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Book Review: Taken to Voraxia, by Elizabeth Stephens

I received a copy of the special edition of Elizabeth StephensTaken to Voraxia in a mystery box from The Story of My Life Bookstore.

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Miari
Here’s what I know: aliens invade our colony every three years, hunt and claim the most beautiful of our women, then leave. Here’s what I don’t know: why the king of them is here this time, and why his black, glittering eyes are trained on me.

A hybrid with red alien skin and brown human eyes, I’m not pretty. I’ve got no family and no plans to ever have one – least of all with this monster of a male. I’m an inventor, a mechanic, a tinkerer. The alien king wants me for reasons I can only guess at, but I’m not about to be taken for a slave and his response to me is something I know I can engineer my way out of.

He plans to come back for me when I’m of age, but he’ll have to find me first. Our little colony is a scary, desperate place and I’m less afraid to face it, than to face him or the strange, alien sensations he stirs…

Raku
She is my Xiveri mate, yet she runs from me – straight into the horrors of her small, savage moon colony. Slaughtering in her defense is easy, while gaining her trust will be the true challenge.

She fears my kind and the horrors my treacherous general has inflicted on her humans. Does she not know that it is my blood rite to keep her safe against him and his even more dangerous off-world allies? No, she thinks herself my slave and in place of acceptance, offers me only pacts and bargains. Shamed by her pacts, I still take them all gluttonously, because though she knows only hate, I know only need.

Eventually, we will need more than just these pacts between us if I am to convince her that she is my Xiveri mate and if she is to take her place at my side, not as my slave, but as Voraxia’s queen.

my review

I was excited to read this book. I’ve seen it recommended several times. And, having read it now, I can say it’s fine. But that’s it. It’s fine. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so let down by that if I hadn’t gone in with such high expectations. Maybe that’s on me. But this was a serious case of meh.

There was quite a lot about it I liked, but honestly, there was just as much that I didn’t. I liked the characters, but nothing about them, their situation, or the plot felt believable (least of all Miari and Svera’s instant transformation from all but slavery to queen and advisor). I liked the taken to voraxia photointeresting world, but we see almost none of it. I liked that Raku (and supposedly his people) were made out to be so honorable. But Stephens’ kept putting Miari (and the other women) in positions to need protection that contradicted the honorable people the author was hawking. I liked Raku’s direct way of speaking, but I HATED that a few words were in another language (nox for no, for example). Why just these few words? So distracting!

All in all, I’ll call this a middle-of-the-road read. I have a few more in the series. I’ll probably read them eventually. But I’m in no hurry about it.


Other Reviews:

ARC Review: Taken to Voraxia by Elizabeth Stephens

Book Review: A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor, by Kathryn Moon

I’d seen Kathryn Moon‘s A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor recommended several times. So, when I saw it as an Amazon freebie, I snagged a copy.

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On the brink of losing her position as a maid and with no prospects to go on, the offer of a place at Rooksgrave Manor—a house of ill and unusual repute—sounds like a perfect fit for a young woman with Esther’s inclinations. Even better, the invitation comes by the hand of the handsome Dr. Underwood, a delicate gentleman with a ferocious alter ego who knows exactly what he wants from Esther.

Upon arrival, the men and the daily decadence of the manor feel too good to be true for a girl of Esther’s station. There are rules to be followed, expectations to meet, and Esther is afraid she might be too wicked even for a place like Rooksgrave.

Temptations lurk around every shadowy corner and Esther has never been a girl able to resist. But the risk of disappointing her new gentlemen isn’t all that’s threatening Esther’s new position. Rooksgrave Manor’s protections for its unusual patrons are failing, the wards are crumbling, and Esther’s new and exquisitely pleasurable life may all come tumbling down.

my review

I have no general problem with Porn Without Plot…or without much plot. It can be a lot of fun, and I knew what kind of book I picked up. But I think I can officially now say that almost 400 pages of it is just too much. As much as I liked Ester and her men, I got booooored. Especially once everyone had made nice and become a happy family. After that, what little tension of interest there was evaporated.

a lady of rooksgrave manor photoI did appreciate that Esther was a woman who gleefully enjoyed sex. I mean, sure, if you want to be critical, it plays into the women can’t control their urges and are slaves to their desires narrative that has been so bad for women throughout so much of history. But I also think Moon was trying to subvert it a little bit. And honestly, I’m just not interested in delving into it. Mostly, this was a sweet kinkfest worth taking at face value.

