Robot sex, you say? With a male robot instead of a fetishized female? Sign me up!
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Unfortunately, the idea behind thi*whistles innocently*
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Robot sex, you say? With a male robot instead of a fetishized female? Sign me up!
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Unfortunately, the idea behind this short was way better than the story itself. While I was surprised at many of the details regarding the technology of the sexbot (named Randy, get it, haha!), there was basically NO substance to this. Not only that, it was rather poorly written with errors galore. Not that I expected anything more from Smashwords erotica, but still, I did have hopes.
Nevertheless, this was kind of a fun little read with kind of a surprising twist at the end. I would like to see something like this written as a novel with actual plot and decent editing.
Light, fluffy, clean. That's not really my thing, but I do like highwaymen. This was an okay way to pass the time. I just wish there had bee2.5 stars.
Light, fluffy, clean. That's not really my thing, but I do like highwaymen. This was an okay way to pass the time. I just wish there had been more highwayman action, and that the connections between the characters had been further explored. There were some punctuation errors and the inexplicable use of "veril" instead of "virile."
But the worst error of all... It's WESTLEY, not Wesley.
Hotheaded, sexually fluid vampire who's less "blood-drinking creature of the night" than "erratic dude obsessed with McDonald's" meets stripper on theHotheaded, sexually fluid vampire who's less "blood-drinking creature of the night" than "erratic dude obsessed with McDonald's" meets stripper on the run from abusive husband. They fall in love/lust. Vampire dude hates that she's a stripper, although he was just fine with it until he realized her identity. Stripping: good enough for everyone else but not HIS female!
Bad creatures want to kill her. Cue drama. And a weird proclivity for calling a face a "puss."
Honestly, this wasn't as terrible as some freebies. The editing was just fine, but the plot was thin and I didn't care for certain aspects of the romance. Sometimes the sex was sexy, but other times things were described in ways that made me cringe.
But whatever. It was free and I read it FOR SCIENCE....more
This is $2.99 on Amazon for 3 days. That's definitely more than I like to spend, but it's Anya Allyn, so I'm gettin' it.
REVIEW
Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. A strangled sound came from somewhere deep in her throat.
With the light on, she could no longer see outside.
But she knew they could see her.
Hmm... I wouldn't say it was worth the $2.99 I paid, but this was a pretty good story nonetheless.
This book was very creepy, like one of those horror movies set in a small town where everyone is nice but is secretly weird as fuck. And the outsider doesn't find out until it's too late. The characters are all fairly vivid. Zoe was a likeable (and biracial, for those keeping track of such things) protagonist, though she was a crappy thesis writer. She predictably lost sight of her assignment in favor of a boy and working in a shop in town. But she didn't lose her head when it really counted.
I never would have guessed the ending. It was different and I liked it.
Paracosm definitely could have used another round of editing. There were quite a few typos. Also, I felt the author could have taken her awesome ideas so much further. I know this book ties in to the Dark Carousel series, but they needed to be expanded here on their own. Instead, it felt like a bunch of random stuff slapped together for atmospheric purposes.
The author is from Australia, I believe, and it comes through in her writing. She has a group that reads through her books before publication, but I wonder if any of them are American. This wasn't an issue with her Dark Carousel series (at least not the first two I read), but this book is set in America (West Virginia). So the characters saying things like "We never got on" and "stickybeak" and "different to" instead of "different from" was kind of jarring for me.
I'm still looking forward to my BR of Lake Ephemeral with Jess next month, and finally finishing the Dark Carousel series at some point. I'm excited for Allyn's future releases. Her ideas are amazing and I'm interested to see what she does with them.
I never read a story on Twitter before. I barely even read regular tweets and I hate when people use more than one tweet to say something. I'm a curmuI never read a story on Twitter before. I barely even read regular tweets and I hate when people use more than one tweet to say something. I'm a curmudgeon, I guess. Anyway, I decided to give this a go because I'd seen my friends reviewing it, and why not? Thanks to Rod Holder and Sh3lly, I already had some tentacle experience.
I loved the writing. Great voice, easy to read. Bioluminescence? Surprisingly hot.
I don't know what else to say about this. I loved it! Go read the whole thing for yourself.
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P.S. I was way smarter about my tentacle gif search this time. Take THAT, internet!...more
I love vampires, but short stories not so much. I wanted to read this anyway, because even though I lCrap, 544 pages?
I blame this one on Sh3lly.
Review
I love vampires, but short stories not so much. I wanted to read this anyway, because even though I love romanticized vampires (but not whiney emo vampires), I occasionally read about the old school ones. After reading this collection, I can definitely say I prefer them human, or at least humanoid.
There were some standout stories here, some duds. My favorite of the bunch was "What Kept You So Long?" by the author of Let the Right One In (which, incidentally, I never finished). I also liked "In a Cavern, In a Canyon," and the last story, "Blue Hell." Some of the stories presented good ideas, then just ... ended. In that maddening way short stories do.
Recommended for vampire-obsessed freaks (like me), or those who like horror.
