Review- Enchanted by Janine Ashbless, Olivia Knight & Leonie Martel

Enchanted
by Janine Ashbless, Olivia Knight & Leonie Martel
Oct 14, 2008
Erotica/ Paranormal/ fantasy
Novel
Anthology

Buy it- B&N, Borders, Amazon

Fairy tales for grown-ups by three of Black Lace’s most popular authors...

Bear Skin - Hazel is whisked away from her tedious life by the mysterious Arailt, who will push her to her limits

The Three Riddles - The queen longs for her lost love, but can she risk the fate of her country on a whim?

The People in the Garden - Count and Countess Malinovsky embroil their maid Katya in their erotic games, but could she be a girl who disappeared almost a hundred years before?

Once again I have been taken some wild and erotic journeys by the mastery of Black Laces authors. This time it was Janine Ashbless, Olivia Knight, both of whose stories I’ve read in the past and loved, and a new author to me, Leonie Martell. Enchanted is a book of three, very creatively written fantasy tales all with characters who become enthralled and through trials that get them to their purest self to become worthy, get what they truly wish for.

Bear Skin by Janine Ashbless—

Hazel works in book store and is tired of her boring life of reading about others’ lives and not making good use of her education. She lives in a drab room in a house with others and really has no life outside of having coffee with her co-worker girlfriends. One day a bear, Arailt, walks into the book store and goes straight up to her. He proposes that she come live with him for one year but that she cannot ever ask him any questions about him.

Curious, wondering why her, and wanting some adventure she goes with him. Arailt has his own reasons for making these conditions and his future depends on her following them although she doesn’t know that.

During her time with him he comes to her in the darkness of night when they make passionate love, and she's surprised that he’s in human form. This goes on for months until she gets lonely and wants to see her friends. Going out for a day to meet her friends, they convince her to take a peek at what he looks like with a mini light they give her and she does, which of course ruins everything and Arailt goes away.

Feeling despondent she goes everywhere searching for him and gets sent from being to being who request things of her before they will help her and pass her on to the next being.

This story hooked me in straight away. It’s got everything in it: passion, hot sex, love, desire, evil beings and a moral. Hazel is just your average girl who gets a chance at true love but blows it by getting too wrapped up in superficial things and not keeping her word. When she realizes what she has done and that her actions have also hurt Arailt, to rectify it, she pays dearly to prove her love is true. Even then she’s not guaranteed her heart’s desire but goes for it anyway.

Bear Skin is a very creative and unique story, which I felt veered off the beaten trail of the usual in the paranormal/fantasy and offered an interesting take on the “true love is worth every sacrifice” theme.

Hazel is a woman that many of us can relate to as a character and Arailt is that honorable, hunky man that we want to sweep us away. Both are interesting well written characters.

I do have to warn readers that some of the “sexual” situations are a bit on the base side in this story. I think it was written that way to show really how far Hazel is willing to debase herself to prove her love and fortunately it didn’t go the way of Breaking the Waves; it has a happier outcome and was easier to take because of it.

Grade: A-

The Three Riddles by Olivia Knight--

Pearl is a young princess in love with Thomas, a knight from a neighboring country with good ties with her country. They have a deep, all consuming love and promise their undying devotion to each other. One day though, Pearl’s father the king dies and she takes charge of negotiating treaties with warring, neighboring countries to keep her people safe.

Shannon, Pearl’s most trusted lady in waiting, believes in the elves who have sent a riddle to Pearl, which she must figure out and follow if she is to keep her country safe. But Pearl thinks it’s all a bunch of superstitious nonsense and does as she wishes. In the process of trying to negotiate treaties with other countries to keep her country’s seat of power and peace, she becomes possessed by the power she has and allows herself to be seduced by the King of a neighboring country agreeing to marry him to control it all. Thomas won’t play second fiddle to the neighboring King even though it’s a political arrangement and he goes back to his country.

As things progress, Pearl’s questionable judgment comes into question by her council as all of her back room scheming goes awry and her country starts heading into chaos. She realizes that she made a mistake in not honoring the elves and letting her true love Thomas go. So she decides that she has to let go of her own ego desires and try to figure out the answer to the elves’ riddle to find Thomas and make things right. For this she goes on an arduous journey that tests her fortitude and decision making ability until she comes to her truth.

I have to be honest here in saying that I’m a fan girl of Olivia Knight. I really get off on not only the creative stories she comes up with but the way she writes. There are some authors whose prose does more for me sometimes than the story itself and Olivia Knight is one of those authors for me. And she is one of the very few authors I’ve read who can really tap into and express the intensity and depth of what passion is. That said:

Once again, Olivia Knight has come up with an impassioned story of love written in a beautiful, transplendent way, which really drew me into the story and the characters’ hearts and minds. Pearl is a very sensual and powerful being. The same ardor she feels for Thomas gets translated into a lust for power and a need to satisfy her body’s sexual desires at all costs. She’s so passionate that she’s easily led astray by it. However, she’s inherently an honorable person and when she wakes up to the fact that she’s gone astray, it’s that very fiery part of her that gives her the tenacity to go through the challenging personal trials she needs to to find Thomas and make things right.

The Three Riddles is a true fairy tale with all the magic, darkness and eroticism and as in the first story, Bear Skin, it has a moral, making it more than just a love story. The characters come to grow and learn something through what happens to them and justice is served against evil.

Grade: A+

The People in the Garden by Leonie Martel--

Katia is a young woman from a well-to-do family away at school when her parents die. She loves her school life, learning the arts and reading the classics and fantasizes about having a full life, being surrounded by culture and ease in her future. Her uncle, being in control of her life now, sells her into a life of servitude to a very wealthy, but odd, couple who have a huge mansion in the country, where old ways and superstitions still rule.

Irina and Nikolai are not your average married couple. Outside of the fact that he spends his days in his library where no one may enter and the fact that he likes to be whipped to get off sexually, he’s the more normal one. Irina is into the superstitions of her ancestors having found a book of spells and magik written by an old ancestor in her family and she spends her days up in her tower preparing for the return of her master, a being who lives in the woods with other supernatural beings.

According to the legend, All Hallows Eve is coming and she needs to find a virgin to offer him so that her gardens, the pride of her estate and prized all over the land for their unique beauty, will bloom again. So she pays for Katia and brings her to the estate to groom her for this. This all unbeknownst to Nikolai who becomes enamored with the young Katia.

The People in the Garden has a dark, uniquely Gothic feel to it that I really liked. There is also a running thread of BDSM in this story, which I’m kind of skittish about in general, but felt that in this story it worked really well and was nicely written.

The characters in this story are all very unique and vividly strange, which was a nice touch. Katia is a young, innocent woman who comes of age sexually in this story. Her first sexual experience is when she accidentally sees Irina whipping Nikolai. Irina brings her in and makes her whip Nikolai as well and Katia finds herself very turned on. Really turned on. She then spends the rest of the story trying to get laid, her desire to experience sex to its fullest coloring her thoughts and feelings every moment.

Irina is kind of like a witch. She’s all dark and moody, acts very strange and people are afraid of her. She’s possessed by something but people leave her be as she more and more stays up in her secret tower that no one can ever enter, including Nikolai. And Nikolai is kind of your average guy who loves his wife and is happy with the status quo of their sex life and marriage, but finds himself enjoying Katia’s company, wishing to do things with her that Irina won’t, like travel and such. He fears for Irina’s sanity and does play a huge role in the turn out of Irina’s plans, which gave him more cache for me in this story than I though he’d have.

The only thing negative that I can say about this story is that it went right over my head. I didn’t “get” it, whatever I was supposed to get. According to the blurb, the glowing girl from the forest was supposed to resemble Katia and so I guess there’s supposed to be some connection, but either I missed it or the Leonie Martel failed to connect the dots for me.

In fact I didn’t read the blurb first, so I only got that there should be a connection after the fact. I’d have to say that I really didn’t get much of the whole fairy tale/ moral part of this story and why Irina’s introducing Katia into sex was needed to begin with since Katia needed to be a virgin when offered to Irina’s master. Even though much of that part went over my head, yes I do admit I’m a bit dense, the ride was still worth it. The flow of the writing, the sexual situations and the dark, occult-like atmosphere kept me turning the pages to this story anyway. And overall it was very entertaining for me.

Grade A-

Enchanted is a fun, magical and very erotic read that I found hard to put down. Each author created engrossing and distinctly different stories that carried me to far away places. This book is a must read for those who want to believe in magik and that love, passion, and pure hearts win out in the end.

Sex grade: Commando. As per usual with Black Lace, there’s an assortment of sexual situations. M/F, minor f/f, light BDSM, fetish stuff, gang face spunking, and just a warning that there is a golden shower drinking scene. It’s in Bear Skin in case anyone feels a bit squeamish about that. It’s a minor scene and not written very graphically so it’s easy to gloss over if it’s not your taste.

Grade: A-