The Amazon setting in 'City of the Beasts' is this lush, untamed jungle that feels like another character in the story. It's not just background—it breathes, moves, and threatens. The book paints it as this vast green maze where every vine could hide a venomous snake or an indigenous tribe watching you. The river networks are highways for adventure, cutting through canopies so thick sunlight barely touches the ground. You get the sense of humidity clinging to your skin, the constant buzz of insects, and how the forest floor can swallow footsteps whole. It's the kind of place where modern maps fail, and ancient legends feel real.
Isabel Allende throws readers deep into the Amazon's heart in 'City of the Beasts', and it's not the tourist-friendly version. She focuses on the border between Brazil and Venezuela, where the rainforest becomes this impenetrable wall of biodiversity. The story traverses through areas like the Río Negro, where water turns black from tannins, and the fictional village of Tapirawa-teri, which mirrors real Yanomami settlements.
The details make it visceral—how jaguars patrol territories at dusk, how sudden storms flood trails within minutes, and how the canopy forms a second sky. The protagonist Alex’s journey upriver captures the Amazon’s scale: days pass without seeing another human, but the forest is always watching. Allende taps into indigenous perspectives too, showing how the land isn’t 'wilderness' to tribes—it’s a living library of medicinal plants and spirits. The setting becomes a clash between modern exploitation (think illegal miners poisoning rivers) and ancient magic (like the titular Beasts guarding ecological balance).
What struck me about the Amazon in 'City of the Beasts' is how Allende contrasts its beauty with brutality. One moment you’re marveling at emerald macaws, the next you’re knee-deep in quicksand. The novel uses real locations—like Manaus, this bustling city that vanishes into jungle—as launch points into uncharted territory. The expedition’s path mirrors actual routes explorers took, complete with rapids that flip boats and caves humming with bat colonies.
Key scenes happen near tepuis, those flat-topped mountains that isolate ecosystems for millennia. That’s where the Beasts’ city hides, blending Inca-like ruins with bioluminescent flora. The Amazon here isn’t just trees; it’s layers. Canopy birds scream warnings, while underground rivers carve labyrinths no GPS could track. Allende makes it clear: this isn’t a place you conquer. It tolerates visitors, barely.
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Bride of the Beasts
Terri Clare
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The Scions rule the world now.
Born of celestial light, they turned on their creators and claimed the earth for themselves. But their victory came at a cost—every daughter of their kind has withered into dust, and extinction looms.
So they hunt human women to survive.
Anwen has always been fragile.
Sickly. Ordinary.
She was meant to be hidden away in a sanctuary, safe from the monsters who would claim her.
Instead, she’s taken by three of the most feared shifters alive.
A Dragon, cold and untouchable.
A Lycan, lethal and always too close.
A Minotaur, silent and watching—like she’s a puzzle he intends to solve.
They expect her to die like the others.
Another delicate human who won’t survive the bond.
But Anwen doesn’t break.
She burns.
And the longer she remains in their fortress, the more their control begins to unravel. Their magic bends toward her. Their instincts sharpen. Their possessiveness turns feral.
Others want her.
Their High King demands her.
But these three won’t give her up.
Because the fragile human they stole?
She might be the most dangerous creature in their world.
And they’re done pretending she isn’t theirs.
For thousands of years, the tale of the Lycan beast who lurked the forbidden forest had been told. Every five hundred years, six females were allegedly sacrificed from the wolf village to the beast and it was rumoured that their bodies were left to rot at the entrance of the forest for all to see. Many times, this tale was retold to scare the young wolves from venturing into the forest and keep them in check, because no one wanted to be a scapegoat in the hands of the unforgiving and murderous beast.
Nola Reynolds has always been a headstrong fiery pure blood who has always believed there was no Lycan beast and all the tales about him were just made up myths and fairy tales, aimed at scaring the younger ones. Little does she know that one night was all it was going to take to change her life forever. Things take an unsettling turn for Nola when she, alongside five other girls, are chosen on the night of the full moon. She is faced with the most shocking revelation of her life standing before her, in flesh and blood— The Lycan Beast.
Is it her fate to run away and free herself from the hands of the predator, or does she have to give in to her sweet, twisted story of beauty and the beast?
I met evil when I was a teenager. It never left me after that, hovered over me like a dark cloud, followed me everywhere.
When I least expected, he barged into my life like he owned it.
Kidnapped and vulnerable, I am trapped on a stranded island with no way out. There's nowhere I can hide.
I am afraid. I fear his gentleness more than his cruelity. I don't know if I can survive this but I do know that one of us will be ruined by the time this ends.
Every princess dreams about meeting a prince charming. I don't get the prince, I get the King who wants to rule over everything.
He's a Beast but I am no Belle.
The Beauty changed the beast. The Beast fell in love with her. A beautiful fairytale it was.
