'Cover Him With Darkness' by Janine Ashbless Is Beautifully Written

Cover Him With Darkness by Janine Ashbless

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has received praise from a number of erotica authors and editors whose work I enjoy and respect: Kate Douglas, Violet Blue, D.L. King, Saskia Walker, Shanna Germain, and Portia da Costa:

"Janine Ashbless has long been a master at conjuring the erotic in myths and legends. Now she's taking on religion and all I can say is wow. Just wow! What is evil? What is good? Can the faithful have completely missed the point? Sexy food for thought: Cover Him With Darkness is an intensely wild ride."
—D.L. King, editor of Seductress and The Sweetest Kiss

"One of the hands-down masters; Janine Ashbless showed me that erotica can be literature."
— Violet Blue, editor of Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women and Girls on Top: Explicit Erotica for Women

"One of the most talented, original and brave authors in the erotica field"
—Shanna Germain

"The best erotic fairytale writer around."
—Saskia Walker

"Vivid and tempestuous and dangerous, and bursting with sacrifice, death and love."
—Portia Da Costa

How could I resist giving it a chance? I couldn't, and my will to resist its charms was annihilated utterly by Janine Ashbless's spellbinding prose. This book is simply magical, proving once again that good erotic writing is good writing, period.

The heroine is Milja. The daughter of a village priest in rural Montenegro, Milja has grown up with her family's momentous secret: they are the guardians of an ancient, immortal prisoner. He is Azazel, a fallen angel. When Milja impulsively releases him from his bonds, she unknowingly puts her life and lives of her family in terrible danger. The Church will go to any length to see that Azazel is once again bound.

You may remember the angel/demon Azazel from Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks by Cara Lockwood. In that book, Azazel is a very dangerous demon feared by Satan because of his determination to take over Hell, as well as the father of several monstrous, giant children by innocent human women. The Jewish Encyclopedia mentions that the name is used three times in the Hebrew Bible, although its meaning is unclear. It seems to come from the ancient Hebrew words for "a strong mountain," perhaps referring to the cliff from which the scapegoat was sacrificed in the ancient, pre-Temple Day of Atonement ritual. In later Jewish folklore, the name seems to have become associated with a demon or evil spirit of the wilderness, like a jinn, an ifrit, or a fearsome desert creature like Pazuzu. Only the Book of Enoch uses Azazel as the name of a rebellious angel who taught forbidden knowledge to humankind.

If one reads the King James Bible, then Leviticus 16:26 says, "And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp." In some translations, however, the same passage reads, "The one who sets the goat free for Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward may come into the camp" (New Revised Standard Version, used in the Roman Catholic Church).

If the word is so old that even the rabbis don't quite understand what it means, then it is a very old word indeed, possibly left over from before Jews and Arabs were separate cultures from our ancient Mesopotamian forebears. Ashbless - an artist, of course, and thus completely free to take all the artistic license she wants - seems to be drawing primarily on the Book of Enoch for her version of Azazel.

Ashbless's tale is darkly romantic, a dizzying balancing act between heavenly pleasures and depths of pain. Milja finds herself in a love triangle of cosmic proportions. Can she ever truly love a creature as inhuman and powerful as a fallen angel? Or will she find love with Egan Kansky, an American transplant originally from Ireland, even though Egan seems to be hiding a secret of his own?

"Cover Him With Darkness" began as a short story published in Red Velvet and Absinthe. I never read that anthology, but I'm glad the novel developed from it. Both the beautifully written prose and the compelling narrative make the novel a real page-turner.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review, which represents my own honest opinion.

Release Blitz: THE BURLINGTON MANOR AFFAIR by Saskia Walker

A legendary family estate.
A mutual longing.
A bargain struck.

Carmen Shelby wants what's been left to her—the valuable estate that she once called home. Rex Carruthers is the heir to Burlington Manor, a ruthless playboy who enjoys playing games, and all he wants is for Carmen to surrender. There can be only one winner...

"Walker deftly spins a captivating tale that will have readers holding their collective breath until the last page is turned.”—Publishers Weekly on The Libertine

"Saskia Walker is one on the top erotic writers of the millennium." - Alison Tyler

Buy links:

Amazon UK

Amazon com

Direct from Harlequin US (only $3.99 direct price)

All Romance Ebooks

Direct Mills and Boon UK (out now)

"As the kiss deepened, her body trembled—which only made his grip on her tighten. He wanted to keep his little bird…make her sing out with pleasure." –The Burlington Manor Affair, Saskia Walker

Excerpt:

“The trouble with this arrangement,” Rex commented as he walked across the room, “is that I’m enjoying it rather too much.” He watched her reaction.

