Death God (Monsters After Dark, #3) (2024)

Went downhill.

First book - fantastic.
Second book - average.
This book - What. Happened.

The first book was so good. I love the h’s take no sh*t attitude. She’s fiercely loyal to her friends and her attitude was in line with her assumed age. She doesn’t allow anyone to walk all over her, including the very powerful men she’s surrounded with. The second book got a little irritating. You would assume that the h would mature as time went on, but she didn’t. She became annoying and incredibly immature. By the third book, I wanted to reach in and slap the mess out of her. She’s supposed to be this century old bad-a** immortal, but she speaks and acts like a teenager. I could barely get through this book, but I was determined to see it through since I spent so much time in the books already.

It felt very jumbled and thrown together, as if she forgot where she wanted to go with the story line after the first book. Major plot points were thrown into the mix at random times, as if the author said “oh yeah, I forgot to point this out so I’ll just toss it in real quick”.

The overuse of the h’s favorite phrase “not that kind of chick” made me want to scream. And also referring to someone’s a** as their “butt” or “behind”. Maybe I’m nitpicking, but after all the f-bombs, and the very explicit description of other body parts and intimate activities, it seems childish to use that particular description.

I felt very let down by the end of the series. I wanted to love it, but it was a chore to get through it to the end. Sad because I truly love this author’s work.

Series review: The idea behind this series was a good one, however the execution was terrible. Every book in the series is poorly written (did anyone proof read these????). Almost seems as though it was written in another language and then they used google translate to translate it to English. The characters are awful. The main character, Pip, is THE worst. Basically every “romantic” interaction is cringy. There are so many plot holes and repetitive explanations throughout the series.

Book 3 review: book 3 Pip is even more unlikeable than book 2 Pip (and she was terrible!!!). Ending was bizarre. So many things did not make sense. Terrible book.

You may be wondering why I kept reading the series even though it was terrible. I have this problem where I can’t not finish. I needed to know how it ended. Plus I’m a breastfeeding mom so I have time to kill during night feeds lol.

finished the book in a day bc i was desperate to get to the ending after the second book left me mad as all hell because i simply couldnt stand ophelia 🤦🏾‍♀️ i needed to get away from her desperately. despite her character design that will make you HATE her, book three has proven to be a good ending for the series, and makes up for such a sh*tty character with character development, plot entails, curiosity, and diversity . it really was good world building and i adored the other characters and LOVED the ending. all of the different reveals had me on edge!!

4 stars
This series started off pretty good, and then went so downhill in the second one. The main character went from funny and sarcastic to a special snowflake that would never shut up a word vomit was everywhere, and I had to keep skimming in the second book thankfully, it picked up a good amount in this one, but I still couldn’t get over how annoying the main character is , pretty good world even though I didn’t understand it completely and I did like most of the other characters.

I loved this one. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I loved how it started and ended.

●●My Review will have Spoilers●●
●Click to read my full review●

Wowza! Meg Xuemei X has done it again. I overall enjoy Meg's books very much. I really enjoyed this whole series and began reading each of them on their release days.

Death God begins with Marlowe waking to find that Pip has been taken from him. She didn't have much of a headstart but her wards kept Marlowe and his team from pursuing her. In a letter she asks for 2 weeks inside enemy territory so Marlowe can rise to his full strength before facing off with War. In the letter specific things are outlined that I believed would be followed up with later to tie up the end of the book but they just ended up being fillers. Since Marlowe drank from Pip he can now daywalk and orders his inner circle to drink his blood from a cup so they can as well. This is very important later on in the book when Marlowe and his vampires are able to daywalk and the enemy vampires that betrayed Marlowe cannot.

My absolute favorite parts of the book were when Pip was snarky and sassy. Her personality makes me smile. Her unique nicknames and the reaction they elicit from the intended persons often brought a giggle to the surface.

I liked the cuffs ability to contain the vengeful spirits that happened to come in handy for Pip more than once. Overcoming the vengeful spirits in the barrier almost seemed a bit too easy but Pip is Death so I guess it would be for her once she came into her power.

I was a bit confused on why Pip's human family was brought into the novel as they weren't really held as an advantage over Pip's will as much as I had anticipated. I didn't find much of the story about her human family to have been a good addition to the rest of the story.

