Sally Bend's Blog, page 37

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!

Book Review: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle (horror, LGBTQ)

Title: Camp Damascus
Author: Chuck Tingle
Publication Date: July 18, 2023
Genres: Horror
Protagonist Gender: Female

If you’re already a Chuck Tingle fan, then feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph of my review. If you’re new to him, however, curious about his ‘mainstream’ debut, then know 3 things about this:

Don’t be fooled by the blurb – this is not about kids at a gay conversion camp, but kids who remember it.Don’t let the religious heaviness of the first chapter turn you off – it’s there for a reason, and it gets better.Don’t let Tingle’s reputation for weird erotica keep you away – this is entirely accessible.

As a fan of the Tingleverse, even I was a bit hesitant in reading the opening pages of Camp Damascus, wondering just what I’d gotten myself into, but there was something immediately endearing about Rose, our narrator and protagonist. She’s smart, self-aware, and I immediately identified her as a queer neurodivergent soul with whom I could connect. Midway through the chapter we get a glimpse of a creepy-looking woman in the woods, bizarrely dressed in a department store polo shirt, whom only Rose seems to see, and I started to get curious. And then we get to the end of the chapter and (minor spoiler) OMG the flies! I had to know what in the literal hell was going on. I was hooked . . . and I never looked back.

I could tell you this is a book about the families we’re born into and the families we choose, about the dangers of faith and the power of love, but I’m sure you can find plenty of other reviews picking apart the themes and underlying messages. They’re there, and they’re wonderful, and if you’re the kind of person drawn to Rose’s story, I suspect you’ll agree with most (if not all) of them, but I want to talk about the story itself.

Camp Damascus is a horror story that, for me, has all the hooks of King or (early) Koontz, the self-aware supernatural humor of Ghostbusters, and the heart of the Buffyverse. It engaged me on a deeply emotional level, making me care about the characters and what happens to them. Tingle plays with many of the familiar horror tropes and conventions, with some science fiction mixed in, and yet nothing about the story is predictable. I don’t find religious themes the least bit interesting, and have never found movies like The Exorcist or The Omen to be even remotely scary, but the way the horror is structured here just absolutely worked for me. It made sense to me, it passed my willing-suspension-of-disbelief, and it genuinely chilled me.

I found myself delighted by every twist and turn, every single “No, don’t go in there!” moment. Even when I was furious with the ‘good‘ God-fearing people of Neverton, Montana, I was smiling along with where the story was leading us. Yes, this is a supernatural tale, but it’s less about Biblical evil and more about human hatred. Okay, so that’s a theme, and I didn’t want to dwell on them, but dammit, it’s important.

So far, 2023 has been a good year for books – I’ve had a few bitter disappointments and a handful of other 5-star reads – but I doubt anything will stick with me like Camp Damascus did. This was exactly what I wanted, and even more what I needed. If there’s such a thing as feel-good horror, this is it.

Rating:   

Book Review: Decadence by Ronica Black, Renee Roman, and Piper Jordan (erotica, lesbian)

Title: Decadence
Author: Ronica Black, Renee Roman, and Piper Jordan
Publication Date: August 15, 2023
Genres: Erotica
Protagonist Gender: Female

What is Decadence? The Oxford Dictionary will tell you it’s a “moral or cultural decline, as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury” but, in the context of Decadence, it’s simply an “excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury,” no such moral judgement required (or desired).

More importantly, Decadence is the name of an invitation-only masquerade ball for women who love women, an evening of erotic encounters behind the literal mask of anonymity.

Passionate Pursuance by Ronica Black is a wonderful story of long-distance lovers meeting for the first time at the ball, hoping to find one another in the crowd. It’s a gloriously planned out story of seduction, exploration, voyeurism, and selfless loving that sees fantasies indulged and the flames of romance kindled. Emory and Cadence are an absolutely delicious couple, and their erotic through various women and into one another’s arms is breathtaking.

Redemption by Renee Roman leads us into the ball under very different circumstances as one half of an estranged couple seeks to escape into her fantasies while the other seeks to win back her love through those very say fantasies. There’s an element of tension to this story, some melancholy amid the arousal, but the more we learn about Max and Dee the more we desperately want to see them reunited.

Exclusive Content by Piper Jordan eschews the couples approach and slips a reporter named Addison into the ball, hoping to score an interview with the hostess, Elizabeth Hathaway. Without a relationship to be explored or mended, this story feels a little less emotionally charged than the other two, but it still makes for a wonderful story of erotic self-discovery.

