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Fierce Enchantments
Against the darkest and most perilous backgrounds, the blaze of desire burns even brighter. Ten tales of magic and lust.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2014
About the author
Janine Ashbless
67 books133 followersJanine Ashbless is a British author of erotica and hot romantic adventure. Janine likes best to write paranormal- and dark-fantasy-themed fiction and has a lifelong interest in mythology, folklore and history.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 25, 2014
These ten deliciously diverse stories reveal a vivid, wide-ranging imagination—one is struck by the sheer breadth of Ashbless’ inventiveness, her natural gift for story-telling honed to acute sharpness with rigorous intellectual focus and well-practiced craftswomanship. Covering all the archetypal bases from folk ballads, myth, legend, and fairytale to futuristic sci-fi, well-researched historical fiction, contemporary horror, paranormal thriller, and post-apocalyptic action-adventure, there’s something for everyone in this wondrously abundant, cerebrally and erotically stimulating, perpetually entertaining collection.
My personal favorites from this outstanding field include “The King in the Wood”, a marvelous glimpse into the life of ancient Rome, where the erotic and the sacred were often one in the same; “Sycorax”, a delectably saucy re-imagining of “The Tempest”, re-casting sweet Miranda as a rather adventurous wild-child; “At Usher’s Well”, based on an old folk ballad (familiar to many from the version recorded by the folk-rock group Steeleye Span in the 1970s) in which the tale of three doomed brothers’ homecoming is related from the point of view of the serving girl who loved them all in life; and “A Man’s Best Friend”, the story of a wandering bard in ancient Imperial China, seeking out the young widow of his fallen comrade, a gorgeously detailed story, told with such familiar ease and poignant beauty that it seems to come alive within and all around us.
Ashbless’ tales are full of lively spins and twists that almost always surprise, yet never fail in retrospect to seem exactly right, as with “Bolt Hole” her steamy, claustrophobic take on the zombie apocalypse; or the portrayal of BDSM-as-PTSD-therapy for emotionally scarred vampire hunters in “The Last Thing She Needs”, or the pleasingly Heinlein-esque “The Military Mind”, in which a squad of futuristic Marines bonds with the aid of a sexy telepath. Turnabout is more than fair play (or foreplay) in “Knight Takes Queen”, where the familiar legend of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot is transformed into something that neither Mallory, T.H. White, or Lerner and Lowe would ever have thought of, a twist so ineluctably sexily perfect that readers will be nodding their heads even as they sit gape-mouthed, trying to get their minds around what they have just been invited to imagine.
Enthusiastically recommended!
My personal favorites from this outstanding field include “The King in the Wood”, a marvelous glimpse into the life of ancient Rome, where the erotic and the sacred were often one in the same; “Sycorax”, a delectably saucy re-imagining of “The Tempest”, re-casting sweet Miranda as a rather adventurous wild-child; “At Usher’s Well”, based on an old folk ballad (familiar to many from the version recorded by the folk-rock group Steeleye Span in the 1970s) in which the tale of three doomed brothers’ homecoming is related from the point of view of the serving girl who loved them all in life; and “A Man’s Best Friend”, the story of a wandering bard in ancient Imperial China, seeking out the young widow of his fallen comrade, a gorgeously detailed story, told with such familiar ease and poignant beauty that it seems to come alive within and all around us.
Ashbless’ tales are full of lively spins and twists that almost always surprise, yet never fail in retrospect to seem exactly right, as with “Bolt Hole” her steamy, claustrophobic take on the zombie apocalypse; or the portrayal of BDSM-as-PTSD-therapy for emotionally scarred vampire hunters in “The Last Thing She Needs”, or the pleasingly Heinlein-esque “The Military Mind”, in which a squad of futuristic Marines bonds with the aid of a sexy telepath. Turnabout is more than fair play (or foreplay) in “Knight Takes Queen”, where the familiar legend of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot is transformed into something that neither Mallory, T.H. White, or Lerner and Lowe would ever have thought of, a twist so ineluctably sexily perfect that readers will be nodding their heads even as they sit gape-mouthed, trying to get their minds around what they have just been invited to imagine.
Enthusiastically recommended!
October 12, 2020
This erotic short-story compilation has a little bit of everything. From playful and fun, like the Arthurian story Knight Takes Queen; to creepy and melancholy like the historical paranormal At Usher's Well; to futuristic like the zombie apocalypse Bolt Hole most every genre is covered. While I freely admit enjoying some stories more than others the variety and uniqueness of the different tales pulled me in and ensnared me until I finished the last word. It made the perfect before-bed book since it was already divided into small chunks I could devour before turning the light off to sleep.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews