The Mermaid and The Shadow

There has been a lot of talk lately about romances going pass a certain line with the creativity of the sexual acts being written. I had discussed this on my other blog, with a post on taboos in romance, and Dear Author also posted about this. Kati at her blog, Adventures in Katidom first brought this to my attention, which in turn made me do my post. She had read Joey W. Hill’s latest paranormal romance called A Mermaid’s Kiss, which is a love story about mermaid and an angel. The reason she felt the need to discuss was this because the angel had sex while the mermaid was still in mermaid form.

I decided to read A Mermaid’s Kiss along with another Fantasy romance called The Flame and the Shadow by Denise Rossetti. The Flame and the Shadow has a hero whose shadow, in the first few pages, helps release the hero’s sexual frustrations, by jerking him off. Later on, the shadow joins the hero and the heroine while they have sex. I call it the shadow ménage.

Let us take a look at these two books…

A Mermaid’s Kiss is about Anna, a lonely mermaid of twenty, who expects to be dead by twenty-one because all her other female descendants, her mother included, died by that age. While Anna is swimming along in the ocean, she finds angel, who has fallen out of the sky, hurt and bleeding. Anna is able to save this heavenly creature and bring him safety before the dark ones try to do away with him. Jonah is a very special angel because he is the Prime Legion Commander for all the angels in Heaven. Jonah is tired of the constant battling of the dark ones for the past thousand years. When he is finally attacked, he hopes it will be the final end to him. Unfortunately for him, it is not his time.

Anna is able to help him recover somewhat by giving him magic through intercourse, called the Joining Magic. Even though Anna is a virgin, she willingly gives Jonah her innocence because she was taught that angels are to be obeyed in everything. She even calls Jonah, “My Lord”, and offers her body, and essentially her heart and soul to him. But even with the magical sex they have, it is not enough to cure Jonah and fix one of his wings that has been torn. In order for Jonah to heal, he and Anna must go away from the ocean and toward the desert to find a Shaman who can fully heal him. Anna and Jonah soon take their journey to the road where Jonah’s enemies are tracking their every move. During the day, Jonah is human, since Mina, an octopus sea witch, and friend of Anna, gave him a spell to make him so. At night he is able to be in his angel form. Poor Anna can not be too far from the ocean, but because she is willing to sacrifice herself to save Jonah, she will do what it takes to help him.

As for the “icky sex”, I found it to fit in and wasn’t as shocked as I initially thought I would be. Even when Anna is in mermaid form and Jonah and she are intimate, I wasn’t turned off. There is also another sex scene that may raise some eyebrows because Anna can also change into a pixie-fairy, which reminds me of Tinkerbell. Jonah and Anna have some interesting love play in her fairy form. Jonah really appreciates Anna in this form and tells her so:

“Rub yourself on me. Ride me, little one. Put me between your thighs and let me feel the tiny stickiness of you.” Jonah always makes sure Anna finds fulfillment with him.

I would have to say, that some of these sex scenes are a bit purple prose and graphic in their telling, but keep in mind, this is an erotic romance. Surprisingly, I found A Mermaid‘s Kiss to be a well written story that has a bit of a fairy tale feel. The dialogue between the characters, including that of Anna and Jonah is very lyrical. Those who enjoy road romances, will especially like this one. (Berkley Sensation)

3 stars out of 5 stars

Denise Rossetti’s The Flame and the Shadow is also an erotic romance where the shadow gets the same amount of loving just like his human counterparts. The shadow even has a name, called Shad, given to him by Grayson, the Duke of Ombra. Grayson is a very tortured hero and blames all his woes on Shad. If not for Shad, Gray would still be welcome at home, but since his shadow is thought to be a demon, and Gray possessed by it, Gray was disowned and ran away. But Shad loves Gray and shows him how much by giving Gray a helping hand when it comes to self love:

“Gray grabbed for his shadow’s wrist, even as a slick palm cradled his scrotum and a knowing thumb rasped over the sweet spot under the head of his cock… Shad pumped, exquisitely deft, milking and squeezing exactly the way he liked.”

Gray thinks Shad is an abomination and finally has a way to rids himself of his shadow. All Gray has to do is kidnap Cenda, a fire witch, and bring her to the magician that can help him. Cenda is recovering from a sickness that almost killed her, but ended the life of her baby daughter, Elke. Cenda is inconsolable over the loss of her daughter, even though through this tragedy, her magic has grown, where now she can make fire at will.

Gray and Cenda meet, and Gray is able to seduce Cenda because he is quite talented in bed. At first, Gray only thinks of Cenda as a means to an end, but as he gets to know her better, he begins to feel for her pain. He helps her to feel, mainly through sex, that she is worthy of love and is beautiful. As Gray becomes more emotionally attached to Cenda, so does Shad. But instead of Cenda running away in fear from Shad, she welcomes him to join Gray and she when they have sex. Whenever Cenda is too overcome with emotion, she can’t control her fire power and can burn Gray. But with Shad joining both of them while they make love, he balances the heat, since he is cool. That is where the ménage a trios comes into play. And when Shad joins with Gray and Cenda, anything goes. Gray hates that Shad makes him feel so good, but even though his mind is saying, no, is body is telling him the opposite. Plus, Cenda becomes a bit more aggressive and open to new things with Gray if Shad plays along with them.

If you can open your mind to some interesting and out of this world sex that Denise Rossetti has come up with, than I would recommend The Flame and the Shadow. I am just wondering what else will be up for grabs in the books I read, now that a person’s shadow can have some love also. (Berkley Ace)

The song, Me and My Shadow now has a whole new meaning.

2.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Katiebabs (KB)