The Beast doesn't love me, I can't tame him.
This isn't a love story. It's a story of obsession.
18+. Not your traditional Mafia Romance. Proceed with Caution.
Animal Biologist, Isobelle Harding, lands the opportunity of a lifetime when the University sends her abroad to study a rare species of wolf. Unaware that the remote state of Whitehaven is a sanctuary for shifters, her presence captures the attention of the Bennett Brothers. The quadruplet werewolves want Isobelle for themselves, and the smoking-hot rangers are keen to study her anatomy intensively. Isobelle is about to find out exactly what it means when brothers who play together, stay together.
Suddenly she came into another world...
She's got raped...
She left to another man by her soul mate...
She's shock, trauma, suffering...
She's pregnant... and, it turns out, the man who's fathered the child she's been carrying. Secretly always guarding and watching her without her knowledge. Patiently waiting for a second chance to be with her, make amends for the mistakes he made.
POLYANDRY NOT POLYGAMY!!!
Want to know how exciting it is to have four mates at once?
First mate by accident
The second mate is the one she loves.
The third mate with the permission of the second mate
The fourth mate is both reciprocal and political
Curious about the bittersweetness of having four pairs under one roof?!
NB:
Hello readers, thank you for stopping by the first novel I wrote in 2020. A GIRL FOR THE BEASTS is a novel that I translated from my own Indonesian novel WANITA UNTUK MANUSIA BUAS. The novel finished in Chapter 395.
I also apologize if there are typos. For example, GRAMMAR or HE/SHE which sometimes will be turned upside down because I missed it when I checked it. You can leave a comment. I will try to give my best. I also have no doubt that I will revise it as long as it is possible.
I'm also translating some of my other stories, into English. Among them is the sequel to A GIRL FOR THE BEASTS, the title is THE LIONESS IS MINE.
Tells the story of MALIA, the great-granddaughter of Anindira and Hans, who crosses over to the modern world.
There are also other stories that are still in the process of being translated, I haven't published them in english yet.
MY UNCLE MY HUSBAND
SLANG TEACHER AND THE RECKLESS STUDENT
MY LOVELY BEAST HUSBAND
Thank you, enjoy reading.
---> if you are interested in my work, please check out my novel The Starving Vulture. Available on Amazon, $3.99 for the Ebook and $14.95 for the Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Starving-Vulture-Miguel-Monta%C3%B1a/dp/1951150899<---------
Aster Likaya is a Battle Mage of the Zeraph Republic. Raised in a military family, she was destined for a life on the front. As a Battle Mage she has mastered the art of Controlling. A simple but effective kind of magic that is necessary when one bonds and commands the essential robotic warmachines of her world. The Gearbanes.
And now, she is a Captain. But much to her surprise, she is not handed a company but a unit of stoic and silent soldiers that call themselves DragonWolves.
Her second in command, is Lieutenant Able Froster, young but grim faced soldier who has seen combat since he was barely a boy.
For their first mission, they are given a simple task. Retrieve an agent of the Republic who is lost in the vast swampland known as the Suha Marshes.
Little do they know, that they are not the only factions searching for the man. For in the Suha Marshes, hunt the cannibalistic Birchmen and the Kolysian pirates. All eager for the prize the agent carries.
This is the world of Likaya and Froster. Dominated by machines powered by magic, weapons ignited by runes and wars fought over ancient relics forged by a forgotten past. Welcome to Likaya's Wolves.
In 'City of the Beasts', the mystical creatures are wild and surreal, blending indigenous myths with raw jungle energy. The most iconic are the Beast People, humanoid creatures with animal traits like jaguar strength or eagle vision, guarding sacred places with primal ferocity. Then there’s the Nahuals—shape-shifters who can become animals, lurking in shadows as protectors or predators. The novel also features the Invisible Ones, spirits woven from Amazonian legends, so ethereal they flicker between worlds. What’s cool is how these beings aren’t just monsters; they’re tied to the land’s soul, reflecting its chaos and wisdom. The protagonist’s encounters with them blur the line between myth and reality, making every chapter feel like a dive into uncharted folklore.
The Amazon in 'State of Wonder' is described with such vivid detail that you can almost feel the humidity clinging to your skin. Ann Patchett paints the jungle as both beautiful and brutal—a place where towering kapok trees form a green cathedral overhead while mosquitoes swarm like living smoke. The setting centers around a remote research station near Manaus, Brazil, where the Lakashi tribe resides. Patchett highlights the river’s dominance, how it snakes through the landscape like a liquid highway, carrying both life and danger. The dense foliage hides everything from medicinal plants to venomous snakes, creating a constant push-pull between wonder and peril. What struck me is how she contrasts the scientific sterility of the lab with the raw, untamed chaos outside its walls.