Hearts from the Ashes Anthology
Title: Hearts From the Ashes
By: Alley Blue, J. L. Langley & Willa Okati
Type: M/M Slash, Romance, Fantasy
Pages: 296
Rating: 3 out of 6
Blurb: In the city of Asheville, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, six men discover lasting love from the ashes of heartache.
In Eros Rising by Alley Blue, Scott & Keegan have both been hurt by love. Can they overcome their painful pasts and build a future with each other?
There's nothing better than a cup of coffee and your one true love. Gray's in for the surprise of his life when he gets not two, but three for one in Cafe Noctem by Willa Okati.
When werewolves Devlin and Laine meet in With Love by J. L. Langley, it's instant attraction. However, the pack Alpha is determined to take Laine for himself. Can Devlin protect his newfound mate and keep them both alive?
1. Eros Rising by Alley Blue
I really liked the interaction between the characters in this one. There was a good dynamic of conversation and everything else. However when it came to the whole sex thing it completely fell apart for me. It was too much like reading or I suppose watching a bad Porno. Lots of, pricks, oh yes's, exclamation points, and fuck me harder‘s. There were a few nice points in it that was fun, different things you don't see to often as in the use of toys 'babe' but yeah. Focus a little bit more on the plot, and the story and a little less on the overly graphic sex.
2. Cafe Noctem by Willa Okati
I think this one was actually my favorite of the three. It built in an element of Native American myth and story telling. The story telling feature in this story was really interesting. I thought that was neat. I also felt that while the sex had similar issues it was not as much the focus of the story as the relationship. Which gave the story was much stronger feel from start to finish. While as with all three of these some of it could've been thought out a bit more. My biggest issue with this story was actually a little thing. Okati deals with the Berdache (if you don't know the Berdache were found among not just the Cherokee peoples but other Native America tribes as well. They were those who were seen as the people of two spirits. Often they became wives, to masculine women or served as go betweens in tribal maters and to use the term loosely 'prostitutes' but not as we use that word. They were more or less men who liked men.) But in the story Okati has a line about Clever Fox, putting on war paint even though he had no claim to it. Well the Berdache actually were a lot more interesting then that. As in some of them actually did choose to be warriors sometimes, the roll of the Berdache was not set, but changing. So Clever Fox had ever right to put on war paint and go out because he was going to fight.
But that's a little thing, it just bothers me since I've done a bit of reading about the Berdache as they fascinate me. :)
With Love by J. L. Langley
Well... it's cute, I guess. I have issues with the I smell you, I see you, I'm hard as an iron pipe for you and it's instant sex and love thing. Especially since it starts from the beginning and you don't get any build of character or relationship, it's just instant sexual gratification. That's annoying to me. However Laine's character was a great and I thought that Caroline was interesting and that there was the potential for more there however, it just didn't really work. With her werewolf stuff it's as I said too much about the fuck me harder, oh yes!, I'm so hard for you crap. I think that if Langley could get away from that to some extent she'd do better.
Okay that's all I have to say. I admit I was a little more pleased with this then I expected to be after reading the last book. So I guess that's something.