Tag: Sophie Kisker

Sophie Kisker-Freedom

Several years ago, Sophie wrote the first three books of the Finding Home series, Odyssey, Sanctuary, and Refining Fire. (Check out my review of the series) Well, now she’s decided to bless us with Freedom, the sequel to the Finding Home series. This book takes place in between the last chapter and the epilogue of Refining Fire, so we get coverage of that gap in time. Sophie does really well at putting a timeline at the head of each chapter, so you know where in time you are. Basically, it’s all about Liz’s pregnancy and how Ryan freaks out. But really, that’s just the surface of the story. There’s a lot more to it than just that.

So, the war has ended, Jenny is the chairman of her province, Ryan is acting as her assistant, and Liz is working at the POW camp with the Edwal prisoners. She has the most in-person knowledge when it comes to being kept in a prison camp, so putting her in charge is a smart idea. But that’s not all that’s going on. We find out that Liz is pregnant right at the beginning of the book. She’s thrilled, Ryan’s thrilled, everyone is thrilled. And you’d think that the story would be great from here on out, but the story would be really boring if that was the case, wouldn’t it?

From the beginning, Ryan wants to wrap Liz up in cotton wool, lock her in a padded room, and make sure nothing ever happens to her at all. That includes doing things like, oh, breathing too hard in the outdoors. Ryan wants to make Liz quit her job, which is really important to her. He wants her to basically sit, eat all the healthy food ever, and do nothing but gestate, but that doesn’t work all that well for Liz.

Now, I get wanting to take care of your pregnant wife and sub, but Ryan goes overboard. He gives her an extraordinarily early bedtime, he makes her eat healthy food, and a lot of it, and he totally coddles her. In fact, with that coddling, their D/s relationship takes a backseat. In fact, it takes such a backseat that Ryan only tries to punish her a couple of times, and stops almost immediately when it happens. So much of a backseat, that she stops calling him Master, and all of their protocols go out the window. And everything starts to crack and splinter.

Now, like I said, this is basically about Liz’s pregnancy and Ryan freaking out about that, but it’s actually about a lot more. Liz and Ryan both spend a lot of time thinking about who they are in their relationship and out of it. You have to remember that they have literally never known each other outside of the M/s dynamic. Ryan was one of the slave trainers when Liz was brought onto the estate as a slave. He has always been in a position of authority over her. Liz is trying to figure out if she is actually submissive or if it is something that has been conditioned into her and to figure out her identity.

Ryan is basically doing the same thing, but on the Domly side. His biggest issue is that as the Dom, he’s supposed to appear like he always knows what is going on and that he has everything under control, and right now, almost nothing is under his control, which can be a huge issue.

I didn’t realize that Freedom was the book I needed until I read it and discovered it was. I was pretty happy with the series the way that it was, and Freedom really just deepens my enjoyment of the series, because it just gives us more about Liz and Ryan. Most of the conflict in the book is about their relationship, but there is enough stuff going on outside of their relationship that we were able to get a break, catch our breath, and then go back into Liz and Ryan’s story.

If you like kinky, dark, capture sagas, check out all the Finding Home books. Sophie did a fanfuckingtastic job on the series, and I really can’t go enough into the books in just one blog post. So, check ’em out, and happy reading!

Sophie Kisker-Tribute

Before I get started, I need to say that my K button is misbehaving. For someone reason, it keeps wanting to put multiple Ks instead of just one, so if you notice extra letters, it’s because either I or Grammarly missed them.

Anyway, let’s talk about Sophie and her latest book. I’ve missed Sophie’s stories, so I’m glad that she’s back. Tribute is fucking hot, and has a lot of hot fucking. It’s a very Sophie book, because you have non-con, darkness, and hot aliens. So, let’s get into the gig, shall we?

Mena is a human woman. She’s been on a ship for the last 10 of her years. She is one of what is probably the last human beings alive. The Earth was falling apart, and her ship and shipmates got launched quickly out to a planet that they had already sent colonists to. They are pretty sure that the planet is either completely unpopulated or the native beings are so primitive, they can be conquered. Well, they are wrong. The humans are headed to the planet Kazir, which is inhabited by an advanced alien species. And, oh, BTW, the previous human colonists are all dead.

Mik’kal is a senator on Kazir. He’s not just a senator, he’s the second highest senator. He’s been working with other senators to figure out what to do with the humans who are on their way. There are 3 choices. Blow them all out oof the sky, enslave them all, or put them all on a secluded island, after taking some of the humans, both male and female, as a tribute. The 3rd decision is the one that gets chosen. The human captain lets the Senate know who can be taken as tribute. The humans are all going to be put up on auction, but the leader of the planet wants Mik’kal to take one of them.

Of course, Mena is one of the tributes. And she doesn’t like the way that he and another male are talking over her. In fact, I love the comment that Mik’kal says to her about the fact he wouldn’t talk to his furniture before buying it, so why would he talk to her. Well, this pisses Mena all the way off, and she manages to kick him right in the balls. Hard. Which prompts Mik’kal to choose her.

One aspect of this planet is that it has something called nirza. It’s like the force, kinda. It’s an energy that ties the people and the planet together. The natives have to test themselves against the nirza in adolescence to learn to control it. As adults, they have to bleed off that nirza, or things turn ugly. Usually, that’s through violence, so society has created battle simulators and blood sports. Anyone who spends significant time on the planet has to deal with the nirza, not just the native species.

Anyway. Mik’kal is an asshole of huge proportions. He didn’t want a slave, and it’s very obvious. He wanted to just be done with the humans. He doesn’t want to worry about the humans infecting his world. The previous humans were all enslaved, and the rose up and killed themselves, and sometimes their children. He doesn’t want to see that happen again, so just be done with them before that can happen. He’s also a very dominating and domineering asshole. He has a huge dose of nirza and a lot of darkness, which he works very hard to keep controlled, at least before Mena. But for all that he’s an asshole, he’s an honorable man. He really wants the best for his world and his people. He makes the hard choices because it’s his duty, and he willing serves his people.

