Eternally Noir

Imagine getting sixteen short stories in one book! That is just what Eternally Noir is, a book full of short stories to tempt and tease the senses!

The sixteen short stories are Inward Bound by Edwin Morrow, Captive by Amber Hipple, Getting Offline by Ann Cory, The Curse by C.B. Calsing, The Fiendish Miss Blow by Jay Lawrence, Talamur by Emily Veinglory, The Sweetness of Suffering by C.B. Calsing, True Home Coming by Ariel Graham, Hide and Seek by Lisa C. Wells, L’Heure Verte by Catherine Lundoff, Life Everlasting by Jeffrey Bradley, My Nearly Perfect Day (Except for the Zombies) by Tara Alton, Self Inflicted Lust by Peter C. Spahn, The White Tower (and Dead man’s Hollow) by Patricia Ethelwyn Lang, Unnatural Death by Norman A. Rubin and Moon Blood by Amber Hipple.

Inward Bound by Edwin Morrow encompasses the dreams of Paul Madison but are they dreams? What happens when Paul realizes that he is in the Club of Inward Bound Society, a bondage club? Interesting and enticing things happen. Captive by Amber Hipple encompasses a woman who is beginning to accept the fact that her bird and her husband have rejected her, how does life go on? Getting Offline by Ann Cory is a dark short story about having cyber sex, and what would happen if the two guys she is talking to show up at her house? The Curse by C.B. Calsing is an entertaining tale of a curse on the male descents; can Jeffry survive the curse or will he succumb to it? The Fiendish Miss Blow by Jay Lawrence is where Dixon Frost follows Veronica Blow, the woman who is helping the Nazis in World War II. Will her propositioning him keep her out of jail or not? Talamur by Emily Veinglory is about the church nailing two men in their house to parish so the church may claim their house. Will Daniel and Richard’s love be strong enough to conquer this problem and survive?

The Sweetness of Suffering by C.B. Calsing has Minerva, who turned into a prostitute to save her family from losing everything, on her first night is taken captive by Cameron. Will she escape or become his captive forever? True Home Coming by Ariel Graham is about a woman who is afraid of the sexual feelings she has for Jeremy, the man she loves, so she leaves him, moving away to start over. Will their love be enough for her to release her passion to him? Hide and Seek by Lisa C. Wells is about Cole and Nicole, a nurse. Is Cole the abuser or lover of Nicole? In L’Heure Verte by Catherine Lundoff Harriet is taken from a brothel for his own excitement can Lord Hertford give her what she craves? In Life Everlasting by Jeffrey Bradley you find yourself asking is it a vivid dream or reality?

My Nearly Perfect Day (Except for the Zombies) by Tara Alton is like reading about night of the living dead with romance thrown in. Self Inflicted Lust by Peter C. Spahn is about a friend who tries to help another cope with life. The White Tower (and Dead man’s Hollow) by Patricia Ethelwyn Lang tells of a woman who will stop at nothing to get revenge! Unnatural Death by Norman A. Rubin pulls you into the world of Jay Taylor, a top crime author, who is getting involved with his female character; is she real or just make believe? Moon Blood by Amber Hipple has you entranced in a woven tale of the ritual of lust between a man and women.

While the short stories were entertaining with some better than others I enjoyed being able to read more than one story in a book. The best ones that I really got into were My Nearly Perfect Day (Except for the Zombies) by Tara Alton, as I loved the aspect of zombies coming town and finding love thru it all. I was pleasantly pleased by the story of a woman, who thru a crisis, could find the time for love when all else was crazy and wacky. True Home Coming by Ariel Graham tells of how a woman walks away from love to finally realize that she can overcome her fears about her sexuality. Janine is afraid of her feelings and how far she will go to experience her deepest darkest desires, so she runs from herself and her lover. We all have desires but will Janine be able to come to gripes with herself and her feelings enough to go back to Jeremy or will she move on?

Getting Offline by Ann Cory is a tale of Jodi also Empress on her computer, having cyber sex with Jinx and Stan. The tale had me frightened as to the dangers of talking to people on the computer as well as the fear of what could happen if they showed up at your home. Getting Offline is a must read for anyone who has made friends on the internet and the dangers that can happen. Fraught with suspense and danger this story had me captivated from the first sentence to the last. Not only are the characters life like I could see something like happening to people who are not careful enough, the story makes it all seem possible.

There are many good stories in Eternally Noir that are well worth a look. I found them to be entertaining as well as some were so life like they came alive in the story letting me into their world to sample what life was like for them. Not only are you treated to sixteen authors in one book, you are invited into different styles of writing allowing you many different choices or reading. My appetite was wetted for some of the authors’ other works and will be buying a few new books.

The only problem with Eternally Noir is that you need a password to open up the e-book. I was not pleased with that as every time I closed the book I had to find the password to reopen the book. To me that detracted from the book, as I had to make sure I had the password with me. It would have been better if you used the password just once and could open and close the e-book after that with out having to constantly put in a password. That is the only real complaint I had about the book.

Reviewed by: Wendi