Carmen stopped dead, standing on the patterned rug in the middle of the room. “What are you saying?”
Rex sat down in a winged armchair.  “For a month you do everything I want, every weekend, absolutely anything and everything.” He paused, allowing his message to sink in. “And in return for that you get my half of the property.”

“I told you I’d pay.”

Those eyes of hers, such defiance. How delicious it was to see her fire.

“That won’t be necessary. You will have earned every tiny part of the property by the time I hand it over. Don’t worry about the money.”

She knotted her fingers together. “You’re trying to embarrass me. That wasn’t part of the bargain.”
“I don’t agree. Mostly because I don’t seem to have to try very hard before you get embarrassed. I think you’re embarrassment trigger and your arousal trigger are very close together.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I can’t help that, and neither can you.”

She pressed her lips together. She was clearly annoyed, and yet he could also see that she was acutely aroused. The hands-on treatment he’d given her out in the grounds had her poised for action. She was taut and watchful, barely waiting to be instructed.

Rex took a deep breath and savored the heady atmosphere of sexual anticipation.

When she noticed, she hissed as if in objection.

Rex lifted an eyebrow. She lowered her eyelids, but watched him from beneath her lashes. Rex laughed. Had Carmen Shelby always had these withheld submissive desires? It hadn’t been obvious before, of that he was certain. And the constant battle she was having with her needs—was that part of the package? Or was this dilemma of hers because she’d revealed her trigger to him, perhaps inadvertently? Whatever the reason, neither of them could put it back in the box now. No way. Now that he knew her little kinks and foibles he intended to play them out to their full extent.

“So what is the problem?” she demanded after he left her standing there in silence while he admired her.

“A month might not be enough.”

She glared at him.

“It’s day two and I’m loving every moment,” he continued. “Seems such a shame to put an end date on it.”

“You’re winding me up.”

“I’m being honest.” He was. This was too good.

“In which case you lied to me. If you don’t intend to stand up to your end of the deal, I’m walking out of here right now, and if I have to do that I promise you I will only deal with you through a solicitor!”
Angry Carmen was hellishly hot.

“Is this the ballsy businesswoman speaking now, or are you saying you can’t handle more than a month of this?”

Her eyes blazed.

“Seriously, aren’t you enjoying our time together?”

“You know I am, in some weird fucked-up way.” She folded her arms across her chest. “But I want a limit on it, for the sake of my sanity.”

Sanity? What did that really mean? He’d find out, all in good time. He knew he’d pushed her on the terms. “Fair enough. I suppose I’ll have to stick to my word.”

“It’s only sex,” she blurted, as if it was an afterthought.

“It is…and I must say I’m liking these kinky sex games of yours.”

“Mine?”

“Yes. Yours. Okay, let’s begin.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’d like you to prove to me how much you want the house and how hard you’d work to get it.”

“Now you really are trying to humiliate me.”

“Not at all. You said it made it easier for you when I took charge. Although I do think there’s a part of you that likes that…the humiliation.”

Oh, how her cheeks flamed.

Rex smiled. “Strip for me.”

Long bio:

Award-winning British author Saskia Walker first dreamed of writing her own stories when she discovered a handful of romance novels stashed away in her school library. An avid reader, she lapped up the adventures and the life-affirming emotion of these stories, but always felt dismay when the bedroom door closed the reader out. She vowed that in her stories all the passion would be right there on the page!

Saskia began writing in the late 1990s. By that time she'd traveled the world, gained a B.A. in art history, an M.A. in literature and the visual arts and she'd worked in several diverse careers—but the stories in her head simply had to be written.

It is the combination of potent eroticism and strong storytelling that has become the leading characteristic of Saskia's work. Fascinated with seduction, she loves to explore how and why we get from saying "hello" to sharing our most intimate selves in moments of extreme passion. She writes across genres, often incorporating elements of history, the paranormal and the fantastic in her work. As well as many novel- and novella-length publications, Saskia's work has now appeared in more than seventy international anthologies. Her debut novel received the Passionate Plume award for the Best Contemporary Erotic Romance of 2006, and two of her novels have been nominated for a RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award.

Nowadays Saskia is happily settled in Yorkshire, in the north of England, with her real-life hero, Mark, and a houseful of stray felines. You can visit her website for more info.

http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk

https://twitter.com/saskiawalker

http://www.saskiawalker.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/saskia.walker.965

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/saskiawalker_news/info

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/104558.Saskia_Walker

Erin O'Riordan's Note: Saskia Walker and I have stories in an anthology together. That anthology is Strange Love, edited by Selena Kitt. My m/m paranormal romance between a priest and an angel is called "Angels Would Fall." Saskia's story is called "Where the Heart Is."

Find it here: Strange Love