Review: Desires of the Deep (College of United Monsters #1) by C.B. Archer

The once elitist College of United Monsters (C.U.M.) has recently fallen on hard times. In order to stay afloat it has been forced to allow humans to register. Humans, in a monster school? Ridiculous! Also, monsters are real and that was probably a bigger shock to the world than one school of them allowing humans to enroll.

Cliff Waters is a ridiculous human. Mistakenly assigned to the Underwater Wing of the college, Cliff has more problems than the average student—sudden surges in popularity, sudden urges in the sexy monster student body, and being forced to hold his breath for hours at a time to attend class. Will Cliff be able to survive in the Underwater Wing of the toughest college around where everyone wants to taste a sweet piece of him?

Honestly, it serves him right for having a punny name…and attending monster college.

Desires of the Deep is an 11,500-word novella.

Having never read Archer before, I didn’t quite know what to expect from such a short short.

As per the blurb, Cliff is the rare human at the esteemed university for monsters and mistakenly, he finds himself underwater for the majority of his classes. Luckily, his humanity is fascinating to his classmates, and the kiss from a mer-person allows him to breathe in his new environment. However, such sexy attention fast becomes too much of a good thing, and Cliff escapes into the arms of a shy admirer on the periphery.

I admit that this was an odd story filled with some interesting group mermaid/monster dynamics and for some, the promise of tentacle porn definitely might entice. This was quirky and obviously kinky with not the best well fleshed out story. However, what can one expect from a scant 42 pages? This author has a devout following, so much so that I'm intrigued and just might be persuaded to read more. You know, for education’s sake.


Thanks to the author/publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.