I liked the characters. What little world there is, is interesting. The writing is perfectly readable. All in all, I enjoyed it. 400ish pages was just too much to keep me interested in it, with as little plot as there is.


Other Reviews:

Review of A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon

Reading After Dark: A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor [Tempting Monsters Series #1]

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Book Review: Desire Aforethought series, by Kyra Alessy

I picked up a copy of Kyra Alessy‘s Demons and Debts as an Amazon freebie and then purchased Debts and Darkness and Darkness and Debauchery.

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An Autistic woman being hunted. An Incubi MC who can help. But will their price be more than she can pay?

When I was fourteen, a woman I called mom was murdered … and it was my fault.

I’ve been on the run ever since, but someone’s chasing me. I don’t know who they are or what they want. The only thing I’m sure of is that I need to keep moving or more people will die.

They’re going to find me again. They always do.

The human authorities are useless. The supernatural cops, even worse. My only hope is the Iron Incubi MC, the biggest, baddest, meanest supes around. I’m sick of running and I’m desperate enough to make a deal even if it costs me everything I have left.

Oh, and I’m neurodivergent. Autism means my brain works differently. I can keep it together in the day-to-day and mask my hundreds of quirks when I’m around others for short times, but now the five human-hating Incubi who I went to for help have me prisoner at their ‘clubhouse’, i.e., mansion in the middle of nowhere.

So, what happens when five hot as sin s€x demons lock up a human girl who sucks at all the bedroom stuff, doesn’t cope well with change, and definitely can’t mask her ASD 24/7?

I’m Jane Mercy and I have no f**king clue, but I don’t think it’s going to go well for those gorgeous-enough-to-be-underwear-model SOBs … especially when my stalkers come for me …

my review

I’m just going to review the whole series together since that’s how I read it…or binged it, rather. I really liked the first book, Demons and Debts, liked the second book, Debts and Darkness,  OK, and was fairly meh on the third one, Darkness and Debauchery. This left me finishing the series feeling disappointed. But on the whole, it averages out pretty well.

The two things I appreciated most about this series were the tone of the writing (which was well-edited and easy to read) and the heroine. I adored Jane. She’s snarky and self-contained. I mean, I liked the heroes well enough, too, but Jane was my shining star. And it was largely her sense of humor and inner dialogue that made the tone of the book work so well.

The reason my enjoyment of the series diminished the farther along I went, however, was that I felt like it lost some of the spark that kept the first one so interesting. The men were true alpha a-holes in the beginning. There’s no pushing her away for her own good or cruel to be kind, etc. These men did not care about her. And Jane was forced to navigate that, which created a delicious tension. (There’s not a sex scene until past 75% either.)

By book two and certain book three, the men had changed. They’d come to love and simp for Jane, which is fine, but the books lost a lot of the tension as a result. Plus (and these and big ones for me), by book three—where I would have expected to finally see the romance develop between the characters—Jane spent almost all of with one of the men, and the rest were separate. The plot also devolves into cliched SA territory that I did not enjoy reading even a little bit. I just too often find such plotlines overused and lacking in creative thought. I call them the low-hanging fruit of plotlines. Meh.

Lastly, I was disappointed with the spicy scenes. There was very little in the vein of foreplay or emotional connection. It’s all very focused on what went in where and when. So, it didn’t particularly light me up.

All in all, however, I’d happily read more of Alessy’s writing. I enjoyed more than I didn’t.

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