Mena is in a really hard place. She’s now a slave. She may have spent a lot of time reading hard core kinky books, and playing slap and tickle and spank with her friends, but fantasy is a lot different than what she is dealing with right now. For one thing, in her fantasies, there was the chance that the Master had some feelings for the woman and her needs were being met. That’s not how Mena feels. She feels like she’s just a piece of furniture and that she is going to be in pain for the rest of her life, and she really wants everything to be done if that’s all it’s going to be. She spends a lot of time fighting with herself. Part of her likes parts of what Mik’kal does, and part of her hates it all, and hates him too.

One of the things that makes this so Sophie is that we get to see Mena’s struggle to accept what is happening to her, if she can accept it. That struggle shows up in a lot of Sophie’s books, and it’s a struggle that I really like to watch.

Ugh, the human captain. At least he’s not the worst person in this book, but I will argue that he’s the second worst.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Sophie Kisker-Given

Given is the last book in Sophie’s Nectar of the Gods series. And I am mad and sad about that. I am not mad at Sophie for it, because I don’t think that any author owes me books or anything, but just mad in general about it, because I really like the series. And of course sad because I really like the series and there won’t be anything new in that world. But, I’m also happy and satisfied because the series ended up in a good place and in a satisfying way. So, with all my mixed up emotions, let’s talk about this book, shall we?

As you may or may not remember, human women have been pulled through portals to an alien world where they are turned into slaves. The Anterrin men are addicted to human women’s nectar, the fluids that are created when a woman orgasms. It makes the guys a little high. Because of that, human women are tied up and forced to orgasm over and over and over. The nectar slaves tend to have a very short, very painful life. It’s even worse if you end up at the palace as one of the King’s nectar slaves. Just ask Emmie. She was one of the nectar slaves, but then she ended up being hurt, leaving a burn mark high up on her thigh, ending near her pussy. That made her too ugly for anyone to want to sip directly from the source, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t still serve. They bottled her nectar.

That’s not the only way that she can serve though, the King is going to use her as currency for a bet with one of his commanders. He tells the dude that she’s one of his best nectar slaves, but doesn’t tell him about the scar. When the commander wins her, he isn’t sure what he’s going to do with a nectar slave, and a defective one at that. So he decides that he’ll take her back to his base, toss her in a hut, and let his men at her.

Garet and Dev are twin brothers, like all Anterrin males. They shared a mate, but she died a year ago. Now they are stuck with trying to raise their 2 boys and a daughter on their own. They are in the military and they are taking turns as to which one is working and which one is home with the kids. Their commander is starting to get antsy about it, so he has come up with a great idea. He’s going to send his defective nectar slave to take care of their children for them so that both brothers can come back to work. Well, you can only guess how thrilled the boys were about that.

I think Emmie is strong af. I mean, look at all the shit she gets handed and all the shit that she survives, and she still manages to hang in there and not only just hang in there, but eventually even thrive. She is able to help with things that no one thought that she would be able to do and to make things better for all kinds of people. I want to give her mad props for everything she managed to do. I think that without Emmie, the series wouldn’t have ended so satisfactorily.

I felt so sorry for Dev and Garet. They had so many terrible things happen all at once, and they are just floundering so badly. They are trying and trying and trying, but nothing is working right, not even the house. And if you ask me, I think Merila did that on purpose to them. I got a little laugh out of it. I liked how they changed after they met Emmie and spent time with her. I mean, I think some of their views were there already, but meeting Emmie and having that relationship with her changed them even more.

The High Priest is really awesome and I really liked the bit of Anterrin spirituality that we got. It was a nice contrast to all the evil stuff we usually get about the Anterrins in general.

orchid-233425_1920

That punishment wall. I don’t know whether it was scary or exciting or excitingly scary. I did like the pad that she had to write lines on. That is just evil.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check it out! It’s available at Zon and at Eden books. Happy reading!

 

Sophie Kisker-Saved

It’s been a while since Sophie has been on the blog, but that’s OK, she’s Saved us with the newest book in the Nectar of the Gods series.

In case you don’t remember, Anterrin men are addicted to the nectar that is produced by human women when they are aroused and orgasm. Because of this, they have figured out a way to use portals to grab human women and bring them forward in time and space so that they can serve as nectar slaves. There are various levels of slaves, from ones who are in the dive bars all the way up to the most private and exclusive slaves who produce the most exotic nectar. There are also privately owned nectar slaves, as well as slaves who serve at the king’s pleasure. But, probably the human women are kept in common taverns where the Average Joe can come and sip straight from the source.

Abriela is one of the women who is kept in one of those common nectar houses. She has been there for nearly a year, and is trapped with several other human women, including one woman who has spent the last 5 days trapped in a cubby that has been completely shut, with no light at all and within a sound dampening field so she can’t even hear herself talk. On this particular morning, their evil master lets that poor woman out and tells her that she will have to be at work the next day, and then he lines up the women to be drugged with arousal enhancing drugs and tied up out in the main room so that the men can lick them raw for the next 8 hours. Abriela stops counting after 30 orgasms in a day. OK, orgasms are pretty damn nice, but 30 forced orgasms in 8 hours, day after day after day would get old and pretty painful too. I probably wouldn’t ever want to have an orgasm again after that. When one of the customers gets mad because she won’t keep her eyes on him while he’s using her, her master says he’ll punish her. When he does, Stella, the poor woman who had been trapped attacks him and he kills her. When Abriela sees that he killed her, she grabs the strap that her master was about to strap her pussy with and whips him across the face. Then he knocks her across the room and fades to black.

Meanwhile, across town, Kirin is an Anterrin male, and like all Anterrin males, he has a twin brother, named Damek. Kirin is a researcher trying to figure out how to deal with a terrible illness that children born to human women and Anterrin males get. It doesn’t affect all the children, but any child it does affect dies. He has a clinic full of human women that he’s studying and a director who is on his side. Damek works as an assistant to a governmental minister, basically a cabinet member to the king (who is kind of bugfuck). One day, Damek has to come pick Kirin up from work because his transport is busted. When Kirin opens the door to leave, he discovers a tiny, bloody human woman. Of course, it’s Abriela. He and Damek check her out, clean her up, hear her story, and decide that they are going to take her home with them.