I did not see that ending coming. The way Pip transformed anyways. That was dope! After reading the ending it became apparent why both Marlowe and Pip were needed to vanquish War. I was glad that my favorite secondary character since the beginning survived through the end. Overall I was very satisfied with this book and rate it a solid 4/5. A bit less filler that doesn't hold real value to the story and it would have definitely made 5 stars for me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my full review!

This series has been a bit up and down for me. As I read through the books, there always seems to be a jumbled, inner monologe with the MFC. She seemed scatterbrained and all over the place. It was hard to keep track.

The MMC started off great and had some great depth but as the story continued, he was a constant thought process of "She's mine!!!". I can appreciate a dedicated, possessive mate but please have your own thoughts and feelings at some point in the story.

All in all, these books had a great plot/storyline but the type of writing style wasn't for me.

Supernatural Gods/Shifters-Mages-Vampires/Rejected Mate

SYNOPSIS (of Trilogy): The FC is Death’s daughter. She has been held prisoner and tortured for over a century but escapes suffering amnesia. She meets her shifter fated mate, the Alpha Heir, who refuses to acknowledge her but will not let her go. Thinking she is a shifter she is enrolled in the shifter academy. Book 1 deals with her trying to figure out who she is and building friendships whilst dealing with being rejected by her fated mate and tormented by his girlfriend. Book 2 covers the FC discovering that she is also mated to the Vampire God and trying to remember their history after he saves her as well as fighting to not be taken back by the Alpha Heir. Book 3 moves on to the FC having to face off against her nemesis, War, and fighting to bringing him down whilst protecting her loved ones. The trilogy ends with a HEA.

The story is a good take on the “villain trying to steal powers” trope and has some nice twists and turns. It’s well written though has some irritating typos and word errors. Fortunately these are not too many. The FC is strong and likeable although I confess that by Book 3 I found her constant mouthiness taxing and, whilst funny in the main, very inappropriate, juvenile and annoying in other situations i.e. when meeting her long lost father. I’m pretty sure that even the FC would have been serious and no talked such drivel to him.

The story kept moving with sufficient events and turns to keep the readers interest. There were some disjoints with the story however such as the FC being immune to spells on the one hand but not always; the mention of her having a black magic blocking spell that was preventing her from fully accessing her magic was mentioned once and then forgotten; and the complete lack of involvement of the Alpha King or the European King in the whole story.

There are some hot sex scenes spread through the books although these seemed to go from 0-60 in seconds. One minute you are reading the story and the next you are in the middle of a crude sex scene which, whilst generally steamy, were pretty graphic and hard core in the terminology used (i.e. C*&t is used a lot) which I found to be jarring and not particularly sexy. The use of the sex scenes however is appropriate and generally furthers the story as opposed to being every 5 minutes as some authors are prone to do. Having said that, there are also a couple of who at feel like gratuitous ones - stopping to have sex in the middle of a rescue is really not the best timing ….

The MC is definitely swoon-worthy and the descriptions of him build a great picture of a sexy, strong Alpha male. Initially I thought this may be a RH story but it’s not. I was slightly disappointed at the lack of redemption by one of the main characters.

I marked Book 3 with only 4 stars as the FC and her big mouth had really started to become annoying unfortunately and not funny. Giving people nicknames was, at the beginning, cute and endearing but then just became annoying as did her insistence on wittering on and saying inappropriate things in the middle of serious moments. I’d have liked to have seen another side to the FC where she could be mature and serious, owning her role and position and not constantly a joke. The climax was, on the whole, good but unfortunately the final trap you saw coming a mile off and felt a bit contrived and weak. Having said that it was still a great climax, big battle with everyone getting a satisfying ending and the villains getting their comeuppance. Not sure what the Epilogue was about as it didn’t seem to achieve anything other than a gratuitous sex scene!

On the whole a worthwhile, enjoyable and well written trilogy. Will try another of this author’s books!

KU*

The final book in the trilogy and I guess for me it fell a little flat. I’m not even quite sure why, but something about this book just had me to be honest overwhelmed.

I can’t say much because there are quite a few spoilers, but it seemed overkill with the new reveals and it was kind of hard to follow Pip’s memory timeline. Also, I’m pretty sure Pip’s idea only worked because everyone else basically risked their lives trying to get to her.

