Saving
Askara by J.M. Link

Victoria’s
day starts out like any other aboard the transorbital ship, Phoenix.
Such is the life of an emergency medicine specialist in the age of
“post-discovery”. Sure, she had always dreamed of
interacting with intelligent extraterrestrial life- the real thing,
not those microbes on distant moons. Who wouldn’t? She was still
happy with her career, however mundane and demanding it might be.
That’s what it took to run a ship the size of a small city smoothly.
Monotony. But all that changes one morning, and suddenly she’s not so
sure she didn’t stick her foot in it… 


Be
careful what you wish for. 


*** 
Escape
had been their only drive, and even death was preferable to the
alternative. But they never thought their flight for freedom would
put them in an uncharted system. Forced to interact with an isolated
world and its inferior, albeit curious people. When it affords them
an unforseen and unprecedented opportunity to take back their world
from those who seek to destroy them, however, Aderus begins to wonder
if it wasn’t fate. Earth’s proposal is shocking and uncomfortable for
a fierce, independent race that relishes in their solitude. But the
more he learns of humans, the more he comes to admire and respect
them. One, in particular. 

*WARNING*
Not intended for readers under 18. 
Contains
explicit sexual content.

Attention
Monsterfuckers

This
is a good one.

The
novel introduces a group of (all male) aliens who managed to escape a
prison. They are at war with another race and their main goal is to
free their females who are still imprisoned. Seeking
help they contact earth.

Ok,
let’s get my only point of critique
out of the way before I start gushing: The plot explains some things
a little too conveniently. For
example the way the heroine remains practically the only liaison
between the aliens and the humans requires some suspending of
disbelief. But this is nitpicking when applied to a book about highly
fuckable aliens. 😉

Now
the gushing:

The aliens in this book are not just humans with different
skin color and some fun accessories like a spare dick but
truly alien in appearance. They
reminded me of the Yautja
from Predator with
only their mouths being not quite so extreme. Coming from a violent but advanced society their rules and behaviors are quite different from human norms. Also their females are described as stronger and even more
violent than the males. Only the strongest get to mate…

The
protagonists Victoria and Aderus experience neither instalust nor,
god forbid, instalove.
Instead
they slowly get to know and become
strangely fascinated by each other. Lots
of talking, confusion,
awkwardness and cultural misunderstandings ensue. It’s adorable. 

Victoria is the first who realizes that she’s sexually attracted to
Aderus and she definitely acts upon it. To ascertain her dominance
and therefore
desirableness she even manages to knock him out (by surprise) in
front of an audience. Poor Aderus doesn’t know if he should be angry, embarrassed or horny.

Saving Askara is a wonderful character driven slow burn romance with an
emotionally satisfying pay off. Nothing
is rushed, everything happens at the right time. When they finally
have sex it’s hot and sexy but also awkward, a
little bit frightening
and confusing which keeps
their first time from being unrealistic (as far as alien fucking goes) and
makes it even more intense.

Oh,
and the best thing? Saving Askara seems to be the first in a series.
🙂

orcbarbs:

Hey, a random hypothetical chapter from Tusk Love!

So I’m thinking of making the hypothetical Tusk Love comic a reality! It’ll be a Patreon set up, but I haven’t decided how the set up will be, but rest assured there won’t be a paywall, you’ll see the comic as soon as its up, it really is just a donation to keep me going.

As this is technically a really really grey area, I don’t know for how long I’ll be able to use the name Tusk Love, so there might be a time when I’ll be asked to stop or change the name and setting completely, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

So enjoy the newest random hypothetical chapter of Tusk Love, ya’ll! I’ll get to some actual fucking smut at some point.

Source: orcbarbs

SKYFARER
(The
Drifting Lands #1) by
Joseph Brassey

An
apprentice sorceress is dragged into a vicious quest across an
endless sky in this Star Wars-inspired space fantasy

The
Axiom Diamond is a mythical relic, with the power to show its bearer
any truth they desire. Men have sought for it across many continents
for centuries, but in vain. When trainee sorceress Aimee de Laurent’s
first ever portal-casting goes awry, she and her mentor are thrown
into the race to find the gem, on the skyship Elysium.
Opposing them are the infamous magic-wielding knights of the Eternal
Order and their ruthless commander, Lord Azrael, who will destroy
everything in their path…

This could have been the perfect novel with heavy Reylo vibes but unfortunately….it was not. Usually I only recommend stuff I really like so this post ist a bit different. It’s just that it had so much potential but realized none of it. I’m just bemoaning what could have been…

I
remember that somebody recommended Skyfarer here on tumblr on a post
about books with a Reylo vibe. It definitely has some really strong
Star Wars vibes and arguably also a heroine/villain interaction that resembles the Reylo dynamic but unfortunately without
any of the nuance and layered characterization the real on-screen
Reylo has. For me it left an impression of TFA fan fiction
for an exclusive audience of twelve year old boys.


Ok,
lets check the similarities:

  • genre:
    science fantasy (some cool world building here, no planets but
    drifting lands like a universe full of flat earths, navigation
    between these lands requires sorcery)
  • some
    McGuffin needs to be chased
  • lots
    of fight scenes and battles (skipped most of them, enjoy them in
    movies, in books not so much)
  • First
    Eternal Order (evil)
  • some
    kind of Snoke who messes with the head of his protege and right
    hand:
  • Lord
    Azrael, Not His Real Name (= off brand Kylo Ren, complete with mask
    and good hair)
  • really
    buff Hux (actually more chemistry between him and Lord Azrael than
    the real Kylux, the impending hate sex was practically oozing off
    the pages)
  • a
    Phasma (really cool looking female warrior, absolutely useless
    plotwise)
  • legacy
    sword
  • a
    lukelike (ha!) character who is awesome and cool and loves mentoring
    his student and is probably everything the TLJ haters wish for (…)
  • rich,
    blonde Rey
  • force
    bond     mind link between the heroine and the villain

The
plot was…ok I guess (mostly chasing and fighting).

The
characterization was abysmal. Almost all the characters were
cardboard cutouts. Only Lord Azrael/the villain has something resembling actual 
characterization and back-story going on. It’s still a far cry from the complexity
of Kylo Ren.

The
most disappointing character is Aimee. If I’d have to describe her
I wouldn’t be able to come up with more than blonde, pretty and
overconfident (she’s acing all the sorcery stuff). Her backstory is
being rich and overconfident, also her blonde hair features a lot in
her past. Her character arc takes her from being a pretty
overconfident blonde to fucking up one time (but not really as it
later turns out) which leaves her less overconfident for a short
period of time until she regains her overconfidence. Oh, and she has
compassion for the very redeemable villain because they do some kind
of force bonding. Aimee is presented as a main character yet
characterized like a trophy girlfriend. Now compare that to actual
Rey… (This book was written by a man in case you couldn’t tell
by now.)

I
know it’s a bit unfair to compare this book to actual Reylo in
actual Star Wars but that was the sole reason I picked it up and the
similarities were so blatant as I continued reading I really couldn’t
help myself. It certainly made me appreciate characterization in Star
Wars even more.