Bloody Valentine Blog Hop, 'Heartache' #Giveaway

Hopping by from Evernight's Valentines Snippets Blog Hop? Please visit this post and leave a comment for your chance to win your choice of book from the Evernight Publishing catalog.

Once again, the Lupercalia begins! Pagan Spirits is linking up with A.F. Stewart for the Bloody Valentine Blog Hop, a celebration of the exact opposite of cheesy lace-trimmed cards and candy hearts spewing trite store-bought sentiments.

Ludo succinctly sums up the drama of two people shot by Cupid who never should have laid eyes on one another, two people whose love is more of a horror novel than a paperback romance:

Love doesn't always go according to Hallmark card blueprint, and it isn't always pretty. It could end messily - Romeo and Juliet messily, in extreme cases. It could be thwarted at every turn before it has a chance to begin.

Don't get me wrong - I love love. I love romance, and I generally expect my romantic fiction to have a happy ending. In fact, I might get upset if it doesn't  (The Fault In Our Stars, right?). But at times, fiction has to give a nod to realism. It's pretty darn hard to find a human who hasn't had his or her heart broken at some point, and even the best of romances can be bittersweet.

So here's a salute to all the romances that went down the drain. In honor of the Valentine's Days that didn't turn out so well, I'm giving away one copy of Heartache, an anthology edited by Selena Kitt.

Book Description: Erotic, romantic, poignant and wistful, this anthology collection from Excessica authors will thrill you, touch you, and stay with you. These stories dare to explore the pleasure and pain of a lover gone, the one that got away, the forbidden affair, a true love existing on borrowed time. These are tales of passionate affairs that cannot last, but they are exquisite gems while they do, and like the star that burns brightest, these stories burn fast, dazzle and smolder in the memory. 

Authors include Giselle Renarde, Willson Rowe, Bekki Lynn, Elliott Mabeuse and yours truly. My contribution, "The Witch's Tale," is a paranormal romance between a wolf shapeshifter and the healer who tried, but failed, to save his stricken loved ones. Read an excerpt here.

Warning: readers may get sad.

Giveaway rules: The contest is open internationally; however, U.S. winners are eligible to win a paperback copy of the book, while international winners are eligible to win an e-book copy. Winner will be chosen by Random.org. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post by midnight, February 15, 2013 (U.S. Eastern time). Please make sure I can find your e-mail address either in your comment or by clicking on your name so that I can notify you if you win. Note: you can enter both this and the Evernight Valentine's Snippet contest on my blog, but if you win one, you'll be disqualified from the other.

Don't forget to visit the other websites participating in the blog hop of broken hearts!

Review: 'Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire,' Edited by D.L. King

Dropping by from Evernight's Valentine Snippets Blog Hop? Please see this post and leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of book from Evernight Publishing. 

Last week I had the pleasure of reading Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire, a Cleis Press anthology of tales of that most erotic of mythological creatures, the succubus. I'm not unfamiliar with the lore of the daughter of Lilith who seduces men (and sometimes women) in their sleep, stealing their essence through pleasure. In fact, I already have a favorite succubus book: Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler (and its sequel The Road to Hell - I have yet to read the third book, Hotter Than Hell, about Daun the incubus). It's fun to get a new book on a topic I already enjoy. Wherever folklore and erotica meet, there you will find me.



Honestly, I loved just about every story in this collection, and even the ones I didn't love, I liked. I really love a "bad girl," a lady of the night with claws and fangs (literally, in some cases) who might seduce her lover into the illusion that he's in control, but dominates him stealthily, or the vixen who takes control outright. Her lover might be a momentary amusement, a means to an end or her truest love, but there's always an edge of danger to her affections. It's not that I don't love an alpha male, but sometimes femdom is exquisitely satisfying.

The anthology begins on a high note; Aurelia T. Evans' "Harvest" is scorching hot. It's your classic "boy summons succubus into a pentagram drawn on his bedroom floor" tale, expertly told. "In the Service of Hell" by Michael M. Jones is the anthology's first "succubus meets girl" tale, and it has a nice twisty ending. I enjoyed the setup of Kannan Feng's "Before a Fall:" a spirit of lust vs. a spirit of pride.

I was highly looking forward to "Star-Crossed" by Canadian author Evan Mora, because she really impressed me with "Real Boy" in the Cleis Press anthology Lustfully Ever After. I wasn't disappointed.  "Star-Crossed" turns Romeo into a vampire and Juliet, through a last-minute deal with the devil, into a succubus. The result is much sexier (and surprisingly romantic) than Shakespeare's "everybody dies" ending. (No offense, Will.) It was like a more adult take on Juliet Immortal.

Jay Lawrence's "Deliverance" has a nicely haunted, old-fashioned feeling to it, like a really good ghost story with an erotic twist. Anya Richards' "Minions Have Needs Too" is one of those power-play stories I enjoy so very much. Nan Andrews' "Sweet Tooth" features some nice food/sex writing that would've worked well in Hunger. It's basically about an enchanted recipe box, in a really fun and sensual way. Giselle Renarde, whose food/sex writing does appear in Hunger, contributed "Neither Love Nor Money," a guide to how to care for your succubus when she cares for you too much to suck out your essence and her health suffers as a result.

NJ Streitberger's "The Girl on the Egyptian Escalator" has an interesting perspective, in that the succubus is a manifestation of one of my favorite goddesses of destruction, ancient Egypt's lion-headed Sekhmet.

Everything that comes afterward is pretty good stuff, too. Really, there is no bad story in this anthology.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review, which represents my own honest opinion. I did not receive any other compensation.

Favorites from 'Hunger: A Feast of Sensual Tales of Sex and Gastronomy'

Some of my favorite stories from HUNGER A Feast of Sensual Tales about Sex and Gastronomy, edited by M. Christian and Alyn Rossellini (other than "Hungry Things," the one I wrote, of course):

I mentioned the other day that Susan St. Aubin's "A Meal" is a nice opener featuring brave writing and Dominic Santi's "Jeb's Wife" is some very sexy writing.

I also enjoyed "A is for Apple" by Jessica Lennox. It's about a playful sexual encounter between two women who've just met, involving a little light bondage. At first I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but when I got to the very last line and it suggested the lovers would play together again, I decided I liked the ending.

"Happy Birthday to Me" by Heidi Champa starts off on a melancholy note, at the unwelcome birthday party of a man who's lost his girlfriend. Marcus is sad, but the cake and the caterer who baked it make him start to feel a little better. She runs out of cake, but the lack can be made up for in other ways.

Billierosie's "Fruits de Mer" is gorgeous, gorgeous writing. Not a single word is out of place.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the other tales in the anthology, but everyone has their own preferences, and these are the ones that particularly catered to mine. I do happen to have a favorite, though. It's "Un Apetito Robusto" by Cesar Sanchez Zapata. Set at a family-owned small vineyard in Italy, the tale is romantic, evocative and just plain delizioso.

Next I'll be reading an anthology to which I did not contribute: Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire, edited by D.L. King. The theme is "succubi." Good stuff, lots of femme dom. Giselle Renarde has stories in both.