A review of the fourth work in the Hellscape Holidays by Milly Taiden today on the Tale and it’s a series that I have so dearly enjoyed from the first book. It’s fun, captivating and each story told is a delight by far.

Of course, my focus with every book s Portia, the Succubus of the series and my hope that her story might be told fully at some point. It’s something of a dream really, considering she. and the bartender Lou, are more supporting characters as a whole. Nonetheless, there’s just something about a Succubus who delights in others being in love that I adore.

• Title: Kissing the Grumpy Dragon
• Author: Milly Taiden
• Published By: Latin Goddess Press, Inc.
• Length: 250 Pages
• Format: eBook
• ASIN: B0B761H87J
• Publishing Date: January 12, 2023
• This work in Kindle Format at Amazon.com

The work tells of:

The last thing Kaia Coll expected when she checked in at Hellscape Holiday Resort was for a dragon to fight a demon over her. Technically, it didn’t quite happen that way, but a witch can dream. Especially since the dragon is one good-looking man, and Portia Flemming keeps throwing them together!
Dragon shifter Greyson Verlice’s idea of a company retreat isn’t three-legged races and building sandcastles. Especially not when the distracting witch, Kaia Coll, is always around. Greyson needs to focus on saving his company and thunder. Not ditch his colleagues to flirt with Kaia.
But with the Verlice name on the line, Kaia might be exactly who Greyson needs. Kaia and Greyson are in trouble now that Lou and Portia set their sights on them. Add in a couple of Lou’s cocktails, and who knows what will happen with these two!

Sometimes a holiday comes with baggage and the heaviest of them usually has something to do with family. Kaia just wants her sister to be okay. Greyson just wants his father to figure out that things need to change for the better. Perhaps the troubles are different, but then again, the solutions might be found with each other.

The work neatly fits into the series and all that has happened before, many of the prior events still having their effects on the resort and those that call it home. It’s another fun story of being lost, finding passion and the love that comes. The characters are adorably fun, the undercurrent of teasing between them works really well to tell the story.

The heat between the main characters simmers well and when it boils over, the moments are really everything one could hope for between them. What’s really well done is Grey’s growth as Kaia pokes at him to figure himself out. It’s also fun to see how they’re both a bit lost and trying to figure out the passions that they have for each other.

The one thing that felt shoehorned in was the climax of Grey’s family issues and how that was resolved. While it makes some sense, it happens so fast and feels so much like an afterthought to move the story towards where the main characters needed to be. Overall, this seems to be the singular issue for me over the course of the series. This moment, when it comes in each book, doesn’t feel as organic as the rest of the story does. It makes me wonder if it’s really necessary for there to be conflict and battles to finally bring the main characters together. I still love the series, but I wonder if there is a better way.

This brings me back to Portia, the Succubus of the series and once more she’s part of the story, but doesn’t really shine as she did in the first work. She’s still a delightful schemer, it’s fun to see her plans simmer and her delight when it all comes together as she, and Lou, plotted. Again, she’s not the focus of the series, and she really can’t be. But the teases about her and the past as well as the events that are hinted at off the page are things I’d love to know more about.

Three and a half out of five pitchforks.

Once more Portia is on the edges of the story and that’s completely understandable. It still nibbles in my thoughts that there’s such a story to tell about her and Lou and I hope at some point it will be. The next book in the series won’t appear until later in the summer of 2023 and then the following work seems to have a bit more of a devilish focus, at least from the title. If nothing else, if this is the last book in the series, or if it isn’t, tell the story about who, really, Portia is. She and Lou stories are the bow to tie things up and I hope that happens.

Tera

Many times, a succubus appears in a story, or is suggested to be part of the story, for other purposes. She becomes a means to an end, a force to draw characters together and create the heat between them. It might be more apt in such stories to call the succubus a whisper with no real form or action waiting to see what develops.

It’s something of a disappointment when there’s the opportunity to have the succubus appear, the main character wants that to be, and it doesn’t. Opening the door to possibilities should lead to such things happening if only to see where that takes the main character onwards.

• Title: The Summoning
• Author: Adora Idunn
• Published By: Adora Idunn
• Length: 32 Pages
• Format: eBook
• ASIN: B0BTJ2QM27
• IBSN: 9798215314128
• Publishing Date: January 30, 2023
• This work in Kindle Format at Amazon.com
• This work in Various Formats at Smashwords.com

The work tells of:

College girl Darcy Grey wants to be a witch. She’s been studying witchcraft for a full year, hiding her practice from her parents. When her friend and mentor Charlotte refuses to teach her the finer points of “spicier” magics, Darcy takes matters into her own hands. One night with the RA upstairs should be enough to summon a new mentor: her very own succubus.

