Review- The Garden House by Mia Cherish and Jacqueline Quaid

The Garden House
by Mia Cherish and Jacqueline Quaid
2006
Paranormal/ F/F
Extended Novella- 31K
Ebook

Buy it Amber Allure

Clancy Rosabel had no intention of following her sorority president’s order to steal flowers from Léonor Griffin’s exquisite courtyard in the Garden District. Everyone knew Léonor was the legendary Belle Madame, a vampiress as well-known for her seductive effect as her intolerance of “bad elements.” No indeed. Clancy would march right up to Lea’s courtyard and ask for the flowers instead!

The price of the flowers is a vampire’s kiss.

Lea Griffin found the innocent underdressed woman tugging at her garden gates appealing but she never imagined initiating Clancy into feminine sensuality and vampire love would leave her body and her fangs eager for so much more. Her feelings grow possessive as she seduces Clancy further into her own world. But she must be careful not to take more from Clancy than she can reasonably expect such a young mortal to provide.

Is Léonor ready to embrace Clancy fully and look forward to lasting love, or will she keep the girl as a pretty pet in her garden house?

I’m in awe. The Garden House is one of the most erotic and deeply passionate love stories I’ve read in a while. I didn’t want to let it go.

Clancy is a young, innocent college student who is pledging to a sorority and is told by the nasty bitch sorority leader who hates her, to steal flowers from Belle Madame’s garden. Having no fear, even though Belle Madame is a known vampire and a local legend, Clancy goes straight to her and asks directly if she may have some flowers.

Leonor (Belle Madame) finds Clancy’s manner intriguing and decides to help her but Clancy must offer something in return. Clancy, kind of curious, agrees to let Leonor kiss bite her. Leonor does so after sexually seducing Clancy though, giving Clancy a very erotic first time experience.

While this was supposed to be a one time deal, both Leonor and Clancy can’t stop thinking about each other, and after seeing each other for a while, Leonor invites Clancy to move into her garden house. There are problems though. Can they have a real, long term relationship though as Leonor is a vampire and Clancy is human? And then there’s that pesky age difference issue, which does come up for Leonor.

Oh what a sweet, delicious story this was. Right from the beginning I was seduced by the budding relationship between Leonor and Clancy. I’ll be honest; I do have a soft spot for the The Lover type stories in which an older, experienced person introduces a younger, innocent person into the world of erotic delights, especially between women.

This one was a cross between that and Lady Chatterley’s Lover in its essence and the way these two women relate to each other. They are so sensual together. And the vampire paranormal aspect mixed with old world, exotic New Orleans culture gave this story an almost ethereal, timeless feel to it.

Clancy has a very interesting mix of characteristics. She’s forthright and strong, maybe by the fact that she comes from old money and family and was orphaned at a young age, having to fend for herself emotionally. At the same time though, she’s sexually innocent, almost naive, and still a virgin although in college. She’s had a boyfriend and crushed on men but has never been with a woman. She finds herself totally enthralled by Leonor after their sexual encounter and can’t stay away, although she tries. And I liked her attitude towards sex with Leonor. All she knows is that it feels good to be sexual with Leonor and doesn’t really judge it nor is she shy about admitting that she likes it. I found that very refreshing.

Leonor is a very delicious character as well. She’s a centuries old vampire, but she only takes blood (killing them) from nasty people, keeping the streets of New Orleans free of criminals and such. She’s lost her husband and still grieves over his death many years later as she was deeply in love with him. Although she’s had some female paramours before, she’s never loved a woman until she meets Clancy. There’s just something different about Clancy that attracts Leonor to the point that she finds it curious that it’s a woman who makes her feel what she does, but she goes with it.

What I loved about the relationship between these two is that neither of them really question if their attraction is right or wrong. For both it’s a new experience to love a woman as intensely as they do and they don’t fight it, but relish in it. I also got off on that feeling that these two are in their own special little world that they’ve created. Their love had a cozy feeling of it being something unique only for them against the world.

They also express much tenderness. Much of their time together is spent cuddling, cooing, touching, exploring and being nurturing outside of their all consuming sexual passion for each other, which was very sweet. And there is that vulnerability that comes out as both women tentatively navigate what they mean to each other and how they will proceed in their relationship. It’s very soft and real.

This story is not without tension though, the kind of tension needed to compel the characters to interact outside of sex. I liked how the power dynamics changed while they get to know each other. Both characters do some growing, but they never morph into something they weren’t to begin with.

Leonor, although the seducer and the dominant one at first, starts to worry that Clancy will one day want a younger lover and leave her. She even suggests to Clancy to go out and be with others although it would pain her for that to happen. And Clancy, while being the innocent at first, starts pushing her boundaries to see what power she can exert in life. But ultimately they just love each other and are willing to do whatever to be together.

