Mitzi Szereto
Kelley Armstrong (Forward)
Red Velvet and Absinthe: Paranormal Erotic Romance
Review brought to you by OBS staff member Autumn
Synopsis:
The supernatural: it evokes excited shivers, both of fear and of the sexual. Think vampires, werewolves, ghosts… darkness and decay, eerie sounds in the night, impassioned whispers teasing at the depths of sleep…. Think red velvet, flickering candles, howling winds, the flavor of absinthe and blood on the tongue…
But most of all, think dark desire.
Red Velvet and Absinthe explores love and lust with otherworldly partners who, by the sheer nature of their otherworldliness, evoke passion and desire far beyond that which any normal human being can inspire.
Anyone who’s read Bram Stoker’s Dracula will tell you that eroticism is alive and well on the pages. And the impassioned torment taking place between Heathcliff and Catherine in Emily Brontë’s classic Wuthering Heights provides some steam as well, even if not overtly expressed in the prose. Perhaps it’s that delicious shiver we feel running down our spines when we read these books that keeps us coming back for more. Perhaps it’s that subtle sense of fear that thrills us and gives us a forbidden charge that’s ever so slightly erotic in nature. Whatever it is, Gothic literature is as popular now as it was in the past. Although the greats such as Bram Stoker, the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and Daphne du Maurier are long dead, we have a host of contemporary authors keeping the Gothic spirit alive and well and interpreting it in new and exciting ways.
Red Velvet and Absinthe offers readers a collection of unique and original stories that conjure up the atmospheric and romantic spirit of the Gothic masters (and mistresses), but take things a bit further by adding to the brew a generous dosage of eroticism. Lie back and listen to the wind howling outside your window as you read these stories in the flickering light of a candle, the absinthe you’re sipping warming your body like the caressing touch of a lover’s fingers… (From Goodreads)
Review:
I had forgotten how much I love compilations and this one was no exception. Each short erotic tale will take you by the hand and lead you dreamily down the primrose path and the beauty of the journey is never knowing if you will come back alive.
I highly recommend this book to readers that revel in the lush prose of gothic and erotic romance and to those adventurous souls that enjoy a bittersweet story that doesn’t always end the way you would expect.
A few of my very favorites include Snowlight, Moonlight by Rose de Fer, La Belle Mort by Zander Vyne and The Persistence of Memory by Evan Mora. Erotic, chilling and heartbreaking. How can you resist?
