper thighs INTO HER LOVE SWAMP 🤮, moist and humid as the Cretaceous jungle the Utahraptors ancestors would have stalked through in their search for food.....
Yes...that is a published sentence.

The end did actually get pretty deep with a really good religious idea though! (No pun intended) by taking a turn to wrap the story up in a Christmas centered bow -
"The Church is a human institution. We built it to honor God- but himans built it, and humans are fallible. The bond between parent and child though...that is God's own work. And loving you, whatever choices you make, is loving God."

Never would have thought that insightful truth bomb would be dropped at the end of a dino smut book.

Overall this was an entertaining read. I don't rate these types of books because they just aren't on the same plane as other things i rate. But I did enjoy it!