The Pen & Muse
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Pen & Muse Blog Has Moved
Interview : Teaching Tyler author, Glynnis Ivy
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sex and Solar Flares...a Review

Author: Larissa Lyons
Author Website: http://www.larissalyons.com/
Genre: A Fantasy Novella
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave: http://ellorascave.com
Info: ISBN: 9781419928901
Price: $4.45 Available as e-book
WHAT I LIKE
From the first page Ms. Lyons pulled me in with the carefree, off-the-cuff hints at her heroine’s fantasy life and her mission. When Aurora landed on earth on a cruise ship, during a mission to earn her ‘wings’, we share her experience: the crowds, the smells, the ocean’s vastness-through her alien eyes.
The author’s insight into her male character’s head was amusing. I loved hearing Charlie’s thoughts as he became more disgusted with his body’s reaction to Aurora. I LOVED the scene on the boat’s bow when Charlie gives an astronomy lesson to the captain and fellow guests while Aurora is sliding her fingers all over him. When he gives in to the pleasure, I cheered.
I liked how the author showed us the slow, eventual joining of two very opposite creatures. This story was filled with erotic sexual tension. Ms. Lyons tempered it with laughter and Aurora’s slight problem with earth language and customs, quirks that made her VERY human to me.
BOOK BLURB
Can a fearless fairy seduce a stuffy scientist?
After crash-landing into the sexiest man on Earth, apprentice fairy Aurora abandons her assigned task in favor of seduction. And during a starlit constellation tour, she takes her own journey—right into Charlie’s pants!
Boarding a cruise ship bound for Hawaii, astronomer Charles Morgan is entranced by the whimsical beauty who propositions him in the most amazing way. Would he like to have sex with her? Does the sun shine and the galaxy spin?
A night full of lust and stars, dusted with a hint of magic, just might bring these two unlikely lovers together for their own big bang!
Publisher’s Note: This story was previously published elsewhere under the title of Written in the Stars and has been revised for Ellora’s Cave
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Review: Soul Keeper by Natalie Dae

Title: Soul Keeper
Author: Natalie Dae
Author Website: http://nataliedae.blogspot.com/?zx=18830fc74bf39019
Genre: Contemporary Erotic
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Price: $2.49
What I liked: Soul Keeper by Natalie Dae is a sweet, well-written short story with some very hot sex. The premise of two lovers connecting in person after getting to know each other on the internet is definitely a relevant theme these days.
With Carrie eagerly awaiting her new lover to arrive by train in nothing but her underwear and an overcoat, the reader becomes equally nervous wondering if he truly will show. Ms. Dae brought out Carrie’s naughty girl persona perfectly and the fun romp is the perfect lunch time read.
I look forward to even more from Ms. Dae, hopefully in more than a short story.
Book Summary:
Carrie Marsh anxiously awaits her online lover of two years, pacing the station in her stylish red coat with nothing but luxurious black lingerie underneath and stilettos on her feet. Will Rob Edwards really be on the train from Scotland? Will the attraction still exist in person? Can she even stave off the first anticipation-induced orgasm before he arrives? Excitement spirals through her, for Carrie has planned a night to remember.
Rob is shy, and Carrie intends to show him how to unleash his sexy side during a series of sexual encounters. But once he arrives, she can’t wait until they get to the hotel, let alone a bed. No. They hardly make it to the first tree, where anyone could spot their antics.
One unforgettable evening of passion leads two virtual lovers to a lifetime as each other’s soul keeper.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Review: Mantis: Book One – Mantis Nights by: Joshua Scribner

