Tag: Erotica

Sluts and Whores by C E Hoffman 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Sluts and Whores by C E Hoffman 📚

C E Hoffman

I read a digital edition of Sluts and Whores that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Urban fantasy, erotica

Publisher: Thurston Howl Publications

Originally published: January 27th, 2021

Pages: 208 (paperback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

A jealous girlfriend trips on acid; a traumatized mother attempts to masturbate; a spa worker is challenged to take control of her fate.
A haunted jeep parks in front of student housing; a sex worker grows wings; and a hitchhiker is picked up by someone she’d never expect.
SLUTS AND WHORES is a #OwnVoices short story collection. In C E Hoffman’s debut, one will find a pile of Pandora’s Boxes waiting to be opened.
Exploring the humanity of sex workers (“whores”) and people who are proudly sexual (“sluts”), this collection questions stereotypes that are long out of date, merging horror with heartache, and magic with the mundane.
Welcome to a world where anything can happen- and often does.

My thoughts:

I want to start with an important note; this short story collection is not for everyone. It’s filled with sex, drugs, heartache, love, loss, and darkness. The title should already give you somewhat of an idea of that already. It’s not for the fainthearted, but for the readers who enjoy the theme of sex and darkness, I would highly recommend diving into Sluts and Whores!

I love steamy reads, and especially the writers that dare to push some boundaries with their stories. Hoffman does exactly that! I don’t often come across stories about sexuality with this kind of depth, fantasy, and mystery. And not only that, it is written in such a raw and beautiful way that I couldn’t help but being sucked into these stories and poems. I highlighted so many parts of this book and even though I don’t usually reread books that often, I will be reading this again in the not-so-distant future.

Sluts and Whores is a solid short story collection that surprised me in more ways than one! It’s filled with good representation and diversity which made it an even more enjoyable reading experience. I think every reader will take something different with them from each story. It’s high on emotions and even though some of these stories are surreal and incredibly dark, I think most readers would find a lot to relate to throughout this collection. 

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting when I picked this one up, but I was blown away by the strong voice and brilliant storytelling that Hoffman offers through these pages. 

I’m so happy that I picked this book up! It took me on an adventure that was dark and different. It stirred up a lot of feelings and it made me reflect and wonder. I can’t wait to read more of Hoffman’s writing!

I dare you to give it a try!

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛

Waste by K. Bevis 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Waste by K. Bevis

K. Bevis

I read a Kindle edition of Waste: A Dark Science Fiction Adventure that was given to me for free from the author in exchange of an honest review.

Genre: Science fiction, Erotica

Publisher: K. Bevis

Originally published: September 10th, 2019

Pages: 181 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

A radioactive wasteland. A man who isn’t entirely human. And a powerful evil that wants her dead.

Ode isn’t having the best year and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better any time soon.

Something dark and twisted is prowling the landscape, attacking people and leaving their mutilated bodies behind. Not that things aren’t bad already. There is a cult obsessed with evolution. the world has been destroyed by nuclear war and mutated creatures lurk in the shadows.

But now, whatever is behind the carnage has fixed its sights on Ode and it will stop at absolutely nothing until she’s dead. That’s if her inherited powers don’t off her first.

Forced to partner with the enigmatic City leader Cain and having to reconsider everything she’s ever been told about her life and history, Ode must find the truth behind the creeping darkness before it destroys her already broken world.

WASTE is a dark science fiction adventure with a strong female heroine who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. It is twisted and weird and soaked in radiation. It is not for the faint of heart, but for the adventurer who likes their science fiction books to have a splash of horror, a dash of survival fiction and a streak of dark romance.

Go on, be brave, give it a try.

My thoughts:

One thing is pretty clear from the very beginning of this story, and that is that it’s a graphic story. So, if you’re not into stories containing sex and violence, this is not the book for you! 

Now that we’ve got that warning out of the way, let’s talk about the awesomeness of this erotic and action-packed science fiction novel.

As the author puts it, ever so accurately; It is twisted and weird and soaked in radiation.

We meet Ode, a strong and independent female protagonist, living in a radiated wasteland. She doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty and do so quite often to stay alive. Ode is not like the humans we know today, and whenever her bloodlust comes over her, the only way to not go into a killing frenzy is to have sex.

I really enjoyed getting to know Ode as a character. She’s such a strong female lead to this story, and even though she’s a sexually active and strong woman, we also get to see the softer side of her personality throughout this book. There’s a character development there that I feel like could have been explored even more than it was, but considering this is the first book in a series, I’m hoping to get to know more in the next book.

Ode’s past and the radiated world that she’s living in is soaked in darkness and mystery, and I really enjoyed exploring it and its characters, and seeing how the pieces all fit together, although it felt slightly rushed a couple of times. 

I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next in this series!

If you’re looking for something that’s dark, twisted and weird, with a dash of erotica and a whole lot of action, then I would definitely recommend Waste. 

But be aware, it is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

If you want to get your own copy of Waste, click on the Amazon logo below👇🏻

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Unteachable by Leah Raeder (Elliot Wake) 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Unteachable by Leah Raeder (Elliot Wake) 📚

A steamy story of an unexpected and forbidden relationship between a student and a teacher.

Elliot Wake (formerly known as Leah Raeder)

I read a paperback version of Unteachable as a part of my Exploring Erotica project.

Genre: Adult & contemporary fiction, Erotica

Publisher: Atria Books

Originally published: July 27th, 2013

Pages: 320 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 9 Hours 49 Minutes

Blurb by the publisher:

Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future. 

But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall. 

When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside. 

That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke. 

Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too. 

Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script

My thoughts:

I’ve been on the search for good adult fiction and erotica through my Exploring Erotica Project that’s been going on for a few years now. Around my birthday last year, I ordered a big bunch of erotica novels that were recommended to me in the comment section of one of the first Exploring Erotica videos I posted on YouTube. That is how I came across Unteachable and I was immediately intrigued by the story and the good reviews.

One of the first things I noticed that made me instantly like Maise as the main character was how strong and funny she was. Having read quite a few erotica novels by now, I feel like it’s a way too common thing to put young and inexperienced characters in these stories as sort of damsels in distress, and honestly, I’m not a fan.

When it comes to stories of love and sex, I much more enjoy experienced and strong characters that stand up for themselves. Maise, although she comes from a problematic upbringing, she is a very strong and passionate character. She’s very aware of her femininity, sexuality, and the power that comes with both.

I was worried that I would see the overly dominant and submissive character tropes when I saw that the story was about the relationship between a teacher and a student, but it didn’t have that.

Both characters are quite young(18 and 32), and the age difference between them doesn’t make the relationship between the characters uncomfortable and weird.

It’s more the story of an inconvenient setting of two young people that find themselves attracted to each other and trying to find out how to rightly maneuver their way through the jungle of love, lust, and judgment.

Something that adds to the depth of the characters is the fact they do carry each of their own demons into the relationship they start and that complicate things, as those pesky past demons tend to do. This makes it into a more realistic story.

Talking about realistic; the sex is very well written and fairly graphic, and there’s quite a lot of it, so this one is not for those readers who’re looking for “clean romances”. I really appreciated the erotica parts of this story. I thought it was well balanced with the rest of the story.

Unteachable is also a sort of coming of age story as well. It has the elements of worry and uncertainty about making big life choices, which is something we all can relate to on some level.

I think that this book also does a really good job of portraiting that slightly unhealthy obsession that sometimes happens when falling in love.

These characters and their relationship was interesting to observe as it grew and changed.

The secrecy and potential drama that comes with this forbidden relationship also make this story into a pageturner that’s hard to put down.

Unteachable is a breath of fresh air in a genre that really needs exactly that, and more awesome storytellers like Elliot Wake (formerly known as Leah Raeder).

 Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛

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Captive in the Dark by C.J. Roberts 📚 BOOK REVIEW

I read a paperback version of Captive in the Dark. This is the first book in the Dark Duet series.

C.J. Roberts

Genre: Erotica, Romance

Publisher: Neurotica Books

Originally published: July 20th 2011

Pages: 253 (Paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:

Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For 12 years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he once was.

Eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz has just woken up in a strange place. Blindfolded and bound, there is only a calm male voice to welcome her. His name is Caleb, though he demands to be called Master. Olivia is young, beautiful, naïve and willful to a fault. She has a dark sensuality that cannot be hidden or denied, though she tries to accomplish both. Although she is frightened by the strong, sadistic, and arrogant man who holds her prisoner, what keeps Olivia awake in the dark is her unwelcome attraction to him.

WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence.

My Thoughts:

This is one of the books that I chose to read for my Exploring Erotica project, after it was recommended to me.

I don’t think I’ve ever had as much problem making up my mind and reviewing a book as I’ve had with this one so my thoughts might be a little bit all over the place.

I found this story to be highly problematic and somewhat interesting at the same time. It tells the story of human trafficking, which I think is an important subject, but also an extremely dark one. That is why I find it problematic to have a story where a captive, young, virgin who feels (at times) attracted to her captor. Of course, there might be a kind of Stockholm syndrome argument to all of this that might be very realistic. I don’t know enough about the known psychological aspect of kidnapping/trafficking to say anything about that. But even so, I couldn’t get into the “emotional bond” that was built between the two characters in this book.

I read erotica in the search for a good story with some sexiness and an edge to it. I do not have a problem with BDSM either, but as soon as you add the subject of non-consent/rape, then the story loses all erotic value to it in my opinion. I think those darker sides are important to talk about, and also put into literature, but I’m not sure the dark theme here, combined with erotica is something for me. It just didn’t sit right with me and left me with a bad aftertaste.

That being said, I really liked the way C.J. Roberts built the suspension in her story, and the characters really had a lot of development throughout the book. I also did like her writing style.

All in all, I guess I probably won’t continue on with the series because it isn’t for me, but I would love to read something else by her.

So that is why I find this one hard to review. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. I find it well written, but problematically executed. I like how the characters, but not their relationship. It’s a mixture of a lot of emotions, and therefor somewhere right in the middle.

Do you want to make up your own opinion about the book?

Click on the Book Depository logo below to go and get your own copy!

Henry and June by Anaïs Nin 📚 BOOK REVIEW

“What can I do with my happiness? How can I keep it, conceal it, bury it where I may never lose it? I want to kneel as it falls over me like rain, gather it up with lace and silk, and press it over myself again.” 
― Anaïs Nin, Henry & June

 

9780141183282-us

I read a paperback version of Henry and June.

 

Genre: Memoir/Nonfiction

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd.

First Published: 1986

Pages: 273 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 2 hrs and 51 mins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb by the publisher:

Drawn from the original, uncensored journals of Anais Nin, “Henry and June” is an intimate account of a woman’s sexual awakening. It covers a single momentous year – from late 1931 to the end of 1932 – during Nin’s life in Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. She fell in love with June’s beauty and Henry’s writing and, soon after June’s departure for New York, began a fiery affair with Henry, which liberated her sexually and morally but undermined her marriage and led her into psychoanalysis. One question dominated her thoughts: what would happen when June returned to Paris? That event took place in October 1932, leaving Nin trapped between two loves

– Henry and June.

Anaïs Nin

"A woman with so much love to give, and so much lust to share, 
makes for interesting reading."

My Thoughts

When I first started my Exploring Erotica project, Anaïs Nin was one of the authors that I first came across. I read Delta of Venus, which I really enjoyed. And when I was recommended Henry and June by a good friend, I just had to check it out.

There’s no doubt about the fact that Nin writes beautifully. She has a very straightforwardness combined with poetic writing that I find quite fascinating. Knowing that this was first written in the early 30s makes it even more special.

This is a story of sexual awakening, and I found Nin’s journey to be a very interesting one. A woman with so much love to give, and so much lust to share, makes for interesting reading. Her emotions are so raw and unfiltered that it’s easy to feel some of her frustration and her love/lust.

That being said, when I got through the first 100 pages I found my mind to often drift afterwards when reading it. The beautiful writing is still very much present, but it does get a bit repetitive. It goes back and forth, and then back again multiple times. It sometimes felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again, just written in a slightly different way.

Because I found myself drifting, it took me way longer than normal to finish this book, even though it’s quite a short one. I enjoyed Nin’s openness, her boldness and fascinating mindset around open relationships. I love her writing style, but this memoir fell a bit short when it came to grabbing my attention unfortunately.

Do you want to make up your own opinion about the book? Click on the Bookdepository or Amazon logo below to go and get your own copy!