And I can’t give enough praise to the authors for not having these two be “fated” or pull the “mine” card that is so often the case in vampire paranormals and which annoys me to no end at this point. Clancy chooses to be with Leonor of her own free will and not because she’s been thralled by some vampiric voodoo.

There was only one minor niggling thing that was off for me in this story. In this vampire world, apparently, unless Leonor claims Clancy as family and turns her into a vampire, Clancy is open game for other members of Leonor’s vampire family to be used as a sexual pet. So Leonor wishes to make Clancy her daughter. That was a bit on the weird side due to the fact that Leonor is much older and there is that adult/child dynamic at times. I glossed over it by her being a vampire and that in that world, that’s the terminology used and not the actual relationship type. I guess when those vampires turn someone they become a son or daughter, but that wasn’t really explained, hence my feeling it weird.

That aside, The Garden House was one of my best reads in a while. I felt that Leonor and Clancy will have a long, beautiful, loving relationship together and that their love is profound and eternal. Many authors can write good, steamy, sexual romances. But I’ve found that very few can convey real, intense passion; that feeling when you just ache and burn for someone and would die without them. Mia Cherish and Jacqueline Quaid did just that for me. The Garden House is a whole hearted recommend. I think if I were to fall in love with a woman, this is how I’d imagine I’d want it to be.

Sex rating: Orgasmic- very graphic and steamy vanilla f/f. 69 and light anal.

Grade: B+ for basic writing and story, A+ for how this story made me feel.

Review- Restless Spirits by Christian Black

Restless Spirits
by Christian Black
2007
Contemporary/ Paranormal/ Lesbian/ Bi-female/ f/f/m Menage / Erotica
Short Story- 16K
Ebook

Buy it Amber Quill Press- $3.00

Rosemary Waters is alone, but not lonely. A successful professional woman, she believes her life is complicated enough without a lover. But just because she isn’t looking for love, doesn’t mean it’s not on the hunt for her. And Cupid’s quiver contains not one arrow, but two...

John Raynor, a wealthy Hollywood orthodontist-to-the-stars who looks like a young Sean Connery. He seems too good to be true, and Rosemary soon finds out why. There’s another woman in his life...Amanda. The fact that she’s been dead for five years, however, doesn’t stop Amanda from intruding on John and Rosemary’s most intimate moments.

Enter June Ameday, an artist who also happens to be a psychic specializing in “cleaning” haunted houses. Rosemary recruits June to help with her ghost problem, but soon finds that the fiery redhead stirs up passions in her she’d thought she’d forgotten.

Torn between conflicting desires, Rosemary is delighted when her lovers express a willingness to share. But their triangle is thrown out of balance by a fourth point—the ghostly Amanda. The restless spirit is jealous of their earthly passion and unwilling to let go of this world without a fight…

Restless Spirits is one of those surprisingly quick, juicy reads that even with some unbelievable bits, still managed to leave me with a good feeling.

Rosemary, although having a Masters degree in communications, is basically a baby sitter for a top box office actor who likes to get into trouble. One night trying to keep track of him, she gets the help of a very suave man, John, who just happens to be the actor’s orthodontist and knows what a pain he is. Although not wanting to date really, Rosemary finds herself attracted to John who asks her out.

Back at John’s place while John is servicing Rosemary orally, the bloody spirit of a woman appears, telling Rosemary to piss off and scaring the crap out of her. This being a major buzz kill to Rosemary, she decides to leave, agreeing to meet up with John the next day.

In the meantime, Rosemary calls up June, the sister of an ex-boyfriend and a psychic and June agrees to see what’s up with this ghost. While at John’s house trying to provoke the ghost, June psychically sees something freaky that John is hiding. It's something which pisses Rosemary off and she ends up going home with and into the arms of June, who is also a lesbian. Feeling bad about blowing John off without explanation, she gets with him again the next day but finds that she wants June as well. What to do? There’s still the matter of the pesky ghost whose rage at John being with Rosemary has manifested in trashing John’s house.

This is a rather cute threesome story in which I felt these three would actually manage to work it all out. I liked the fluidity of all the characters and how they’re all open to at least trying to be together.

Rosemary is basically heterosexual, but has had some past experiences with women, which she enjoyed. She’s really got the hots bad for John but is disappointed to find that he’s a pervy player until she meets up with him after spending a night with June and he proves that he’s changed and is not that person anymore.

