Flashback Sunday Review/ The Ta’e’sha Chronicles: Daughters of Terra/ Theolyn Boese/ Loose Id

Flashback Sunday Review:  A Review of a book that has been published at least 12 Months previous to the review date.





















Title:  The Ta’e’sha Chronicles: Daughters of Terra
Author:  Theolyn Boese
Publisher:  Loose Id
Genre:  BDSM & Polyamorous Futuristic Shapeshifter (Menage)
Print ISBN:  978-1596326743   
eBook ISBN:  978-1596323858
Publication Date:  March 9, 2008
Length:  224 Pages
Format:  ebook
AMAZON          Barnes and Noble          Loose Id         


Book Blurb:

Theadora Conner lived a quiet, solitary life until she met two strange men one night at a club. Several days later, after a surgically neat kidnapping, she awoke to find that her world has been turned upside down. Told that she was mated to both men and altered to carry their children she finds herself thrown into a world and culture she knows nothing about, one where science, myth, and religion seem to blend seamlessly.


As she tries to accept her new life with Kyrin and Daeshen, her new husbands, a hidden danger stalks the human women. For not all of the Ta’e’sha are happy to accept these women, and one expresses his contempt with rape.


Publisher’s Note: The Ta’e’sha Chronicles: Daughters of Terra contains subject matter that may be objectionable to some readers: ménage, homoerotic sexual situations, BDSM, sex while in shapeshifted form, violence.



My Review:

I love this book, it was one of the first truly erotic books that I read when I started to expand my horizon's in reading material.  This was the first book that i read that had a BDSM theme as a partial subplot.  This is a book that I read at least once a year now.

Theodora Connor or Thea is a young woman who lives by herself and is lonely.  One night she happens to go to a club and meets two very sexy men and makes a connection with them on the dance floor.  She didn't expect to ever see these men again and enjoyed flirting with them.  She longs for a more exciting life but doesn't see anything happening anytime soon.  She wasn't expecting to be kidnapped by these two men who turn out to be from an alien race, The Ta'e'sha. 

Kyrin and Daeshen have been lovers for some time and are on a mission across space to bring back some women from Earth as the women of their planet have become extremely reproductively challenged.  They are not looking for a 3rd life partner but when they meet Thea at the dance club where they are scouting for potential mates to take back home, they realize that they have located the woman who will be able to provide their family unit with children.  They kidnap Thea within the week and while she is sleeping under the influence of the drugs that they have given her, she is surgically altered to be able to have their children.

Thea is shocked when she awakens and is told that not only has she been kidnapped but that she has been married to these two men while she was unconscious and that she's been surgically altered to be able to bear their children.  Thea is a fantastic heroine in this story because she is open to change.  She believes in "the God and Goddess" and has been practicing a form of Wicca on earth.  The interactions between Thea, Kyrin and Daeshen are extremely well done.  Kyrin is the dominant partner in this triad but Daeshen and Thea are not completely submissive and it's very interesting how all three of these characters grow. 

Not everyone on the spaceship is open to bringing these "Earth" women back home and in fact there is one crew member who proves to be very difficult and who causes some violence in the story.  I was somewhat surprised with the nature of the violence (rape) but overall the violence was written in such a way that it was not overwhelming.  There is a HEA ending to this story and the plot is also set for the next book in this series, The Ta’e’sha Chronicles 2: Shards of the Mind .

This was an excellent entry for me into the BDSM world because all three partners in this story are truly in love and know and respect their partners boundaries.  It was also one of my first polyamorous books and those aspects are very well handled too.

My Review:  5 out of 5 Stars

FTC Disclosure:  The book reviewed was purchased by the reviewer.

A Review/ Constant In Love/ Elayne S. Venton/ Ellora's Cave

Title:  Constant In Love
Author:  Elayne S. Venton
Publisher:  Ellora's Cave
Genre:  Erotic Historical
eBook ISBN:  978-1419926686
Length:  Short Story- Quickie
Purchase


Book Blurb:

Stranded at an inn near Gretna Green, Miss Cassandra Briggs is without funds, without a chaperone, without her virtue. To add to her humiliation, her faux pas is discovered by the ruggedly handsome rogue, Mr. Philip Masterson.


Philip has been Cassie’s friend for years. What he really wants is to tie her to his bed. The time has come to claim the woman. Now ruined, Cassandra is willing to settle for a courtesan’s life and Philip is willing to take her as his mistress. In each other’s arms, however, neither is ready to settle for anything less than love.

But love is inconstant…and a woman will protect her heart at all costs.


My Review:  I enjoyed this quickie by Ms. Venton.  The story was entertaining and the plot moved at a very good pace without seeming to rush to an ending.  The historical setting is also very well done.

The heroine of this story, Cassandra "Cassie"  Briggs, finds herself in a quandary.  She has left her home to elope to Gretna Green with a man that she has known for a short time.  She imagines herself in love with "George" and has already surrendered her virginity to him and he has abandoned her at a small inn.  She is reluctantly realizing that her decisions have left her with very few options for the future, that she has damaged her chances of a possible advantages marriage and that she may be faced with having to become someones mistress instead.