While there is all kinds of naughtiness, happy sexy fun times, and spankings, this one gets more into the politics and the background of what’s going on with the Anterrins and humans and Earth at the moment. The King, who I might have mentioned is kind of bugfuck, is starting to decompensate. That’s never a good thing. I liked getting into all those politics and all that background and I found that it didn’t overwhelm the rest of the story with Abriela, Kirin, and Damek. In fact, the politics and such really added to it because there are a lot of choices that are getting made by a lot of people that affect our trio because of what His Majesty, King Bugfuck is doing.

beautiful-bloom-blooming-209751

At least Earth, in some time period, is finally putting its foot down. It’s going to be interesting to see if the Anterrins try to retaliate, of course, the decision was made hundreds of years ago, so I don’t know if retaliating against Earth is going to do anything about it now.

I wonder how bad the war is going to be, if there’s a war. King Bugfuck sure seems like he wants to start a war or three. I wonder if he has a bad combover? I wonder if he’s going to get offed, because I think he really needs to, right soon now.

I think it’s about to get really scary, well more scary, for the human women stuck here now. It’s going to be much easier for them to get “lost” in the series.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check out all the series. Happy reading!

Sophie Kisker-Nectar of the Gods: Owned

I adore Sophie Kisker’s work. I read and reread them regularly. I always eagerly await her next book, because I know it’s going to be great. That’s how I knew I was going to love Owned. Owned is the first book in her new series, Nectar of the Gods. Protip, check out Alien Alphas for a short story that takes place in this world. Trust me on this.

Anyway, Owned. This book takes place on Anteros. When this planet has quakes in a particular island chain, there are quick flashes of light. Those flashes of light are actually portals back to Earth. When the men can get to those portals quickly enough, they reach in and grab the first human woman they see. The Anterrin men value human women for just one thing. When a human orgasms, she produces what Anterrins call nectar. This nectar is addictive to Anterrin men and produces a feeling of calmness and euphoria. So, they want more and more human women, because supply. Nectar has completely reworked the Anterrin economy and society. There are bars where people can sip the nectar straight from the source, where women spend hours and hours and hours on end having forced orgasms. Then, there are different, more special kinds of nectar slaves.

Tressa is a human woman who is just about to be free from her douchebag ex-husband. She has just signed the divorce papers and is off to celebrate washing that man right out of her hair. That is, right until a bright light rips into place before her and a copper-colored hand reaches out to grab her and drag her into the light. Next thing she knows, she’s in on her knees, bent over in a cage with her arms secured behind her, plugs in both her pussy and her ass, and is gagged. When she’s drug off the transport she’s in, she’s put in a warehouse with a whole lot of women in the same state. Someone comes along and forces all the women to orgasm. When it’s Tressa’s turn, after she orgasms, some fingers are shoved into her pussy and she can hear people discussing her. Then, she’s picked up and shoved into a corner by herself. Sometime later, a man comes and tastes her the same way, closes her cage and walks away.

Joram, who was working in the warehouse, has a suspicion that Tressa is something special. His sister was trained to grade nectar slaves and he was there when she was training and he tasted the various types of nectar as well. When he finds out that Tressa is going to be disposed of, he knows that he has to figure out a way to save her, after all, if he’s right, she’s worth a whole lot of money. He manages to save her and take her home.

Keilat is Joram’s twin brother. All Anterrin men are born as twins and they share a mate. When he finds out what Joram has done he’s somewhat shocked, but when Joram explains that he thinks that he’s found a gola’a slave, Keilat is willing to listen.

A gola’a slave is the most precious kind of nectar slave. However, they don’t get to orgasm because it will ruin the taste. So, once Tressa has been found to be a gola’a slave, she is stuck with being on edge, all the time, and having to be given tea which will send her into a period where she is nothing but needy and drippy.

If you don’t like BDSM, avoid this one, because all the letters come into play here, in all kinds of ways. Keilat and Joram are very much her Masters, and they do punish her. There are cages, cuffs, collars, and alien roses. But, if this is your kind of thing, and it’s obviously mine, then go read it and reread it and maybe read it again. I loved the story and the world as well as the characters, most of the time. Joram is a real dick at times, but I can’t go into the book to kick his ass, so it’s a good thing he finally stops. The world-building is fabulous, Sophie has come up with a pretty complete world, and while I don’t think I’d want to live there, I don’t mind visiting it.

Orchid Flower Stock Photos
Orchid Flower Stock Photos

When I say that Joram is a real dick, I mean it. I mean, at one point he gives Tressa the tea, but he made it a lot stronger than he should’ve done, which meant that Tressa was screaming in need for longer than she should’ve otherwise done. She tried to claw the chastity belt thing that she had to wear because of how horny she was. Joram only sees her as a source of nectar and an exotic pet, not as a sentient being. Luckily Keilat is there to balance him out.

And can we talk about the crazy king? If I thought that Joram was a dick, the king is a psycho, and not a nice, warm, fuzzy kind of psycho. He does not nice things and we will all love to hate him.

I can’t wait to see where Sophie is going to go with this series because I know it’s only going to get better from this point. It’s going to be totally awesome.

I’m not going to say anything more about this book because I’ve said a lot and I’m trying not to be that person. So, go over to King Zon and grab it for yourself and see what you think. Happy reading!

Alien Alphas Part 1

Alien Alphas is an anthology with 23 authors. That means that I’m going to be reviewing a lot of them. If I blogged all of them in one blog, I would get bored and so would you. I endeavor to not bore myself, and I figure if I’m bored, you’re bored. See how that works? Anyway, I’m breaking it into 2 pieces. This first blog will have all the ARCs I got for this one. The second one will be all the other stories which made me go wow. Of all 23 authors in this book, I’ve read all but two of them, so I was really excited to get this one. I was practically drooling over the book when I got it. So, here we go.

Strangeways by Addison Cain 5*

Of all the things that I have to blame Addison Cain for, turning me onto some tentacle porn is one of the weirdest. Or maybe it’s a combo between Addison and Cari Silverwood, whichever, it doesn’t matter, this story was hot. I really enjoyed it and the twists are twisty. I’m hoping that Addison gives us some more out of this universe. Well, after Consumed, and Irdesi Empire, and Alpha’s Control and a surprise that she keeps teasing us about.

But yeah, the sex in this story? Completely out of the galaxy. What girl doesn’t want to get with a cock that can do all the things that Phi’s equipment can do? That bitch Emily is lucky. Well, maybe lucky, but she’s still getting the good dick. I love the whole basis of this story and think that it is an interesting way to do what Phi and his brethern are trying to do.

You may think that you may not have an interest in tentacles, but really, this story will change your mind and make a believer out of you.

71dHuyUZHmL._SX355_

Finding Sitra by Jane Henry 4.5*

OK, first thing I have to say about this story? I love the title. It’s my kind of wordplay. It can be taken in so many, many, many different ways, and once you read it, you’ll see what I mean. (Seriously, go buy this book right now. It’s only 99 pennies, what can go wrong?)

What do you do when you are a big bad space soldier and you go to a brothel only to find out that your dead best friend’s baby sister is the prostitute that you just rented? Well, you tie her down and spank her, of course! What happens when that brothel gets the shit bombed out of it? You end up with Cy and Sitra’s story.

They get their HEA, which is wonderful, but it’s not an easy thing for either of them. They both have a lot of baggage that they have to deal with, which makes it even more satisfying when they get together. So, yay for them, and yay for Jane!

how-to-use-stinging-nettles-990x556

Sold to the Enemies by Sara Fields 4*

Sara Fields brings us into a whole new scifi world for her offering and I will gladly follow Sara anywhere she wants to go, please and thank you. 🙂

Aubrie was the leader of Earth’s space forces, right up until she went and attacked a much more technologically advanced force. She may have killed some of them, but her forces were devastated. The men were killed and the women were taken prisoner and dragged off by slavers. She was on the dais being sold when Edogan sees her and decides to buy her himself. After all, as the commander of the forces she attacked, he’s well within his rights to take her and punish her.

One of the things that I like about Edogan is that he’s secure enough as an Alpha to let Aubrie be the strong person she is. he also takes the time to help her figure out what’s going on with her life.

And this is what my head Aubrie looks like, mostly because I think Starbuck is very cool. So, please, let me have this without harshing it, OK?

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, Katee Sackhoff, (Season 4), 2003-,. Photo: Justin Stephens / © SCI FI CHANNEL

 

 

Fated Possession by Cari Silverwood 5*

My Cari Silverwood collection is well up into double digits. I think it’s at nearly 20. I’d have to go look. But there’s a really good reason for that. If you’ve read anything of hers, and if you haven’t why not?, you’ll understand.

This story takes place in her Machinery of Desire series. You don’t have to read the series to understand what’s going on in the story, but it does help. It happens at roughly the same time that the last book in that series happens, but doesn’t connect up with that story.

Blue is one of the humans who has been abducted and dragged to Aerthe for one thing. Her blood. Human blood has something that the Mekkers need. When she escapes, she gets caught by Scavs. Sassik is passing by and sees her and sees what’s about to happen to her and decides that he’s going to buy her. Of course, his plan is to buy long enough to find a good owner for her.

This is one of those series that I want the next book as soon as I finish the last book, so having this story to tide me over and give me another look into this world is great.

GeG9Gbi

Drakeon Rescue by Lee Savino and Lili Zander 4*

Dragons are cool. I love dragons. You love dragons. Everyone loves dragons. Flying and breathing fire, I mean, what more do you really need? So, of course my love extends out to Draekons, Lee and Lili’s alien dragon shifters.

A few months ago, Zorhans landed on Earth and gave the humans some miraculous cures. They also took 10 women back with them. Now, on the worst. day. ever. Dor gets abducted by a spaceship and dragged away.

Tin is a Draekon who has spent a year trapped in hell by evil scientists. They are testing to try to find his mate. Cro is his best friend who isn’t about to give up on finding Tin and rescuing him. When Dor gets taken to the evil scientists’ lair, she’s placed with Tin, and Cro shows up with perfect timing.

The Draekon guys are awesome. They are uber-protective and they are also willing to let Dor do what she is good at without smothering her. While this story does take place during the rest of the Draekon books, it doesn’t connect up with them in any way, shape, or form.

red dragon

Under Contract by Jaye Peaches 4.5*

Remind me never to break a contract anywhere where Jaye can see me. Or maybe, remind me to do that, if she’ll arrange someone like Brax to come get me, because damn. This story gave me the screaming thigh sweats. I mean, dayum. This story is pretty heavy on the BDSM and sex aspects, so be aware of that, and prepare appropriately.

Brax is an extraction specialist. He gets a contract and goes in and extracts women from suboptimal situations, then takes them back to his facility and rehabilitates them. Kleo’s guardian has contacted Brax to go extract Kleo from another planet, rehabilitate her (read make her submissive again), and bring her back. Kleo ran away because she doesn’t like her “guardian’s” plans for her. I wouldn’t either. What no one told Brax is that she’s a human who has been trained with some very particular skills. Skills that affect her rehab.

Brax is a super intense alpha. And dayum, his junk? Yeah, he’s got some good junk going on. I love how cherished he makes Kleo feel and how he changes how she feels about herself.

pexels-photo-210585

Her Zandian Masters by Renee Rose. 5*

Horny, purple, horned aliens. The don’t have one eye, they don’t fly unless they are in a flying ship, but they do eat women. (Snerk) I love the Zandian universe. A lot. Thank you, Renee Rose.

Eslyn is one of the few Zandian women left in the entire universe. We originally met her back in one of the full length Zandian stories. She and her “mates” were left on Zandia when it was attacked, and they spent 15 long years as the only Zandians that they knew of, along with their kids. When other Zandians came to where they were, her “mates” tried to kidnap the other woman and kill the man with her. Eslyn, those men, and her young were all brought back to the royal pod for Prince Zander to judge.

He decides that she should be rehabilitated and chooses the three men who have been guarding her to do it. Granit, Laake, and Damon have been best friends and brothers for the majority of their lives, and are almost like one organism with three bodies instead of three separate beings. It makes sense for them to share a mate.

Generally, Renee doesn’t write menage in this series, because it turns out big purple horned aliens also tend to be somewhat possessive. However, it really works in this case, and it is hot af. The guys are awesome and caring, and they go out of their way to show Eslyn how much she matters. Totally awesome.

I know this isn’t what the Zandians look like, but I love this picture anyway, so here you go.

1c47deca1ec0824dca3df12f15a2568c--space-aliens-the-face

The Ghost in the Stars by Sophie Kisker 4.5*

This is an intro to a new universe by Sophie Kisker, and I can tell it’s going to be hot as fucking fuck. Because damn, this one was amazing. I can’t wait for more of this universe so that I can get to enjoy everything. By everything, I mean all the books and stories, of course.

Siridian is off flying in space by himself when he runs across a ship just floating around. While he waits to get permission to get in and go salvage it, he has the feeling he should just go in and do it, so he does. When he’s there, he finds a dead body and Keelie. Keelie is a human nectar slave who was abducted from a past Earth and dragged into the future to serve the men of Anteros and their addictions.

Siridian has experienced nectar slaves before and he wants nothing to do with this one. He feels guilty about things that weren’t under his control, and he wants to just get rid of her. However, he keeps having a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. Keelie keeps hearing voices and when she tries to tell Siridian about it, he just gets angry and ends up punishing her. Turns out, he should’ve listened to her.

The ideas behind this world are filthy and obscene, which are two of my favorite words when it comes to my reading material. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the ‘verse grows and expands.

shutterstock_97385546

So, I had a migraine yesterday and got behind yesterday, and I’m in recovery mode today, which means I’m still a smidgeon behind. The second half of Alien Alphas will be up on Sunday, and the other blog that was supposed to get posted today will be up tomorrow. Meanwhile, happy reading!

Sophie Kisker-Finding Home

Odyssey

1: a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune
2: an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest 
Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about Sophie Kisker and her work. I’ve reviewed several other of her books. This time, I’m going with the Finding Home series. Sophie has it listed as Finding Home: An Erotic Tale of Love and War. And yeah, it totally is. I wouldn’t take them as 3 separate books, because they aren’t a stand-alones, but more as one book that has been broken into 3 sections, like the Lord of the Rings. Luckily, all three books are out, so you can read them all back to back to back. Protip: Odyssey, the first one, is on sale for $0.99 today 12/17. All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited.
Finding Home takes place in Meridia. It’s a country that is broken up into several provinces. Think Canada or maybe Australia instead. Only, there really is no country-wide government, there is a committee that all the leaders belong too, but nothing like an overarching prime minister or president. Because each province is self-ruled, the laws and treatments of the people can widely vary. The rulers also tend to be hereditary, with the leader choosing one of his children or adopting someone to be an heir. Depending on the leader, you may get someone who is competent and has a competent heir, or you can get a family that runs their province into the ground and their heirs are just as incompetent and maybe tyrannical. While there are several provinces, we are mainly concerned with three of them. In the first book, we are dealing with Edwal and Alaine. In the second and third books, Orre becomes just as important.
Now, there are a lot of politics that go on in these books on top of the sexy, sexy, sex. Sophie doesn’t relate the politics back to the real world in any way, so if you don’t like politics, then you aren’t going to have to deal with the real world politics. The politics are braided in through the story with the sex and the romance. You really can’t have one part without the other. When you read it, you’ll see what I mean.
OK, back to the world of Meridia. Edwal is ruled by  Elias Palm. He is a tyrant and dictator. He has severely restricted the rights of his people. He has had houses of college professors bugged, there are security cameras on every corner, and people are encouraged to inform on each other. Palm is suspicious, paranoid, and an all-around fuckhead. Alaine is one of their neighbors and is run by Daniel Weiss. Weiss is a sane, rational person, who tries to rule his province as well as possible and keeps his people’s needs in mind. So, of course, Palm hates him. Orre is run by Benjamin Aldriss. More on him later.
Odyssey was the first book I read by Sophie. It has some intense points in it and I had a hard time with some of those places. I’ve read other intense books and even books that are arguably more intense, but there’s just something about this one that really, really got to me. Even on rereads, when I know what’s coming, the same points get to me. However, that doesn’t put me off reading the series, and I hope it doesn’t put you off it too.
So, Odyssey. Edwal decides that it’s going to invade Alaine. Mostly because Palm is a motherfucker. So he institutes a draft for every male up to the age of 50, which includes Liz Peltier’s dad. The Alaine military manages to drive the poor men of Edwal back, and they invade Liz’s town since it is closest to the border. As part of the reparations, the leaders of Alaine decide that they are going to take young women hostages for ransom. So women between the ages of 18-40 who aren’t mothers are at risk of being selected. Twenty of the wives and daughters of the most important people in that town are selected to be hostages instead of all the men being arrested. This is a relatively common practice, so no one expects it to take long. Except, no one takes Elias Palm and his nuttiness into consideration.
The women are taken to an army base, where they are actually held for weeks. During that time, Liz steps up as a leader and does what she can to help make the stay easier on everyone. Can I just say that I think Liz is a total badass? She really is, and it shows up throughout the entire series. When Palm refuses to do anything, one woman is selected to stay as a hostage slave in Chairman Weiss’s home. That means sexual slavery. And of course, I bet you can figure out who that woman is. Liz has quite a journey to go through to get through the end of the book and through the end of the series, and some seriously shitty things happen. More about it after the spoiler warning.
In Sanctuary we are still staying in Alaine and the Weiss estate, for the most part, but this is where Orre and Benjamin Aldriss come into play. Aldriss has a daughter named Jenny. In the beginning of the book, Jenny is sitting outside of their house, having come home from college, because she needs some space. While she is sitting there, she watches her whole family be destroyed, along with everyone in the house, and even the house. She knows that she needs to find somewhere safe and everyone thinks that she’s dead. The safest place she can think of is with her father’s friend, Daniel Weiss of Alaine. She manages to get there, and she’s going to have to live as a slave there, because who’s going to think of looking for her there, and she will be protected as much as is possible. But, she can’t just pretend. She has to go through the whole training. That’s when she meets Liz, who is acting as a mentor, and who helps her get through her training. Meanwhile, back in Orre, Palm has decided that he’s going to “help” out Orre and takes over huge swathes of the country. Now on to the next book.
Refining Fire is the third and last book. In metalworking, you refine metals by subjecting them to high heat, back in the day, fire would be used in one way or another. Heating up the metal to a certain point lets all the impurities burn away. When the metal comes out of the fire, it is pure. Certain objects made of metal, like knives and swords, go through heat treatment as part of their manufacturing. The heat treatment allows them to be stronger. Both of these things are important in this book. Michael and Jenny, Liz and Ryan all four have their own issues as people and as couples, and as a group. There are all sorts of shitty things that happen in this book. I know it sounds like I’m not saying a whole lot, but I’m being careful so that I don’t overly spoil it. The main action of the book is for Jenny to be allowed to rule her family’s province and what it’s going to take to get there. There’s also a lot of discussion about what submission means when circumstances change.
Wow, this is a long post. And I know that it seems that I have kind of brushed over the second 2 books, but the thing is, if I talk too much about book 2 or 3 then I am going to spoil the books ahead of it. So, if you want more info about the books, then you need to go read them yourself. Told you, they are all on KU and you can get Odyssey at a steal today. Meanwhile, I’m going to go on and make this long post even longer when I go on to the spoiler section. This is a great series, and it should definitely get more love than it does. The story is really well-written and everything winds together so very well. All the characters, all the themes, all the everything, just braids into a cohesive whole and turns into an epic odyssey.
foundry-equipment
OK, in O, the original slave trainer, Master Thomas, abuses Liz, after the assistant trainer, Ryan, did all he could to put her fears at rest because in Edwal, terrible things happen to sex slaves. That really makes it hard for Liz, until Daniel fires Thomas. Ryan takes over, and he changes the way that things were done. He wasn’t about forcing submission but more about guiding a woman to find her submission and be able to give it. It works really well, and you can see from the very beginning of the story that Liz and Ryan are going to end up in some sort of relationship, it’s just hard to figure out how, since they are Master and slave. Ryan is incredibly protective of her, and it shows up when Liz is attacked and actually ends up in court.
In S, Ryan is still training and Liz is really his assistant, as much as possible, because she’s a natural leader. When Jenny comes in, she has a very hard time, since she’s been to the house many times before as a guest, and her mindset is hard to switch from. Liz becomes her mentor. She helps Jenny and if Jenny fucks up, they both get punished. It may seem mean to do it that way, but it works. Michael, who is Weiss’s heir, falls head over heels with Jenny, which makes it hard on both of them, since she’s a slave and he’s her master, plus they are trying to keep her safe. And this is where some serious, serious orgasm control comes in too. Jenny is very orgasmic, so the goal is to keep her from coming without permission. She goes through training for that. Sadly, there’s a point where that gets used against her. The Palms and their followers are massive fuckwads.
In RF, oh man, I cried. Jenny and Liz are both freed and with their loves, but Liz and Ryan are trying to figure out what him being her Master and her being the slave works with her being technically free. That’s the relationship that they want, but there are going to be bumps and bruises. Jenny is busy trying to figure out how to rule her province and how to fight Edwal while trying to get her rights as a leader. At the same time, she’s trying to figure out how to be with Micheal who is now the leader of Alaine and be both a strong woman and leader and a submissive partner to Michael. Really interesting dynamics going on in the book. While they are trying to figure everything out, something happens to Jenny that sidetracks those dynamics, and causes her to have a tremendous loss. It’s at this part that I cried, and is one of the intense parts of the book. It was a rough part to get through.
It really was the book I needed to finish off the entire series. It gave me that emotional satisfaction that I look for in the end of a long series. Yeah, I felt wrung out more than once, but that just makes the happy at the end happier. I got wrung out over the past few days as I’ve read the stories again, and I needed the end and the epilogue to feel better.
I hope I didn’t lose anyone while talking about the series. I hope that Sophie likes what I wrote. I hope no one thinks that I didn’t do justice to these stories and to the characters. Go give these stories some love.

Sophie Kisker-Fear and Desire

Sophie Kisker is one of my favorite authors, and she’s an all-around nifty person. Hi, Sophie! That would be why she shows up here a lot. Today, we’re talking about one of her books from her backlog. Fear and Desire used to be known as Captive of Fear and Desire, but Amazon is run by a bunch of pearl-clutching prudes, so she had to drop the Captive part. Luckily, she didn’t have to change the book, and we get a book full of non-con/dub-con goodness. F&D also shows up on my Top Ten dark and fucked up books list. I had just read it for the first time a few days before that post, I think, so this was a reread, so yay!

So, let’s just dive right into this one, shall we? Fair warning, this one is pretty dark all the way through.

Dan is an undercover Fed working on busting a human trafficking ring. There are a couple of reasons why he was chosen. One is that he’s from the area where The Farm, the group’s training facility, is based. The other is that he’s a Dom. The powers-that-be think that makes him perfect for training women to be sex slaves. The bosses don’t get the difference between consensual BDSM and forced training to be a sex slave. Pearson, the guy in charge? Is a massive douche of douchian proportions. Every time I’ve read the book, I’ve wanted to just reach my hands into the book and punch the guy and then strangle the shit out of him.

Anyway, Dan and his partner Josh, also a Dom, do what they can to help the women, including changing up the the “training” program so that the women can actually have something survivable and aren’t just beaten, raped, and broken. They both know that what’s happening to these women is going to cause psychological damage, but they are doing what they can to make it less.

Dan meets Laura for coffee on Saturday nights, after her shift on the OB ward. They were childhood friends who grew apart, but now that they live in the same area again, they’ve been getting closer and closer. One Saturday, Dan asks Laura, who doesn’t know for sure what he’s doing, if she’ll go away with him in a few weeks. What neither of them knows is that Marco, the incompetent nephew of the head of the ring, is spying on them. He’s got it out for Dan because he thinks he should be in charge.

The next thing we know, he’s kidnapped Laura and brought her to The Farm. His stated thought is that he’s doing it for Dan so that Dan has someone for him to use.

This is where we are going to part. Since I have things to say about this book, there will be spoilers. This book could be triggery in regards to rape, so be aware of that. Sophie has been careful in the way that she handled the situations, hopefully, it doesn’t trigger anyone because it is a good book. It is dark, it stays pretty dark, but when you get through that dark fucking tunnel, you do get an HEA. It’s on KU, but it’s only $0.99, so grabbing your own copy isn’t going to break the bank.

celtic_knotwork_tattoo_by_mossy_tree-d3kybc6

When Laura figures out that Dan is there, she tries to run away, not to really run away but to make sure that Dan sees her. However, that means that she has to be punished, and it’s a pretty brutal one to her feet. That punishment also brings her to the attention to the big bad guy, who decides that he wants her, and he wants Dan to train her. He has very specific plans for Laura, and he wants her broken. If Dan won’t do it, then the nasty fuck nephew will. Dan is left with no choice.

Dan manages to get Laura away from the base, at least long enough to talk to her, under the guise of physical training. He explains to her what he needs to do and that it will be hard. She gives him her consent to do whatever it takes to get them both out safely. So, here’s the thing, can she truly be said to have given consent? While yes, she was willing to let him do what needed to be done, was it true consent since she really had no choice otherwise? It can’t really be consensual non-consent because that’s a voluntary thing. She would’ve entered into the relationship willingly, they would’ve discussed limits, punishments, likes, dislikes, so on and so forth. That’s not anything that could’ve happened in Dan and Laura’s situation. I suggested to Sophie back when I read this the first time, that maybe informed non-consent was a better phrase for it. Dan told her what she was going to have to live through, so she knew, but she can’t really consent, thus informed non-consent.

The last part of the Laura and Dan’s journey is terrible, just terrible, and intense. I was glad to get through it the first time and every other time, even though I knew what was coming up. I still got teary and all twitchy over it.

I think that all of Sophie’s stories are really good. I always look forward to the newest ones, and I like to reread the older ones fairly often. F&D is one that really grabbed me the first time, and it has grabbed me every subsequent rereading. Anyway, if you like dark, non/dub-con, but with an HEA, try out Sophie Kisker and check out this one.

Tomorrow, Breaking Grace by Rose Deveraux.

Royally Mine

 

Powerful kings. Dirty-talking princes. Insatiable dukes. They’re ready to rule your heart.

18954765_1180789055362729_1147765208329584959_o

Royally Mine is a sexy collection of bad boy romances featuring HOT royal heroes, brought to you by twenty-two New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling authors. This deliciously naughty bundle of ALL-NEW standalone novellas stars panty-scorching kings, princes, and dukes who are used to being in command. Charge up your e-reader, clear your schedule, and put on your best tiara, because these royal bad boys are ready to conquer your heart while making you blush oh so hard.

Featured authors: Susan Stoker, Annabel Joseph, Katy Regnery, Nikki Sloane, Renee Rose, Molly O’Keefe, Alta Hensley, Nora Flite, Natasha Knight, Sue Lyndon, Jenika Snow, Maggie Ryan, Celeste Jones, Lee Savino, Livia Grant, Alexis Alvarez, Rayanna James, Ava Sinclair, Addison Cain, Jennifer Bene, Becca Jameson, Mikey Lee

Publisher’s Note: The stories included in this smoking hot box set are MF and MFM pairings. Some contain kink. All will leave you breathlessly panting for more.

22 Royal BAD BOYS are only 99c!
GRAB THIS AMAZING ANTHOLOGY NOW!
http://www.royallymine.com/
Amazon → http://amzn.to/2sE7o7r
iBooks → http://apple.co/2u6yuZo
Nook → http://bit.ly/2uFaeud
Kobo → http://bit.ly/2u0tTqv

 

Tears of Surrender

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about Sophie Kisker’s Midrosian Chronicles. Well, today her latest book came out, Tears of Surrender. It’s the final book of this series and it’s the most intense book of the series, IMO. The story winds through both Memories and Longings and gives us some peeks into those stories. Then it nicely winds up the whole story of the women of Midros.

When I say intense, I mean it. There was a point in time when I had to walk away from the book for a couple of hours to process how I felt about it and deal with my feelings. There have been very few books that I’ve had to do that with. To me, that is a great thing and means that the book is pretty awesome. I still have Parin and Mercer living in my head a couple of days after I read it, which is also a pretty awesome thing if you ask me. And so, on to the review.

Tears is the story of Parin Denos. It opens up 3 years prior to Memories. Parin was raised on Prima, with her parents, who died when she was 7. She vaguely remembers her mother telling her to never go to Midros. When she’s adult, her company is contacted by the Midrosian government to see if a product they sell would work for them. On Midros, when women come onto the planet, they have to wear a temporary collar and their DNA is routinely run through databases.

Parin’s company declines the offer to sell their product to the Midrosian government. In walks government officials from the slavery board. They tell Parin that she is a runaway slave. To her knowledge, she has never been on Midros before. However, it comes out that her parents were Midrosian, with her father owning her mother, before they escaped when Parin was two. With the Midrosian law, as held up by the galaxy wide authorities, once a Midrosian slave, always a Midrosian slave. Women who escape, and their female children who escape with them, are still slaves. Thus, Parin is an escaped slave.

The authorities drag Parin away to get her ready for her auction. She’s locked in a cell, has to endure a humiliating and punishing exam by a doctor to assess her health and her sexual capabilities, and is bathed, where she’s taught another brutal lesson by guards. Then she’s chained up and gagged so that the men who will be at the auction can inspect her, along with all the other slaves for sale.

The man who buys her, Edar Pennis, is a horrible, brutal, sadistic man, and on a planet of men who are sadistic, that is saying something. He swears to break her, but he really has no idea of what he’s doing. He has her shoved into a cage, covered up and transported. When they get to his house, he has his guards dump her out onto the driveway, and attaches a collar to her which will put poison in her system whenever it’s triggered. And being the terrible man he is, I bet you can figure out what happens with that.

Edar does lots of horrible things to her, including locking her in a hole in the dark. The final straw for Parin is that he takes her out to the garden, has her put in a hole where she has to stand on a small block which isn’t anchored on anything, and then puts two boards around her neck, so that only her head is above ground, and leaves her there. If she falls, then she hangs by her neck. Which she consciously decides to do, Edar has driven her to suicide.

In walks Mercer. And from here, there are going to be spoilers and commentary. I loved this book, I identified so much with Parin and I felt her distress and stress so much. I know I say this for a lot of books, but I really recommend this. I can’t tell you how much I recommend this. I want to give this like 11/10 stars. It is just that amazing.

1tzb7v

OK, a note before we get into the spoilers. In Midros, there is no legal way to rape a woman. If she is your slave, she can’t tell you no. She’s property, and property can’t say no, I mean, it’s not like a chair can tell you no that it doesn’t want you to sit on it. It’s the chair’s job to have someone sit on it. If someone else has sex with your slave without your permission, it’s theft of services, not rape. A woman who grew up on Midros would understand this concept, since it was what she grew up with and had been trained to expect and to do. Parin, however, doesn’t have that same understanding. She grew up as a free woman, with the expectation of bodily autonomy. She is upset that she’s going to be raped but Edar explains to her that no, it’s not rape, it can’t be rape. I think that’s one of the things that is the hardest for Parin to get used to in her slavery. And Edar, well, he’s an asshole, and he doesn’t do anything to make it easier on her.

Mercer Pennis is Edar’s son. He wants to be a lawyer, his father wants him to take over the mining business. There is a younger son, Jacen, but he makes his father look tame. At one point, he has his slave Dara’s vagina and vulva sewed almost all the way shut, because he prefers anal sex and wants her to be an anal only slave. However, because he’s messy, he still manages to get her pregnant, with a girl. He was going to sell her off, but Parin convinces Mercer to get her instead. Dara eventually runs away, and ends up in the same escaped slave enclave as Enna from Longings, and is able to be with her daughter, off planet.

Mercer starts out as a prat and I really don’t like him all of the time. He sees Parin as 3 holes and 2 tits to be used when he wants. Now, I have to give him some leeway, since he’s never dealt with a free woman before, but I think he doesn’t always take that into consideration with Parin. Yeah, he’s trying to teach her how to be a slave and how to survive the world she’s living in, but, still.

However, as they are together, he does start to change and realizes he loves Parin and she is more than a collection of body parts. He even lets her help him out at his business, since he has problems with math and Parin is an accountant. Without her help, he wouldn’t have been able to clean up his business as well.

To me, one of the more horrific scenes with Mercer is the scene where he decides to breed her. The way that it is done is that they go to a clinic, Mercer provides sperm and a doctor harvests an egg from Parin. Then the doctor fertilizes the egg, makes sure it’s a boy, and implants the embryo into Parin. The doctor jams a needle into Parin’s abdomen and ovary to harvest an egg without any kind of numbing or pain medication. Parin screams because it’s painful. The doctor says that they don’t waste pain meds on slaves. Parin was already not wanting to bring a child into this world, but Mercer wanted one and told her that she would accept it. That whole section just really got to me, and I had to take a little break there for a few minutes.

Anyway, Edar does try to take Parin away from Mercer, after already signing a contract with him, and lies to her and tells her that he left it in the contract that he could reclaim her at any point. We also find out that Edar used to own her mother, and that’s what he bought Parin.

We also find out the true reason why Midros started taking other women and that the galaxy wide authorities not only knew about it, but they also helped out. The paeloate mining caused infertility problems for native-born Midrosians. So, a woman who wasn’t born on Midros was much more likely to have a child. When Parin and Mercer get this information out to the galaxy, the authorities come and take over Midros and set all the women free, unless they choose to stay as slaves.

Parin makes that choice and stays with Mercer. They have a history of edging and orgasm denial. It’s how he helps her in her submission. When he lets her have an orgasm, it’s amazing because she has to wait and wait and wait for it. When Parin tells Mercer that she wants to stay his slave, she asks to never have an orgasm again, since it helps her stay focused on him and his needs, and that his pleasure his all that’s necessary. However, he says that if he denies her permanently, he doesn’t get to listen to her beg and see her disappointment when he says no. However, he tells her that he will make her edge a certain amount of times, and then he will let her come, and keep her coming until she can’t come anymore. Then he will put her back in her cage until she has him back as her focus.

I mention this particularly for a reason. That’s because Sophie made a change right before she submitted it for publishing. I’m in her ARC group and she asked for feedback on the original ending as opposed to this new part. I fully, truly, deeply support and love this. It’s devious and evil and I think it really suits the relationship well. And the cage has a special meaning for Parin and Mercer. It’s her safe place when she needs a break, and a place he can send her when he’s unhappy with her.

Anyway, I love these characters and this world so much. Parin and Mercer won’t leave my head at all, which is a sign of a good book. I will have this series, and especially this book on reread, frequently, I think. In places, it will probably be a one-handed reread.

This book is intense, but the payoff at the end, not just for Parin and Mercer, but for the entire series and all the women of Midros, is worth all the intensity. Do read this.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review, so that’s what you got.

%d bloggers like this: