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Blood Desires
This single author collection of sultry and romantic M/M short stories from the pen of acclaimed author Laura Baumbach offers four gay erotic tales filled with undying loyalty, reclaimed love, unexpected passion and voracious sexuality as only the most sensual creatures of the night, vampires, can live it. The heat level of all four stories is Ms. Baumbach's trademark scorching hot. Watch the pages curl.
stories included:
Walk Through Fire
Dark Side of the Moon
Enthralled
Addicted
stories included:
Walk Through Fire
Dark Side of the Moon
Enthralled
Addicted
- GenresM M Romance
244 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2007
20 people want to read
About the author
Laura Baumbach
48 books311 followersLaura Baumbach is the best-selling, multi-award winning, acclaimed author of short stories, novellas, novels and screenplays. Most recently, Mexican Heat, written in collaboration with Josh Lanyon, has been chosen as a FINALIST for Best Gay Romance in the 2009 Lambda Literary Awards, a FINALIST in the 2010 EPPIE Awards, and has received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival. Laura was nominated for Best GBLT Author 2008 in the LRC's Best Of Awards for 2008. Her adventure story The Lost Temple of Karttikeya won the 2008 EPPIE Award for Best GLBT novel. Her sequel to the best-selling novel A Bit of Rough, Roughhousing, was 2007 Reviewers' Choice Award Winner.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 9, 2024
"The dead know the dead. She reminded him that love was the only thing left once your mortality was gone."
Blood Desires is a collection of horny M/M vampire stories. One is the tale of a vampire who has, for over 150 years, tried to save his lover from the Duke of Hell, one is of a vampire sex worker who is on the run, one is about a millennia old vampire literally crashing into a young human man about to take their own life, and one is about a vampire who consumes the blood of a woman in drugs and nearly loses control of himself with his lover.
Before I briefly go through all the stories and what I liked or disliked about them, I quickly wanna talk about the collection over all. In short, it was okay, I had a solid time. I am not the biggest fan of short stories, but these worked for me a bit better cause most of them were long enough for me to develop an interest in the characters and the story. But none of the stories wow-ed me.
Since this book is basically vampire erotica, I feel like it is my duty to say something on the quality of the smut. Basically, it was also just okay. There were some instances and word choices that made me cringe – for the love of god stop using the word "milking" in smut!!! – but overall it was solid, fun but nothing remarkable.
WALK THROUGH FIRE: I liked the premise of a vampire trying every Halloween for over 150 to save his lover – it's very romantic and angsty and dark, real eternal vampire love. The story had nice horror vibes, with the mausoleum setting, Halloween, the ghost of the little girl who guides Caleb and a fight against a demonic monster. I liked how This was probably my favorite story in the book.
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Harley is a vampire on the run because a bullet wound to his head messed him up and weakened him, and the vampire community do not allow failures and weaklings: they will kill those deemed liabilities. I liked this glimpse into brutal vampire society. As someone who really does not care about werewolves, this story was not quite up my ally, especially when it got to all the I really don't like that trope, so it kinda ruined the vibes for me, which was a shame cause I liked the beginning of the story and the idea of what Harley is going through, as he is losing some of his strength and becoming more human-like.
ENTHRALLED: The idea of a vampire who used to be an ancient Roman soldier being hunted and knocking into a human man about to commit suicide is very intriguing, and I did quite like how, in each other, one found a path to redemption and one a reason to live and keep going. The story goes from first meeting to smut in the blink of an eye, but since this is an erotica, it didn't bother me too much – had this been any other genre, it would've bugged me a lot. The sex scenes had some cringey stuff, such as the before-mentioned use of the unfortunate word "milking" in an erotic context – seriously, stop with that word!
ADDICTED: This was the darkest story in the collection since most of the sexual content is clearly non-consensual and has a real sense of danger for the human party. I did appreciate that, in this story, the vampire, Gideon, who is able to also be really alluring and sweet, truly feels like a dangerous predator, as vampires should. As someone who is not really into non-con stuff even in contexts like this – in an erotic story meant to essentially offer an avenue to enjoy your kinks and desires in a safe way, and so on – I did not care much for this story.
I would probably recommend this to someone who liked short, erotic stories with doses of magic, horror and vampire lore. It's nothing fabulous and the depiction of the vampires is nothing genre-defining or particularly unique, but it was okay. Plus, the cover is so hilariously bad that I will keep this book forever on my shelves, just so I can enjoy the ridiculousness of it from time to time.
Blood Desires is a collection of horny M/M vampire stories. One is the tale of a vampire who has, for over 150 years, tried to save his lover from the Duke of Hell, one is of a vampire sex worker who is on the run, one is about a millennia old vampire literally crashing into a young human man about to take their own life, and one is about a vampire who consumes the blood of a woman in drugs and nearly loses control of himself with his lover.
Before I briefly go through all the stories and what I liked or disliked about them, I quickly wanna talk about the collection over all. In short, it was okay, I had a solid time. I am not the biggest fan of short stories, but these worked for me a bit better cause most of them were long enough for me to develop an interest in the characters and the story. But none of the stories wow-ed me.
Since this book is basically vampire erotica, I feel like it is my duty to say something on the quality of the smut. Basically, it was also just okay. There were some instances and word choices that made me cringe – for the love of god stop using the word "milking" in smut!!! – but overall it was solid, fun but nothing remarkable.
WALK THROUGH FIRE: I liked the premise of a vampire trying every Halloween for over 150 to save his lover – it's very romantic and angsty and dark, real eternal vampire love. The story had nice horror vibes, with the mausoleum setting, Halloween, the ghost of the little girl who guides Caleb and a fight against a demonic monster. I liked how This was probably my favorite story in the book.
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Harley is a vampire on the run because a bullet wound to his head messed him up and weakened him, and the vampire community do not allow failures and weaklings: they will kill those deemed liabilities. I liked this glimpse into brutal vampire society. As someone who really does not care about werewolves, this story was not quite up my ally, especially when it got to all the I really don't like that trope, so it kinda ruined the vibes for me, which was a shame cause I liked the beginning of the story and the idea of what Harley is going through, as he is losing some of his strength and becoming more human-like.
ENTHRALLED: The idea of a vampire who used to be an ancient Roman soldier being hunted and knocking into a human man about to commit suicide is very intriguing, and I did quite like how, in each other, one found a path to redemption and one a reason to live and keep going. The story goes from first meeting to smut in the blink of an eye, but since this is an erotica, it didn't bother me too much – had this been any other genre, it would've bugged me a lot. The sex scenes had some cringey stuff, such as the before-mentioned use of the unfortunate word "milking" in an erotic context – seriously, stop with that word!
ADDICTED: This was the darkest story in the collection since most of the sexual content is clearly non-consensual and has a real sense of danger for the human party. I did appreciate that, in this story, the vampire, Gideon, who is able to also be really alluring and sweet, truly feels like a dangerous predator, as vampires should. As someone who is not really into non-con stuff even in contexts like this – in an erotic story meant to essentially offer an avenue to enjoy your kinks and desires in a safe way, and so on – I did not care much for this story.
I would probably recommend this to someone who liked short, erotic stories with doses of magic, horror and vampire lore. It's nothing fabulous and the depiction of the vampires is nothing genre-defining or particularly unique, but it was okay. Plus, the cover is so hilariously bad that I will keep this book forever on my shelves, just so I can enjoy the ridiculousness of it from time to time.
August 8, 2011
Though I'm not usually a fan of short story anthologies, I love Laura Baumbach's gay erotica. In particular, "Demonspawn: Tales from Demon Under Glass" had an interesting take on vampires so I wanted to see what else she would do with them. Overall, I think this is an excellent collection, with different approaches on vampires for each story. Four novellas are included:
"Walk Through Fire" - this one surprised me because it it had a lot of emotional content, and the trademark explicit sex was saved for the very end. When Caleb's lover was taken by a witch to be sacrificed, he killed her. He didn't know she was the favorite of a Demon Lord of Hell. Each Halloween, Caleb is given the chance to reclaim his love by fighting one of the demon's champions. 157 times he has tried, and failed. Even if he wins this time, after suffering so long will Drew even be sane? Enough exposition of the characters for readers to become invested; action-packed with a very satisfying ending.