June and Rosemary have a very intimate and sexually intense night together and this opens up Rosemary again to her feelings for women. What I like here is that while June is a lesbian and doesn’t really get what the turn on is about men, she wants to be with Rosemary enough to accept John and be open to him as well. And John, also wanting Rosemary, is accepting of June, and Rosemary’s need of her. What was good here was that while John is really turned on by the idea of both women having sex, his feelings take him beyond it just being sexual and into respecting them.

This is not a long story so that’s about it. The only weird thing here for me was that in just one evening with John, and then only one evening with June, Rosemary supposedly has these strong feelings for both of them like one would normally have after a few months together. That bit was the least believable part of this story.

Still though, it’s a positive ménage story and it does end with them all working out the ever changing dynamics of a ménage and that was kind of cool.

The ghost part of the story was a nice focal point for all them to come together and added some entertainment value, but wasn’t such a big part.

Restless spirits is a definite recommended read for those who like a light, but fairly realistically written, f/f/m ménage in which all parties really like each other and want to stay together.

Sex rating: Orgasmic- nicely written graphic vanilla f/f, female 69, f/f/m, and minor anal. Also a very minor m/m scene, not graphic.

Grade: B+

Review- Gotcha! by Shara Bloodstone

Gotcha!
by Shara Bloodstone
2007
Contemporary/ Bi- lesbian
Novella- 29K
Ebook

Buy it Amber Quill Press- $5.00

In spite of her reservations, Sienna Selinger agrees to some light bondage in bed at the hands of the boyfriend she practically worships. But Peter betrays her trust when he leaves to go shopping! And, to make matters worse, she discovers he’s been cheating on her with various women around town. Sienna decides it’s time to leave Manhattan for a sojourn down in Florida

Hired to tend a Tiki Bar in downtown Sarasota, Sienna makes new friends and meets a slew of potential lovers. Sexy Dominic Knossos, a motorcycle hottie who frequents the bar, is smitten by the attractive new bartender. When Sienna considers taking the bait he’s been offering, however, she discovers an important fact he’s kept hidden: Dominic is engaged to the wealthy older woman with whom he’s been living for years.

Beautiful Cassie Hart, Sienna’s fellow barmaid, reveals a secret of her own: she prefers loving women to men. Once Sienna gets past her initial reluctance, she welcomes Cassie’s offer to “try the other flavor.” Sienna soon finds herself engaged in a delightful relationship with Cassie, who’s also the most honest lover Sienna’s ever known.

Ignorant of Sienna’s current love interest, Dominic continues to pursue her, tweaking her fantasies about how to expose his lies and lowly intentions. When Sienna finally devises a scheme involving bondage, Cassie agrees to help ensnare the motorcycle hottie in her lover’s harmless, but humiliating, plot. Can the two ladies dupe Dominic into a compromising situation, revealing more than his caddishness to his unsuspecting fiancée?

Gotcha! Is one of those really good f/f books that I totally love. It’s a juicy story about a woman who’s fed up with being betrayed by men and decides to try a relationship with a female friend and it works out very nicely.

The blurb to this story is actually perfect as is and pretty much sums up what’s going on here, so I’ll take if from there.

Gotcha! is a perfect f/f book for me because it’s one in which one of the women has never been or even thought too much about being with a woman, but finds herself attracted to one in particular and goes for it. Although I loved the girls getting together part, other parts of this story went off track for me, which did affect my overall feeling about the book.

Sienna’s been betrayed by a man she thought she loved. Mainly it was about trust because against her better judgment and personal comfort zone, she allows her boyfriend to tie her up during sex. He knows she’s uncomfortable but leaves her tied up. Not knowing when or if he’ll come back, she freaks. When he does come back he acts like she needs to lighten up, which pisses her off. And she knows he’s screwing around on her. So she’s got some trust issues with men.

Then she heads down to Florida and this really hawt guy keeps showing up at the bar she works at. Every woman wants him and fawns all over him, but he only has eyes for her. She keeps her distance though, thinking he’s probably a jerk by the arrogant way in which he acts. And here in lies my issue with this book.

Since it’s in the blurb, I can say we know that she decides to get revenge when it turns out that he’s got a sugar mama and has been hitting on her even though he’s not really free. And she wants to get revenge on him big time. What bothered me about this is that she never went with him, was not duped by him really and had no intentions of going with him, so her revenge on him is more of a reaction to her ex-boyfriend who actually did screw with her, and I didn’t like that so much.

Yes, Dominic is a turd just like her ex. But since he didn’t actually sleep with or really even overtly come on to her as in directly asking her out, I didn’t think she had the right to do what she did and that put me off this story a bit. Although that did impact my overall view of the book, I got off on the story mainly for the relationship between Cassie and Sienna, and because Sienna’s an interesting character.

