The Official Description: Spring semester of Bridger Whitt’s senior year of high school is looking great. He has the perfect boyfriend, a stellar best 
friend, and an acceptance letter to college. He also has this incredible job as an assistant to Pavel Chudinov, an intermediary tasked with helping cryptids navigate the modern world. His days are filled with kisses, laughs, pixies, and the occasional unicorn. Life is awesome. But as graduation draws near, Bridger’s perfect life begins to unravel. Uncertainties about his future surface, his estranged dad shows up out of nowhere, and, perhaps worst of all, a monster-hunting television show arrives in town to investigate the series of strange events from last fall. The show’s intrepid host will not be deterred, and Bridger finds himself trapped in a game of cat and mouse that could very well put the myth world at risk. Again.
My thoughts bit: These books are an absolute joy to read and laugh-out-loud funny. This is one of those stories that will make drive your partner nuts by reading parts of it to them. (Personal experience. I know this.) This is the second installment in Lukens’ The Rules series. I would recommend reading the first book as it sets up and explains a lot of the insane world in which Bridger lives. You see… what’s awesome is that his world is perfectly normal… until it isn’t.
In this book, legends and myths are often very real and, for the most part, much friendlier than one might think. Friendly, that is, if you’re armed with an instruction book on how to deal with the world of mythical and legendary creatures, you have a boss who is an Intermediary with magical skills, and a best friend who kicks ass and a boyfriend who is a hero.
Bridger’s world changed drastically in The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic (The Rules, #1), he realized that werewolves and pixies and the like were real and that he had a crush on Leo… the heroic quarterback. When book 2 begins… Bridger is in his last year of high school, dating Leo, still learning the ins and out of the mythical world, still working for Pavel and still his loveable, bumbling self.
When a Ghosthunters type of TV show arrives in town, things begin to get complicated again for Bridger. The host is relentless, digging into the lives of Bridger and his friends. One of the lovely things in this book is that way that Bridger slowly comes to realize that he’s created a chosen family. Having his estranged father back in town really illustrates to Bridger that family is about a lot more than blood relations.
There is a little heart-ache in this book and the perfect amount of sweet friends to help Bridger move forward. These books definitely give me a warm fuzzy feeling while being incredibly entertaining! Very enjoyable.
The warnings bit: Please be aware, I’m by no means an expert on what may or may not have the potential to disturb people. I simply list things that I think a reader might want to be aware of. In this book: some violence, creatures attacks, angst.
Readalikes: Other stories that are similar or give the same feel…
- Shantallow by Cara Martin, C.K. Kelly Martin
- Carry On (Simon Snow #1) by Rainbow Rowell
- We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
I received an ARC of Monster of the Week by F.T. Lukens from Interlude Press via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
Kinzie Things 