A review of a work by a new author trying their hand at writing needs to be encouraged from their first work. Their ideas can be wonderful, their characters delightful, but sometimes their grasp of the English language can be the singular flaw.

No being should be without love and for succubi, that’s more than a promise.

• Title: The Succubus Heart Squad
• Author: lust king
• Published By: Amazon Digital Services
• Length: 47 Pages
• Format: eBook
• ASIN: B08Y7Y3HYB
• Publishing Date: March 6, 2021
• This work in Kindle Format at Amazon.com

The work tells of:

A crack team of succubi bring passion to Valentine’s Day.

It’s Valentine’s Day and Pitor has a problem or rather several of them. Mysterious women claiming to be succubi are appearing and looking forward to encountering him soon. But is this a joke or something far more?

Overall this is a fun work, the succubi, both in their actions and how they are described are a delight, their style is very appearing and overall they turn the story into a mixture of comedy and erotica that worked… to a point. It becomes a problem when there’s a language barrier to overcome in the author’s writing.

The work needs a lot of editing as a whole, the author likely is not a native English speaker which takes a lot out of the story and that’s a real shame. It’s cute, funny, and many times I dearly wished that the story had flowed better than it was.

Two and a half out if five pitchforks.

This is truly a lovely idea and the story has so much potential in it, but the language and editing issues hurt things a great deal. I’d hope the author will find someone to help with their prose, to make this story everything that I think it can really be.

After all, cute and fun succubi that care are a very special thing.

Tera

Relationships are a complicated thing in more ways than can be easily explained. Things get a lot more complicated when a work tells of a reality where things are going to hell, quite literally, and meeting succubi and incubi on the street isn’t anything special.

But that brings with it the question: if nothing is special, then what makes the characters interesting and compelling?

• Title: Succubus Temptations
• Author: Nastya Bednaya
• Published By: Smashwords
• Length: 23 Pages
• Format: eBook
• IBSN: 9781005849580
• Publishing Date: March 23, 2021
• This work in Various Formats at Smashwords.com

The work tells of:

Life for Jennifer is not going to plan. Recently single amid a burning Apocalypse, she is turning into a half-succubus sex demon after an ill-advised fling with her ex, an incubus sex god whose entire existence is to give women pleasure.

To add insult to injury, her career is stagnating, and it turns out she lives in the same crappy apartment as she did before the Apocalypse, but this time there is no running water! Hardly the glamorous life she pictured before demons started roaming the earth.

However, she is not going to take it lying down. Always sardonic, Jennifer turns to her neighborhood dive bar in search of whiskey, but what she finds is even better: Jack, a former professor turned self-loathing incubus who is the perfect counterpart to her free love hedonism, he just may unlock parts of Jennifer’s heart she didn’t know existed, that is if they are both brave enough to try.

Jennifer is, and isn’t, a succubus, being caught halfway between becoming and being human. But while that is its own problem, the larger issue is what the hell she is going to do about Jack and what he’s looking for in her.

The work tells of a lost love and how that loss turns one upon themselves and where that lack of purpose and direction can take them. Jennifer as a character seems to be lost throughout the work and that tugged on me quite a lot. She’s never sure of herself, seeking solace in drinking or other diversions and as the story goes, so does how deeply the flaws and crutches come to define who she is.

This tends to turn the story very melancholy and once into this tone, the work never really comes out of it. It seeps into the characters, the world building and there’s never a point where something close to hope comes out and makes itself known.

While that works to bind the story together, it makes the story drag on at points, lose its way, and in the moments where Jennifer or Jack try to start to come to terms with things, the mood overcomes them and they fall back into the trap they were almost out of emotionally.

It takes a good deal of the work for the story to find its footing, to get past the deep well and crawl out towards something of a resolution for the characters. The ending is… hopeful, even if the world itself has little of that honestly. Still, there’s a certain appeal to what Jennifer comes to realize and what difference that makes for her.

Three and a half out of five pitchforks.

I think the overall idea works well, there’s a good interaction between the characters overall. The problem for me is the seeming lack of clarity as things progress for Jennifer. I found myself trying to sort out what she was going through verus her interactions with other characters. At times the story felt lost and seeking answers, a reflection on Jennifer overall.

But it left something lacking and needing in the background and I’m a bit lost as to how things turned as they did. It’s not that the story isn’t a good one, for it is, it’s a question of how morose things turn and where some semblance of light can be seen.

Tera

A review today of a new work by Alana Church, the first in her new series called Hell’s Horny Angels. I’ve reviewed many of her works in the past, and I’ve always been delighted in her writing, her characters, and how her stories unfold.

Evil is, when you think about it, a state of mind and if one is truly aware, then the concept of choice cannot be ignored. It is in finding out who you really are, regardless of the means taken to get there, which defines what has been hidden away and out of reach… and what you are willing to do because of it.

• Title: Hell’s Horny Demon
• Author: Alana Church
• Published By: Boruma Publishing, LLC
• Length: 53 Pages
• Format: eBook
• IBSN: 9780463619117
• Publishing Date: April 2, 2021
• This work in Various Formats at Smashwords.com

The work tells of:

Lorelei is a demon, a punisher of the damned. But one fateful day she is able to escape from Hell. Sister Kathleen is a nun, dedicated to helping others. What will she do when an otherworldly being takes up residence in her mind? Can she control the perverse urges of a horny demon? Or will she fall into a sinful, sexy darkness? Find out today in “Hell’s Horny Demon: Possession!”

Lorelei may be a demon, but that doesn’t mean she necessarily has to like what she is beholden to do. A chance moment, a means to escape the darkness beings her to coexist with a nun seeking to do good. Perhaps not everything should be taken at face value by either of them, for when the truth arrives, the needs of both will be more than each alone.

Lorelei isn’t exactly a succubus, though how she is described and her actions do, on occasion, tend to be somewhat succubus-like. That’s not a criticism, far from it, she is her own being, has her own view of the universe and isn’t above making that very clear to those that she encounters. The thing is, a fragment exists within her, one that opens some really interesting plot ideas and makes her far more than just a demon alone.

Similarly, Kathleen isn’t all she seems to be on first glance, there are aspects of her that Lorelei brings out over time and creates an internal struggle that steels Kathleen in ways that are quite unexpected. It’s not quite a coming of age, more of a coming of understanding of herself and that was interesting to see.

The erotica’s heat works well, it doesn’t overcome the story and adds more to both of the main characters than what’s expected. That said, there’s also the question of the more forceful moments when Lorelei’s influence causes the story to turn, sometimes oddly, but continues to bring the two of them together, whether they like it or not.

What tickles at my thoughts as the story unfolded was where this work is set and how it may fit into other story characters lives. One specifically comes to mind, who has encountered demons before, and I wonder how she would react to meeting Lorelei and Kathleen, and what the result might be. The work creates two very strong characters, but towards the closing moments, the strife and confrontation that builds up gets redirected and in a way that makes sense with the overall universe of this author’s writings.

Perhaps the only thing that’s missing, and I’ll trust that the next work in the series will address is, in Lorelei’s departure from hell, someone has to have noticed, might even have figured out where she is. If so, then, what’s the conflict that comes from that and what does that mean for Kathleen?

Four and a half out of five pitchforks.

Lorelei is interesting, Kathleen is quite firm in her resolve. That’s a combination that could cause no end of issues in the future, not for themselves perhaps, but to others that have kept the truth from both of them. That could well being them into conflict with something Lorelei escaped from and if Kathleen can come to a resolution, there’s some interesting ways this could unfold.

Always a delight to see this author visit the world of her succubi and I await the next work in the series with high expectations.

 

Tera