Sienna and Cassie’s relationship is very sweet and was my perfect scenario in a way. Cassie is a lesbian. She’s straight about that right off the bat to Sienna and they become good friends working together. Cassie wants Sienna and just simply puts it out there asking Sienna if she’d be interested. She also points out that she’d never betray her like those guys did. Yeah, that’s a bit too much for me because even in a f/f relationship betrayal can happen. But Sienna feels a certain relaxation and trust with Cassie that she needs at the moment and she goes for it.

What I did appreciate here is that while Sienna does have trust issues with men, her going with Cassie didn't have that "men are all scumbags and therefore I'd rather be with a woman" feeling. I felt that Sienna really wanted to be with Cassie out of her own choice and not a negative reaction.

Their first time together is very sweet and real with Sienna worrying about her ability to satisfy Cassie since she’s never done oral with a woman and it’s kind of cute and poignantly written how she experiences that for the first time. And I must say, the sex between these two women was written very hotly. They are definitely very juicy together.

Gotcha! is a definite recommend by me for anyone who likes those “curious” "bi"centric women getting together stories. It’s a nicely written book and was a very yummy read even with the issues I had.

Sex rating: Commando. m/f, f/f, 69, light bondage. There’s only one f/f sex scene, but it’s very delicious.

Grade: B+

Review- Paybacks Are Hell by Yeva Wiest

Paybacks Are Hell
by Yeva Wiest
May 2007
Contemporary/ Lesbian
Short Story- 13 pgs. Pdf
Ebook

Buy it Phaze- $2.00

What happens when cool conniving boss, Lisa LaCour, double-crosses the wrong employee? A funny, quirky plan evolves to seduce the boss's daughter and to expose Lisa for the evil bitch she really is. Fun and sexy, this lesbian love story makes one laugh and gasp, as our heroine finds out revenge can be seductive, and our villain learns that paybacks are hell.

Paybacks Are Hell is very short story about revenge that had some steamy sex. That’s it basically.

I looked several times but I can’t find the name of the character who is telling this story so I’ll call her X. X has been screwed over by her boss Lisa who puts the blame on X for things that she has done in the company, and X decides to get back at Lisa. X’s plan is to seduce Lisa’s daughter. It turns out though, that Lisa’s daughter, Adrienne, knows how conniving her mother is and hates her as well, so she helps X get back at Lisa.

This is really too short a story to have anything developed really, but Yeva Wiest did manage to make it interesting and fun. And it is a complete story with no loose ends leftover.

First I didn’t like that X would stoop so low as to use another person to get back at Lisa because part of the feel good in revenge is that the person getting revenge is usually the better person who gets payback. X thinks about Adrienne in a very derogatory way, she’s: spoiled, paranoid, a princess, rather challenged intellectually and vain, so X just chats her up, playing her.

It turns out though that Adrienne is a likable person really and X finds herself very attracted to her. So X does really enjoy her seduction of her and it’s left off that X will keep hanging with Adrienne, which I did like.

The rest of the story is X and Adrienne getting proof that Lisa is stealing from the company and getting back at her.

That said, to be honest here, I read these stories for the sex and luckily there is one really yummy hawt sexual encounter, which is what made this story worth reading.

Sex rating: Orgasmic- basic vanilla girl on girl, but juicy.

Grade B-

Review- The Collettes: Luna by Dahlia Rose

The Collettes: Luna
by Dahlia Rose
June 2008
Paranormal/ Lesbian/ Interracial
Novella- 26K- $3.00
Ebook

Buy it Phaze

Part Two of The Collettes.

The Saga of the vampire sisters continues. Sola completed her quest for the first part of the Lazarus amulet with success. Now it is Luna Collette's turn to find her part of destiny. Her ally comes in the form of the daughter of their enemy, Creve.

Georgina Matthews, aptly nicknamed George, is a spitfire and vampire hunter who now she seeks revenge for the death of her father. When these two women meet, more than sparks of anger fly, but an attraction forms that they cannot deny. Will Luna be able to convince George that her life is meshed with the undead to save mankind? Will George be able to become something she has been taught to hate? A creature of the night, a hunter, and a drinker of blood.

The Collettes: Luna was such fun, fun book for me. It’s a vampire paranormal with lots of action that had an interesting comic book/fantasy feel to it. This is the second book in a series of three and I hadn’t read the first one, but it reads as a stand alone except for the end, which leaves off that more is to come.

The Collettes are three vampire sisters who were born as undead, an unusual occurrence as most vampires are made from humans. They are each looking for their specific piece that when put together forms the Lazarus amulet, an amulet that will allow them to walk in daylight and give them more powers. Each sister has a special power though and Luna hasn’t found hers yet to her dismay, since it’s needed to find her piece of the amulet.

