Sally Bend's Blog, page 33
November 17, 2023
Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday – Putting the TG in TGIF!
Well, if it’s Friday, then it must be time to bend our way into the weekend with Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday!
Every Friday I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might be of interest to similarly bent readers, fans, and lovers. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.
Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.
While you’re on Amazon, if you’d like to support my stories, could I kindly ask that you give these a read/review?
Enjoy!
November 15, 2023
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
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.
This monster-slaying sapphic fantasy romance sounds creepy and weird and absolutely delightful!
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Hardcover and eBook, 320pages
April 2, 2024 by DAW
Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell
Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she’s fallen in love.
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.
And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.
November 13, 2023
Book Review: Eli Book Four – Deception by B.J. Frazier & Jessie Spectre (erotica)
Author: B.J. Frazier & Jessie Spectre
Publication Date: June 11, 2023
Genres: Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Male
Wow, what an emotional roller coaster the Eli series by B.J. Frazier & Jessie Spectre has been. Just when I think I have it figured out, when I’m sure I know where it’s going, it throws in a new twist, challenge, or development. Knowing how my heart has swelled for Eli, only to break time and time again, I know what the poor boy must be feeling.
This volume gives Eli some space, distancing himself from everything at home by sending him out of town for the weekend, and that allows him to explore who he is. It’s a very sexy excursion, and one that involves black mesh femboy formal wear, dinner with a porn star, and . . . well, exactly the erotic escapades for which you’d hope.
But then there’s a twist, only we learn it may not be as big of a one as he seems to feel it is, but we have the luxury of not being the ones hurt.
Back home, Eli finds himself wanting to be a better submissive, and struggling to balance the role with the romance, which isn’t easy when he’s keeping secrets of his own from Bernie. Adding to his confusion is an unexpected public confrontation with Zac, his partner at Bernie’s shop, and an awkward session with a dominatrix, whose behavior shows him the difference between a scene and a relationship.
Clem really steps in here, guiding the boy and forcing Bernie to see what’s happening. It’s an interesting dynamic, and she’s a fascinating character – almost motherly at times, and sexually dominant at others. It’s a shame neither listens as well as they should, never mind communicates as well as they should, because it leads to more pain, more damage, and more conflict. It all adds yet another layer of confusion to Bernie’s true intentions, which is the last thing we – or Eli – need.
Speaking of which, the story once again ends on an ominous note, but the good news is all shall be revealed in the final chapter!
Rating: 
My sincere thanks to the author for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 10, 2023
Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday – Putting the TG in TGIF!
Well, if it’s Friday, then it must be time to bend our way into the weekend with Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday!
Every Friday I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might be of interest to similarly bent readers, fans, and lovers. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.
Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.
While you’re on Amazon, if you’d like to support my stories, could I kindly ask that you give these a read/review?
Enjoy!
November 8, 2023
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark
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.
John Wick meets Dungeons & Dragons in the vein of N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms? Oh, hell yes, I’m in!
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark
Adult, Fantasy
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages
April 23, 2024 by Tordotcom
John Wick meets Dungeons & Dragons in the vein of N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: Award-winning author P. Djèlí Clark introduces an entirely new world
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.
Nor do they have tails.
But they are most assuredly dead.
Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.
First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.
Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.
The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A ?nal death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.
November 3, 2023
Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday – Putting the TG in TGIF!
Well, if it’s Friday, then it must be time to bend our way into the weekend with Fetish & Fantasy Freebie Friday!
Every Friday I search through the free titles on Amazon, looking for those that might be of interest to similarly bent readers, fans, and lovers. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the titles through one of Amazon’s free reading applications.
Please do be sure to check the price before downloading anything, as most freebies are limited time offers, and some are specific to certain regions.
While you’re on Amazon, if you’d like to support my stories, could I kindly ask that you give these a read/review?
Enjoy!
November 1, 2023
Book Review: The Dragons of Deepwood Fen by Bradley P. Beaulieu (fantasy)
Author: Bradley P. Beaulieu
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
Genres: Fantasy
Protagonist Gender: Male
This book and I . . . well, we had issues.
