For fans of monster boyfriends, chaotic magic, summer storms, and banter that ends in kissing.
I swear, I was just trying to run a wholesome summer camp for the magically gifted youth of Wren's Hollow. Canoes, crafts, minimal explosions. Then one of my campers started sneaking across the lake to meet a monster boy from Headmaster Dorian Haleburn’s prep school for Wilderkind. Now Mr. Tall, Grim, and Overly Buttoned is accusing me of causing an interspecies scandal.
He calls me reckless.
I call him repressed.
He files reports.
I hide the evidence.
And when he’s not lecturing me about professionalism, he’s on his tower balcony playing cello solos so low and desperate they slide right under my skin. It’s hot. I hate that it’s hot.
Now we’re stuck working together to keep two teenagers’ love story from becoming a diplomatic incident. He says it’s about rules. I say it’s about hearts. And somewhere between his lecture on “proper conduct” and the part where he growled my name like a confession, I stopped pretending I didn’t want him to ruin me.
Welcome to Camp Chaos—where love breaks curfew, monsters kiss like promises, and even the most disciplined Emberthorn can’t survive a little flannel and defiance.
Tropes:
- Grumpy Emberthorn headmaster x feral flannel-wearing camp director
- Enemies to lovers (with delicious forced collaboration)
- Forbidden romance (their students start it… but they finish it)
- Cello-playing monster boy whose feelings hit the air like storm-weather.
- She drives him insane and he loves it
- Summer camp meets gothic prep school
- Monster scale-tatts that glow when he catches feelings
- Gnome cameos (because of course)
- Cozy chaos + high yearning + scorching tension
- “I hate that it’s hot” vibes
- Emotional damage AND emotional healing
- Spice level: storm-drenched, ruined-on-a-dock heat
- He falls HARD (and tries not to—it goes terribly for him)
Book 4 of The Hollow Hearth Series by Tansy Applewood.
For readers who crave monster romance, camp mischief, gnome interference, and a headmaster who is far too hot for his own good.