Carthos, a powerful vampire who has minions of sub vampire beings that he created, is also looking for the amulet so that he can rule the world of both vamps and humans. And he’s a cruel, sadistic person who gets off on torturing both humans and vamps. The Collettes are trying to get to the amulet before him so they can keep him from destroying the world.

George is the daughter of a vampire hunter who was killed during a battle with them. She’s also been brought up to believe that all vampires are the enemy. When she gets word that her father was killed by the Collette sisters, she goes after them for revenge by first finding Luna and fighting her. Luna could have easily killed her being all super human and all but didn’t. When George touches her though, Luna starts turning into a bat and she realizes that George is the key to her special power. Both Luna and George find themselves getting turned on as well to the shock of both of them. Luna must now convince George that she needs to become a vampire to help them fight of Carthos.

These days, I’m always shocked when I come across a book that I go into just hoping it’s readable and it turns out to be not only entertaining but nicely written. Sad, but true. The Collettes: Luna starts out with action and stays on an engagingly adventurous course until the end. I read it in a couple of hours, which is rare for me.

The relationship between Luna and George is very sweet. Luna has suffered for centuries, even almost being burned at the stake a couple hundred years ago because of her relationship with a woman. She’s a bit jaded and feels that a true, long lasting love relationship with a woman can’t be; that being different precludes her from that kind of happiness, although she longs for it.

George falls for Luna straight away and sticks with her, showing her that she’s not about to walk out on Luna and that true love can happen for people like them if Luna would only be open to it. They are very cute and loving with each other and that part of the story was very satisfying.

The world building in this story is also very well done considering it’s a shorter book. Even though it’s second book of the series, it’s all explained so that I never once felt lost or didn’t understand how it all works. And it’s rather creative as well, using some of the norm in the vampiric/ paranormal genre, but also having a unique twist, keeping it from being ho-hum, yet another vampire story.

What I really wished was that this story would have been way more developed because my curiosity was piqued and I think a lot of little details could have made it better even though as is, it’s a good story. I’m sure I’ll get the third book just to see what happens even though it won’t be a f/f story.

All in all The Collettes: Luna was good find, not only for a f/f story but also in the world of the paranormal where vampire stories are a dime a dozen and many don’t stand out. I wish that Dahlia Rose would write more f/f as that part of the story was so gratifying to me.

Sex grade: Orgasmic- Vanilla girl on girl and very sweet.

Grade: B+

Review- Writing Skin by Adriana Kraft

Writing Skin
by Adriana Kraft
May 1, 2009
Contemporary/ Erotica/ Ménage f/f/m/ Interracial
360 pgs. - $ 6.99
Ebook

Buy it eXtasy Books

What would it be like to be romanced by not one but two potential partners, simultaneously?

Luci Parker has finally achieved the career of her dreams as an erotic author – but the only romance in her life these days is in the books she writes. Long attracted to both men and women, Luci despairs of ever finding just one person to settle down with. Owners of a South Side Chicago bookstore, Chai and Frank Ferguson eagerly devour Luci's books as fast as she can write them, and now they wonder if she might be the woman they've been looking for.

Frank is deeply in love with Chai but knows she'll never be complete without a woman to love as well. Can he match the passion of not one but two exquisite and complicated women at the same time? Will Luci even want him? And if Chai truly falls in love with Luci, will there be room for him?

I follow a GLBT promo blog and this book came up on it recently. Even though I seek out this type of book, I hadn’t heard of the author/s before, so I was very excited because this type of story is exactly what I want to read and it’s so hard to find. Writing Skin is about three people, two women and a man, who want to have a committed threesome for the long haul.

Luci is an erotic romance writer who is bisexual. She’s single at the moment having lost her last love, a woman, because this woman wanted kids and marriage. She’s attracted men equally, but for some reason they don’t love her and every relationship she’s had with a man has gone sour after they had sex.

Chai and Frank are a sexually open couple who like to experiment and experience different types of relationships. They are very happily married and love each other deeply. Chai is bisexual though and she would like express her need and love for a woman by bringing another woman to their relationship, which Frank is open to.

Both Chai and Frank have read Luci’s books and have used her sexual scenarios for titillation in their own relationship and feel that she might be the one they can share their life with. When Luci meets Chai she’s immediately attracted and agrees to try a relationship with them.

This isn’t an easy review for me to write because I had many mixed feelings about this story and it hit me more on an intellectual level, making me think a lot. I’ll do my best though.

