Sally Bend's Blog, page 14

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Idolfire by Grace Curtis

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

My choice this week is an epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip complete with sword fights and a slowburn romance.

Idolfire

by Grace Curtis
Fantasy } Romance
March 11, 2025 by DAW Books

An epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip inspired by the fall of Rome, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Frontier and Floating Hotel

On one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she’s determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

On the other, Kirby of Wall’s End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she’ll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead — or waiting for a spark to light it anew…

A character-driven science-fantasy road trip book with sword fights and a slowburn romance, Idolfire delves into the vastness of history and the terrifying power of organized faith.

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

Back from an amazing vacation in Orlando, where we not only did 4 days at Universal Studios, but we got to see a SpaceX launch on our day at Cape Kennedy! Didn’t get a lot of reading done while I was there, but I did splurge on the latest weighty tome from Brandon Sanderson as soon as we got home – Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive.

For Review

In putting together a Most Anticipated list for 2025, I requested a bunch of new ARCs, and 4 were approved almost instantly – plus I got a surprise review copy from an old friend!

In many ways, Dragonclaw was the soft launch of my return to regular reviewing, so nabbing a copy of L.R. Lam’s Emberclaw was never in question. Idolfire by Grace Curtis was a book I saw featured on Instagram, and it had me at the promise of “epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip with sword fights and a slowburn romance.”

As an editor, I always love what queer collections Lee Mandelo puts together, so Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity is a very exciting addition to the review shelves. I actually requested a copy on Edelweiss over a month ago, so getting an immediate NetGalley approval was a huge relief. Wooing the Witch Queen, the new romantasy by Stephanie Burgis, is another lingering Edelweiss request, and another case of NetGalley to the rescue!

That old friend I mentioned? None other than the amazing M.Christian,who kindly gifted me a copy of the new edition of his collection, In Control: The Short, Kinky, Otherworldly Fiction of M.Christian.

Currently Reading

As for what I’m currently reading, I’ve got 3 books on the go. I’ve gone back to finish the last few stories in You Like It Darker, this year’s Stephen King collection, not because I’m hugely excited (it’s far from the vintage dark horror I was looking for), but because I want to clear the currently-reading shelf. Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory is actually a vacation reread, but with an ARC of the final book on my TBR, I want to refresh my memory. Finally, to no great surprise, I’ve cracked the spine on Wind and Truth, but I know it’s likely to be an on-again/off-again kind of read for a while.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

My choice this week is a queer novella about a dragon hunter finding a home with a dragon queen.

Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame

by Neon Yang
Fantasy } Epic Fantasy
May 6, 2025 by Tordotcom

A new Queer, Asian-inspired fantasy novella about a renowned dragon slayer who never takes her armor off in public, Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame reads like She Who Became the Sun meets The Mandalorian, with dragons!

The fiercely independent nation of Quanbao is isolated, reclusive, and something of a mystery to the rest of the world. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper but instead loved and worshiped.

Yeva is perhaps a strange emissary to these people. Not only because their face has never been seen in public, but because they are a hero born to a birthright that makes them suited for their task—hunting dragons.

And so the dragon hunter must woo Quanbao’s queen—the Lady Sookhee—to understand what secrets she is hiding. A woman reasonably suspicious of Yeva’s intentions, and the imperial might of the throne she represents, Sookhee bears the burden of the safety of her entire people. How can she trust this stranger newly arrived to her court, a weapon forged in blood and fire, to understand what her people need and how best to safeguard their future?ence and darkness, in which monsters vie for control of royal courts and destinies of nations. She discovers the bloody secrets of the Four Chains Trading Company, and the truth about her real mother’s death, nearly twenty years before…

Thoroughly Enjoying A Holiday Under Her Control with Pearl O’Leslie

Title: A Holiday Under Her Control
Author: Pearl O’Leslie
Publication Date: December 1, 2024
Genres: Erotic Romance
Protagonist Gender: Male

By this point, we all know the tired tropes of holiday romance, especially the one about the big city girl reluctantly returning to her small town for an emergency, meeting up with someone from her past, magically discovering a love she left behind, and spontaneously deciding to uproot her entire life and leave the big city behind.

That’s precisely how A Holiday Under Her Control begins, but there’s a twist. A big twist. All of that occurs off the page, and instead of following along as she ticks off the holiday cliches, Pearl O’Leslie invites us to follow the man she left behind – a man who meets up with a woman similarly left behind.

Although there is anger, sadness, and frustration to overcome, the story is actually quite lighthearted, even comical at times, as Elizabeth and Trevor swap their stories of heartbreak. There’s a spark there, a connection, and they decide to kindle it through the holidays, no strings attached. She likes being in control, but her fiancé didn’t get it, while he enjoys being controlled, but his fiancée had zero interest in kink. They both know how foolish and impulsive their plans are, but it’s precisely what each of them needs.

Elizabeth and Trevor are both wonderful characters with distinct personalities, careers, families, and all the other backstory elements you need to not just identify with them, but emphasize with them. You believe in their connection to the point where you spend the book wishing for it to become something more than a holiday fling. The FLR elements are beautifully woven into the story, underlying their relationship and elevating it from just a kink to a lifestyle. There’s still a lightheartedness to it all, with plenty of laughter and smiles amidst the terse commands and pained cries, with Miss Pearl placing it all into context.