Darcy has discovered new passions in her life and the most delightful of these are her lessons her coven gives. The lessons are delightful and the temptations are endless, but they are too slow for her liking. But summoning a succubus would deal with that. But what comes from the summoning and what becomes of Darcy’s passions when the deed is done?

The work is mainly a slow-burn piece of erotica with some lesbian undertones, a bit of fantasies in one’s mind, and the barest hint of a succubus that might, possibly, appear, though that is very difficult to be sure of. There’s a coming of age, or of sexual power, tone to things that’s interesting as well.

The work is told from the perspective of the main character Darcy and her encounters with her lover, her sexual partner in the summoning, and what happens in the minutia along the way. That storytelling builds towards the climax well and offers a lot of character exploration that I thought worked well.

The erotica wanes and waxes throughout, some of the moments are lovely and tender, others are filled with heat and need which do fit with the story. Darcy’s needs are explored and it’s that exploration that holds things together.

The problem, however, is that while there is talk of a succubus, there really isn’t one as a character in the story. She’s an idea at first, a force at another point and a question to be wondered about at the ending. As such she has no physical form, no name and no voice. But for Darcy, the succubus feels very present in her and that does offer a story to be told, perhaps in the future.

Two and a half out of five pitchforks.

There’s really just the barest mention of a succubus in the work, she seemingly never appears and while there’s a hint of otherworldly sexuality, it’s just not core to the story. The ending, however, does bring a question and something to wonder about which does interest me. Perhaps Darcy isn’t exactly who she was and perhaps she’s not quite the witch she wanted to be. That would be a story worth exploring and an outcome that could bring a more vivid succubus story to the fore.

Tera

A review of the second work in the Submitting to… A Hot Futa Succubus series by Stanley Sharpe today on the Tale. It’s been a while since my review of the first work and returning to the series brought some anticipation of the story mythos being explored more. Val, the succubus of the series, is very unique and interesting. That’s something I really would like to see explored.

But the question of a soul’s desire and how that comes to be fulfilled is also important. Perhaps in giving what Tim wants there is more to explore. Certainly answering the question of what the purpose of summoning a succubus was would be a good place to start.

• Title: Deal with a Devil
• Author: Stanley Sharpe
• Published By: Amazon Digital Services
• Length: 35 Pages
• Format: eBook
• ASIN: B0B8TN699Y
• ISBN: 9781005770549
• Publishing Date: August 4, 2022
• This work in Kindle Format at Amazon.com
• This work in Various Formats at Smashwords.com

The work tells of:

Tim has a choice to make, concerning the alluring mature succubus, Valcynarix. Her tasters have proven convincing, opening his eyes to a world of pleasures that he cannot otherwise have. But to have them going forwards, he must submit. He must become her plaything, and exist on her terms. The beautiful demoness claims to be ideal for him, and appears to know his deepest desires. She’s capable of changing how pleasure works, of eliciting ecstasy even from scenarios that shouldn’t result in such carnal contentment. And of course, most tantalising of all, is the fact that the mature succubus is hardly shy about her need, at some point or other, to create a replacement demoness for the Sisterhood, with Tim’s help…

It’s one thing to be offered what you desire. It’s a bit more complicated when there’s a price to be paid. Not all deals are bad, some give what’s wanted most of all. All that needs to happen is to believe that anything might just be possible.

The work continues on immediately from the prior work with Tim and Val coming to the terms of the deal for his soul and his submission to being Val’s pet. Much like the first work the story draws things out in order to reveal little things about Val that otherwise would have been an infodump. That works really well, tells something of Val’s character and then allows the story to move forwards.

Val, the succubus of the story, remains as interesting throughout. There’s one particular point that mattered to the story overall, that being she can’t lie to Tim, but that also means that the truths she tells of him are exactly that. There’s a bit of transformation scenes along the way that worked well, they give Val something of an other self that I thought was intriguing.

While the erotica has a very strong futa aspect along with Val’s succubus nature, the main focus revolves around Val’s MILF domination of Tim. It’s a bit over the top and felt at times to be losing its way as Tim lost himself to Val’s advances. Given that the point of the story is Val claiming Tim, it works as a whole. It might have been more interesting had Val been more dominant and Tim being more of an adoring pet than the toy he seems to become by the close of the work.

Three and a half out of five pitchforks.

The world building and mythos is interesting around Val, but the erotica just didn’t have the heat overall. The story is getting a lot more complex and the characters are becoming more than they were at the beginning. Hopefully the story will focus a bit more in the next part and perhaps the story will move into Val’s world and what’s waiting there.

Tera