In seriousness, I went into this expecting pretty much your standard human/non-human smut that focuses much more on the, er, intimate details than it does on the actual world that the characters exist in, but that's not at all what you get out of this. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is definitely smut, but there's also quite a lot of detail about the world and society that make the whole narrative ring a lot more true.
For example, our main character Violet is a recent college graduate who's facing pressure from her parents to either find herself a job or move back home -- extremely relatable as a college graduate who also got a degree that didn't lead directly to a ton of job prospects. She takes a job at the "milking" farm without entirely knowing what it would entail, then promptly kind of panics about it and has a whole conversation with herself about whether the pay and benefits are worth it, ultimately deciding that she'd rather work there than face going back home to live with her parents. (Real as hell, girl!)
Lastly, one thing that I feel is often missing from books like this is a realistic look at a society that contains both humans and non-human or human-hybrid populations. This book I felt did a good job of exploring how those tensions would play out in society without, as some books do, leaning too heavily into the "separate but equal" heavy-handed metaphor for racism in the modern US. Obviously there are parallels, but it doesn't feel like being hit over the head with it, which I appreciate as it allows the reader to naturally come to that inevitable conclusion.
Honestly, for a book I picked up with low expectations I am very pleasantly surprised and will probably continue to read the rest of the series!
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