Review- A Whole New World by Anna Fallon

A Whole New World

by Anna Fallon
Jan 2007
Erotic Fantasy
E-book
Novella- 44 pages.
$3.00

Buy it Phaze, Fictionwise

Elisia Moore is opposed to her controlling husband dabbling in the darkarts. Although ready to take her life back into her own hands, Elisia cannot believe the adventure she is about to be thrown into.
Taken to the realm of the warrior where her every sexual fantasy can be catered for, Elisia ponders over her happiness and if there is indeed any life left for her in the earth realm.

Faced with the choice of sexual bliss with warrior Ramala and Mistress Deelilah will Elisia return home or stay to enjoy this whole new world.

More often than not, the offering of f/f content in e-book stories is totally lacking for me, in content and or writing, and I have to abandon a story. What doesn’t happen very often is starting a book and thinking, “Oh no, here we go again, a lame, poorly written story with nothing but sex” but then unexpectedly finding a sweet little gem. A Whole New World is just one of those diamonds in the rough, which totally surprised me, turned me on, and restored my faith that a nice story with f/f can be written.

Elisia, the heroine, is saved from her husband who turned himself into a monster, by Ramala, a warrior from the Inner Realm where souls go after earth and whose job is to save the Earth Realm from evil. Not only does he save her, he takes care of her afterwards by giving her the most intense sexual experience of her life. And because she survives it, she is considered to be "The One," his life mate and the person who will reign with him as leaders in the Inner Realm.

She wakes up from this sexual experience in the Inner Realm and meets Deelilah, a domme who is Ramala’s master and sexual teacher. Deelilah is also under the thumb of Marin, a nasty ass dude who roughly abuses her sexually, promising to let her go back to the Earth Realm to see her babies if she does his nasty bidding.

Marin needs Elisia's husband's potion book from the Earth Realm in order to control both the Inner and Earth Realms. So Deelilah has to convince Elisia to choose coming back to the Inner Realm with the book. The question is, can Ramala and Deelilah convince Elisia to choose the Inner Realm with their sexual prowess and love for her?

A Whole New World is a very short and sweet story even though the ending was very abrupt, leaving things open ended. Still, Anna Fallon managed to create and explain, without info dumping, an interesting fantasy world, as well as writing some interesting and complex characters.

Elisia, was a domme who tried to be a sub with her husband but was fed up with being his slave. She’s a very independent and open woman who really feels for Ramala and is very attracted to Deelilah, but also wants to find herself after a bad marriage.

Ramala is a very interesting combo. He’s definitely an alpha warrior, but he’s been trained by Mistress Deelilah to sexually please a woman and likes being her sub and obeying her. I mean really, who cannot fall in love with a strong dude whose priority is serving and pleasuring his woman sexually and with love. On top of that, he's philosophical. My inner new age hippy chick lit up like a Christmas tree as he ponders that there must be some cosmic meaning to his meeting "The One." He’s totally in love with Elisia and is ready to be her mate. He’s the perfect man.

Then there is Deelilah. Oooh… she’s a domme always dressed in leather, and is very caring and conscientious. She sacrifices never seeing her babies again by playing the evil Marin by allowing him to abuse her so she can destroy him in the end. She’s another interesting combo. While she’s a strong domme who orders Ramala around, when she seduces Elisia, who is totally open and attracted to Deelilah, she’s very gentle but firm with her, understanding that she’s a newbie who has never been with a woman before.

My only issue with this story, other than the abrupt ending, is that some of the euphemisms for genitals and the descriptive language for bodily fluids were a bit off-putting and odd sometimes. Words like tunnel for vagina, globes for ass cheeks, knob for cock and dripping pussy and so on, are just a wee bit too much for me and took me from the story sometimes.

Other than that, I loved the characters, fantasy world and general story telling, which left me with a nice warm feeling. I wish there were more stories like it out there. Even more so, I wished this was a longer story and that it was more developed as it had a lot of potential to be a good novel.

Sex rating: Orgasmic. m/f, BDSM tone, one very sweet, hot, juicy f/f first time deflowering scene.

Grade: B

Review: Servicing Lady Tremayne by Emma Wildes

Servicing Lady Tremayne
by Emma Wildes
2006
Erotic Historical
Novella- 30 pages
E-Book

Buy it Phaze
$3.00

Trying to maintain a pristine reputation isn't easy, especially when Lady Daphne Tremayne has a lustful secret longing for her doctor. Seducing a respectable physician is not something a lady would normally do but then again, desperate times make for inventive measures.

Being summoned to the home of his alluring patient, Thomas Blake cannot quite believe what it is exactly she wishes him to cure. Since he has always been deeply attracted to the beauteous Daphne, he has no objections to ministering to her desires but the lady in question only wants his sexual services nothing more. Or so she says but just maybe he can change her mind.

Forbidden passion and an ugly obsession make two lovers tear the down the barriers of social status and find that physical love just might not be enough after all.

This is a very short story really and I’m going to say not really worth the money or the time to read it. I really liked Emma Wildes’ The Arrangement and was hoping this story would be something of the same quality, but it was rather disappointing.

On story telling only, it was OK, but not great. It starts out nicely with the widow Lady Tremayne feigning malaise to get the good looking Dr. Thomas Blake to her bedside in order to proposition him into discreetly servicing her sexually. A commitment free arrangement as she has no intentions of marrying again. Of course, since he’s been secretly lusting after her and the lady is the most beautiful woman desired by all, he has no problem agreeing. This part of the story was fine, written very nicely and it did hook me in.

Where it starts to go a bit off for me is when Thomas decides that impregnating her would be a good way to “get” her. Now, it’s clear that she’s got the hots for him and she’s falling in love with him. And she’s not adverse to the idea of marrying him even though she’s of a much higher station then he in society. He is, in general, an upstanding kind of guy. But what is that, really? Even he thinks he’s an ass. “I might impregnate her, he thought traitorously.”

Next, he takes her to a brothel without letting her know what kind of place she’s in to be serviced, for his convenience and turn-on mainly, by several of the prostitutes there who have told him that they all get each other off when it’s slow. This, even though he has broached the idea of some kinky stuff with the Lady and she pretty much says she’s not interested.

While it’s clear that these two have the hots for each other and they are falling in love, what’s with all the trickery on his part? It was unnecessary as it’s clear these two are meant to be together and have a HEA. It was off-putting.

The writing itself was a bit lazy to me as well with much of the dialogue feeling stilted and unnatural with more telling and less showing of what the characters are feeling. But this is a really short story, so I don’t expect too much on that front and am willing to forgive a lot if the story itself is appealing.

Since this is a blog for the purpose of promoting quality f/f, f/f/m content in books, I will say that the f/f content in this story was solely for the male POV. While the prostitutes do enjoy women, and the Lady responds physically getting off of course, she feels no emotional involvement as she states later on and it’s clear she could have skipped that experience altogether. If the Lady would have said that she had such fantasies when Thomas asked, it would have had a whole different feel to me. As it was, it felt that that scene was thrown in there just to add some kink to the story. So this isn’t a story I can recommend for readers who would buy this book for the f/f, f/f/m content.

Sex content: Damp panties. m/f, f/f/f/f- male watching.

Grade: D+

My review of The Arrangement

Review: Love Me by Kelly Jamieson

This review thing, how hard can it be?

Well, it ain't that much easier than writing a book, to tell you the truth. But I'm giving it a shot. Be gentle, it's my first time.

Love Me by Kelly Jamieson
Available now from Samhain
Short Story-$2.50

How far does she have to go to get his attention? Another girl’s arms?

Melina Wenham is worried and frustrated. Lately, her boyfriend of six months seems to have lost interest in her. Yes, she knows he’s stressed about his big project at work, but jeez, it seems like he’d rather go solo than have sex with her. Sexy lingerie, a Brazilian…nothing seems to get his attention.

