Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: All Wrapped Up
AUTHOR: Gryvon, Morgan Harcourt, Thea Hayworth & Laylah Hunter
EDITED BY: Elizabeth Hyder
PUBLISHER: Storm Moon Press
LENGTH: 168 pages
BLURB: Tentacles are a taboo subject for most, something most people look at from between their fingers as they hide. But for a growing number of people, it’s a subject that is fascinating and sexy! Tentacle erotica has been around for ages, from The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife to Demon Beast Invasion—it’s a genre that is here to stay. All Wrapped Up explores this genre through the lens of gay erotic romance, offering four science-fiction and fantasy stories featuring tentacled heroes in all their wiggly glory.

The men in Ground Mission are podmates, a matched set: Simon Pollux, the lethal scout, and Adrian Lovasz, his willing and even more lethal combat specialist. In the midst of exploring an alien world, Simon is infected with an alien virus; to what lengths will Adrian go to ensure Simon’s comfort?

In the wood-locked town of Orm, ranger Koster meets the mysterious Irsing: the guardian of the forest. Is he the one letting the forest turn to wilds, or is the forest turning to wilds on its own? In Wildwood, Koster aims to do whatever it takes to set things right.

Eli exchanges his a life of poverty in Dark Covenant when tricked into signing a contract giving himself to the masters of the Academy. His body, his movement, his life is theirs to do with as they wish, until the enigmatic Eramus offers Eli his power—if Eli will join with him.

Sebastian Reed lives on the legal limits in Situation Normal, barely scraping by in his hunk of junk ship until a Peace Officer, Ten, commandeers his ship… and his body. Not that Sebastian minds, except for wondering exactly where it is that Ten means to take him.

REVIEW:

An anthology about tentacles… and all the havoc they can wreak… how could I resist? If you like tentacle tomfoolery, this is the anthology for you. Each story spins a different mood and depending on your mood you’ll surely find something to like here.

Overall anthology rating –

Ground Mission by Laylah Hunter
Tags: alt uni/sci-fi, suspense, monsters, stuffing

Adrian Lovasz and Simon Pollux are posted on the starship Arbiter and make up landing team Beta Twenty-Two. They are mission Specialists, which in this world means they’ve had biological enhancements to their bodies and brains which assist in field maneuvers. They are also pod-mates and share pretty much everything… adjacent cryogenic pods during between-mission downtimes, and when they’re awake, they’re fuck buddies… so, all-round mates.

Adrian has been bio-enhanced for strength/combat, Simon for intel/field scouting. They’ve just been brought out of their cryo-sleep storage for a new mission– to uncover the mysterious disappearance of all the colonists on an Earth-like planet. Both of them tough guys and seasoned operatives, they have a gruff, teasing manner with each other, but you sense a softness between them too.

It all seems like a regular mission until the two encounter some local fauna of the tentacled species. The creatures seem semi-sentient, they hunt in packs, at least. And are intent on getting to the two guys.

This is a great short story, suspenseful, with some clever world-building, and likable characters. The ending is satisfactory but I hope it will be expanded to a longer story. (I have to add that I wished Simon hadn’t recovered from his ‘mishap’ at the end. Then the story would have taken a really interesting turn. Read it and see if you agree.)

Rated:

Wildwood by Thea Hayworth
Tags: alternate universe/fantasy, paranormal, bittersweet

I really liked the ‘middle-earth’ kind of setting: the dense, lush forests inhabited by wildlife, dires and wights, necromancers, dryads and nixies…  how the over-run forest is the life-blood of the people who live in and around it. The author weaves a lovely picture of this world and most of the story is laying the fabric of it.

Koster is a ranger, careful and focused on his work. Newly stationed to the vast and ancient Oakensea forest, he patrols on his faithful horse, Selkie, giving protection and keeping an eye out for the elusive Guardian of the place. Twice, he’s encountered a tall, dark figure who blends in all too well with the trees. In fact this creature, can unfurl its limbs into clever vines and cords and tendrils. It is intent too, in watching over and keeping the peace in the great forest. Something in its voice calls to Koster but he senses that something is not quite right with this Guardian nor its forest. They are drawn to each other and the reason and the courtship are slowly unfolded in the story.

There were some abrupt transitions and secondary character POV’s that I really wasn’t interested in, but really, there’s such wonderful storytelling here.

Rated:

Dark Covenant by Gryvon
Tags: alternate universe/fantasy, magic, rape

Another cautionary tale about selling your soul to the devil and not reading the contract’s fine print. I loved the setup with this… the dark, gritty, Dickensian feel.

Lower Aurelia is covered in a thick fog of black pollution, its residents eking out a meager and gloomy subsistence. Eli is fatherless, dirt poor, shares a bed with his five brothers. As the eldest child, he works in the mines to buy scraps of food for his invalid mother and seven siblings. Things are about as desperate as they can get for Eli and his family.

On his eighteenth birthday Eli gets two strange offers from two different men, Erasmus, and Barnabus, who see something special in him. Two unholy propositions that will change his life…

The odd thing is that it’s never clear to this reader that Eli has any extraordinary attributes outside his gullibility. He only exhibits ‘specialness’ after he meets Erasmus, after he allows himself to be used as a conduit. So I don’t understand what his attraction is to all these people. Still, Barnabus wants Eli to enter his school for mages in lovely, sunny Upper Aurelia.

Barnaby’s systematic rape of Eli as payment for entry into his school is darkly deviant and disturbing. Really, it’s the gratuitousness of the acts that is the issue for me. The bad guys would have been bad enough without the violations, and their school comes off as more a pedophile’s playground. So, this violence seems added just for shock value, it doesn’t fit. The story’s early promise didn’t hold up, leaving me feeling disconnected at its end.

Rated:

Situation Normal by Morgan Harcourt
Tags: sci-fi, BDSM, xeno-sex, space cowboys, kink, orgasm denial, stuffing, hot ’n humorous

Sebastian Reed gets his spaceship commandeered by a hot ’n pretty, seven foot tall alien lizard-cop named, get this, His Most Just Tenacity. Let’s just call him ‘Ten’. Ten is on the chase of a fugitive criminal and needs Seb’s ship.

Seb is one kinky freak. He likes his playthings bossy and dominant and Ten fits the bill to a tee… despite the alienness.

“… as hardcore as the name His Most Just Tenacity sounded, he had started flirting with me the second his helmet had come off… his obnoxious attempts at teasing and his stupid (adorable) little fangs curling over his lower lip.”

Before they’ve barely broken orbit they jump to it. Why not? They’re both randy lads, who’ve got each other’s number pegged down tight and two days’ travel time to kill. Just like that… interspecies xeno-sex served up with slimy tentacles on the side.

I really liked Seb’s snarky, playful voice as well as the quick banter between him and Ten. And Ten is one experienced toppy lizard. How can a lizard be sexy? Somehow the author pulls it off. What did he say? Oh yeah… “I’m gonna make you stupid for it by the time you get off.”

This is a sex romp with just enough world building and plot to make it interesting and fun. Apparently it’s the author’s first published work of fiction and I will definitely be looking for more from her.

Rated:

Elizabetta’s overall rating – 

BUY LINKS: Storm Moon Press :: Amazon :: All Romance eBooks

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Elizabetta is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ELIZABETTA’S REVIEWS
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