Someone You Can Build A Nest In by Josh Wiswell REVIEW

Summary:

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life. 

My Thoughts:

This is such a cute, cozy story. When Shesheshen is attacked, she outruns them but falls from a great height. Homily finds her and nurses her back to health. Kindness isn't something she's used to, especially from humans, so she is wary. When Homily confesses that her family is hunting a monster that cursed her family, Shesheshen is confused - she has never cursed anyone, and while the cure demands her blood, she has no blood. She follows Homily to the town, partly out of self-preservation and partly out of love for her. But when the hunt starts, truths unknown come out of hiding.

I think it's really cool that Shesheshen's way of shapeshifting is in eating someone's remains and using some of their bones to imitate a human body structure. And while this is a romance, they don't immediately fall in love. It takes spending time together and learning about each other for feelings to form. The twist at the end I did not see coming, which was amazing. I do wish that there was more worldbuilding though. We mostly only see and know one area of this world, which is fine, but it would have been nice to know more about the area that the novel spends its time in, as well as to know more about the history of Homily's family.

My Rating: 4 stars