The Plot: The main points of this story are Chai and Frank trying to seduce Luci to be their partner, and Luci needing to work out some personal issues to go along with it. That’s it. Most of what is going on here is lots of sex between the characters, relationship discussion, and Chai taking Luci on shamanic spiritual journeys to help her find out what her problem is so she can be open to her and Frank.

There’s also a strong, pervasive spiritual element/ theme to this story as well, which I feel some readers might be good with if they are into that kind of thing. It didn’t work for me although I got that the authors were trying to instill that this threesome is spiritually sanctioned by the universe, making it special and fated to all three.

The characters: Luci is younger than Chai and Frank, who are in their 40’s and it’s mostly from her POV that this story is told. She’s rather innocent and passive on some levels as she lets Chai push her spiritual agenda on her when she had no spiritual leanings to begin with and felt nothing wrong with herself before meeting Chai and Frank. At other times though, she’s very aggressive and assertive, especially during sex. She’s also very clear that she’s not going to join Chai and Frank until she’s good and ready, which I rather liked.

Chai is a shark. Or that’s how I experienced her. I really felt that she wants Luci and pushes for that, but there was a certain calculated-ness about her and how she went about it even though she's very spiritual. I felt her to be the main controller in the relationship dynamics between all of them even though Luci is the one who will decide whether or not to be with them.

She also practices shamanic rituals and seems to not do anything or make any decision until she consults the spirit guides. Because of this, I couldn’t feel who she is really and I wished she would have let her hair down, gone wild, shown her vulnerability and not been in control all the time because I think she's a very complex character.

Frank was barely a blip on this map. He’s a really nice guy but I didn’t feel anything about him, what makes his blood boil, gets his juices flowing. He’s just so accommodating and easy going and it felt more like he’s just there to comfort and service the women. I appreciated though, that he wasn’t a man who was in this for the “ooh, two hot women to service me” angle.

The Relationship/romance: Here I had some mixed feelings. What I liked was the intent of Chai and Frank to share their lives with another woman in a permanent situation. It was set up in a very respectful manor, meaning that all parties were to be in agreement about everything and that everything should be above board. The authors addressed several issues that can come up with a threesome, like jealousy as the characters discuss this and how to deal with it and I liked that.

Chai and Frank are very clear with Luci right from the beginning that to start, no two would have sex without the third present. These three are getting to know each other and agreed upon boundaries was a good start, I thought.

Another good point for me was that I felt the characters all felt very comfortable about expressing what they want sexually without judgment. It was very freeing for me to read that.

What went wrong for me here though was that everyone was so polite and respectful to each other that I felt the passion and raw emotion of love sex was choked to death. Kind of like if you’d say to your partner, “may I fuck you,” “Yes you may, I’d like that very much”, “thank you.” There’s no intensity or fire in that and sometimes too many rules and conditions stop the organic energy flow of a relationship.

I think the authors were really trying to set up a threesome in a way that IRL might be a good way to go about it, but this threesome relationship was overly talked out and intellectualized. I wanted to feel that these characters would die without each other and that never happened.

As far as the sex went, this is erotica and there were plenty of graphically written sexual scenarios. However, some of the expressions were off putting. Mainly many descriptions of female juice being copious and abundant.

‘"That a girl." Chai stroked relentlessly, strumming her until Luci squealed her name. "Look at you. You’re gushing for me." Chai quickly withdrew her finger and covered Luci’s flow with her mouth gulping in her essence.’

I’ve never been with a woman on that level so I don’t know, but by those descriptions and wording it’d be like guzzling a whole gallon of liquid, which is not something I want to imagine.

You might think with the criticisms I offered in this review that I wouldn’t read any more of Adriana Kraft’s books. You’d be wrong. I will get more of Adriana Kraft's books because even with those issues, I still felt that the authors were trying very hard to make this a beautiful, erotic romance that readers would love to use as titillation or foreplay as they express in their biography.

They do write very erotic sex, which did get me going a few times. But as a female reader, I need more of an emotional and passionate connection between the characters to get really juiced, even in erotica, and the heavy spiritual elements in this book got in the way of that. Maybe it was just this book that missed the mark for me but I’ll keep trying though because I really want this type of story and I wish authors like Adriana Kraft to keep writing it.

Sex rating: Orgasmic because there are many really graphic sexual scenarios. f/f, f/f/m, strap-on anal with man and DP with strap-on, anal, and toys.

Grade: C

Review- Sapphistocated by Alessia Brio, Jolie du Pre, Beth Wylde & Yeva Wiest

Sapphistocated
by Alessia Brio, Jolie du Pre, Beth Wylde & Yeva Wiest
February 2009
Contemporary/ Lesbian/ erotica
Novel- 61K
Anthology
Ebook

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Four rising stars of women's erotica come together in this sometimes funny, sometimes heartwarming, and totally engaging collection of stories about women who love women.

Double Decker by Alessia Brio: Tess is determined to win the big Karaoke contest at the Double Decker bar, and the heart of the woman organizing it. Will her evening end on a high note?

I Know What I Want by Jolie du Pre: Allie is an up and coming model who catches the eye of a wealthy, dominating woman. While the attentions and money from "special" modeling sessions are nice, Allie wants more...but how much is enough?

Better With Age by Beth Wylde: After nearly twenty years, Olivia runs into her first love, Aleesha. While time seems to fade as they reunite, Olivia isn't sure passion could possibly have survived. It takes a surprising discovery at home to convince her to find out for certain if she's gotten better with age.

Drawn by Yeva Wiest: Manga artist Sydney loves 'em thin and leaves 'em shortly afterward, so why is she obsessing over the big, beautiful daughter of her publisher? As her Yuri artwork torments her and friends advise her, Sydney struggles with these new feelings and learns that where love and passion are concerned, she doesn't have to draw the line at any particular size.

I’ve read a few anthologies now from Alessia Brio and to date, I haven’t been disappointed. There are always some very interesting and unique stories in them and Sapphistocated is no different. In this book, four authors whose names I’ve come to recognize as well known in f/f, lesbian romance and erotica, but not had the chance to read yet, are represented and it was a great chance to get a taste of each author’s writing.

What I liked with this book was the variety in stories. Each had a different flavor and ranged from very sweet, with characters who are soft and real, to gritty, in your face type characters who learn something about themselves. All the stories were well written and definitely grabbed my attention.

Double Decker by Alessia Brio- Tess is a very confident woman. She has her days, but then she has her SOL days, sex on legs days in which everything just falls into place. She’s participating in a karaoke contest in which the prize is a weekend trip to a resort and she really wants to win. It’s a quarterly contest held in a dyke bar, the Double Decker, and she knows she has a good chance to win. And she’s lucky because it just also happens to be an SOL day for her as well. She always manages to find someone to go home with after these karaoke contests, but on this night there is only one woman she wants. But that woman has no idea what Tess feels.

This story is one in which the over confident person get a little comeuppance. Tess as a character came across at very arrogant. She knows she’s hot and she’s sure she’s the best singer. She’s also very confident that she can seduce anyone in the audience to get who she wants when she wants. I had mixed feelings about her. She’s not someone I would normally like and the fact that she goes on and on and on about how great she is through most of the story got a bit tedious.

I wished there would have been more interactions with the woman she does want and less of the build up of Tess’ ego. I wanted more tension created between them. But Tess does get knocked down a few pegs when the one woman she does want seems to blow her off. Tess does then recognize that she got too cocky and that’s what turned the story around for me. Plus, there’s hawt sex. I’m shallow like that, what can I say. B+

I Know What I Want- Jolie du Pre- Allie is working as a waitress in a sucky job, but she’s gorgeous enough to eke out a small living modeling on the side, which is what she’d rather do. One day a friend of a photographer calls Allie and tells her she has a modeling job for her and will pay her 2k per hour to be a centerpiece at her party, but she needs to interview her first.

Vivian, the woman who hires her, is an older and very wealthy woman who comes onto Allie sexually but cuts Allie off before really doing anything. Allie is very intrigued by her and wants to be with her. Vivian then plays this game with her of making Allie feel that she is interested and yet blowing her off all the time, controlling the relationship totally. Even after they have sex and Vivian says she loves Allie, she never quite gives Allie the satisfaction that she will really be with her.

When Allie gets a call from a major fashion magazine that wants her to be their main model, she goes to NY and although Vivian has said she would come, she doesn’t. In the meantime, Allie gets with the assistant of the magazine editor and they fall in love. Then Vivian shows up.

I have to be honest; the end of this story was very abrupt and a bit disappointing. While I got that this is about Allie deciding what she wants, I felt that the stronger part of the story, or lets say the part that was the most developed and had the more interesting dynamics, petered out.

Vivian is such a delicious, mysterious character. She in total control of that relationship with Allie and had some really interesting Domme characteristics that made her exciting. She’s very cool and yet, very patient with Allie as Allie tries to figure out what the deal is with Vivian. Yes, Vivian is very manipulative, but the cool mystique around her made her the most compelling character in this story.

The beginning of the story is all about Allie and Vivian, but then it shifts to Allie and the assistant. Allie is just your normal type girl with no real outstanding qualities who’s enthralled with Vivian and wants her, but also gets really pissed off with being dicked around. She has a more normal, realistic relationship with the assistant, but is unfinished with Vivian. When Vivian comes back into town, she calls Allie acting like nothing is bad between them and Allie blows her off. Then it just ends. What? Wait… don’t stop.

Personally, as a reader, the focus of this story was on the wrong person, it should have been on Vivian who was the more complex character. What makes her tick, why she’s acting like she is, does she really love Allie or is it a game… so much about her I wanted to know. Not so much about Allie. And the D/s elements that were hinted at, but never really developed, were also way more intriguing than the story between Allie and the assistant.

So I’d have to say that on quite a few levels this was a really cool story, but there was disappointment in the ending, which left me wanting a lot more. B+

Better with Age by Beth Wylde- Olivia is a woman heading into middle age and alone. She has a grown daughter who’s in college and is coming home for a night for her birthday before going back. Olivia is lonely, suffering from empty nest syndrome, but gets by keeping busy with her job.

Aleesha is also an older woman who hasn’t really found that person with whom she can really love and settle down with. She’s come back to her home town and bought a small bakery and is just living life… that is until quite by coincidence, Olivia shows up to pay for a cake she ordered for her daughter’s birthday.

Olivia and Aleesha were lovers in high school until Olivia’s mom caught them together and forced Olivia to drop Aleesha or she and her father would cut all ties with her. Being young and naïve, she let go of Aleesha. Now meeting Aleesha after all these years, the sparks fly again between them and they find that they cannot resist each other.

Oh what a totally sweet story this is. I loved, loved it! Beth Wylde really captured that feeling between the characters of a love that never dies and that feeling of coming home and rightness that happens when you find and are in the presence your soul mate. Neither one of these women have found a person who could replace the other or give them what they had together and they get immediately that after all those years that they still feel the same with each other.

I also thought their fears and vulnerabilities about their much older bodies being desirable to the other to be very touching as well. Olivia and Aleesha are just two characters that are so easy to relate to and it’s a nicely written, very satisfying story. And it's always nice to read a story about two older characters who find love. A-

Drawn by Yeva Wiest- Sydney is a cartoon artist who gets a little too involved in her characters, is definitely a butch who has very specific tastes in what she likes in a woman’s looks, and… she’s a player. She hasn’t had any nookie for a while and while creating a character, she creates the perfect woman but with two heads that can be swapped. One head is for the character’s nice personality and the other for the evil one. When Sydney goes in to see her boss to show her the new character and story, she likes what she sees in Beth, her boss’ assistant. Beth is tall and willowy and just Sydney’s type. She asks Beth out and Beth agrees.

But wait… who also shows up in the office is Alice, the boss’ daughter. She’s round and voluptuous, has huge breasts and heavy thighs and Sydney has an immediate reaction against her thinking Alice is too fat for her. And yet, there’s something about Alice that Sydney finds herself attracted to. The next day when Sydney goes to meet Beth for a date, Alice just happens to be in the hall of the apartment building since she lives in a nearby apartment and again, Sydney finds against herself that she feels this intense attraction to Alice.

Alice gets that Sydney has judged her straight away as too fat and keeps cool with Sydney even though both of them are aware of some kind of attraction going on. After a while it becomes too much for Sydney when she finds herself thinking of Alice non-stop and getting all up in that soft, round, womanly body and she finds any excuse to meet with her.

First, all around, this was a very quirky story, which had a bizarre fantasy element going on with it. Sydney’s drawing, Kisha, messes with Sydney all the time, demanding her attention and doing awful spiteful things. Sydney also has sex with her. It’s written in an odd way so that I never quite knew what’s going on with that. It’s obvious that when Kisha is involved that it’s Sydney’s imagination and maybe even the two parts of herself being expressed, but it’s written as Kisha literally doing those things, so that part is a bit strange. Ultimately, I didn’t really get the point of that, why it was even there really.

What I really got off on in this story is how Yeva Wiest has Sydney all flustered about suddenly being attracted to a woman who is so not her usual taste and who changes the usual dynamic of her being butch who loves femmes. And Ok, I liked that she falls for a fat chick and that it’s Alice’s curves and fullness that turns her on. I just like stories in which a character finds themselves acting out of character and being totally turned on by that.

Then there was the weird night Sydney had with Beth. Truly, this story went into bizarro land a few times and it was very entertaining, like being in a lesbian erotica story written by Seinfeld. B+

Sapphistocated was a general, all around good read and I’m glad that I finally got a chance to read a few stories from some authors I’ve been meaning to get to. It’s definitely a nice collection of distinctly different stories, but all ending on a good note. And the sex in all of these stories was deliciously written and sizzling as well.

Sex rating: Orgasmic- very erotic and steamy f/f, some minor anal, strap on. Mostly vanilla.

Grade: B+