Of Silk and Bondage: Blood & Lust is a Sensual Fantasy of Blood and Bone

 

 

Blood & Lust: Silken Chains and Splintered Bones

Annabelle Craven

Dark Desires Press, 2024

Ebook, 84 ppg.

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After the silk is tied to Alina's wrist, it tightens, sending a sensual tingle to her chest. The host of the sex club, the Priestess, comments, "It will unlock everything you’ve been too afraid to feel." Up until that moment, Alina was timid and hesitant as she tentatively explored the sex club which her lover, Dorian, brought her to. Even after the ribbon's power courses through her very being, Alina still hesitates to act on her impulses and seek the pleasure which she truly desires. Her lover, meanwhile, is enraptured by the ribbon’s power, submitting to its seductive allure and ignoring Alina’s cries for them to leave.

 

Alina seems to be the kind of person who is guarded. As though she’s afraid to give in to her desires. I wondered if this is why Dorian wanted them to visit this club. He seems to have no problems giving in to his desires and his insistence to Alina to “let go” makes me also wonder if underneath his layers is a sense of frustration in their sex life.

 

Reading this story, one would assume that the ribbon offered at the beginning is just that: A simple ribbon. Some kind of marker to identify someone as belonging to another. But it would seem that what the person wearing a ribbon belongs to is not so much a person, but something more sinister and terrifying.

 

This novella is a lot like the club that Alina walks into: It offers pleasure and comfort, but ultimately delivers terror and alarm. It is written so well, with the seductive moments holding me captive while the horrifying scenes made me squirm. The author holds nothing back, unraveling the mysteries of the ribbon with an electric and terrifying intensity. Blood & Lust is a titillating story that held me in its grip, leaving me to struggle to stay on the very edge of my seat as I was suffocated by this tapestry of horror. It is an engaging mix of erotica and horror that I will not soon forget.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  

 

The Source of Pure Evil: Toxic Maternal: The Beginning is the gut-wrenching and horrifying prequel we didn’t know we needed

 

 

Toxic Maternal: The Beginning

C.A. Baynam & Chisto Healy

Unveiling Nightmares Press, 2024

ISBN-13: 979-8332004902

Ebook, 165 ppg.

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They say that a sequel should be better than the first book. Maybe this applies to prequels as well. The prequel to Toxic Maternal, Toxic Maternal: The Beginning by C.A. Baynam and Chisto Healy, is an eye-popping, jaw-dropping and spinetingling read! I would not say it is better than TM, but it definitely gets awful close to it!

 

In Toxic Maternal by C.A. Baynam, readers got to meet the mother from Hell, one who sexually, psychologically, verbally and physically abused her children, Sarah and Andrew. In this book, the prequel, we learn just what it was that made Mother, whose name is Caroline, into the kind of monster that we see in the book. Toxic Maternal: The Beginning shows the kind of horrible life Caroline endured in a home with an alcoholic and abusive father, along with a likewise abusive mother. However, her mother’s anger and hatred come from her dissatisfaction with her marriage and her life in general. Readers get to find out the shocking secret behind what it is that turns her into something else entirely, and just how it affects the young Caroline!

 

Just as with the other book, there is a lot of extreme gore, violence and sex in this story. However, some of the sex acts in this book are otherworldly, having a lot to do with the driving force that turns Caroline’s mother, Elena, as well as Caroline herself, into dark, evil and sinister forces. It happens a lot faster for Elena than it does for Caroline, and for this, Caroline ends up suffering through this horrifying transformation.

 

If you feel the need for some good blood and gore, you’ll find it in this story as well. There was one scene in particular where a character was murdered and it was so gory with lots of detailed slaughter, I loved it! I enjoyed reading this part of this story, and not just because that particular character deserved what he got but because it was written so well. It’s not “one and done” but a slow killing, with the character suffering from each blow.

 

And I must add that the character, Johnson, is so resourceful. I mean, he just suddenly appears with a machete. LOL He’s definitely a keeper!

