Review: Going Down- Oral Sex Stories edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

I think the mark of a great writer/editor is to craft or assemble stories that would appeal to everyone regardless of whether or not the people in the stories are similar to the reader. RKB is definitely a great writer and editor. Not only does she craft awesome stories, she assembles them in great anthologies, but the reader is left with the feeling that the main character in any of these stories could have been them.

Going Down: Oral Sex Stories is a wonderfully written anthology filled with stories to excite as well as gift the reader with new ideas to make their own sex lives more enjoyable. I found that these stories, for someone like me, have given me new direction and insight that I might not have had for a long time, if ever, without reading them. When I say someone like me, I mean someone who doesn't necessarily like giving oral sex. I love to receive it, but never quite got into the giving part. Yes, I know that makes me selfish, but it helps to have a loving partner, who still loves me, even with all of my quirks.

There were a few specific stories that spoke to me, stories that turned me on so much, I had to close the book after I finished them and start the book up on a different day. The favored few is what I shall call these stories from now on.

Favorite number 1-

"Pretty Dull" by Charlotte Stein

Basically, it is about an extramarital affair, but it is so much more than "just an affair".

Although having an affair is a bad thing, fantasies abound where the main character gets what they weren't getting at home. To me, this was prime fantasy material to be tried with The Husband. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to have an affair. But there is that element of excitement, you know about that excitement that you get when you're being a " bad girl". This story made me want to be a " bad girl".

Favorite Number 2-

"Milk Moustache" by Jacqueline Applebee

It is hard to say what this one is about, but what I took from it was- The main character became excited by something that she heard, that she had never realized would excite her.

I love new ideas and I really love new ideas that I can share with the man I love. The best relationships, I believe, are the ones that you can go home and share the craziest things in your head and they don't look at you like you are crazy. That's why this story appealed to me so much. Her boyfriend was right there with her every step of the way, getting " dirty" with her and he never once said, that's too out there for us to contemplate. You gotta love a comfortable relationship like this.

Favorite Number 3-

Well, I started to write the story that was my 3rd favorite and I realized that I was having a hard time deciding. It feels like just about every story was a favorite, in some way or another.


"Stacked" by Logan Zachary - I have never been so turned on by 2 men before, it was very enlightening.

"Getting Something out of it" by Annabeth Leong - WOW! I have never thought of my partner's member as "mine". Of course, I say it's mine, but that is totally different than really believing that it was mine. This story pulled me in a whole new direction, one that I couldn't have anticipated if I had tried.

"Bubble Dance" by Jeremy Edwards - 1 sentence - I will never think of bubble gum the same ever again!

I could keep going, but I think you get the idea. This is a GREAT anthology, but really, do you expect anything less when it has Rachel's name on the cover? I expect great things from RKB's work and she has delivered every time, without fail, definitely the mark of a great artist. Buy it! You won't be sorry.
 
Originally published on Amazon.com
This book was given by the editor ( Rachel Kramer Bussel) in exchange for an honest review.

Giveaway- Black Sun's Daughter Series (books 1-4)

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers -- and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means -- magical or mundane -- so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions -- Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities -- Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast -- or break them completely....
                           ------------------------------------------------------------

In the battle between good and evil, there's no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller's uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations -- and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully Jayné has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She'll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who's taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic.

Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, Jayné races to track down the demon's next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, Jayné will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won't rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most....

                              --------------------------------------------------------------

When you’re staring evil in the eye, don’t forget to watch your back . . .

For the first time in forever, Jayné Heller’s life is making sense. Even if she routinely risks her life to destroy demonic parasites that prey on mortals, she now has friends, colleagues, a trusted lover, and newfound confidence in the mission she inherited from her wealthy, mysterious uncle. Her next job might just rob her of all of them. At Grace Memorial Hospital in Chicago, something is stirring. Patients are going AWOL and research subjects share the same sinister dreams. Half a century ago, something was buried under Grace in a terrible ritual, and it’s straining to be free. Jayné is primed to take on whatever’s about to be let loose. Yet the greatest danger now may not be the huge, unseen force lurking below, but the evil that has been hiding in plain sight all along—taking her ever closer to losing her body, her mind, and her soul. . . .

                          ----------------------------------------------------------





 Jayné Heller has discovered the source of her uncanny powers: something else is living inside her body. She's possessed. Of all her companions, she can only bring herself to confide in Ex, the former priest. They seek help from his old teacher and the circle of friends he left behind, hoping to cleanse JaynÉ before the parasite in her becomes too powerful.

Ex’s history and a new enemy combine to leave  Jayné  alone and on the run. Her friends, thinking that the rider with her has taken the reins, try to hunt her down, unaware of the danger they’re putting her in.  Jayné  must defeat the weight of the past and the murderous intent of another rider, and her only allies are a rogue vampire she once helped free and the nameless thing hiding inside her skin.




Thanks to the generous people at Simon and Schuster!

Winners---

Well, I never heard from my last winner so I am picking a new one. The new winner of Book 2 in The Vineart series by Laura Anne Gilman- Weight of Stone is Kelly Burroughs Crowell. The winner for book 3 in the Vineart series - Shattered Vine is Mippy. The winner for The Iron Elves Trilogy by Chris Evans is Carol (buddyt). You all have one week to email me your information or I will pick new winners. You should receive an email from me today, so look for it. Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Contest - Iron Elves Trilogy by Chris Evans

Book 1

A DARKNESS FORGED IN FIRE introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon…bow and arrow…magic, diplomacy, and oaths—each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.