Title: Mantis: Book One – Mantis Nights
Author: Joshua Scribner
Author Website:Joshua Scribner
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Lyrical Press Incorporated
Price: $5.50
Link to purchase
What I liked: “I’m telling you, Mantis, you don’t want to go over there again.”
Mantis stared across the street. There were forces in this universe that one never wanted to disturb, even to help other people. Could he resist?
Pity often washed over him. He’d never wanted a woman before, not for keeps anyway. Now two had come into his life and left him longing for more. Chloe lived in a different time, Kendra in a higher realm. He found himself bitter at men who need only cross land to be with their lover.
Fear of being trapped nibbled at his nerves, but didn’t debilitate him. He was coming to accept the dangers of his special ability. It had become something more than a trick. Was that good or bad? He didn’t know.
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In Mantis Nights, the first book of the Mantis Series, author Joshua Scribner delivers a read reminiscent of 1930s gangster movies. Snappy dialog and swift imagery take readers on a journey into Mantis’ world of nocturnal exploration. Dispensing with the usual ‘getting to know you’ details of Mantis’ life, readers are not mired in the sad childhood or tales of introspection, Scribner stays focused on the present events. Readers find themselves thrown right into the action and watch as Mantis’ once safe and controlled means of escape has turned on him. The book stays true to adventure and suspense without letting the 'love interest' take over as is often the case.
Mantis used his special gift to enter worlds removed from the vulnerabilities and fears typical in his daily existence. Each adventure bent to his control. But now he cannot manipulate the journeys or the outcomes. What was once escapism is now a dangerous mission to survive.
Along the way, Mantis meets up with a variety of supporting characters that all seem to merge between the daily and nightly worlds. Mantis is compelled to push aside his fears to help those he encounters in his series of adventures. Yet the closer Mantis is to his goal, the more he is drawn into the psychological force that threatens his existence. Who wants Mantis dead and why? What forces from his daily existence are following him into his no-longer safe dream factory? Where can he possibly feel in control again?
Book blurb: Mantis enjoys escaping from reality -- until he can’t get back!
Mantis Shed has the perfect escape from the doldrums of ordinary life: he can enter alternate realities, becoming any character in whatever adventure suits him.
But those alternate realities trap him in battle, forcing Mantis to fight for his life against nightmare creatures. With a mysterious woman in black stalking him, will Mantis get his life back?
Graphic violence and mythical creature violence.
Book excerpt: Back on Main, his evader stood a block away in the middle of the road. The kid looked around, his high-pitched sobs loud in the still night.
A voice broke through the air. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”
The voice and the machinegun laugh had come from the same source, a little girl.
The kid looked around, his sobs getting louder. Someone came out on the street further down. The boy turned his head toward her, then started backing away. Mantis stepped toward him. The horrible laugh ripped again, stopping Mantis in his tracks. The little girl, dressed in a white nightgown, sped down the street at an inhuman rate. The boy had no more than turned before she caught him.
She laughed again, this time not loud, more playful. “Freeze tag,” she shouted with glee.
“Pssst.”
Mantis turned to where the whisper had come from. There was a bar at the corner of the block. Down low was an open basement window.
“In here. Hurry!”
On the street, the scary child twirled around the frozen boy. Maybe she hadn’t noticed Mantis yet.
Or maybe she was just that confident.
Tammy Elizabeth Southin
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Review: Bewitching Finn

Bewitching Finn
Emma Wallace
Genre: Contemporary/Paranormal Romance
Purchase: http://www.jasminejade.com/p-8418-bewitching-finn.aspx
Publisher: Ellora's Cave
What I liked: Grace Woodrow needs some help in the love sector. One spell and that's exactly what she gets when she has one hot night with Finn. Although Grace thinks she just needs one night to get what she needs, she finds out that Finn is more than she bargained for. In a chance meeting, Finn finds her only to want her again and again. Will Grace accept Finn's advances ? You bet she will when she sees that there is more to the handsome Irishman than a one night stand. Wallace really knew how to throw magic and love together in this tale. I really connected with the characters. I felt Grace's pain when we find her sad story of a past love gone wrong, but I really loved Finn's character and his wanting happiness and love. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. Wallace makes this story magical, beautiful, and a story that a reader will want to read again and again. This is a book not to miss.
Book Blurb:
Armed with a secret family recipe book, Grace Woodrow is cooking up a storm. And as every good witch knows, the real power of magic isn’t in the lotions and potions but in the intent. Grace wants a simple life but events conspire to keep her world complicated. As a result, Grace resorts to drastic measures that inadvertently trigger a chance encounter with a sexy, stranded Irish stranger. It’s lust at first sight, and after a year of being virtuous, the temptation to succumb to the promise of a no-strings-attached night of pure sexual indulgence proves too much to resist.
But once isn’t enough. And as if Grace doesn’t have her hands full with her interfering mother and Finn Delaney, the locals are acting…well… Frankly? Weird. Soon the rest of the island is unable to resist the side effects of her notoriously decadent delicacies, and before long it isn’t only Grace and Finn who are making merry…
Excerpt: http://www.jasminejade.com/productspecs/9781419926488.htm