Phillip Masterson has known Cassie since they were both small children.  He's a hard working man who comes from a lower social bracket than Cassie belongs to but he's ambitious and he has plans.  He's also honest and he's been in love with Cassie for a long time.  He's been following Cassie without her knowledge and is aware of the circumstances that she finds herself in now.  He could make things easy for Cassie but he's a little angry with her for her bad choices and for her apparent preference for a man like "George", so he devices a plan to make her his mistress.

Cassie and Phillip are really great together, their dialogue is sharp and witty.
They both really love each other but neither is willing to admit their love at the start of this story for fear of being alone in their feelings.  Without giving away more of the story, I will state that there is a Happy Ever After type ending and that this is an enjoyable book to read.




My Rating:  4 out of 5 Stars

FTC Disclosure:  The book reviewed was purchased by the reviewer.  No other remuneration was made.

 

New Release Tuesday

Tuesday is a new release day for at least 2 of the publishers of erotic romance books.  I've highlighted what is releasing this week. 



Tuesday 6-Jul-10

The Lady's Not A Vamp

Animal Instinct

Best Intentions

Breaking Free

Long Time Gone     This is book 4 in the Konisburg Series

Revenge

The Distance Between Us

Let's Do It Again

Eternity and a Day

Reckless Heart

Risky Maneuvers

Go Forth And Shop!

A Review/ Carnal Ecstacy/ Lissa Matthews/ Ellora's Cave

Title:  Carnal Ecstasy

Author:  Lissa Matthews

Publisher:  Ellora's Cave

Genre:  Erotic Contemporary

eBook ISBN:  978-1419928697
Length:  Novella (67 Pages)
Format:  eBook
Purchase

Book Blurb:

When good girls go bad, very, very bad…


The minute Carrie meets tattooed, bad-boy bartender Dallon, her decision is made. He’s the one, her ticket to freedom and a new, independent life. She’s tired of dictates and zero dates and following the path laid out before her by her well-meaning-but-completely-out-of touch-with-her-reality religious parents.

Dallon sees the buttoned-up, full-of-curves woman outside the grocery store and feels the flames of hell licking at his heels. When she asks him for directions to the large, nearby university where she’s starting work, his gut-twisting lust for her doesn’t diminish, but those flames start to singe his tough-as-nails hide.

With Dallon’s promise of not sleeping with anyone associated with the university his father is the dean of about to go up in smoke, Carrie takes the first exit off the Heavenly Highway straight onto Sin Street. She wants Dallon to teach her all the things a good girl should never know, and she won’t take Hell no for an answer.

Reader Advisory: What Dallon does with a beer bottle may be illegal in forty-eight out of fifty states…and at least two territories.



My Review:

This is a sequel to Ms. Matthews book "Simple Need" and I really enjoyed reading this.  The story was hghly erotic and kept me turning the pages.  I sincerely hope that Ms. Matthews pens additional stories for these characters, especially since she introduced the third owner of the bar business in this novella.

Dallon is the hero of this story and he is an interesting study in contrasts.  He's the son of a preacher who has spent most of his adult life rebelling against the lifestyle that his father had planned for him.  He's tattoed and is a 1/3 owner of a bar and of a tattoo parlor.  He doesn't have relationships with members of the opposit sex, just one night stands and most of the time the women are gone before he even wakes up on the morning, he doesn't make breakfast for anyone.  He's content with his life and isn't really looking for anything else.  Fortunately for him fate has something else in mind for him and it was very interesing watching him come to terms with the changes that would result from a chance meeting in a grocery story parking lot. 

Carrie is the heroine of this story and she too is an interesting study in contrasts.  She's the daughter of two highly religious people who have raised her to be a very good girl.  Carrie has been raised to follow thru on plans that have been set out by her parents and she has come to town to work at the local Christian College that just happens to be run by Dallon's dad.  She meets Dallon in the parking lot of the grocery store and that chance encounter has a profound and lasting effect on her.  Carrie realizes that she's highly attracted to Dallon and that he would the exact opposit of what her parents would want for her.  She has to make a choice, continue in the footsteps planned by someone else or take a chance on herself and get to know who she is on her own. 

As Dallon and Carrie interact in this book both of their lives change, Carrie learns to ask for what she wants and learns that it's not a bad thing to be in touch with who she is as both a woman and as a sexual person.  Dallon's lessons are a little more subtle in that he doesn't know that he is learning that he no longer wants to be alone, he just knows that suddenly he wants Carrie and that he wants her to be around all of the time.  I sensed that Dallon wants a permanent relationship with Carrie but I do know that he at least acknowledged that he wasn't stressed out about the fact that she would be staying with him in a way that he has not allowed any other woman.  Part of Dallon's charm seems to be that he's sort of a "take things as they come" kind of guy and he's certainly taken to Carrie.

As I stated earlier, this is a very erotic book and I have to say regarding the author's warning about what Dallon does with a beer bottle - I will never, ever, look at a beer bottle the same way again!

My Rating:  4.5 of 5 Stars