In this world, Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire’s elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He’s murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most—the forest.

Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery…but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty’s Imperial Army, effective immediately.

For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance for Konowa to redeem himself—even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission…and the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch—a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine.

A DARKNESS FORGED IN FIRE will keep many lights on late into the night this summer as readers find themselves hooked to the last page.

Book 2

Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in the second epic fantasy adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans. As the human-dominated Calahrian Empire struggles to maintain its hold on power in the face of armed rebellion from within, the Iron Elves’ perilous quest to defeat the power-hungry witch, the Shadow Monarch, takes on greater urgency.

The Iron Elves, shunned by their own people for bearing the mark of the Shadow Monarch, and desperately wanting to forever erase this shame, became legendary for their prowess on the battlefield as the Calahrian Imperial Army’s elite shock troops. But when their commanding officer, Konowa Swift Dragon, murdered the Viceroy of Elfkyna, he was exiled, and these brave elves were banished to a remote desert outpost, doomed and leaderless, their honor in tatters.

Recalled to duty to reform his regiment from the dregs of the Imperial Army, Konowa thwarted the plans of the Shadow Monarch at the Battle of Luuguth Jor—ensuring that the fabled Red Star, a source of great natural energy, did not fall into Her hands. Now Konowa must cross storm-tossed seas to seek out the lost elves and the prophesied return of another Star somewhere in a desert wasteland roiling with mysterious power, infernos of swirling magic, and legends brought back to life in new and terrible ways. And the fate of every living creature will come to depend on a small band of ragged and desperate soldiers, whose very loyalty to the Empire they have sworn to serve is no longer certain. When death is but a temporary condition, a terrifying question arises: who is the true ally—and fearsome enemy—in a growing conflict that threatens all?

THE LIGHT OF BURNING SHADOWS will keep a strong hold of readers as they seek to find resolution in this thrilling epic.

     Book 3

Amidst a scene of carnage on a desert battlefield blanketed in metallic snow, Major Konowa Swift Dragon sees his future, and it is one drenched in shadow and blood. Never mind that he has won a grand victory for the Calahrian Empire. He came here in search of his lost regiment of elves, while the Imperial Prince came looking for the treasures of a mystical library, and both ventures have failed. But Konowa knows, as do the Iron Elves—both living and dead—that another, far more important battle now looms before them. The campaign in the desert was only the latest obstacle on the twisted, darkening path leading inexorably to the Hyntaland, and the final confrontation with the dreaded Shadow Monarch.

In this third novel of musket and magic in Chris Evans’s Iron Elves saga, Konowa’s ultimate journey is fraught with escalating danger. A vast, black forest finds a new source of dark power, spawning creatures even more monstrous than the blood trees from which they evolve. The maniacally unstable former emissary of the Shadow Monarch hungers for revenge, leading an army of ravenous beasts bent on utterly destroying the Iron Elves. A reluctant hero, Private Alwyn Renwar, struggles to maintain his connection to this world and that of the loyalty of the shades of the dead. And in a maze of underground tunnels, Visyna Tekoy, whom Konowa counts among those he has loved and lost, fights for her life against the very elves he so desperately wants to find.

And so Konowa sets off from this Canyon of Bones, pursuing his freedom from a curse that has cast his life in darkness. For though his long, violent trek may indeed lead him to his destiny, he is ill prepared for the discovery he will make…with the fate of the Iron Elves, and the world, hinging on the courage of one wrathful elf.

ASHES OF A BLACK FROST will engage Iron Elves enthusiasts from beginning to end, as well as entice new readers as part of a series that is “a grand new entry in the field of fantasy masters” (Richard A. Knaak, New York Times bestselling author)—a Fall 2011 adventure not to be missed.

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This contest is for the entire trilogy- Books 1 & 2 in paperback, while book 3 is in hardback.

Comment below WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

Contest #3 The Shattered Vine by Laura Anne Gilman

An island nation has vanished. Men of honor and magic have died unnatural deaths. Slaves flee in terror. . . . Are the silent gods beginning to speak? Or is another force at work in the Lands Vin?

Jerzy, Vineart apprentice and former slave, was sent by his master to investigate strange happenings—and found himself the target of betrayal. Now he must set out on his own journey, to find the source of the foul taint that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear. By Jerzy’s side are Ao, who lives for commerce and the art of the deal; Mahault, stoic and wise, risking death in flight from her homeland; and Kaïnam, once Named-Heir of an island principality, whose father has fallen into a magic-tangled madness that endangers them all.


These four companions will travel far from the earth and the soul of the vine, sailing along coastlines aflame with fear, confronting sea creatures summoned by darkness, and following winds imbued with malice. Their journey will take them to the very limits of the Sin Washer’s reach . . . and into a battle for the soul of the Lands Vin. For two millennia the Sin Washer’s Commandment has kept these lands in order: Those of magic shall hold no power over men and those princes of power shall hold no magic. Now, that law has given way. And a hidden force seeks the havoc of revenge.


Winner of book 2 giveaway  MommyOf2Angels28- I have contacted you, please send me your address asap.


Comment below WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS  to be entered in the contest.

Read Directions, please!

People, I am trying not to be annoyed at this. I have posted your comments even though they are on the wrong post and some even after the winner had been chosen for the first contest. In the event that I don't hear from the winner I will choose from all comments ( even ones posted after I picked). This will only happen the one time, because you need to read the directions from NOW on. Those of you commenting on the contest preview, this is not where you should post for the contest. Look for the post that says Contest #2 and enter to win that contest because this is the only contest open right now.