For starters, it’s a cold, sterile, matter-of-fact fantasy tale with no sense of wonder or delight. Even the dragons are as about as exciting as a mangy old dog. Maybe I expected too much from the cover blurb, or too much from Beaulieu himself, given that I enjoyed his Song of the Shattered Sands series, but this just didn’t engage me.
Next, it’s one of those multi-POV books where there’s overlap between some narrators, but no immediate connections between others. That means the story jumps around, sacrificing whatever tension or curiosity it’s nurtured to a new thread. It’s just not a style I generally enjoy.
In addition, this feels like a book that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It has epic fantasy roots wrapped up in low fantasy trappings, with something of a grimdark flavor, but the plot is largely centered around a police procedural involving drug trafficking. Ugh, no thank you – I read to escape that mindless drivel on TV, not to explore it in a different setting.
Finally, the pacing of this was atrociously slow, owing in large part to the multiple POVs. You’d expect the events of the cover blurb to come early, to be the tease that launches you into the story, but I DNF’d this at about the halfway mark and we still hadn’t encountered those events.
All of that said, Beaulieu is a talented writer and I’m sure this will find an audience, it’s just not me.
Rating: 1/2
My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
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 for this week is the sequel to a book I only picked up on a whim, not even sure I’d ever shift it from the TBR pile, but loved immensely.
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages
February 29, 2024 by HarperVoyager
Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost.
After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone.
But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed.
A truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.
October 25, 2023
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
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 for this week is the first in a new trilogy that turns convention on its head and explores a queer high fantasy world where elves thrive and humans are legend.
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
Adult, High Fantasy
Hardcover and eBook, 496 pages
January 18, 2024 by HarperVoyager
Two elven sisters become imprisoned in the hidden world of the fae where danger, and love, lies in wait. Faebound is the first book in an enchanting new trilogy from the internationally bestselling author of The Final Strife.
A thousand years ago, the world held three fae, elves, and humans. But now the fae and humans exist only in myth and legend, survived by the elves who are trapped in an endless war over the remaining lands.
Yeeran is a colonel in the elven army and has known nothing but a life of violence and hardship. Her sister, Lettle, is a diviner whose magic promises a different future for her and her sister, but the prophecies have yet come to pass.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, Lettle, fearful for her sister’s life, follows her into the uncharted territory beyond their borders. In the wilderness the sisters encounter the largest obeah they have ever seen. Part leopard, part stag, the obeah’s magic is harnessed to make weapons for the elven war. It is during this hunt that they are confronted with the a group of fae who take them captive. Imprisoned in a new land, they must navigate the politics of the fae court all while planning their escape.
Now Yeeran and Lettle are fighting a different kind of between their loyalty to their elven homeland and the intoxicating world of the fae, between what duty decrees is right, and what their hearts tell them they need.
October 23, 2023
Book Review: Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff (fantasy, horror)
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: February 29, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Protagonist Gender: Male
Damn it. I knew I was going to regret falling prey to the vampire’s call and immersing myself in this early sampler of Empire of the Damned. The first book was so bloody amazing (check my review here), and I’ve been so anxiously awaiting Jay Kristoff’s sequel, that I surrendered myself to the thirst for more blood … for the Grail … for it all … and now I fear I may go mad waiting for the rest of it.
This sampler captures, as near as I can tell, the first half of the book. It picks up right where the first left off, takes us through several new set pieces, thrusts us into increasingly deadly battles with the undead, twists the silver blade just a bit deeper into Gabriel’s heart, unveils new layers of mythology, and leaves us with not one, but two cliffhangers.
There’s not much I can say without spoilers, but this is a book that’s heavy with consequences. There’s the bloodbath that ended the first book, the loss of Gabriel’s birth family, the fate of friends and allies, and (more than anything) the choices made that have led us here. That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom – the wit, the banter, and the morbid humor of the first book is still here – but the more we know of the world and its characters, the more we feel the significance of every action.
Here’s hoping I manage to land an ARC of the entire book before release but, if not, I’ll be in line at the bookstore on release day with everyone else.
Rating:
My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