"Dark Side of the Moon" - Harley is a vampire prostitute. When a john attempts to murder him, Harley somehow survives a gunshot wound to the head. But it changes him, and other vampires see him as something damaged that must be destroyed. On the run, he finds unlikely salvation, and love, with the mortal enemy of his kind - a werewolf. This was my favorite story, and I would love to see the author do a sequel, or expand it into a novel. I found both characters, but especially Harley, to be completely engaging and the sex was simply scorching!
"Enthralled" - another solid entry. Rowland is the ultimate predator, seeing humans as food and not much more. Colin is a hemophiliac who has been sheltered his entire life, and feels he has nothing left to live for. Braced to jump off a balcony and kill himself, he is saved when Rowland falls from the sky after being shot by a vampire hunter. Colin raises emotions in Rowland that he has not felt in a thousand years. Rowland, practically death himself, gives Colin a reason to live. An unlikely pairing that works on many levels.
"Addicted' - this was the weakest story in the book. Gideon is a predator, who finds himself dealing with unexpected, heightened emotions after feeding on a woman who's high on drugs. He returns to sate his lust with his human lover Tanner. My problem here is that the story is essentially Tanner trying to fight off a rape from his out-of-control, and incredibly dangerous lover. There is no steamy sex scene, the characters have no development and the story just kinda ends. Disappointing, and the reason I gave four stars instead of five.
Overall, three fantastic stories out of four is greatod. The stories were very erotic, with surprising emotional depth and sexy bloodsuckers. I enjoyed it enough I purchased her other vampire anthology, Blood Claim. I can only hope it is as good as this one
"Walk Through Fire" - this one surprised me because it it had a lot of emotional content, and the trademark explicit sex was saved for the very end. When Caleb's lover was taken by a witch to be sacrificed, he killed her. He didn't know she was the favorite of a Demon Lord of Hell. Each Halloween, Caleb is given the chance to reclaim his love by fighting one of the demon's champions. 157 times he has tried, and failed. Even if he wins this time, after suffering so long will Drew even be sane? Enough exposition of the characters for readers to become invested; action-packed with a very satisfying ending.
"Dark Side of the Moon" - Harley is a vampire prostitute. When a john attempts to murder him, Harley somehow survives a gunshot wound to the head. But it changes him, and other vampires see him as something damaged that must be destroyed. On the run, he finds unlikely salvation, and love, with the mortal enemy of his kind - a werewolf. This was my favorite story, and I would love to see the author do a sequel, or expand it into a novel. I found both characters, but especially Harley, to be completely engaging and the sex was simply scorching!
"Enthralled" - another solid entry. Rowland is the ultimate predator, seeing humans as food and not much more. Colin is a hemophiliac who has been sheltered his entire life, and feels he has nothing left to live for. Braced to jump off a balcony and kill himself, he is saved when Rowland falls from the sky after being shot by a vampire hunter. Colin raises emotions in Rowland that he has not felt in a thousand years. Rowland, practically death himself, gives Colin a reason to live. An unlikely pairing that works on many levels.
"Addicted' - this was the weakest story in the book. Gideon is a predator, who finds himself dealing with unexpected, heightened emotions after feeding on a woman who's high on drugs. He returns to sate his lust with his human lover Tanner. My problem here is that the story is essentially Tanner trying to fight off a rape from his out-of-control, and incredibly dangerous lover. There is no steamy sex scene, the characters have no development and the story just kinda ends. Disappointing, and the reason I gave four stars instead of five.
Overall, three fantastic stories out of four is greatod. The stories were very erotic, with surprising emotional depth and sexy bloodsuckers. I enjoyed it enough I purchased her other vampire anthology, Blood Claim. I can only hope it is as good as this one
June 16, 2010
The first three stories were wonderful. The last story was so short it was hardly worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews