143 ratings | 14 reviews | avg rating:4.43

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carthi ♡

1,543 books | 104 friends

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519 books | 21 friends

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97,734 books | 1,470 friends

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Shalini Abeysekara

Goodreads Author

Website

https://linktr.ee/shalini.a

Twitter

awayintheshire

Genre

Fantasy, Romance, Horror

Member Since

September 2013

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Shalini Abeysekara (she/her/hers) is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of This Monster of Mine. A former corporate lawyer, she uses fantasy to explore monstrosity, craft cynical MMCs who respect women, and center neurodivergent women reckoning with their place in a world that tells them they’re too much and not enough. When not writing, she games her life away and tries to make the perfect entremet. Most days, she can’t believe she's an adult, and hope you don’t either.

Her debut dark romantasy duology, This Monster of Mine, is an Ancient Rome-inspired bloodbath of manipulation, deception, and forbidden love. The sequel, This Blade of Ours, releases on June 30th in North America, and July 2nd everywhere else.

Follow her @shalini.writes o ...more

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Combine Editions
Shalini Abeysekara’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 4,635 ratings · 1,366 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	This Monster of Mine (This Monster of Mine, #1) 4.09 avg rating — 4,596 ratings — published 2025 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Blade of Ours (This Monster of Mine, #2) 4.67 avg rating — 39 ratings — expected publication 2026 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Blade of Ours: The dazzling conclusion to the seductive and sensational This Monster of Mine 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Series by Shalini Abeysekara

This Monster of Mine (2 books)
by

Shalini Abeysekara (Goodreads Author)

4.10 avg rating — 4,629 ratings

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Shalini’s Recent Updates

Shalini Abeysekara wants to read Salvación by Sandra Proudman (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 27, 2026 08:05PM · like
Shalini Abeysekara rated a book it was amazing The Poet Empress by Shen Tao (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 23, 2026 03:35PM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Poet Empress by Shen Tao <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara wants to read Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 21, 2026 05:18PM · 2 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara and 48 other people liked Bea27x's review of Darkness Births the Stars: an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance: "⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ *“What you are to me… There is no word in the tongues of mortals or immortals to describe what is between us.”* This is a wonderful book with a love story for the ages. (no heavy spoilers but some of the quotes and thoughts might be spoile" Read more of this review »
Jan 21, 2026 05:18PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara and 7 other people liked Lochi's Library's review of Until I Die: A Dark Dystopian Romance: "I remember when Deidra and I first began talking about Until I Die, and I was instantly rapt. The legacy of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games clearly reverberates through this story and it feels hauntingly relevant in a world where dystopian f" Read more of this review »
Jan 19, 2026 06:48PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Until I Die by Deidra Duncan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Until I Die by Deidra Duncan <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara wants to read Until I Die: A Dark Dystopian Romance by Deidra Duncan (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 19, 2026 06:45PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Until I Die by Deidra Duncan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Until I Die by Deidra Duncan <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara and 39 other people liked Silvy's review of The Poison Daughter: "if you like your romantasy on the darker side, with a hefty dose of Traumatic Backstory, a murderous (-ly hot) vigilante FMC, an MMC with lots of secrets, and kinky sex rituals????? THEN MAKE THIS YOUR NEXT READ. jesus h christ this was capital G GOOD" Read more of this review »
Jan 19, 2026 04:07PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Shalini Abeysekara wants to read Death Card by Jasmine Smith (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 14, 2026 09:37PM · like
Shalini Abeysekara rated a book it was amazing Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Academia’s game of tenure track turns deadly in Grothe’s masterful horromance where blood and rot oil the gears of elite universities, and the monstrous hunt with impunity. Seething with rage and deeply, achingly romantic, Lethal Kiss spits out its b ...more
Jan 11, 2026 11:17PM · 1 like · like · see review
Shalini Abeysekara wants to read Two Secrets to Surrender (Blackwood Legacy, #2) by Grace Callaway (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 06, 2026 12:52AM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Two Secrets to Surrender by Grace Callaway. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Two Secrets to Surrender by Grace Callaway <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Shalini's books…

Shalini’s Quotes

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

tags: fantasy, literature, philosophy

5677 likes

“A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.”
― Astrid Lindgren

tags: books, children, children-s-literature

3114 likes

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

6356 likes

“There’s a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility

108 likes

“What you have to understand is that bureaucracy is an organism, and the prime goal of every organism is self-protection. Bureaucracy exists to protect itself.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility