What do you think?
Rate this book
Cinched: Imagination Unbound
The corset. Rarely has any garment held such allure, such mystery, so attraction for men and women alike. From a simple foundation garment to a fashion statement all its own, the corset has held the imagination for centuries.
This collection of stories from some of the brightest fantasy writers in the world run the gamut from steampunk to horror, from steamy romance to weird western, from victorian thriller to contemporary bondage. But they all feature one thing in common - the corset. From vampire comedy to steampunk action to BDSM, Cinched is certain to free your mind. What else will follow?
stories:
Basque of the Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Lavin Leverett
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by M.B. Weston
A Gift for Death by R.D. Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nico Serene
Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams
Lagniappe by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin
This collection of stories from some of the brightest fantasy writers in the world run the gamut from steampunk to horror, from steamy romance to weird western, from victorian thriller to contemporary bondage. But they all feature one thing in common - the corset. From vampire comedy to steampunk action to BDSM, Cinched is certain to free your mind. What else will follow?
stories:
Basque of the Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Lavin Leverett
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by M.B. Weston
A Gift for Death by R.D. Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nico Serene
Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams
Lagniappe by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin
- GenresShort StoriesAnthologies
297 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 24, 2015
5 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
John G. Hartness
192 books595 followersJohn G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love.
He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles (Bell Bridge Books), the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects.
In 2016, John teamed up with a pair of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fictions “misfit toys.”
In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering.
For free short stories and to follow his activities and appearances on his newsletter, follow this link - http://eepurl.com/fV4In
He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles (Bell Bridge Books), the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects.
In 2016, John teamed up with a pair of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fictions “misfit toys.”
In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering.
For free short stories and to follow his activities and appearances on his newsletter, follow this link - http://eepurl.com/fV4In
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 16, 2017
What a terrific collection of stories! A nice mix of fantasy, horror, steam punk… Many of them will linger with me for quite a while!
April 30, 2019
A creative and varied collection of short stories all of which include a corset.
I love themed anthologies. It's always fun to see how different writers come to the theme. This one included settings from long ago alongside stories that could have taken place yesterday, genres ranging from romance to Gothic horror to paranormal adventure to steampunk. This being a Falstaff book, of course there's something weird or supernatural going on in each story.
I found this anthology exceptional among others I've read for universally high quality and interesting tales. Not a dud in the bunch.
My favorite story was The Shadow Fatale by Nicole Burns, but I am a little biased towards superhero stories, since I write them myself. I also really loved The Blue Lights at Michelle Weston, a gothic revenge story, and Cazadora by Andrea Judy, in which a determined young woman sets out to avenge her friend with the help of a mysterious woman and finds a vocation. Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams won the prize for surprising me the most with where the story went.
If you're already a fan of the Quincy Harker stories, you'll love High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness (and if you don't know these stories yet, this is a good introduction, too). There's also a Storm and Fury adventure "Lagniappe"from Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin for fans of that series.
A great collection of stories with variations on how the corset is incorporated. Something for everyone, I'd imagine.
I love themed anthologies. It's always fun to see how different writers come to the theme. This one included settings from long ago alongside stories that could have taken place yesterday, genres ranging from romance to Gothic horror to paranormal adventure to steampunk. This being a Falstaff book, of course there's something weird or supernatural going on in each story.
I found this anthology exceptional among others I've read for universally high quality and interesting tales. Not a dud in the bunch.
My favorite story was The Shadow Fatale by Nicole Burns, but I am a little biased towards superhero stories, since I write them myself. I also really loved The Blue Lights at Michelle Weston, a gothic revenge story, and Cazadora by Andrea Judy, in which a determined young woman sets out to avenge her friend with the help of a mysterious woman and finds a vocation. Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams won the prize for surprising me the most with where the story went.
If you're already a fan of the Quincy Harker stories, you'll love High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness (and if you don't know these stories yet, this is a good introduction, too). There's also a Storm and Fury adventure "Lagniappe"from Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin for fans of that series.
A great collection of stories with variations on how the corset is incorporated. Something for everyone, I'd imagine.
March 8, 2017
Cinched: Imagination Unbound came to my attention because it contained a short story by John G. Harness, author of the Quincy Harker series that I love. A corset appears in all the stories. In some it is a major feature and in others the corset is a sinister oppressive feature lurking just at the peripheral of the reader's eye.
The book contains the following stories:
The Basque of Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Lavin Leverett
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by MB Weston
A Gift for Death by RD Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nico Serene
Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams
Lagniappe by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin
I loved the women in this collection. They were all strong women, with or without the sinister corset. They all made very hard choices and sacrifices to help those they loved and lost.
All the stories were good but the three standouts were:
The Blue Lights - reminded me of the best of the Victorian mysteries like Sherlock Holmes
High Fashion Hell - as usual for a Harker story, funny and horrifying all at once.
Tighten the Laces - hit the unique scale with a large and rocked it
This is a strong collection. I would love to hear it as an audiobook, maybe James Foster and Rebecca Roberts as the narrators.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply.
The book contains the following stories:
The Basque of Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Lavin Leverett
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by MB Weston
A Gift for Death by RD Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G. Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nico Serene
Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh by Sarah Joy Adams
Lagniappe by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin
I loved the women in this collection. They were all strong women, with or without the sinister corset. They all made very hard choices and sacrifices to help those they loved and lost.
