The Monster Botherer

        It is a common misconception that smut has to be crude, lewd and depraved. A lowest common denominator kind of read that holds no intellectual worth, that contributes nothing more than a cheap thrill. It’s not art, it’s not beautiful and it won’t hold you in its grasp past the fleeting moments of lust. Books like Untethering Dark by Desiree M Nicolli throw that idea right out the window with a look of “don’t darken my doorstep again”. We delve into Germany’s Black Forest (der Schwarzwald) and meet Astrid, a witch who is well on her way to attaining haghood. She lives by the forest’s rules and never forgets to leave out an offering for the creature that hunts every night. When some disrespectful tourists upset the offering, Astrid offers what’s left, delicious baked goods, and lo’ a relationship with the fearsome forest god is formed. Apparently you can fascinate an animal skull - faced, fanged and rather hirsute guy with some cookies, good to know.  What...

  If the Allied forces had dragons amongst their troops, I would imagine WW2 would have been a tad different, but alas, in this story they stay hidden and fly planes instead of scorching evil nazis and saving the world.  The Dragon at Midnight takes place in the aftermath of WW2, occupied Berlin. Gideon, our heroic dragon pilot meets Inga, a half starved eighteen year old who lives in a pile of rubble with her brother and some stray orphans. It’s love at first sight for him, she’s the only one he could ever possibly love. She is, understandably, very wary of all these occupying forces and tries to stay out of his way. Guess how well that works out for her.  After quite a bit of white knighting/love bombing (hey he’s an American pilot, he knows how to bomb) Inga falls hard and Gideon works out how to get her and the kids to safety (aka out of war torn Germany and back to the billionaire dragon ranch in the US). With some mild peril to get through first, you’re guaranteed a...