Of course, A Holiday Under Her Control is still a holiday romance, and there are still tropes to be honored, but I will not spoil how they slip into the story or where they lead. This is a fun, feel-good, FLR romance that any reader with even a passing interest in the world of femdom and BDSM will enjoy.

Rating:

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

A second week without buying a book, and odds are I can stretch that into three, what with our vacation this week . . . but then Trudeau has promised to remove the HST/GST from books through the holidays (plus Wind and Truth releases the day we get home), so I don’t expect my abstinence to last long.

For Review

A quiet week on the review front with just one new title . . . but it’s an exciting one!

Deliverance of Dragons by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory – the long-awaited (7 years!) final book of The Dragon Prophecy Trilogy promises an epic conclusion to the first War of the Endarkened [May 27, 2025]Currently Reading

Finally, as for what I’m currently reading . . . well, that’s a very good question (LOL). I’m still scrambling to figure out which books to take on vacation with me. They have to be portable enough for airports and theme parks, and by familiar authors whom I can trust to keep me engaged. The only thing worse than walking 10k steps a day with a massive hardcover weighing down your bag is being stuck with a DNF when there are no other books on hand.

Coming up with a tower of ‘maybe’ reads is one of the most exciting parts of vacation. Narrowing that down to 2 or 3? That’s literal cruelty.

Every Time a Bell Clinks, B.J. Frazier Gets Her Kinks in Mistletoe Bound

Title: Mistletoe Bound
Author: B.J. Frazier
Publication Date: December 24, 2024 by B.J. Frazier Publications, LLC
Genres: Fiction | Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Male

Having deconstructed the entire genre of Hallmark Holiday romances in A Domme for Christmas, the lovely Miss B.J. Frazier turns her attention to a holiday classic here, reinventing It’s A Wonderful Life as a kink-fueled tale of meaning and purpose in Mistletoe Bound.

Like the movie, the story starts on a rather dour note with Nolan Drexel finding himself at a breaking point. Jobless, struggling to make ends meet, feeling sorry for himself, and dealing (poorly) with the added stresses of the holidays, he comes across as miserable, at best, and cruel, at worst. Honestly, I have to give Miss Frazier credit for going all-in and sticking with the theme because, despite my sympathies, I found myself wondering how long I could put up with his selfish antics. Even a bizarrely inappropriate femdom-themed job interview couldn’t compete in my imagination with the way he snapped at his kids for ruining a moment of intimacy with his wife.

(I should point out here that much of my disdain is connected to the fact that his antics served as a painful reminder of who I was before I was diagnosed as neurodivergent and medicated for my crippling anxiety. Other readers may not react quite so harshly, but I suspect he holds up a mirror to something in all of us).

I’ll let you discover the catalyst for yourselves, but suddenly we find ourselves in a very different life . . . but with the same Nolan. No longer unemployed, broke, and feeling trapped in a sexless marriage, he’s the wealthy owner of a brothel where he gets all the sex he wants, whenever he wants it. He’s the same angry, selfish, inconsiderate man in both realities, however, and it’s in trying to show he can be better that he learns to be better – and hopes to earn his way home.

Miss Frazier walks what should be a treacherous tightrope between arousing/awkward, depraved/depressed, sweet/sad, and kinky/callous, but does so with such style that you have to admire how she so openly manipulates our emotions. It helps that the characters as so well-drawn that we engage with them, feel for them, and take an interest in their fates, even if only in a dream. The story enjoys frolicking in that dream during a second act of sexual exploration and kinky indulgence, but it’s in the final act of redemption that Mistletoe Bound brings two worlds together and tugs hardest at the heartstrings.

You won’t get it yet, but trust me when I say the snap of Christmas garland is infinitely more meaningful, passionate, and erotic than any combination of corsets, cages, chains, and collars.

Rating:

My sincere thanks to the author for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Vengeance by Emma Newman

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

My choice this week is a story of swashbuckling adventure, female pirates, vampires, and secrets.

The Vengeance

by Emma Newman
Fantasy } Paranormal
May 6, 2025 by Solaris

A swashbuckling adventure set in a version of Alexandre Dumas’s world haunted by vampires…

Morgane grew up at sea, daughter of the fierce pirate captain of the Vengeance, raised to follow in her footsteps as scourge of the Four Chains Trading Company. But when Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in battle, she confesses to Morgane that she is not her mother.

The captain of the enemy ship reveals he was paid to kill Anna-Marie and bring Morgane home to France and her real family. Desperate to learn the truth about her lineage, Morgane spares him, leaving the Vengeance and everything she knows behind.

Her quest reveals a world of decadence and darkness, in which monsters vie for control of royal courts and destinies of nations. She discovers the bloody secrets of the Four Chains Trading Company, and the truth about her real mother’s death, nearly twenty years before…

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead.

New Purchases

A rare week without buying a book, and odds are I can stretch that into 3 weeks, what with vacation coming up the first week of December . . . but then Trudeau has promised to remove the HST/GST from books through the holidays, so I don’t expect my abstinence to last long.

For Review

A very busy week on the review front this week with a pair of Netgalley and Edelweiss approvals, reconnecting with an old friend on Bluesky, and 2 review offers I couldn’t refuse.

Emberclaw by L. R. Lam – one of my most eagerly awaited titles of 2025, this wraps up the romance epic fantasy duology begun with Dragonfall (check out my review here) [Mar 4, 2025]Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix – Wayward girls, loose girls, girls who grew up too fast . . . a librarian, an occult book, witchcraft . . . and a price to be paid in blood [Jan 14, 2025] The Lady & The Spyder by Korin I. Dushayl – A 5-volume BDSM erotica space opera pairs dramatic adventures on worlds light years away in a far-distant future with the age-old battle between purity and pleasure—and those who use one as a weapon against the otherVow of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes – I loved Bride of the Shadow King (check out my review here), so I’m hugely excited for the sequel [Jan 14, 2025]To Hell or High Water by Selene Kapsaski & Beth Warburton –  a thrilling story of redemption and the power of love set against the backdrop of a seedy carnival underworld [Jan 11, 2024] Currently Reading

Finally, as for what I’m currently reading, I cracked the spine on The Starless Crown by James Rollins this week and I’m already loving it; I’m stepping back into Area X by Jeff VanderMeer; and I’m enjoying my early read of the Wonderful (Kinky) Life inspired Mistletoe Bound by B.J. Frazier.

Cheering on Becoming Mistress Maye by C.J. Love-Jones

Title: Becoming Mistress Maye
Author: C.J. Love-Jones
Publication Date: November 17, 2024 by English House
Genres: Fiction | Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Female

In a world obsessed with size, Becoming Mistress Maye is an empowering tale of self-discovery. 

Not only is Becoming Mistress Maye an empowering tale, it’s a refreshingly deep and thoughtful one. C.J. Love-Jones refuses to rush things, and while that makes for a slower pace than some readers may be anticipating, it’s nothing you’ll begrudge. We get a chance to know and love Shelbi Mae, to understand not just issues with body image, but the deeper issues underlying that.

Bold, daring, and transformative—this novel celebrates confidence beyond appearances.

Neither Shelbi nor the reader see it at first, but if this is a story of body image on the surface, it’s one of confidence underneath. We see it in her relationships with coworkers, her husband, her sister, and the coach she seeks out to help her. She’s tried diets, drugs, surgeries, fitness routines, and all the rest, but none of them tackle what’s really eating her up inside. It’s only once she finds the confidence to take chances, to take risks, to take the initiative that her journey becomes something bold and decisive.

For readers who love bold, provocative stories of self-discovery, empowerment, and transformation. 

It’s heartbreaking to see all the ways in which Shelbi’s journey stalls, confronted by challenges she can’t control, and that makes it even more satisfying to watch her transform from a timid, insecure, apologetic woman into a bold, powerful, assertive Mistress. Love-Jones does a wonderful job of allowing her to explore that world, to educate herself about it, and to practice the role before risking a human engagement. She also doesn’t shy away from the challenges of a husband who is so very much not submissive, and who has a hard time dealing with what his wife wants . . . needs . . . demands.

Becoming Mistress Maye tackles body image and sensuality with unflinching honesty.

In many ways, Becoming Mistress Maye can be separated into three clear acts. It’s in the first that we empathize with her body image issues and understand how much she’s done to ‘fix’ herself. The second is all about that unflinching honesty, as she starts to admit to herself who she is and what she wants out of life. And then it’s the third where the sensuality kicks in, as we see a woman who was always beautiful finally come to see that in herself.

There were a few times when I found myself uncomfortable with things being said or done, but that’s part and parcel of what Shelbi Mae endures to thrive – and, looking back, I know we’re all better for that honest attention to detail.

Rating: 1/2

My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Across the Enchanted Border by Crin Claxton

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

My choice this week is a story of gender, love, fantasy, and romance that has utterly captivated my imagination.

Across the Enchanted Border

by Crin Claxton
Fantasy } Romance
March 1, 2025 by Bold Strokes Books

Only the enchanted border separates the oppressive and tyrannous land of Alba from Gaea, a haven where citizens are free to love who they please and choose their gender.

Everything changes for butch warrior Skylar when she follows the cries of a magical fox across the forbidden border and is forced on the most perilous journey of her life. As a telepath, empath, and swordsman, Skylar must hide who and what she is. Skylar aligns with proud femme Calida and her feminine son Florian to battle bandits, zealots, and the King’s guards. It’s the worst time for Skylar to fall in love, let alone to bond with Calida’s tender gender-rebel child. Skylar may be tough, but can she survive Alba in her quest to recross the border? And if she does, can Skylar leave behind the two people her heart yearns for most? 

In Alba, where hopes are crushed as easily as the dispossessed, Calida knows better than to dream of a better life. Deadly in combat, Calida will do whatever it takes to protect her child. She’s not about to trust Skylar or her little witch fox. If only her unruly heart would heed her better judgment. Even if there was somewhere she and Florian could be free, is Gaea truly a land Calida can call home?