All the stories were good but the three standouts were:
The Blue Lights - reminded me of the best of the Victorian mysteries like Sherlock Holmes
High Fashion Hell - as usual for a Harker story, funny and horrifying all at once.
Tighten the Laces - hit the unique scale with a large and rocked it
This is a strong collection. I would love to hear it as an audiobook, maybe James Foster and Rebecca Roberts as the narrators.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply.
February 5, 2016
Edited by John G Hartness and published by Falstaff Media (Charlotte, NC)
The Short Stories are:
Basque of the Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Levertt
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by Michelle Weston
A Gift of Death by Rachelle Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nicole Burns
Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh by Sara Joy Adams
A Little Something Extra by Gail Z Martin and Larry N Martin
Hartness continues to improves as a editor of anthologies. The quality of this collection is solid. The stories vary from historic pieces to contemporary, from horror to superhero. An excellent mix sure to satisfy any reader of genre fiction. The theme is corsets and, as the title indicates, the contributing writers had "Imagination Unbound" starting from this common theme.
Especially good in my opinion are:
Snake Bite - Ms. Massey does paranormal western stories well. Beware the woman left for dead.
The Circus - The main character of this story is creepy cool.
Basque of the Red Death - Revenge may be needed and purpose may be given. But the lingering impact of these actions ...
The Shadow Fatale - Love superhero prose. Think Spiderman's Venom as half-corset and half-human handler.
And I think the best was
Bone of my bone, Flesh of my flesh - The atmosphere in this historic piece is amazing.
The Short Stories are:
Basque of the Red Death by Eden Royce
Cazadora by Andrea Judy
Snake Bite by Misty Massey
Escape by Kimberly Richardson
The Circus by Emily Levertt
Homecoming by Dave Harlequin
The Blue Lights by Michelle Weston
A Gift of Death by Rachelle Stevens
High Fashion Hell by John G Hartness
Tighten the Laces by Herika Raymer
The Shadow Fatale by Nicole Burns
Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh by Sara Joy Adams
A Little Something Extra by Gail Z Martin and Larry N Martin
Hartness continues to improves as a editor of anthologies. The quality of this collection is solid. The stories vary from historic pieces to contemporary, from horror to superhero. An excellent mix sure to satisfy any reader of genre fiction. The theme is corsets and, as the title indicates, the contributing writers had "Imagination Unbound" starting from this common theme.
Especially good in my opinion are:
Snake Bite - Ms. Massey does paranormal western stories well. Beware the woman left for dead.
The Circus - The main character of this story is creepy cool.
Basque of the Red Death - Revenge may be needed and purpose may be given. But the lingering impact of these actions ...
The Shadow Fatale - Love superhero prose. Think Spiderman's Venom as half-corset and half-human handler.
And I think the best was
Bone of my bone, Flesh of my flesh - The atmosphere in this historic piece is amazing.
Read
July 22, 2020This is a great collection with a wide variety of genres and concepts, all centered around corsets. It was one of the most unique anthologies I've read in a long time and I was hooked from the first story. There's a little something for any taste in this volume, and it's a great sample of the type of stories we can expect from Falstaff Books.
June 3, 2017
It's been a long time since I've read a collection of short stories, and when I started this book I didn't know that was what it was. I started it three hours ago. I should have been in bed two hours ago as I have to get up at 3 AM, but after reading one or two of the stories, there was no way I was going to stop reading. It's that good.
If anyone had told me they were writing a collection of short stories based solely on women's corsets, I would have laughed. And would have had to eat crow pie afterward. Cinched is a collection of compelling stories all centered around a garment that used to squish women's organs in the 1700 and 1800s.
Worn solely by women, perhaps the corset is a good thing to base stories around, as it may represent the feminine power women can possess. Let's face it, no man would have been able to stand wearing a corset for more than five minutes. I know. I tried one on once and I couldn't breathe for a week after I took the damned thing off.
Would you think a corset could kill at its owner's command? How about one that can show the way to hidden treasure, or make someone have superpowers? Or my favorite, one possessed by a demon that can possess the person wearing it? That's just a few of the gems that this book offers.
I highly recommend this book and give it the highest rating. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening reading it, and I am going to be late to work in the morning, and I don't give a damn.
If anyone had told me they were writing a collection of short stories based solely on women's corsets, I would have laughed. And would have had to eat crow pie afterward. Cinched is a collection of compelling stories all centered around a garment that used to squish women's organs in the 1700 and 1800s.
Worn solely by women, perhaps the corset is a good thing to base stories around, as it may represent the feminine power women can possess. Let's face it, no man would have been able to stand wearing a corset for more than five minutes. I know. I tried one on once and I couldn't breathe for a week after I took the damned thing off.
Would you think a corset could kill at its owner's command? How about one that can show the way to hidden treasure, or make someone have superpowers? Or my favorite, one possessed by a demon that can possess the person wearing it? That's just a few of the gems that this book offers.
I highly recommend this book and give it the highest rating. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening reading it, and I am going to be late to work in the morning, and I don't give a damn.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews