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After the Storm, a Gay, Interracial Erotic short story, is about a rich hotelier’s son, Ethan Conrad, who is make the most of his new life in Indiana after being forced to run the hotel there after his involvement in a same-sex affair his father viewed as a family sex scandal.

Ethan falls head over heels in lust over Marcus, the manly carpenter he hired to construct his art room. Thanks to the wisdom of his Italian housekeeper, Ethan discovers that his desires may not be one-sided, however, there is deep pain holding Marcus back.

While I didn’t care for Ethan’s controlling and relentless pursuit of Marcus, in the short space of 42 pages, Steele shows us how sometimes we need an outside push in order to resume living our lives after a tragedy. Steele also shows how vulnerability can often turn superficial lust into something much more meaningful. Once Marcus acknowledges his desires, the love scenes between Marcus and Ethan are as tender as they are steamy.

I give Jaxx Steele’s After the Storm four out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Genre: Interracial Gay Erotica

Page Length: 42 pages

In By the Moonlight by Jaxx Steele, sexy vampires Jared and Byron have been friends for centuries. When Byron catches up with Jared at his favorite flesh bar, the reader senses right away that the only flesh Bryon wants to see is Jared’s. Jared is a hetero vampire who believes that blood tastes the sweetest after riding the waves of passion. His ritual is to scope out a female, dominate her with his prowess and drink from her phermone enriched blood.

For Bryon, fleshlust and bloodlust go hand and hand as well, but he feels no experience can top that which can be shared between two lovers with the same parts.

Having been friends for so long, Byron and Jared can read eachother’s minds and sense each other’s lust. As the reader continues on Jared’s journey it becomes obvious that despite his dark vampire needs, Jared is very vanilla. It’s time for Byron to add a little chocolate as he invades his mind during one of Jared’s conquests. That one evening, sparks Jared’s curiosity which begins the dabbling into a new world of not only variable sex positions for heteros but voyeurism as well as male on male sex.

In the end, Jaxx has penned a sensual love story of desire and experimentation. I liked the idea of vampires and their telepathic thoughts. By the Moonlight earns three out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

A married couple struggling to maintain their connection and start a family recapture the perfection of young love in Veronica Blaque’s short story, Doppelganger. Though the story starts a little rough, but Blaque tells the story of a middle-aged woman tormented by her ticking biological clock, the strain of her marriage and a sexy stranger who keeps crossing her path at work.

The mystery colleague seems unusually familiar and acts as the catalyst that ignites the woman’s desire for her husband. Over the next several days, while the couple re-enacts the early days of their relationship, the woman starts to find her muse in the strangest of places, making the woman recognize the value of her relationship and the future they are struggling to move toward together.

I really enjoyed the symbolism in this story and the love scenes were hot without being crude. Veronica Blaque’s Doppelganger earns four out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Wicked Women of Color

The two main female characters in Dorothy Phaire’s Murder and the Masquerade learn that unconditional love first develops from within. Psychologist Reneé Hayes is not only caught in a loveless relationship with her husband, she’s in a loveless relationship with herself. Striving not only to find love, she struggles to find someone to whom she can bestow her love and energy. As a result, she throws herself into helping others while secretly doubting her ability to do so. A break-in at her home brings her in contact with the depths of her problems and a new object of her affection, a younger Detective Degas Hamilton. 

The other main female character, Veda Sims, an office manager for a law firm has lost her dignity and self-respect in her attempts to hold onto the affections of her lover, LaMarr Coleman, a lawyer at her firm and the man whose love she valued more than her marriage, her daughter or even herself. Her obsession with LaMarr brings Veda to the brink of self-destruction and to Dr. Hayes’ couch. The women’s professional connection turns dangerous as Veda fails to see who LaMarr really is and what he’s capable of.