Pip is now stuck in another realm with Alpha King Jared/War and his minions where no one else can reach without essentially being invited in. Right from the start Pip’s plan went to crap although she did make some new and interesting friends.

However, I got annoyed that Pip used her one chance to contact Marlowe to explain everything, like her location, and she used to argue and bang him instead which surprisingly she ran out of time to tell him anything important.

There was heartbreaking scene that did get me in the feels when Pip meets someone very special to her. Another scene had to be between Pip and the great black wolf (not Jared the a-hole), her mate, that was heartbreaking to watch unfold.

I did find myself skimming over passages that just felt like filler and dragged out the story. I will say the beginning of the book with Marlowe, his people and Pip’s letter was quite hilarious.

I was shocked by Prince Brock’s (aka Going Gray) loyalty in the end.

I’m just glad it was finished by the end of the book because I still didn’t understand Pip’s power.

Death God
Monsters After Dark, Book 3

By: Meg Xuemei X
Narrated by: Victoria Mei

Stunning, sassy, action packed and heated, I loved it!

Overall: 5 of 5 stars Performance: 5 of 5 stars Story: 5 of 5 stars
Reviewed: 06-14-23

Time is running out... The Alpha King, determined to possess Pip and her gifts will stop at nothing, no matter the cost! Pip, however, has a plan, a dark, daring, dangerous, covert plan to save all she holds dear! Now if only the fates would cooperate … Book 3, “Death God” is a fast moving, hawt as hades, beautifully written, fabulously narrated, perfectly fitting conclusion to the Monsters After Dark Series! I loved the devilishly creative plot of “Death God”. I won’t go into details, I don’t want ruin the fun for others, but I will share that I found the story brilliantly original, easy to understand, easy to follow, eye opening and filled with laughs and surprises! I was also delighted to see so many of the the deeply defined, richly developed characters I have comes to know, love, and in a few cases loathe, back to complete this journey! I love Pip. I love her attitude, her snarky sass, her spirit, her fierceness and her loyalty. I guess you could say I love everything about her! Without giving away details, I do want to mention how much I loved how EVERYTHING sorted out, I really felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction when all was said and done! I loved how the imagery of the authors vision was brought brilliantly alive through the fantastic narration, I loved it ALL. Five fabulous stars! So very well done!

Pip - "I’d be the most difficult prisoner in history. It could be done.”
Reminds me of the old Mary Tyler Moore show where Lou Grant confronts her and says, “You’ve got spunk!” Mary preens and then he adds, “I hate spunk!” He probably would have felt the same way about Pip.

Pip’s been captured and the god of war is bound and determined to make her his queen. She knows that he will steal her power if and when that happens. For some unknown reason he seems amiable to putting off the wedding while she gets to know him better. His patience finally flies out the window and blackmail commences.

Pip’s vampire mate Marlowe plays a very, very small role. Most of his contribution is appearing in her dreams and renewing their mating bond (I’ll leave how he does that to your imagination)

Big battle at the end as Pip acquires more power to vanquish her enemies. I noted that we didn’t discover the fate of the vampire princess who attempted to seduce Marlowe. That could have been an interesting scene.

A vast improvement over book 2 for sure

Pip was definitely wayyyyyy more tolerable than whatever version of her we met in book two in this installment. But sadly it wasn’t enough to make me like this book.
I feel 3 stars is a decent review, considering all the editing errors that at times I had to reread the sentence/paragraph to understand what the author really meant. Pip had several name changes and apparently had a crash course in magic and rolled with all the punches considering every chapter she was faced with a new revelation that didn’t jive with what we learned in the first two books. Uneven story telling, her antics to give everyone nicknames despite actually learning others names and the whole open endedness of the conclusion was all a bit much. Coupled with the casual references to lack of consent in sexual situations… I’m quite surprised I finished this book at all.

utterly magnificent

I have enjoyed this series immensely. It was so worth the wait. The story pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go. I love the characters, the storyline, the plot that kept me guessing, and most of all, Pip’s evolution. There is nothing more beautiful than a woman fully embracing who she is, claiming her birthright, and loving herself and others fiercely and unapologetically. Learning about her past with her was like a puzzle with the pieces all falling into place. It was a double gift. I don’t think I’ve seen a character grow so much and who was so interesting and complex. She had a lot of growing up to do, and although it was a bumpy ride at times, I’m glad I stuck with her. This is an amazing series and I would love to see more of these characters and this universe.