 

So, is reading this prequel to Toxic Maternal recommended? I would not force it on anyone, but reading this story helped me to understand why what happened in Toxic Maternal happened. As I read through one scene that explained it all, I was like, “Oh. Well, now it makes sense.” What kind of mother would do such things to her own children in Toxic Maternal? If you ever wanted to know, you will find out by reading Toxic Maternal: The Beginning! Read this book to get a better understanding of why those chilling events unfolded, and in doing so, read about even more chilling events that sets everything in motion for a family of pure evil!

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Escaping a Cloud City to a City in Ruins: Sky High is a science-fiction dystopian novel of four teens risking it all for freedom

 

Sky High

Christy J. Breedlove

Fire & Ice Young Adult Books, 2024

ISBN: ISBN: 979-8-88653-279-1

Ebook, 260 ppg.

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Four teenagers – Toby, Justice, Remy and Maria – run away from their sky-high utopian world to the earth below, well aware that it lay in ruins. But the prospect of living with freedom instead of in a society governed by rules and cultures they no longer accepted was too tempting to pass up. When they touch down on Earth, where it lays in ruins on account of a devastating enormous earthquake that lay the planet in waste centuries ago, they discover that the paradise they thought they would escape to turns out to be hell, with savages, wild animals and barely anywhere for them to take shelter. Still, they press on, hoping to find somewhere to live. Meanwhile, they have security guards hot on their heels, determined to return the teens to their homes.

 

I realize that this is a science fiction dystopian novel, but reading about a futuristic Eugene (in Oregon, where I actually happen to live!) that is in shambles because of a record-breaking 9.9  earthquake and survivalist societies was giving me strong dystopian vibes. (I also had to laugh at the “yellow brick road” comment later in the story, because another name for Eugene is the Emerald City!)

 

They say that the biggest threat to the PNW (Pacific Northwest) is a tsunami, but an earthquake registering high on the Richter scale is not impossible. In truth, it could happen at any time. And coincidentally, while I was reading this novel, I came across an article highlighting the dangerous prospect of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that could occur in the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years. (Here is the link to that article if you want to read it. Interestingly still, it also states that "Oregon has the potential for a 9.0+ magnitude earthquake caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone and a resulting tsunami of up to 100 feet in height that will impact the coastal area.")

 

The earthquake that wreaked havoc in the West in this story made the city of Eugene no longer habitable. "If the quake hadn’t taken their lives, the thick, porridge-like atmosphere had strangled all life and starved the populace." (Page 109) The story takes place 800 years after the quake. I wondered why everybody decided all those years ago to go live up in the sky. I mean, maybe they could’ve set up a village on the ocean, or something?

 

But, anyway. That’s what happened in this story. And in this sky-high metropolis consisting of 6000 civilians, no one is allowed to leave, let alone to Earth. But these four teenagers do, and it sets them on the course of an adventure of their lifetime.

 

It was hard to read the parts of the story where the group killed wild dogs. I get it, the dogs are wild and it’s “kill or be killed,” but they’re DOGS! And I love dogs. Truthfully, I started skimming over those scenes. It got me upset.

 

Still, this is only a reminder of how harsh life and what little civilization there is left in that area of land is like at that point in time. “Kill or be killed” is the law of the land, and when an animal attacks, the only response is to kill it or be killed. This much I understood.

 

And it gets worse later on, after the group of teens get captured by a savage clan. I had to admire Toby’s restraint as he tried to reason with the leaders and speak to them in a way they would understand. Toby is the most level-headed of the group. The savage clan really is savage, living in a way that is barbaric as well as in a society where the women are assigned to harems. The group of teens are treated brutally by these people, making them wonder if it was worth escaping from Cloud’s Rest in the first place.

 

And that’s the thing. As I read this story, I kept asking myself, Why did they run away? What made where they came from so bad? These teens do share that information towards the end of the story, and I totally understood then and there why they escaped.

 

Sky High was an intelligent, captivating story of adventure, excitement and, overall, hope. You want to cheer the four teens on, but at the same time send them back home because of the dangerous world they venture into. But these teens are not giving up on their quest for freedom, and in making their journey, they grow into mature young adults capable of taking on whatever life throws at them.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.