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Recommended Reads

Steamy Recs July 2022

Hi Wild Ones! Are you ready for heart-throbbing emotion, royals who want nothing more than to shower you with love, and swanky sex rooms? Read on!

*Denotes an affiliate link, which means I earn a small commission from sales using this link.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr

Amazon* ~ Apple ~ Barnes & Noble ~ More Stores

Virgin River is a romance on the lightly steamy side, and a little different than my other recs so far. There’s no kink, no polyamory – nothing really non-mainstream about it. What it has are fantastic characters that are really good together, both in bed and in the rest of their lives. Carr brings an interesting angle to a romance series here. It’s small-town romance, and the town is populated with people from all ages and walks of life who are living real lives. They’ve got real issues they’re struggling with, including our main characters. Both of them have a difficult past they’re dealing with (she’s a widow and he has a difficult military past), and the book doesn’t gloss over it. It has a bit of a feel of Women’s Fiction with a really hot romance, but oh, boy – that finish packs a great swooney punch.

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Amazon* ~ Apple ~ Barnes & Noble ~ More Stores ~ Kobo

A very steamy, very fun romance about a woman who just wants to get left alone by her boss and fellow students so she can get her graduate degree and pursue her career as a scientist, and a Prince who is caught between doing what’s right for his people and right for himself. It was a fun and interesting world Cole has built here, a little reminiscent of Wakanda from the film Black Panther. I really enjoyed reading about it. And also, Thabiso is hot as hell. I enjoyed their scenes together. 😉

How to Build a Sex Room

I came across this while browsing Netflix and instantly knew I had to watch it. I was not disappointed. Our designer, Melanie Rose, designs the most sumptuous, luxurious and provocative rooms meant for sex and pleasure. They are gorgeous, kinky, sometimes polyamorous or queer, and always tailored for the clients themselves. That’s the part I love. The clients come to her with their own wants and desires, and sometimes their own issues. They have things they love, and things they don’t want at all. Melanie helps them explore what they want, and maybe even what they didn’t even know they wanted, and she gives them a room perfectly suited for them. And we get to see the whole thing from start to finish – if you’re at all interested in the design or house flipping shows on HGTV you’ll love this. It’s like a mashup of Divine Design (anyone remember that show from back in the day? I loved it!) and a sex therapy session, with a dash of cheeky British humor thrown in. It’s utterly delightful.

What have you read and watched this month? Hit reply and let me know if you have something fantastic!

Categories
Recommended Reads

Steamy Recs June 2022

Hi Wild Ones! Oh, boy, I’ve got some fun ones for you.

*Denotes an affiliate link, which means I earn a small commission from sales using this link.

Blowback by Lyn Gala

Amazon* ~ Apple ~ More Stores ~ Kobo*

Another fantastic space adventure story, this one with some delicious D/s elements. Actually, more than D/s – this one dives straight into ownership and slavery. It’s FemDom and the woman is an alien, if that takes some of the sting out of it for you, but it’s the real deal. I love books like this, where the ownership is total, and yet facilitates good things for the characters involved. I don’t want to say too much, so I’ll just say that the situation is difficult, and yet gives the best possible outcome for our main character. It was a fun read.

Hate F*@k (Forbidden Bodyguards Book 1) by Ainsley Booth

Amazon* ~ Apple ~ More Stores ~ Kobo

An ex-navy seal Alpha who’s not really a good guy (except when he is) and bordering on demanding-as-fuck meets a good girl who’s just trying to stay out of trouble – that’s the setup. It may not be the most original in the book, but it’s hot as hell anyway. It’s not exactly a kinky book but Cole is quite the dominant personality and there’s a bit of take-charge attitued at a few places. I ate it up.

Book of Love

Amazon*

I absolutely loved this movie. It’s got a writer who writes a book about love that’s so boring it barely sells a copy to anyone – until it comes up as a bestseller in Mexico. He’s required to go on a promotional tour through the country and gets stuck with a guide that’s the exact opposite of him. Classic Odd Couple trope. It’s funny, heartwarming, and totally killer at places. If you’re looking for a good RomCom, this is it.

The Story of O

And if you’re looking for a hardcore dive into a sadomasochistic relationship with deep ownership themes the 1975 version of this movie is it. (On Netflix) There’s a reason the novel is a classic in the BDSM community: it hits hard on the desires many kinky people have. Countless kinksters have read it and ached with need afterwards. The movie is of course based on the novel, but I like it better than the book. I read the book ages ago. It was probably the first kinky novel I ever read. I was totally enthralled with it, while also being very disappointed and disturbed with the ending. In my opinion, the movie keeps everything provocative and interesting about the novel while fixing the ending. The entire story is stronger and far more satisfying for it. It’s quite an erotic film, without being straight porn, and it has a wonderful softness to it at places that the book doesn’t have. Fully recommended for the kinkster looking for a good movie.

What have you read and watched this month? Hit reply and let me know if you have something fantastic!

Categories
Recommended Reads

Steamy Recs April 2022

Hi readers! I’ve decided to start a new monthly feature: the things I’ve read or watched that I’ve really enjoyed and that I think you’ll like, too. So here’s the first installment of the monthly Steamy Recs!

*Denotes an affiliate link, which means I earn a small commission from sales using this link.

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

Amazon* ~ Apple ~ Kobo* ~ More Stores
I found the most delightful comfort read in this book. It’s all about negotiating a relationship between the two main characters that fulfills them both, and meets their needs in ways no other relationship ever has. That relationship involves kink, but is so much broader than just kink. The characters are Jewish, autistic, polyamorous queer kinky women who are learning how to build a life for themselves that includes all of those parts of themselves, where they don’t have to mask or ignore parts of themselves in order to have a relationship.

This book is full of really interesting opposites: really intense sex scenes and characters discussing their non-sexual asexual preferences. Wonderful found family moments and characters recognizing their own individual strength and abilities. Deep comfort and frank discussions around trauma. Edgy kink play and fluffy slice-of-life scenes. The characters and their lives and relationships are complicated, and the book slowly peels all of that back layer by layer so that by the end I was deeply immersed in them and very satisfied by their happy ending.

I’m not autistic, Jewish or asexual, and yet so much of this book spoke to me on a deep level. Perhaps the parts that do match me (kinky, queer, polyam, with past trauma) were enough to connect with the book on, but I don’t think that’s it. I think the journey to find relationships and people that fully support us is a universal one, even if the characters are coming from a different perspective from us. The beauty of fiction is that it powerfully puts us in other’s shoes by letting us live their life for a while, and this book does that for me in full.

AJ and the Queen

Netflix – no link provided because I can’t figure out how to get a Netflix link anymore.

A couple of weeks ago I logged onto Netflix looking for POSE, which I’d started a couple of months ago but hadn’t gotten very far into. Turns out POSE apparently moved from Netflix to Amazon (available to watch for payment) so it wasn’t available for the night. Anyway, POSE wasn’t there but Netflix suggested AJ and the Queen so I gave it a shot. I’m so glad I did. It was fun and funny, totally campy, with characters that were unexpected and compelling. I’ll cop to never having watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, so I was fresh to the Drag scene. AJ and the Queen was a delightful look into life as a drag performer today. I came away loving RuPaul’s character, Ruby Red, and his performance. I loved seeing him put together each act and come out as the beautiful person he is. The last scene of the last episode is especially beautiful- the best outfit of the season, gorgeous cinematography, and a very emotional finish. *kisses fingers* Perfect. There’s a lot of comedy in the show, and it has a mainly light feel, but they slip in a lot of lived experience, and not all of it is rainbows and puppies (pun intended). Even today queer life has its hardships, but these characters are so strong and full of zest that you come away loving them. I really hope there’s another season.