ok

I fall into the monster realm, and a wild band of hunters captures me, their gorgeous, ruthless leader making me his personal prisoner.
Ryder doesn’t believe I’m a storm chaser but deems me the reincarnation of some femme fatale, who seduced his entire team and murdered his BF. Unfortunately for me, I look just like her.
While the demigod dragon hates me with a passion, he also burns for me.
I shouldn’t crave the fireworks whenever we’re together—it always ends in disaster. Especially after I learned the dark truth—the vengeful gods have cursed Ryder to hunt endlessly until he finds his fated mate and slays her.
I have one goal—to escape the perilous realm and the heat that makes me want him every second. Should I fail, I vow to bring Ryder to his knees first before he ruins me.

Well...

I give the author props for their time and dedication to writing. That's about it. The story had a lot of promise but the characters were ridiculously childish and obnoxious and it read like a teenage drama. Marlowe was likeable at first. Brooding male with power and anger issues. Then somewhere he turned into a plactating fool. Pip... oh where to begin. I wanted to like her but I really just don't. She is childish, immature and annoying. I get that's what the author was going for but good grief, excess much? At least the supporting characters were likeable. After book 2, which was the worst, I almost gave up but wanted to see how it ended. I'm glad it's over. I don't think I will be looking into any more books by this author especially if they are like this.

Repetition and lacked editing

In the first 100/150 pages, there was an insane amount of information constantly repeating itself. Spelling and grammatical errors were strewn throughout the second and third books primarily. There was also random irrelevant information given, as if the author went on mini tangents to satisfy word count.

There was also no real character growth just her internal or external voice saying she deserved better and expected more. She was a fighter at the beginning and a fighter at the end.

I read this trilogy in about 5/6 days, and there was such great potential for it to be more. I became annoyed with the whiny behavior of the main character so much that I struggled to finish the last 10 pages.

Good story

Lmao... so ive read the trilogy now. Don't come into this with high expectations. The books are riddled with typos, logic errors, timeline errors, etc.

The cheese factor is pretty high. The main character is mercurial and very inconsistent. Sowing some confusion.

The writing... um. It's written for preteens except for the sex scenes. The characters go on and on about things that no adult would say. Hence cheese factor, etc.

The story is good though. I really liked it. Its pretty fun and light-hearted for the dark subject matter. I say read the books cause they are fun but be aware of the pitfalls. I was constantly jarred out of reading so I could puzzle through the errors and inconsistencies.

Death God (Monsters After Dark Book 3) by Meg Xuemei
Narration by Victoria Mei

I’m going to start by saying that I absolutely love both the author and the narrator of this series. However, the last book was just okay for me. Yes Pip and her gang of friends and her Vampire Prince defeat the Demon God and there’s a lot of steamy, sexy times. I think it got a bit weird and all the important people in Pip’s life were all fine and dandy at the end of a huge battle. Hmm maybe I expected something different but it was still an adventure, still exciting and enjoyable because of Meg and Victoria.

#MegXuemei #VictoriaMei

absolute perfection of a series

Loved loved loved this series and wish it never had to end so quickly. Think book 3 for me was the funniest. Pip was just hilarious, immature at times and was one to never ever shut up but even made you like the vampire god more.
Brilliant twists all through the series, entertaining and binge worthy. Very addicting series. 5 stars just isn’t enough to give this series or the book. It definitely deserves its own rewards and praises.

You love shifters, vamps, witches, gods and anything that goes bump in the night then go crazy and live a little and start with this fantastic series.

I honestly don’t even know if I should count this because of how much I skimmed. The idea of the story is good - i love the basis for it and how it starts… however, other than the fact the FMC is just plain annoying, there are spelling/grammatical errors. Usually i don’t care about plot holes or timeline errors, but i can’t get over the fact that i read “bring” instead of “being” (just one example lol).

This is definitely not a well written book and very YA (minus some smut scenes which are not amazing). The FMC does not stfu and is EXTREMELY childish. She’s just a person that thinks shes absolutely hilarious and she isn’t.

