Sally Bend's Blog, page 16

The Sunday Post: Stacking the Shelves

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

New Purchases

Just the one new purchase this week, although it was a freebie, so not sure of that really counts as a purchase.

Gig of the Damned: Slay the Competition by Phrique – a hilarious, ridiculously campy, slasher horror story . . . with drag queens!For Review

A trio of review titles this week, 1 from Edelweiss and 2 from NetGalley:

A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton – a transformational, transformative story about videogames, three queer friends, and the code(s) they learn to surviveBecoming Mistress Maye by C.J. Love-Jones – for readers who love bold, provocative stories of self-discovery, empowerment, and transformationGreenteeth by Molly O’Neill – a cozy fantasy of fae, folklore, and found family, narrated by a charismatic lake-dwelling monster with a voice unlike any otherCurrently Reading

Finally, as for what I’m currently reading, I’m absolutely adoring Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes (which, in all fairness, had me at the unicorns with flaming horns), and I’m flying through Strange New Worlds: Asylum by Una McCormack at warp speed!

Confronting the Whispers of the Past with Shawna Hunter

Title: Whispers of the Past
Author: Shawna Hunter
Publication Date: November 15, 2023
Genres: Paranormal Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Female

As stories for the spooky season go, Whispers of the Past is so much more than I expected from the blurb. What Shawna Hunter has written here is both dark and deep, full of as much insight into human nature as speculations on the power of nature.

Initially, it seems a simple enough story about a group of amateur witches setting out to conduct a Halloween ritual in the woods, but there’s an ominous sense of danger from the trees, which Nightshadow experiences as “disapproving . . . particularly bitter, even spiteful.” Their androgynous leader, Silvanth, has marked the trees with magical symbols to protect their nocturnal rites, but Nightshadow sees it as wounding.

There’s tension between the witches too, largely owing to hurt feelings between Moonbane and Panathea, which is addressed in a cleansing ritual, but even that is undermined by whispers from the trees that only Nightshadow can hear – until they choose to speak through her. It quickly becomes apparent that these young women are messing with forces they do not understand, and when the ancient spirits decide to intervene, none of them will leave the circle unchanged.

I’m cautious of revealing any of the revelations in the second half of the story, but if you’ve ever read a Shawna Hunter story, then it shouldn’t surprise you that gender and sexuality, from fearful fancies to fearsome fetishes, are exposed and explored. It’s erotic, but it’s also uncomfortable, and the unease I felt is a testament to how well these characters were established and how deftly they’re manipulated.

Whispers of the Past is thoughtful, well-written, meaningful, and most of all, memorable.

Rating:

Halloween Horror Freebies!

One day only! My first 2 horror stories are available FREE for Halloween!

If you like your horror dark, violent, twisted, and physical? Then BITCH IN THE BOX is for you. It’s the ultimate guilty pleasure, and probably the most fun I’ve ever had writing a story. It’s a claustrophobic death trip of extreme horror, splattered and smeared about the inside of an elevator.

Prefer something more psychological? Then DREAD, DESIRE, AND DAMAGED DREAMS is what you need. This started out as a simple story about a particular fear (you’ll figure it out), but then I found the heart. It’s a dark story of sexual redemption that explores the consequences of dread, the promise of desire, and the redemption of damaged dreams.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Getting Witchy with Dawson, Golden, and Hendrix

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.

A trio of choices this week to celebrate the spooky season, all featuring witches, witchcraft, covens, and curses.

Human Rites

by Juno Dawson
Contemporary Fantasy
384 pages, Paperback
July 17, 2025 by HarperVoyager

With Her Majesty’s Royal Coven in shambles and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the sisterhood of friends and witches must find a new way of putting together the pieces if (wo)mankind is to stand a chance, in this final chapter to Juno’s  “irresistible” series (Lana Harper)

Niamh, Ciara, Leonie, Elle and Theo. Five very different witches with one thing in common: they were unwittingly chosen by the dangerously charming Lucifer, the demon king of desire, to fulfil a dark prophecy: Satanis will rise and the daughters of Gaia will fall.

The coven is reunited—but broken. Niamh is back from the dead…but she hasn’t come back alone. Elle mourns a son she never had. Ciara languishes in a prison for witches, and Leonie reels from a very unexpected surprise.

Meanwhile, Lucifer offers fledgling witch Theo a deal: if she helps him, her coven—her family—will be spared. But the magic he asks for will take her out of London—out of time, entirely.

The final confrontation between good and evil in the spectacular conclusion to the saga of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.

The Night Birds

by Christopher Golden
Horror
304 pages, Hardcover
May 6, 2025 by St. Martin’s Press

The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak, they never expected to see each other again, but when terror enters Ruby’s life, Charlie Book is the only safe harbor she can believe in.