Gavin’s frustrated too. He’s under enough pressure at work, without feeling more from Melina every time he gets home.

Another night, another party, and Gavin is off talking to the boys. Feeling ignored yet again, Melina confides her troubles to an acquaintance, Abby, who suggests shaking him up by flirting with another guy. Hmm. Not a bad idea, except there are no flirt-worthy guys at this party.

Then Abby suggests a different tack—flirt with her.

Could a little girl-on-girl tango be the match that reignites romance with Gavin? There’s only one way to find out…

Warning: Hot girl on girl scene!

It will likely come as no surprise to you all that I bought this book strictly for the girl-on-girl action. And because this is a Samhain book, I was fairly confident the story wouldn't devolve into some stupid, porny, f/m/f, male fantasy (which, on examination of the blurb was a definite possibility), and figured it would at the very least be good for some one-handed reading. I'm glad to say, for a debut effort--and a short story at that--it surpassed my expectations.

The fact that this is the author's first release did temper my reaction to those little nitpicks that usually bother me--the odd redundancy, repetitive words, and the occasional feeling that what the author could have achieved with a deft brushstroke was instead applied with a sledgehammer. Most of those issues are editorial ones, however, and thus not to be laid solely on the doorstep of the author.

The heroine, Melina, was alternately sympathetic and annoying. Okay, mostly annoying. She knows her boyfriend Gavin is working on a stressful project at work, one that could make or break his career, but she frequently obsesses on how neglected she's feeling. Granted, when your man comes home late every night, leaves early every morning and acts like he'd rather jack off than take what you're throwing at him, that can't help but hurt a girl's self esteem. Luckily, we're in Gavin's head enough to know he's not a total ass, just your typical guy who does his best at work, beats himself up over his few failings, and maybe isn't the best communicator in the universe.

Things come to a head at a housewarming party for Kylie and Duncan, Gavin and Melina's BCFs (best couple friends). Kylie's cousin Abby is there--a player, if ever there was one--and she suggests Melina flirt with her to pique Gavin's jealousy and get him interested again. As she and Abby put on a subtle display on the sofa, Melina doesn't expect to be so turned on by flirting with another woman. And when Gavin fails to fall for the ploy and Abby wants to take things further, Melina is so aroused she succumbs to her urge to explore this new experience.

This is where things could have gone sour for me. It could have so easily become yet another "two hot chicks seein' to mah manly needs!" kind of story, and I have to say the author came through beautifully for me. The girl on girl is exactly that. It's all about Melina and her willingness to explore her desires. And even though Gavin is there for much of it, he's believably conflicted--yeah, sure, he's got a hard-on like a steel girder, but he's also kinda freaking that maybe his girlfriend secretly wants to bat for the home team.

And if this story isn't simply a male-centric, two-chick fantasy, it isn't the tale of a lesbian in straight girl's clothing, either. Melina embarks on this adventure as a straight woman, and that's what she is when it comes to a close. And the fact that the adventure fails to magically cure all that ails her and Gavin is refreshingly unexpected. No, it's gonna take more than a three-way to fix their relationship--she needs to grow up and stop acting like a spoiled princess, and he needs to start talking about the shit that's bugging him.

All in all, this was a very nice story, one that hits on many straight women's fantasies of making love with another woman. It doesn't get political or preachy or have a sexual orientation agenda. It's unapologetically sexy, and the f/f scenes--both the flirtation and the actual sex--were wonderfully nuanced and moving. I believed that Gavin and Melina really love each other, but at the same time, I never felt that Abby was being callously used. The scenes between Melina and Gavin afterward were equally intense--I was emotionally invested in their romance by then, and the payoff was pretty damn hot.

The sex, both f/f and m/f, was mostly vanilla, but no less scorching for that. A solid B for an author I'll definitely try again.