As the title suggests, all three stories in Decadence are explicitly erotic, with every ounce of sexuality and sensuality explored on the page. It’s a story of beautiful women enjoying even more beautiful moments, proudly and openly, as nature intended.

Rating:   

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

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!

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!

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!

Spirit of the Wood by Kristen Britain (fantasy)

Title: Spirit of the Wood
Author: Kristen Britain
Publication Date: November 7, 2023
Genres: Epic Fantasy
Protagonist Gender: Male/Female

Although this is not the anxiously awaited final novel of the Green Rider saga, Spirit of the Wood is an excellent way to mark the series’ 25th anniversary. It’s also likely not what you’d expect from the blurb, but I really like the way Kristen Britain approached this.

A prequel to the series, this tells the tale of Laren Mapstone and her Rider trainee, Tavin Bankside. Wounded in an attack by bandits who recognize her from her battle against the Darrow Raiders, Laren spends much of the novella unconscious, trapped in dark memories of that battle and its tragic aftermath. It’s Tavin who drives the narrative here, but he does so by immersing us deeper in the magic and mythology of Sacoridia.

Surprisingly, for a prequel novella where we know Laren has to survive, given her role in the saga, there’s a genuine sense of danger and tension. I found myself worried for her in a way I hadn’t expected, fully invested as much in her mental/spiritual battle as Tavin’s physical one to keep them alive against ex-Raiders looking for vengeance. The fact that his Rider gift is perfectly suited to aiding her recovery might seem opportunistic, but when you see how it can also be misused, you have to appreciate how Britain uses the two characters to illuminate their struggles.

Spirit of the Wood feels like a Green Rider novella in every sense, a familiar visit to a favorite place for readers as we await the Karigan’s next adventure, and a fitting introduction for new readers who will hopefully be motivated to keep reading.

Rating:   

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

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!

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!

The Night Mother by John Everson (erotic horror)

Title: The Night Mother
Author: John Everson
Publication Date: May 29, 2023
Genres: Erotic Horror
Protagonist Gender: Male/Female
Fetishes: Femdom, BDSM

The first NightWhere novel is one of my favorite works of erotic horror, right up there with Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart and The House of Blood by Wayne C. Rogers. It was graphic, disturbing, arousing, disgusting, and utterly fascinating, all at the same time. Field of Flesh, the sequel novella, provided an entertaining new perspective on the otherworldly BDSM club, but there’s no question it left me wanting more.

Fortunately, 5 years later, we have The Night Mother, a full-length novel, to tie it all together. This is a direct sequel to the first book, which means Selena, Mark, and Rae once again take center stage (alongside favorites like Sin-D and Damia), but it also follows along from the novella, so expect to see our noir detective appear in a surprising role.

Although he beautifully outdoes himself here with some of the S&M-themed depravities, what John Everson has done that’s even more important is delve deeper into the mythology of NightWhere – angels, demons, creation myths, immortality, and all. We’re led to understand who the players are and who they were, why the club has Guardians and Watchers, and what happens when mere mortals are elevated above their station. There are consequences – deadly serious, apocalyptic consequences – to this third story that go far beyond relationship dramas or the fate of individual souls. There’s a battle for the very heart of NightWhere, and if it all goes astray . . . well, let’s just say it would be bad news for us all.

As for those relationship dramas, Everson gives us layers of intertwined love stories, some dark and some light, but all damaged in some way. While it’s the pursuit of pleasure and pain that drive the club, it’s something more than drives lovers. We’re privy to the best and worst of their motivations, but even the romance and vengeance must sometimes take a back seat to those consequences I mentioned.

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway – The Night Mother is not for the squeamish or the prudish. There’s dark, violent, sadistic, necrophiliac sex on display here . . . the insertion of toys, blades, fists, and snakes . . . showers of blood . . . and the spilling of ungodly amounts of cum. It’s brutal and messy, but also beautiful in its own way. There’s more than one scene over which I lingered, needing to read it again in order to digest the visuals along with the narrative.

Finally, whereas so many works of fiction are ruined by exposing the monster too much or too soon, we see exactly as much of The Night Mother as the story demands, enough to make us fear her (and fear the consequences of her obsession), but never so much as to risk making her familiar or commonplace. In fact, before I risk spoiling things best left to your own discovery, I leave you with a taste of how we’re led to know her.

There was something of heaven and hell in every taste of the eternal woman’s orgasms…The Night Mother’s secretions were sour as frozen-scream corpses dangled from rusted hooks, and intoxicating as a chorus line of oiled men ejaculating on women flaunting fishnets to their thighs but otherwise bare and glossed with sweat and the shine of piercings on the floor beneath them.

Bitter and beautiful.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rating: