It's a single hot-tub scene with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher doing the sex we've all seen before and enjoy seeing again. It's got all the heat we'd It's a single hot-tub scene with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher doing the sex we've all seen before and enjoy seeing again. It's got all the heat we'd expect from our favorites. There is not really any new ground covered here except to say that it's nice to see Anita no longer torn over her sexuality. That was becoming extremely onerous and tiresome and it's refreshing to see her just enjoy that part of herself now without needing to grieve herself and everyone else over it.
There is also a scene that is a sneak peek at the next book, Kiss the Dead (#21 in the series).
I agree with the general consensus that at 2.99 the piece is exorbitantly over priced. That said, I rate based on the content not the price, particularly since I have no way of knowing if the price was set by the author or the publisher and it doesn't really have anything to do with the story.
This is a 4 star sex scene but I'm so used to seeing that quality of sex scene in the Anita Blake series that it's not special.
Merged review:
It's a single hot-tub scene with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher doing the sex we've all seen before and enjoy seeing again. It's got all the heat we'd expect from our favorites. There is not really any new ground covered here except to say that it's nice to see Anita no longer torn over her sexuality. That was becoming extremely onerous and tiresome and it's refreshing to see her just enjoy that part of herself now without needing to grieve herself and everyone else over it.
There is also a scene that is a sneak peek at the next book, Kiss the Dead (#21 in the series).
I agree with the general consensus that at 2.99 the piece is exorbitantly over priced. That said, I rate based on the content not the price, particularly since I have no way of knowing if the price was set by the author or the publisher and it doesn't really have anything to do with the story.
This is a 4 star sex scene but I'm so used to seeing that quality of sex scene in the Anita Blake series that it's not special....more
I DNF'd this at 30 percent. Don't get me wrong, I usually find Sanders' monster erotica quite good. But this just hits so many of my "oh, hell naw" trI DNF'd this at 30 percent. Don't get me wrong, I usually find Sanders' monster erotica quite good. But this just hits so many of my "oh, hell naw" tropes that I have to just stop putting myself through the disgust and end it.
I've been a domme for maybe 30 or more years. I understand submissive mindsets quite well, even if I am unequivocally not one. But I'm also a stickler for consent and this dubcon and fem-sub domination "for her own good" really makes my gorge rise. So I'm done.
No rating, it would be unfair of me to rate something that hits all my "fuck that" buttons, and that I didn't finish....more
Fair. The characters weren't terribly likeable and the amount of story that was erotica was high. I imagine it'll turn out to be a reverse harem in thFair. The characters weren't terribly likeable and the amount of story that was erotica was high. I imagine it'll turn out to be a reverse harem in the long run. Hard to call it a slow burn just because there wasn't any actual consummation when 70% of the story is erotica but it's imagined erotica.
There's one other audiobook in this series, book 2, that I'm aware of but I don't think I'll be continuing the story....more
3+ish - rating up because I like the series/universe.
I actually liked the hero better in the little bit he appeared in the Veredian Chronicles. I went3+ish - rating up because I like the series/universe.
I actually liked the hero better in the little bit he appeared in the Veredian Chronicles. I went into this book expecting dark as advertised, so I am not down grading for the triggery stuff that some people wouldn't like. I can parse fiction from fact and don't feel like the entire world has to accommodate any of my personal triggers - otherwise nobody would ever post another picture of the World Trade Center falling. But I didn't find the heroine terribly likeable. Not that she was a terrible person or anything of the sort, it's just that her issues were the kind of thing that make my lip curl. I'm not as empathetic to submissive women as I could be, I suppose. It was nice to see her get through it a bit, though.
I really like this universe and the reads are all easy to fly through. This particular book focused a lot more on the relationship than the Veredian Chronicles stories. I usually like a smidge more story with my romance.
Could someone please whisper into the author's ear that the saying is "if you thought (insert whatever here) then you've got another THINK coming (not thing)"? The point is "if you thought x then you're about to think y."
It was ok although not particularly my cup of tea at the moment. It was a 5.5 hour audiobook with entirely too much erotica. It was grim/dark which I It was ok although not particularly my cup of tea at the moment. It was a 5.5 hour audiobook with entirely too much erotica. It was grim/dark which I didn't mind so much, and the bdsm absolutely didn't bother me but MaleDom/femsub isn't my preferred flavor of BDSM. Over and above the BDSM the story was full of abusive relationships and codependency and that sort of thing stopped being quality drama for me a long time ago. The long arc, which gets pretty much laid out at the end, is interesting but I think the story tries too hard to be edgy and falls on a lot of abuse tropes to do it.
