Hi Wild Ones! Every month I recommend books, movies, and TV that I’ve enjoyed. Looking for your next read or watch? Read on. This month I’ve got a VERY SPICY contemporary women’s fiction, an urban fantasy, a sci-fi, and a little slice-of-life short story. Plus a sci-fi TV show and a romcom for you to watch. Lots to get into!
Domme & Dommer by Sophia Domina
When a former cult member and a Christian Dominatrix start a sex business together, they find submission to one another is the greatest challenge of all.
The book is one woman’s fantastic journey from being stuck in a cult to completely free and living the life she wants. It’s like a kinky woman’s fiction story, with some very spicy scenes. I enjoyed her journey a lot. You can buy from Amazon or direct from the author.
The Nature of Compromise by Kris Ripper
I love these little slice-of-life vignettes set in Ripper’s Scientific Method series. The Nature of Compromise centers around a therapy session and Hugh and Truman’s hangups around a certain part of the marriage ceremony. It’s a lovely story of opening up to your partner. Might not make sense if you haven’t read the books.
The Destiny of Ren Crown by Anne Zoelle
I debated on whether to include this book. I really enjoyed the series (it’s a magical academy for college students with fantastic worldbuilding and really interesting characters) but it’s not a romance, though it has strong romance subplots. It’s not steamy at all. But what it does have is a love triangle that’s treated differently than the typical YA love triangle – and I LOVED that.
SPOILERS! Here’s the setup: Ren, our main character, has a huge crush on Axer. She is friends with Constantine, who is Axer’s mortal enemy. The series treats Axer as the love interest all along, until it’s really revealed in this book that Constantine has loved Ren for several books and Ren returns his affections. So who does she choose?
The book basically leaves this unresolved. She doesn’t officially choose either one. But she also doesn’t NOT choose either one, if that makes sense. The ending of the book hinges on all three of them working together and emotionally opening up to each other for them to win the big fight. The way I read the ending is that Ren chooses both boys, and in fact the boys are basically in love with each other and are only a couple of missing scenes away from admitting that to each other. I choose to view them as a triad that will live happily ever after.
It bothers me a little bit that Zoelle doesn’t make that official. As a polyam person who desperately wants to see more of that in fiction, I found the ending kinda frustrating. But it feels much more hopeful of an ending than her officially picking one boy over the other, so I’ll take it.
Big Jack by J.D. Robb
If you like mysteries with some spicy scenes thrown in, the In Death series is for you. Eve Dallas is kickass, the mysteries are interesting, and the characters are fun to read. It’s also set a bit in the future, to make things interesting. I found this one in the used bookstore, so I read it out of order. I really need to go back and start more from the beginning and read on.
Sense8
I finished season 2 this month. I still love it, and saw some things this time that I hadn’t remembered/picked up on last time. I wish they’d had another season because some aspects felt a bit rushed. But I still absolutely love the way everything wrapped up. It’s so good and worth the watch.
CONTENT WARNINGS: suicide, drug use (recreational and forced), discussions & depictions of character death (including children), some graphic violence at times (including murder), homo and trans phobia towards characters, parent/child issues of various kinds. I think that’s it, but honestly I could have missed something, so consider yourself to be warned to expect anything with this show.
Find Me Falling
A completely unexpectedly tender and darkly humorous look at relationships, family, and finding happiness in life. It’s a quirky movie in places, and fun and sort of heavy, too. TW for suicide.
What have you read and watched this month? Hit reply and let me know if you have something fantastic!
Or check out the rest of my Recommended Reads for even more!
Note: I don’t provide links for the books in these rec lists anymore, but you should know I get books from all over the place: Amazon (including Audible), Barnes & Noble, Chirp books, Kobo, Smashwords, the library, direct from the author, Kickstarter, and Storybundle. So if you don’t find the book at your usual store please consider looking around for it. Don’t forget the author’s website! Authors make more when you buy direct from them.