Post 446

Couldn't even make it to 450 let alone 500. Don't get me wrong, though. I love this blog. It's been my child for four years. It went through a lot of format changes, a child, and a separation. And still it came out on top. My only wish is that I actually made more money off it. Sadly, all things must come to an end.

What started as a chronicle of my book hunting to an attempt to show others how to become a successful-yet-thrifty book hunter molded into a semi respectable (quasi respectable?) book blog to the constant declarations of my love for Alison Tyler, who shaped the later posts (because I did my best to read all her works). This has been my first and most successful attempt of a serious blog (though, I'm often not so serious in my writing). And while this will remain in the cyberworld for years to come as an archive of what I've read and saved for the last four years, it's time I packed up my bags and moved toward a brighter future. 

My personal blog and my book blog will fuse into one single blog about books, music, and film and how they've affected my life and writing as well as reviews and thrifty finds (and love letters to Alison Tyler). I'm currently in the process of building something better and following a daily schedule. This also means better reviews (hopefully), longer and shorter posts (for people who love to read about reading, and those who just want some quick information about writing, editing, music, and movies), more creative writing (nothing worth selling, but something worth reading), personal posts, and more. My goal is to mimic a literary magazine and fill it up with things most literary publications wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole (like recycled cliches).

So thank you to Alison, Lana Fox, Go Deeper Press, my two followers, and all of you who have stumbled onto this blog via random Google searches and links embedded in someones post about a review I wrote. If anything, you have made this all worth my while. Until we meet again.

Yours always,

Guillermo Corona

the Observant Reader.

P.S. Happy huntin'.

Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women edited by Lana Fox

First off, I want to thank Go Deeper Press for allowing me to read this collection, and for thinking of me in the first place. I'd also like to thank Lana Fox for collecting these sexy tales for us to read. Moving on.

I always find it difficult to review collections and anthologies. I never know what to focus on, or what to say without giving away too much plot of one short story. Normally, I pick a few short stories to talk about. However, this collection only contains seven (that's right, one for every day of the week).

Murderous vixens skip through the pages of this book. Stories such as "La Femme Chocolat" by V.C., Bracken Macleod's "Some Other Time," and Zöe More's "Our Courtship, Our Romance" enrapture you with the stories of the most dangerous women.  V.C. introduces us to a candy maker who uses her sweets for revenge on those who have resisted or broken her heart. The writing brings the feel of a long forgotten pulp magazine, filled with modern references that easily go unnoticed. Bracken Macleod's brings to life an androgynous villain that sneaks into the heroine's sexual fantasies and, thus, our own. And the darkly deviant lovers featured in Zöe More's tale would make the Marquis de Sade and Wanda von Dunjew blush.

But not all the women featured in the stories are murderous by nature. The title character in Maricia Verman's "Elisabetta" is but the personification fantasy (the piece is short, so I might have given away too much there). And the woman featured in Abyssinia Grey's "Ash Wednesday" is but a Catholic cocktease reminiscing about the times she spent with the priest in a life before. And "Peeping" by Stephen Dorneman, a peeping tom gets a little more than he can handle when he's caught by a woman. 

However deliciously decadent these tales are, the one that stood out the most (that buried itself into my memory and woven into my fantasy, because it's been a fantasy of mine for some time) is Lana Fox's "Smart Folks Won't Screw Witless Girls." The tale follows a con-woman who robs the people that pick her up at bars and take her home with them. Then Elle walks into her life and it's a gamer changer for her.

You can purchase Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women for your Kindle or Nook. Until next time, happy huntin'.

Sol by Lana Fox

I want to start off this post by thanking Go Deeper Press for mentioning my little old blog on theirs. While visiting their link, I learned that they were giving a free read when you subscribed to their newsletter. It's book hunter etiquette 101 to never pass up a free read.

I'm going to go off on a limb here and say I've never heard of Lana Fox before reading her short story (flash fiction, almost), "Sol." In those six short pages (according to my Nook app), the reader receives a rather steamy forbidden love affair. Oh. And coffee. Erotica and coffee. It's a wonder why I never thought about putting my two favorite subjects together into one idea. Thank you, Lana Fox. I've made a mental note of this for a later affair.

There's no way to go into detail about a short story, so I won't. I'll just link the page where you can subscribe to Go Deeper Press's newsletter and receive your free copy.

In unrelated-to-review news, I'm currently gathering my thoughts on book piracy and my stance on the whole DRM mess. I'm also planning on compiling a list of my all time favorite books and perhaps do one of them 30-day challenges. I need to make this blog equal parts book-related posts and reviews, not just the latter.

Until next time, happy huntin'.

P.S. I'm also thinking of replacing my Kindle with a Nook, or just going the tablet route. This has a lot to do with my hypothetical post on book piracy and DRM. I'm still on the fence, though. However, Barnes & Noble is giving you $50 dollars to use when you purchase a Nook HD. That's fifty bucks you can use for your Nook, buying movies and e-books! What a deal! Those of you not on the fence about purchasing a new e-reader/tablet, I highly consider taking them on this deal. Just click the banner below.