And so it grows, it is consolidated. It is a road I am destined to travel, I will travel along it for all eternity, and I am not allowed to deviate in any way. It is appalling....more
I liked this novella, but I think it would work better as a full-length novel. I wanted more worldbuilding, more information on how the relationships I liked this novella, but I think it would work better as a full-length novel. I wanted more worldbuilding, more information on how the relationships became what they were, and more of the story told in present time rather than as memories/flashbacks. But I tend to like storylines where the love interests hate each other because they like each other. So rational, I know, but I like it anyway. Brook is a good writer and I'd like to read more from her.
Note: Yes, Caius, we get it. Elizabeth is here, and alive. Sheesh....more
Ehhh... I liked this slightly more than Red & Wolfe. It was better written, the characters more developed, and the premise was more attractive to me.
NEhhh... I liked this slightly more than Red & Wolfe. It was better written, the characters more developed, and the premise was more attractive to me.
Not attractive enough, however, to negate my feelings about the final scene. (view spoiler)[Annabelle had a chance to reject Beast's offer, to potentially leave and get a SWAT team or something down on the prison, but no. She decides to stay and let him fuck her. Seriously? I would have liked it better if he'd taken the choice away from her. (hide spoiler)]
UPDATE:(view spoiler)[I think my problem was that ten minutes after the characters meet, they have hate sex. Which might be fine in another book, butUPDATE:(view spoiler)[I think my problem was that ten minutes after the characters meet, they have hate sex. Which might be fine in another book, but here they're strangers. (hide spoiler)] It was so not sexy to me.
This is the second book (or installment) I've read by this author, and I didn't really enjoy it like I enjoyed Hansel Part 1. Not that it was bad or anything, but it didn't give me a thrill and I didn't care for the characters. I love the idea of Little Red Riding Hood retellings, but I seldom seem to read ones I actually really like.
I'm still looking forward to reading more of this author's work....more
Normally I hate serials. Normally I never buy the other installments after the first free one. Normally I wouldn't even care about finishing.
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Normally I hate serials. Normally I never buy the other installments after the first free one. Normally I wouldn't even care about finishing.
But this ... I LOVED IT. I went in expecting it to be terrible and riddled with errors. But it was surprisingly well-written and I fucking loved it and if there were any errors I've forgiven them. God, I've even forgiven the first person present tense.
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I mean, I finished reading this when I was already in bed for the night. And then I got out of bed to write this review.
It's a fairytale retelling. It's erotica. It's a story about two people who've been through a harrowing experience. At times, it's fucking creepy. I'm seriously planning to buy the entire series, which is completely out of character for me.
So, I know the author in real life. We used to work together and got into all sorts of amusing antics. I introduced him to the band Beirut, which playSo, I know the author in real life. We used to work together and got into all sorts of amusing antics. I introduced him to the band Beirut, which played a part in getting him together with his girlfriend, which is what inspired this story. At least I think it did, but I may be wrong.
This is a very short but enjoyable story. There were a few grammatical errors and some awkward writing, but overall I liked it. I'm kind of astonished at how British it felt (to me, at least), considering how American the author is.
There will be some spoilers and I'm not tagging them because this book is over 20 years old, and also I'm saving you from having to read it.
Tagline: AThere will be some spoilers and I'm not tagging them because this book is over 20 years old, and also I'm saving you from having to read it.
Tagline: A haunting love story in the tradition of the movie GHOST.
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This book has literally nothing in common with that movie. No grisly murder (not until the very end, but it happened in a "memory"), no danger, no Whoopi Goldberg, and barely even a ghost. Not to mention that the movie came out in 1990 and this book was published in 1992, so it was hardly a "tradition" at that point.
For the majority of the time I read, I absolutely hated this. There were the barest bones of a decent story present, but the writing sucked and OH MY GOD, the protagonist, Lauren, was a horrible person. The way she treated waitstaff and the workers who came to her house was appalling. The fact that she saw nothing wrong with buying a house and expecting her would-be fiancé to live in it without even consulting him, and then getting mad when he didn't want to, spoke volumes about her character. She was SUCH A BITCH. I don't hate heroines lightly and I don't just throw that word around, but she was horrid.
Also, she thinks a city of just over 200,000 people is a big city. AND she has a weird, out-of-nowhere obsession with remaining youthful.
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When Lauren started to be influenced/possessed by a dead woman, Laura, her plight was not sympathetic in the least. I'm pretty sure this was less a ghost story and more the story of a woman's deteriorating mental health (along the lines of Turn of the Screw.)
The most interesting part of the book was Lauren's sudden recollection of how she died in her past life as Laura. She was murdered by the sexy gardener! She had flirted with him but he took her flirtations seriously and ended up raping her. Since she couldn't tell anyone, she ended up bribing him to leave her alone, thereby incurring her husband's suspicions that she was being unfaithful. So one night she tries to pay off the gardener for good, but he knocks her in the head and drowns her in the lake.
Now THAT is an interesting story, damn it. Unfortunately, it was told quickly in just a few pages, so there was no sense of mystery.
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That'll teach me to buy random books at the thrift store.
...
...
...
No. No it will not.
For an actual good ghost story along the same lines (haunted house, past events, possession, etc.), I recommend Julian's House....more
Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~
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Books:
2015
(153)
