Reviewed by Sammy
TITLE: Cash in Hand
AUTHOR: T.A. Moore
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 202 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 15, 2020
BLURB:
The last monster died a hundred years ago. At least, that’s what the monsters want you to think.
Half-monster Cash just wants to keep his head down and raise his daughter, Ellie, to be an upstanding member of monstrous society. Even if she’d rather spend the summer with her human friends than learn the art of man traps at Camp Dark Hollow.
So the last person Cash wants to see is her uncle Arkady Abascal, who’s also Cash’s ex-boyfriend.
Arkady has more than Ellie’s summer plans on his mind. He’s there to enlist Cash to find out who’s been selling monster secrets. Cash hasn’t gotten any better at telling Arkady no, but it’s not just his weakness for Arkady that makes him agree. The Prodigium thinks an Abascal exposed them to humans, and now the whole family is at risk—including Ellie.
Recruited to help Arkady identify the culprit—or frame a scapegoat—Cash finds the machinations of monstrous power easier to navigate than his feelings for Arkady. At least, at first. But when things get bloody, he wishes romantic disasters were all he had to worry about….
REVIEW:
Cash may be only half human but he loves his daughter Ellie and is worried that she may not do well at monster camp. Ellie is just as unsure but stoically goes off on the bus with other little monsters and Cash is left facing her uncle, Arkady, by himself. Arkady wants something from Cash but the days of being at the beck and call of the Abascal family are long gone—still the old feelings of lust and whatever else Cash is feeling for the sneering monster standing before him run deep. When Arkady delivers the news that monsters are being attacked and the blame is about to fall someone in the family, Cash realizes things are serious and Ellie could also be in danger of punishment. Reluctantly he agrees to attend the monster event of the season—the wedding of Arkady’s sister, who is Ellie’s mother, as Arkady’s “boyfriend”. Little did he think that trying to figure out who is framing the family would lead to both his heart and his body being placed in very real danger.
While this isn’t my first T.A. Moore novel I must say that it is perhaps the most confusing one I have reviewed. I really like this author’s work and once I could get past the confusion of the great flurry of monster species being spoken about and the glut of characters introduced and into the actual plot of the story it became an absolute great read. The mystery portion of who is actually doing the deed is a bit too transparent for me but I am a mystery whore, so to speak, and love the genre so I tend to catch on fairly quickly. But that initial few chapters are really a challenge even if you are aware of this author’s style of pushing information early on only to unravel it later in the story.
But beyond that little worry, the characters, in particular Arkady and Cash, as well as the overarching plot of who is framing the Abascal family is quite compelling and fascinating to read. I constantly had to remind myself that these two “men” are actually monsters—Arkady being full on and Cash, half human. These guys had the same foibles and hang-ups that we do. Arkady is an egotistical, sarcastic, wealthy first family type—arrogant to the core but definitely in love with Cash and terribly jealous of him. His way of showing that to Cash is to insult him and continually remind him of his lower half human status, unfortunately. A skilled romantic Arkady is not.
Cash, on the other hand, wears his human half on his proverbial sleeve—trying so hard not to bow down to the family and act like he is still the indentured servant he once was with them but nevertheless totally aware of a soft spot for them deep inside himself—and of course his, till now, unrequited love for Arkady. The two men clash, make rough and sexy love and work together to discover who is out to get the family. Cash’s motivation stems from the fact that his daughter, Ellie bears the Abascal name and will therefore be part of any punishment meted out by the Prodigium (basically the monster judge and court) when it discovers who is responsible for putting the monster world at risk by seeking to show the religious press/hunters they are real.
Cash in Hand is a fast-paced, twisty turn of a story that really kept me in its clutches to the very end. I thoroughly enjoyed it once I could get past that strange and confusing beginning. I do enjoy this author’s work and their incredible imagination so I am all in for another novel from Moore in the future.
RATING: 
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