The road to Hell is paved with Yellow Bricks. I was settling back into the quiet life of rural Kansas when the wild winds brought me to this strange world of Oz. Suddenly I’m a hero who killed a wicked witch, and my dog, Toto, is startlingly human: a tall, gorgeous, dark-haired one at that, who’s ready to ruthlessly protect me from all of the strange creatures along the Yellow Brick Road.
Then the scarecrow showed up, a so called tin man, and a “lion.” They all want something from me, and I don’t know if I can give it to them. Not with the Wicked Witch of the West hot on my ruby red heels. My only hope is that this Wizard everyone keeps talking about will break all of our curses. If he doesn’t, I may just have to take matters into my own hands, Then they’ll all be sorry. At least I’ll be getting some cute shoes out of it.
I’m giving There’s No Place Like Oz a 3.5/5 because overall I really enjoyed it. It was a 4ish hour read, quick, spicy, dark and twisted, and kept me interested through the book.
I enjoyed the portrayal of our classic crew: Crowe (aka the scarecrow), the undead zombie-like man who enjoys cruelty for the sake of it; Talos (aka the tin man), our silent but deadly, but also sort of caring man whose bones were replaced with metal; Leon (aka the lion), our sexy alpha male lion shifter who can’t shift back into his lion form; and Tobias (aka Toto), our former emotional support dog turned alpha dog shifter, plus sexy and loyal protector.
Dorothy was okay in this portrayal, I didn’t love her but I didn’t dislike her either. As the book went on I realized she was just the ultimate submissive person and I understood her character a bit more, but I didn’t really enjoy the Kansas> Hollywood actress attempt>back to Kansas trope she had. It was interesting and totally fit into the plot really well, but It wasn’t for me.
The spice was great! 5 stars for the spice, and another 5 stars for the reverse harem trope. I loved how all of this turned out, and I loved how the author used all the camping and walking to the different places as an avenue for not only getting to know our characters better, but also to invoke lots of spice with each of the men.
The mate mark? Hell yes. The mind talking post-spice encounter? Hell yes. The exhibitionism for Crowe? Hell to the yes.
I LOVED the portrayal of the 4 witches and their different versions of cruelty. I thought it was really well written and thought out, and the author did a great job balancing the darkness and cruelty with not going too far. The things they did were HORRIBLE and they were so sick and twisted, but I loved it. 5 stars for the witches!
Overall, I enjoyed There’s No Place Like Oz by Leann Belle! I think I would have rated it higher if I liked Dorothy more since she was the main character, but everyone and everything else was great. If you are looking for dark twisted retellings with dark/ dom/sub spice, this series is for you.
Read worthy.
*This book was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own*
See what books I think are worthy of a re-read here.
