Tag Archives: erotic fantasy

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Book Review: A Soul to Keep, by Opal Reyne

I purchased an e-copy of A Soul to Keep, by Opal Reyne.
a soul to keep cover

All Reia ever wanted was freedom.

Known as a harbinger of bad omens and blamed for Demons eating her family, Reia is shunned by her entire village. When the next offering is due and the monstrous Duskwalker is seen heading their way, her village offers her an impossible choice – be thrown into the prison cells or allow herself to be sacrificed to a faceless monster.

However, he is not what he seems. His skull face and glow eyes are ethereal, and she finds herself unwittingly enchanted by him.

All Orpheus ever wanted was a companion.

Each decade, in exchange for a protection ward from the Demons that terrorise the world, Orpheus takes a human offering to the Veil – the place he lives and the home of Demons. The brief companionship does little to ease his loneliness, and their lives were always, unfortunately, cut short.

He’d thought it was a hopeless endeavour, until he met her. She’s not afraid of him, and his insatiable desire deepens within every moment of her presence.

But will Orpheus be able to convince Reia to stay before she’s lost to him forever?

my review

I enjoyed this, though it won’t top any favorites lists for me. I thought the world interesting, as well as the way Duskwalkers (and maybe demons) could craft themselves. I appreciated that Reia had a backbone and was the initiator of most of the sexual progress in the relationship.

I also thought Orpheus was adorable. He was super sweet, if a bit of a doormat. (Though I don’t think the reader is supposed to interpret it that way.) There is definitely some Himbo energy there. But it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to overlook both that Orpheus eats people and takes people as sacrifices and still see him as the hero.

My main problem, personally, was the sex. I’m all about the monster sex, don’t get me wrong. And the sex was hot, not gonna lie. But it felt very much like it was written to match the trends of what is popular in spicy romance today, and, frankly, a lot of what Orpheus said/did/thought during sex didn’t actually fit him, the character as written. Sex-scene-Orpheus and rest-of-the-book-Orpheus felt like different characters. So, there was a disconnect for me.

I also thought the book could do with one more mechanical editing pass. There were several a soul to keep photoinstances of missing or misused words. No, I don’t mean because it’s Australian English. But I’d occasionally be pulled out of the narrative to figure out what word was missing from a sentence to make it make sense (it was usually an article or pronoun) or if the author actually meant the sentence to include same or some because it said, “same some” and only one or the other would make sense (that sort of thing).

All in all, though, I enjoyed more about the book than I didn’t and will likely read book two at some point.


Other Reviews:

A Soul to Keep by Opal Reyne

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Book Review: Hell Gate, by Veronica Eden

I received a copy of Hell Gate, by Veronica Eden in last month’s Supernatural Book Crate.

hell gate cover

Open the gate…if you dare.

The first thing I’m warned about when I arrive at the girls’ home is to stay away from the abandoned graveyard. Local urban legend claims it’s host to a gate to Hell.

Then I was dared…

The legend is as real as the monsters I’ve summoned by activating the gate. Demons guard it, waiting for skeptical idiots like me to do the ritual. Three sinfully hot, dangerously powerful demons.

Valerian.
Matthias.
Alder.

Ruthless.
Deadly.
Terrifying.

The gate’s three wicked protectors won’t let me get away without paying their price.
I’m at their mercy, fighting to survive them and the supernatural world they drag me into.
But none of us are prepared for what is awakening within me.

A long buried secret and hidden ancient magic will change everything.
The match is lit and together we’re all going up in flames.

my review

I gotta be honest. This was a big ol’ meh for me. It was competently written and I imagine it’ll find it’s audience. But I was bored with it. I just felt like Lily spent too much of the book whinging about her rough childhood and then the rest of the book was just the men telling her how amazing she was, over and over again. So, yes, I get it, she’s a special special snow flake and not like the other girls. Can we move on now?

Further, I was a bit weirded out by her barely legal-ness. She’s 17 (there’s an 18th birthday in there somewhere, but it’s unclear where). The sex starts as just sex but very quickly progresses to things like double penetration to accommodate three mates. Maybe it’s a symptom of getting old and having teen daughters, but I was just a tad squinked out by a new-to-sex woman so quickly hell gate photoprogressing to kink-queen. Plus, the men where forever telling EACH-OTHER what to do with her—move her this way, make her beg, etc—but never speaking to her at such moments. I felt like she was just a doll for them to act upon with one another.

Lastly, the plot is weak. Sure, I get that porn-with-plot exists. But I didn’t sense that this 400+ book was aiming for plot-less erotica status. It had a plot. It was just a paper thin one.

All in all, it’s probably a taste thing. I liked the characters well enough and the world was interesting, but I was meh about this book. It’s probably fine, just not for me.


Other Reviews:

Review – Hell Gate by Veronica Eden

Hell Gate by Veronica Eden

 

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Book Review: The Beast, by Jenika Snow

I purchased a signed copy of The Beast, by Jenika Snow.

the beast cover

What if the Beast never turned into the prince?

My father had just sold me off.

Bartered my body to erase his debt to the very devil himself.

A Beast of a man. Literally.

A creature whispered about amongst the villagers and feared by all.

He was a beastly visage at three times the size of a man, his monstrously huge body covered in fur. Sharp fangs and eyes that held an unearthly red glow. He had pawlike hands tipped with claws and horns that arched back from his inhuman face.

I was to live with him, to be his in every way—all ways—he saw fit.

I was to be his wife, and so I offered myself up as the proverbial sacrifice to the very devil himself.

I just didn’t expect to enjoy being with a monster as much as I did.

my review

Meh, I didn’t love it. I picked this up because I’d seen it raved about over on Tiktok and thought the idea of Beast, from Beauty and the Beast, remaining beastly was intriguing. But there’s just not much to it. Which might be fine (erotica doesn’t need much of a plot), except what is there doesn’t even try to be original in any way. It just feels like poorly done Disney fan fiction.

So, if the minimal plot didn’t interest me, that left the sex. What a reader likes in a sex scene is super individual. But, for me, this was far too focused on how he was going to hurt her and she’d beg for more. (Plus, all the spitting…and leaking…wasn’t my jam). Which means the sex wasn’t a big winner for me either.

Thus, to say it again, I didn’t love it. But to each their own.

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