Don’t read this series.

horrible character

Total. Cringe.
I continued to read simply because I had some interest in the story line and also my OCD. Hate the FMC. So many questions about how important information or critical details were conveniently just assumed or “worked out.” By the end of this book I started to pray that there would be an insane twist and the antagonist would prevail just to make this book less predictable and make up for the lack of depth.
Perhaps the author succeeded at making me feel such strong emotions. I have never hated a main character, or a real-life person, the way I hate Pip.

Lady Pip Opehlia!!!

First off I must say Ophelia aka Pip is a breath of fresh freaking air!! Her character is so raw yet delicate while also being unique!!! God how I love everything about her and her story. With being tortured so brutally, being the fated mate to the Marlow the powerful sexy in a dangerous way Vampire God, and living a life with a human family forgetting who she really is she is a badass FMC and this story had me from the first book! I'm sad that it's over but I hope we get more on Shade aka Canary. This book ended just right thank you Meg u rocked it!!

A great ending!

I'm excited that the final book finally released and I got my conclusion! I'm also happy that the final battle took as long as it did. Some books make it drone on, most others have such a lead up to it, then it's over within a few pages. This felt just right, and had lots going on with a perfect amount of depth to it! Everyone was involved somehow, which was awesome.

I don't want to say much without spoilers, but I'm pretty happy with how it all came together! :) Great finish!

Great wrap up to a fun series

I was eagerly waiting for this final book in this series. Pip’s adventures were exciting, humorous, & sometimes nerve wracking. Her triumph over all of her enemies was fabulous. She’s a strong, mouthy, sassy, sexy heroine. Marlowe is a hot, alpha male who only lives for her. (Swoon) The HEA was well deserved after all of Pip’s trials. This book was well written, great world & character development, great pacing, and the steam between Pip & Marlowe was off the charts.
Reviewed by T Sutton

good plot, but the writing is painfully and horribly delivered

The plot is good, but the execution is horrible. I hoped the writer would have gotten better by the third book, but this book was the worst by far. Other than the tacky and immature nature of the main character, the book is filled with “oh btw “ information. Oh ya…. Btw I have. Hymn family” and the constant retelling of information. We know who “going gray” is by 80% of the third book. Again, the plot is a captivating concept, but the execution is horrible

Glad I saw this series on tic-tok.

This series is full of paranormal monsters for you to fall in love with. In the first book you got werewolves and then the second book brings in vampires. Now in the final book we are introduced to the angel of War. Our heroin continues to develop and learn who she really is and what she is capable of. The spice is plentiful and heats up the story just right. If you love monsters and strong female main characters, then this is the series for you.

To much

These books have a great story but this author takes things too far for my liking. The sex scenes become a chore to read....there's nothing truly intimate about them....it's all ridiculous talking that sounds stupid and hard and fast screwing that becomes single minded and I honestly find myself skipping through because it's just not fun to read. I'm also not a big fan of this 'h' and her constant mouth.....it reminds me of some of these recent movies where they think they're funny but really they're just annoying.

4.5 ⭐
Great conclusion to this series!
The writing, world building, characters and romance were all perfect.

I loved that Pip's character continued to develop and mature.

Why not 5 stars? Because of there was something at the end that felt different from the rest of the series. When Marlowe came to rescue her, his speech was so different, more forced and rushed, that I really though it was not him but War in disguise. This is an example. Don't get me wrong, I liked the final chapters a lot! But for me a 5 star must be exceptional.

good story but dragged a little.

I actually like the plot and most of the story. I can honestly say I have never read a book or series where I have not liked any of the characters.
The main character was extremely annoying to me. She talked to much and I had to skip quite a bit of dialogue just to get the light the book. Then all of the characters started talking too much. I found it highly irritating and I struggled to finish the book.
To the author, good story babe. No debating it.

I saved my review for the last book in the series to give things a fair shot and be truly reflective of the entire experience. The one thing I will absolutely stand by is that these three books could have been 1 book. There was zero need for three. There was a lot of filler that did not add to the overall story.

Did we get an HEA? In the traditional sense yes. But I am not sure I even liked anyone in the end. I was so frustrated and fed up with everyone that I was just glad the ride was over.