Laura Baumbach

Though I'm not usually a fan of short story anthologies, I love Laura Baumbach's gay erotica. In particular, "Demonspawn: Tales from Demon Under Glass" had an interesting take on vampires so I wanted to see what else she would do with them. Overall, I think this is an excellent collection, with different approaches on vampires for each story. Four novellas are included:

"Walk Through Fire" - this one surprised me because it it had a lot of emotional content, and the trademark explicit sex show more was saved for the very end. When Caleb's lover was taken by a witch to be sacrificed, he killed her. He didn't know she was the favorite of a Demon Lord of Hell. Each Halloween, Caleb is given the chance to reclaim his love by fighting one of the demon's champions. 157 times he has tried, and failed. Even if he wins this time, after suffering so long will Drew even be sane? Enough exposition of the characters for readers to become invested; action-packed with a very satisfying ending.

"Dark Side of the Moon" - Harley is a vampire prostitute. When a john attempts to murder him, Harley somehow survives a gunshot wound to the head. But it changes him, and other vampires see him as something damaged that must be destroyed. On the run, he finds unlikely salvation, and love, with the mortal enemy of his kind - a werewolf. This was my favorite story, and I would love to see the author do a sequel, or expand it into a novel. I found both characters, but especially Harley, to be completely engaging and the sex was simply scorching!

"Enthralled" - another solid entry. Rowland is the ultimate predator, seeing humans as food and not much more. Colin is a hemophiliac who has been sheltered his entire life, and feels he has nothing left to live for. Braced to jump off a balcony and kill himself, he is saved when Rowland falls from the sky after being shot by a vampire hunter. Colin raises emotions in Rowland that he has not felt in a thousand years. Rowland, practically death himself, gives Colin a reason to live. An unlikely pairing that works on many levels.

"Addicted' - this was the weakest story in the book. Gideon is a predator, who finds himself dealing with unexpected, heightened emotions after feeding on a woman who's high on drugs. He returns to sate his lust with his human lover Tanner. My problem here is that the story is essentially Tanner trying to fight off a rape from his out-of-control, and incredibly dangerous lover. There is no steamy sex scene, the characters have no development and the story just kinda ends. Disappointing, and the reason I gave four stars instead of five.

Overall, three fantastic stories out of four is greatod. The stories were very erotic, with surprising emotional depth and sexy bloodsuckers. I enjoyed it enough I purchased her other vampire anthology, Blood Claim. I can only hope it is as good as this one. show less

Oh I do love a good sci-fi adventure with hunky aliens. Details of the Hunt did not disappoint. Though it started off a bit slow with some worthwhile world building, the pace quickly picked up and then all hell broke loose after that.

Mix together a cocky pirate captain and a time-traveling warrior alien and you will get great dialogue with lots of laughs, tense action, surprising alien sex love scenes, and enough romance to satisfy any romance reader. Lots of twists and turns will keep you show more glued to the story. I simply loved it. show less

Laura Baumbach never disappoints me, and I find her writing a dream to read no matter what she writes. This is my fourth book by her and it is the "sweetest" romance I've read of hers to date, which in this case worked well for the characters.

Jamie, who is short and wiry with a head full of curls, meets his "caveman" Bram at a biker bar. Bram is so tall and beefy he had to search for a bed to fit him comfortably. Though this book is tagged BDSM, it really is more a case of a dominant male show more who occasionally likes to restrain his partner by tying his hands. Just the same, Bram is secure enough to allow Jamie to take a turn at topping, for a while anyway.

Both characters are extremely likable, and you don't mind that passion takes over from the start. There are issues they need to work through though: Bram being overprotective (with reason) and Jamie who doesn't hide he is gay except with his employer, who he fears will think less of him and thus hurt his career at a prestigious architectural firm. Jamie too has his reasons for being insecure about how people will treat him if he is out completely.

Expect an abundance of hot sex in this one, as neither character can seem to get enough of the other. Bram is intent on "claiming" Jamie, so he will never leave (which is where the "rough" comes in), and Jamie wants to christen every room in the house, then the truck and maybe the cabin,,,,you get the idea. Lots of sex. :) show less

This contains SPOILERS!!!

After meeting in a bar, a one night stand evolves with the speed of light into a “relationship” with D/s and bondage elements. Bram, the dominant “big man”/”cowboy”/”caveman”/ construction guy (nearly a one man stand in for the village people) more or less runs the show. He owns a big and important construction firm, which is convenient, as Jamie is a struggling young architect. This is the cinderfella-element (drop a huge, old mansion, a yacht, a show more hunting lodge in Canada and loads of money on top).

Bram and Jamie have more or less constantly sex, they don’t even make it through the appetizers on their first date – the make it a take away and go straight to Bram’s place to – well, guess what, yes, to have sex again.

A lot of “Baby”s, “I want you”s, “Shake for me”s (for real!!!) and A LOT of sex scenes (in case you missed the first two mentions of them in this review :-)).

Here a little example from their first date: "The sight of Bram caught in the peak of orgasm was like a holy experience for James. Like some bronzed god from ancient mythology, the man loomed massive and proud, sculptured body held rigid as stone, rugged face a mask of feral ecstasy, enraptured and euphoric in the release of his ravenous lust." - NOT SEXY.
At least not for me. I had a “bad 90ies m/f historical romance” deja-vue (which keeps reappearing with Jamie being rescued from the mean neighbour, being carried around in Bram’s strong arms etc…).

Insta-love and flowery prose at its worst.

First date, skipping the condoms already and mentioned the L-word... Though this is not a shifter-novel, Bram feels “mated” after this second meeting/first date. He has a “gut feeling” that they are meant to be together and Jamie is totally special, and this is right – well, it better be, because they already skipped any safety measures. I don’t see that they shared much (body fluids aside) on which this “feeling” is based upon. No, that’s not fair, I forgot: they both like Italian food. Well, see, great basis for a lasting relationship right there.

And then some small, kind of artificial hick-ups on their way to the HEA: Bram is out and Jamie not so much, so he struggles a bit with inviting Bram to an office dinner, boohoo. Jamie doesn’t trust Bram enough yada yada – in the end love conquers all, and if you have a love for Italian food in common, then you’re all good to go.

There was not much about this book I liked. Now that I think about it, there was indeed nothing I liked. The writing was flowery and over-drawn, the story didn’t make much sense to me and both main characters remained stereotypes without real personalities and development.

On a last note: I dislike insta-love per se, but accept that in real life it might happen to people, that they fall in love at first glance – BUT I just don’t find it interesting to read. It is boring and the authors always give away a great opportunity to let me get to know a main character, so that I care about him/her. There are some – very few – books, that technically have insta-love and I still liked them, but mostly I try to stay away from that theme. Very few authors can pull that off and still write a novel that I enjoy reading. show less