It was typical of Jess Michaels' steamy historical romances. Both of the protagonists were quite likeable, the heroine's "breakage" didn't ma3.5 stars
It was typical of Jess Michaels' steamy historical romances. Both of the protagonists were quite likeable, the heroine's "breakage" didn't make her insufferable but only slightly stupid, and the introduction to the rest of the family gives us a peek into how the rest of the stories will go.
There were a few places that I rolled my eyes, but I often do that with romance and there was little else to the storyline, and what else there was came and went fairly quickly.
Jess Michaels' flair for smexy isn't missing any beats in this offering, either. I'll read the next....more
I'm slightly torn on the rating for this. There were several things that caused me to spend a considerable amount of time rolling my eyes at this bookI'm slightly torn on the rating for this. There were several things that caused me to spend a considerable amount of time rolling my eyes at this book. Let me count the ways -
There were a lot of times in a lot of different situations that I found myself thinking that I was uncomfortably aware of the difference in ages between the author and myself. Sometimes I wondered if it was just an age difference, if it was just my own peeves about tropes in the genre, or if it was lack of research. I mean, why would a woman in her 20s who is working on her PhD in Psychology, with a lifetime problem with dreams, never have heard of lucid dreaming? No, they didn't call it lucid dreaming in the book but the "techniques" that the protag was reluctant to try were lucid dreaming. Is it really feasible that a 550 year old man would obsess like Twilight's Bella over a woman, even if he's genetically programmed to "mate" with her? When she hit her head and lost consciousness and you said her eyes were "fully dialated and fixed" did you mean to suggest she was in a coma? If so, do you really think it was reasonable for her to wake up in a short time and then want to eat? I'm thinking a head injury that significant is probably going to cause a bit of nausea for a while, too, not to mention the headache. I could go on with these sorts of examples.
There was a bit too much sex for me, although I readily admit that I tend to lean to romances that have so much "non-relationship" plot going on that it's a 50/50 mix between romance or urban fantasy. This is a romance. I may not have found the amount of sex to be over the top if the mutual, mind-talk obsessing hadn't been even more frequent. It's entirely possible that the mind talk that sounded like middle school love put me off in general.
The author may have hired an editor but the piece is in pretty significant need of a copy editor. It's not things that make you think the writer doesn't know how to diagram a sentence. No. It's more like typos and inner struggles about sentence structure that didn't get finalized. It is enough to cause a mental stumbling block when reading the book. There were enough of them that another run through the eyes of a fresh copy editor is warranted.
And yet I give it 3 stars. Why is that? Well, it's not a bad first effort for a young indie author. The lore and the story line is not exactly original, in fact it reminds me a great deal of Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series in terms of story line. Even so, there is enough originality in the way she's built the world, developed the characters, and put together the long arc to be engaging. I mean, I rolled my eyes a lot, but I read it pretty much straight through, too, so something spoke to me. Be advised, the non-relationship subject matter is pretty dark. If you've got sex abuse triggers you might want to avoid it.
If I got a wish it would be that the characters are a bit more adult-like in the way they deal with conflict and in the relationship aspects of the story.
I'll probably read the next one, too. I find I care about the primary and secondary characters and would like to see where it goes. I'm also hoping that the author spends a bit more time on the copy edits. ;)...more
As expected and as suggested in the description the vast majority of this long novella is sex. It's wrapped around personal growth for several of the As expected and as suggested in the description the vast majority of this long novella is sex. It's wrapped around personal growth for several of the characters, which is something that I've always enjoyed about the majority of the sex that happens in this series. While it can seem, sometimes, to be redundant in form it never seems gratuitous to me. I have to admit that I like that Anita has gotten so laid back about sex.
A couple of things happened in this that have me looking forward to seeing how they will evolve later on. Will Jason relocate? Will J.J. kick the girlfriend to the curb? Will Anita insist on a new dynamic with Jade? How will Domino fit in with Jade going forward?
My only significant disappointment is that apparently Jean-Claude has become the defacto "King of America" and/or "Leader of the American Vampire Council" which can only mean LKH intends for all that to have occurred off the page. I much prefer the supernatural politics to the police procedurals and have been patiently waiting while she moved the last several novels more to the police procedural format in the hope that the vampire politics would come up and take center stage at some point. But if J.C. is the "king" then it's happened off the page and I'm not going to get what I've been waiting for. I promise not to pitch a fit and make throwing rocks at LKH my new hobby over it. There is plenty of that to go around about the Anita series.
It seems to me that LKH has moved her novels back to predominately police procedural format and is covering the erotica in the shorts. I don't mind it, although I doubt it'll satisfy the whiners who seem to prop their egos up with bashing authors of books they no longer read. I would like to see more vampire politics, and supernatural group politics, but I suppose we can't all get what we want.
********************* I just can not read the comments by other people on this series any longer.
We KNOW you don't like the sex, in fact you whinge so much I wonder if perhaps you don't like sex at all.
The description makes it clear that sex will be a driving plot point in this particular book. If you are still interested in the series but don't want to deal with sex as a main plot point then consider reading some of the more recent novels as the sex in them was minimal as was the angst about sex. If you are "too afraid" to try then move on and leave the series to those of us who are still enjoying it.
Unless you just enjoy the negativity, which is pretty much what I've come to and that's why I won't be reading your reviews or comments anymore....more
This was a rather entertaining erotic short that had both smokin' hot erotic content and a well written, engaging fantasy story framework for the erotThis was a rather entertaining erotic short that had both smokin' hot erotic content and a well written, engaging fantasy story framework for the erotica.
Deftly written to include both flowery prose and forthright verbiage in an hard-to-achieve balance, it should please erotic readers of all stripes. With an ending that was both satisfying and left room for elaboration without feeling like a cliff hanger or marketing ploy, it left me hoping the world would be continued so I could learn more about it and perhaps be introduced to more of the characters. What ever happened to the captured elementals? Will they be freed? What about the Golden Empire? Will it advance and harm the Sisters? Will the Salamander Lord approach the others? Will Enya still worry for the sisters now?
It's a perfect one-handed-read for those times when a novel is too much but pure erotica is just not enough.
I probably would have given this a pretty solid four stars were it not for the cliff hanger ending. First, I was expecting a full length book and it'sI probably would have given this a pretty solid four stars were it not for the cliff hanger ending. First, I was expecting a full length book and it's a novella, which wouldn't have bothered me if the ending hadn't been a fish hook for the next one.
It was an interesting, if not entirely original, take on vampire lore. The characters were fairly well drawn for a first book. The clearly stated conflict at the beginning of the book was resolved, but the conflict that arose from the evolution of the story, toward the end, wasn't resolved and was clearly a manipulative marketing device.
And we all know how I love to be toyed with without my permission. NOT.
I wanted to give this book kudos and support, but that ending killed it so hard for me I probably won't read any more of them....more
I enjoyed this one a bit more than the one before although I'd be untruthful if I suggested that the amount of mutual abuse, and the toleranc3.5 stars
I enjoyed this one a bit more than the one before although I'd be untruthful if I suggested that the amount of mutual abuse, and the tolerance of it, between these three was the kind of drama I enjoy. I felt a bit like I suffered through it to get to the meat of the story, frankly. I know some people enjoy angst and dysfunction as relationship hurdles that need to be over come, but I find them pedestrian particularly when they are manifested as abuse and the tolerance of it in the name of "love." To me it often reads like "co-dependents on parade" and I got that feeling in much of this.
That said, I do understand that all three of these people were broken and that over coming it for all three was significant character development. So I'm a bit torn, frankly. I probably would have preferred if more time had been spent on the metaphysical aspects and hurdles, rather than the emotional angst, mutual and self abuse.
It's a good world and good lore, though. I'm probably complaining that it was too much angsty romance and not enough fantasy, which is pretty typical of me.
Still, I liked it well enough to read the next....more
I read "Sacrified to the Demon" and it's not listed among the Christie Sims books on GR. This is the only "Demon Erotica" by Christie Sims listed hereI read "Sacrified to the Demon" and it's not listed among the Christie Sims books on GR. This is the only "Demon Erotica" by Christie Sims listed here. I'm not sure if the story I read is incorporated into this collection or not.
It was horrible. Poorly written, jarringly unbelievable, and it sounded like a bad porn film turned into a novella. It was in significant need of an editor, too.
This is not erotica, this is porn. Which is fine if that's what you're into, but my problem with most porn is that the dialog, story, and sound is so very bad that it ruins the sex. This book is comparable....more
3.5 I put off reviewing this for a long time because, although I loved getting all the back story and insight into the characters and would have rated 3.5 I put off reviewing this for a long time because, although I loved getting all the back story and insight into the characters and would have rated the book 4.5 stars at least for that, I hated the ending with a burning passion filled with vitriol and resentment that I have been known to rate 1 star for.
So I've remained quiet because I knew I could not give it a fair review.
I still believe this is one of the best written BDSM series on the contemporary market, but the cliff hanger ending in this book dampened my enthusiasm. I would be lying to say otherwise....more
Pretty hot little 3-some fantasy short. Sinnder's fantasy, that is. Sinnder is an equal opportunity player and a very dirty boy. I like that about himPretty hot little 3-some fantasy short. Sinnder's fantasy, that is. Sinnder is an equal opportunity player and a very dirty boy. I like that about him. :D...more
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