In his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book has been living aboard and studying the Christabel, a 19th century freighter that lies half-sunken in Gulf waters, just off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest, full of birds, crabs, and snakes. Though a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, Book intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, preparing to motor out to the Christabel, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And Ruby’s not alone. With her are a mysterious, terrified woman named Johanna and an infant child. They need Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they’re on the run, only it isn’t the police who are after them. It’s the coven of witches Johanna has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans…or so Johanna claims.

It’s lunacy. Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, back in Galveston there are shadowed figures out in the storm, sniffing the air like bloodhounds. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline as if searching for their prey.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

by Grady Hendrix
Adult, Horror
496 pages, Hardcover
January 14, 2025 by Berkley

There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).

Becoming Part of the Halloween Harem at Nikki’s Halloween Party by Lyka Bloom

Title: Halloween Harem: Nikki’s Halloween Party
Author: Lyka Bloom
Publication Date: October 27, 2023
Genres: Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Various

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been reading (and loving) Lyka Bloom’s work for a decade now, starting with her Inferno series and her Institute tales. For some bizarre reason, it’s been a couple of years since I last had the opportunity to immerse myself in her imagination, so when I decided to do a week of Halloween reads, I knew she had to be a part of it.

The fun bit about Halloween Harem: Nikki’s Halloween Party is that it’s not only a Lyka Bloom story, but also something of a tribute to another feminization legend, Nikki Crescent – who serves as our host for the evening, welcoming the four young out-of-place guests and bargaining away their innocence.

This is one of those stories that are hard to review, because revealing too much would ruin all the fun, but not touching on some of the most delicious aspects would be a crime. The sense of danger and mystery to the story – which Lyka establishes almost immediately – is a perfect pairing to the erotic thrills that arise. There’s an anxiety to the story that gives way to curiosity, before becoming a guilty pleasure.

Given the names involved, it’s safe to acknowledge that there is most definitely some gender-bending involved here, but it’s wider and deeper than readers may expect, affecting the boys and the girls in ways that challenge roles and expectations while giving in to innermost desires. The themes of power and freedom are explored beautifully, making the bargaining all the darker . . . and sweeter.

Nikki’s Halloween Party is a fabulous tale of fear, fantasy, futa, femboys, and feminization, perfect for the season. It ends a bit too soon for my tastes, but sometimes there’s something to be said for leaving the party before it fades.

Rating:

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

Loving The Gargoyle in the College by Alina Riley

Title: The Gargoyle in the College
Author: Alina Riley
Publication Date: October 21, 2024
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Protagonist Gender: Female

Laura is a college freshman who prefers her own company to the stress of socializing but, wanting to fit in, she decides to accept the invitation of her classmates – and regrets it. While out that night, the students begin hazing the statue of a gargoyle that stands in the middle of the road, climbing all over it, kicking at it, and spraying it with shaving cream. Feeling sorry for it, she comes back later to clean it up . . . and makes an impression.

So much so that, when someone tried to rob her a few nights later, the gargoyle comes to her rescue, literally swooping her off her feet and carrying her to safety!

Yes, in this, the first of Alina Riley’s The Gargoyle Next Door series, the gargoyles around us are very real, assigned to secretly watch over and protect their territory. They’re not generally supposed to show themselves to humans, but Gisett is curious about the young human woman and the kindness she’s shown him.

What follows is a wonderful opposites-attract story where neither is sure what’s right of them to want, to desire, or to crave, and where worries about role and purpose keep interfering with personality. It’s a slow-burn romance that develops the characters beautifully, making you believe that a massive stone gargoyle could be soft enough to love. Their banter is fun and flirtatious, and there’s a wealth of little mythological world-building details embedded in the story to make you believe in this world.

The Gargoyle in the College is a fabulous read, perfect for the softer side of the season, with just enough spooks and scares to lead us to a HEA. The sex, when it comes, is passionate and fun, with some kinky little details that enable cross-species intimacy. Having already read the second book, with its castle, orcs, fae, and gargoyle, I can promise you there’s so much more of this world to discover, and more romances to be enjoyed.

Rating:

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

Beware the The Housewife’s Ghost with John Dylena

Title: The Housewife’s Ghost
Author: John Dylena
Publication Date: October 27, 2022
Genres: Paranormal Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Male

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been reading John (Sasha) Dylena for a decade now, and I’ve seen them do erotica in contemporary, science fiction, epic fantasy, and horror settings – and do them all very well.

As it opens, The Housewife’s Ghost seems like a pretty generic story. A young couple buys a new home and the husband takes advantage of a generous severance package to spend some time converting the basement into his man cave. The only problem is, the previous owner left a ton of boxes down there, which means he has quite a task ahead of them. He decides to look through a few boxes, idly dreaming of finding a priceless antique, but all he finds is women’s clothing.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he notices the spectral figure. Understandably unsettled, he flees the basement, but it’s as if once touched by the supernatural, he can’t quite shake it off. He begins seeing things, hearing things, and dreaming things – feminine things that he can’t explain – and then he finds himself face-to-face with the home’s resident ghost, Dolores.

If you’re at all familiar with Dylena’s work, then you know some degree of gender exploration is ahead, but the how and why of it here is fabulous. It’s a ghost story and an erotic story all in one, a story of . . . well, not domination and forced feminization, but encouragement, bargaining, and experimentation, and supernatural sharing.

The story here lies as much in the consequences as the causes, and while the HEA may not appeal to all readers, it’s a perfectly spooky one for the season.

Rating:

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

The Sunday Post: Stacking the Shelves

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

New Purchases

Last weekend was the World Fantasy Convention 2024 in Niagara Falls, NY, and in addition to attending some panels and getting a stack of books signed, I also came away with some exciting new additions. The most exciting reads in my swag bag were:

Lacrimosa of Dana by Anna KashinaBury Your Gays by Chuck TingleInterstellar Goth Princess Blues by Lynn EricsonNecrobane by Daniel M. Ford

While I was there, I also picked up some new books from authors attending the convention – and, of course, got them signed!

Alahndra by Christopher Lee WeiherDragonesque & Submerged, edited by Joshua PalmatierDaughters of Awen by Summer HanfordFor Review

On the review front, just the one new addition this week -a digital ARC of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, which (believe it or not) will be my first V. E. Schwab read.

Currently Reading

Finally, as for what I’m currently reading, I’m slowly making my way through When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker (interesting, but it hasn’t quite grabbed me yet), and thoroughly enjoying Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes (which, in all fairness, had me at the unicorns with flaming horns).

Getting Wicked & Spicy With Ruan Willow

Title: Wicked & Spicy Tales
Author: Ruan Willow
Publication Date: May 24, 2024 by Pink Infinity Publishing LLC
Genres: Paranormal Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Female

I have had the very great pleasure of working with Ruan Willow for the last 3 years, and I love how she can so effortlessly slip from taboo romance and hotwife erotica to romantasy and erotic horror. It all comes down to her characters, who are so genuine and so likable, that they really draw you into the story.

The first two Wicked & Spicy Tales stories are kind of a warm-up, playing more on the spicy side, starting with The Sex Wizards Halloween Party Orgy – a story of freaks and wannabees, of roleplay and wish fulfillment, where the darkness isn’t readily apparent until it’s too late to reconsider. The Genie’s Wish follows that up with the tale of a witchy coffee shop owner who seduces and bewitches those customers, and it’s not just a pun to say she casts a sexy spell over the reader.

Where Ruan leads us into the realm of the wicked is with Boobs and Pizza Everywhere but not a Drop to Eat, a Twilight Zone-inspired story about a lake said to create the ultimate fantasy for anyone who immerses themselves in its water – but as is often the case, not all wishes come true as we might wish. The tease here, the temptation, is so deliciously cruel that it 100% counts as a guilty pleasure.

Pleasured by Satan keeps us firmly bound within the realm of the wicked, opening with a man who wakes in a strange bed with a beautiful woman named Satan. This story is about desires rather than wishes, but it still explores the dangers of getting precisely what you deserve. Ruan does such a stupendous job of teasing with this one, really playing with the theme of wanting to touch, before dropping a killer twist on the final page.

Although best known for HEA/HFN stories, her Wicked & Spicy Tales collection is much darker, wicked and spicy (as the title suggests), with twist endings that will linger with you.

Rating:

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

The Castle by Steli Simeonova: Dark Sensory Erotica

Title: The Castle
Author: Steli Simeonova
Publication Date: August 13, 2024
Genres: Dark Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Female

Over the last 6 months, Steli Simeonova has quickly become one of my favorite people to work with. Her work has style, imagination, and a sense of otherworldliness to it that’s just stunning. I wanted to review The Cheater (spicy horror) as my Halloween pick, but that’s not coming out until February, so I thought I’d go with The Castle (dark erotica), since it’s something you can read today!

Not only is our narrator a visually impaired woman, which puts a whole new sensory spin on the story, but she gets aroused by fear, seeking out ever more exciting and extreme ways in which to test her fears – and stoke her arousal. Having already skydived and swam with sharks, she decides that the haunted castle of Shattenburg will be her next adventure.

If you’ve ever experienced a haunted house, then you know what it’s like to stumble around in the dark, hearing and feeling the scare actors around you, but imagine if your entire world was shadows . . . and the castle is rumored to be genuinely haunted . . . and you’re still being hunted even after the tour is over. It’s a story of creaks and squeaks, the slight movement of air, the feel of leather and lace, and hearts beating fast. And it all takes place in an old castle full of locked doors, narrow staircases, and ominously stark furniture.

Steli offers us two POVs here, so we get to experience the hunted and the hunter, allowing us to experience the combined sensations, and to appreciate their absence in the hunted. If you’ve ever read her work before, then you know you’ll be caught before long, and the dangerous thrill of anxious sex with a mystery lover. It’s all consensual, but also has the feel of something more dubious, and that sweetly dark spot is where the heart of the story lives.

Rating:

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