Reneé and Veda’s desire to love and be loved lead them to re-examine their choices and the influences in their lives. While the women’s transformation is nowhere near complete the reader gets the sense that things are now moving in the right direction. For this journey, I give Murder and the Masquerade four out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: iUniverse

 Price: $18.95

In Congresswomen Linda and Loretta Sánchez’s inspirational book, Dream in Color, the sisters of congressional politics discuss their humble upbringing in El Monte and Anaheim, California. The sisters, parented by Mexican immigrants in a house with five other siblings, tell of the family’s strong work ethic and values. Linda, a JD licensed to practice labor law, and Loretta, an MBA graduate with experience in financial investments, discuss in-turn their experiences with racism, ageism and sexism during their academic and professional pursuits as well as on the road to and within congress.

While the last few chapters appear to resemble a campaign speech, I did enjoy and appreciate the accomplishments made by each of these women in their personal and professional lives. With the media’s focus on the Senate and Executive branch of government, it was interesting to learn about how the House of Representatives works. It was a pleasure to read about these women’s achievements in their own right as well as how their family comes together to assist one another. The authors make many references to Hispanic culture and provide many witticisms for success.

After reading this book, you’ll get a sense of the importance of discipline and tenacity as well as the necessity to make your vote count in every election not just the one that picks your next president. For that, Dream in Color earns four Sable Seals.

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

In Marta Acosta’s contemporary paranormal romance, The Bride of Casa Dracula, blood-lust, jealousy, first class wedding skepticism and thematic hints of chicklit stories past abound. Milagro De Los Santos is a hot Hispanic freelance writer on the fringes of the rich and famous vampire society with only a series of wedding rituals, a loyalty agreement and a vow of pre-marital celibacy standing in the way of her marriage to Oswald Grant—gorgeous son of a prominent, wealthy vampire dynasty and successful plastic surgeon.

When Milagro repeatedly finds herself crossing paths with an ex-lover, the man responsible for her extra-vampire abilities, and his sister—the woman put in charge of making sure Milagro follows the vampire council’s restrictions to the letter, Milagro feels her white plastic-mini wearing style is cramped. Milagro goes from feeling restricted to sensing her matrimonial fairytale has turned into choose-your-own-adventure novel with someone else making the decisions—but who?

While I liked the idea of Milagro’s superpowers, I didn’t find her to be a likeable character. The story in general had only a sprinkling of Hispanic cultural references. The rest of the book’s characters didn’t make any better of an impression.

While some of the twists were interesting, the attempted murder toward the end just seemed a little too extreme to be a natural believable progression in the novel and most of the attempts at humor did not spark.

Knowing that Milagro’s story and her growth spans three novels so far and The Bride of Casa Dracula is the third in the series, it earns three sable seals.

In Marcia L. McNair’s book, E-Males, the title isn’t just a play on the terms males and e-mail. In a novel where the reader gets to play the role as big brother or big sistah spying on the virtual conversation of two best friends, the author allows you to witness Ebony’s deepest thoughts and the exchanges between her, her best friend Wanita and one of Wanita’s eligible suitors, Chazz. Treading water in the sea of singlehood, the thirty-something women share life, love and intellectual opinions across virtual communication channels. Wanita juggles men, her career and single-parenthood while Ebony learns the galaxies of cyberspace in preparation for her master’s studies and the impending Y2K transition. Will the ability to hide behind a computer screen give Ebony the courage to air a secret that could call into question the depths of her friendship with Wanita?

The author has a sparkling sense of humor and searing quick wit, although the surface explorations of female genital mutilation and social welfare reform seemed geared toward making the story seem less like a “professional-sistahs-trying-to-find-a-decent-brotha” kind of novel.

The two friends, being the main characters were very likeable. The men in the story, mainly Chazz–a co-worker and love interest of Wanita’s, were hardly anyone’s dreamboat. But Chazz with his intellect and arrogant flirtation did add to the culture of the novel since he was African with a different perspective than most African American men. Marcia McNair’s E-Males earns 3 Sable Seals.

Publisher: Aya Press

Format: Print

Price: 14.95

In Michele Van Ort Cozzens’ It’s Not Your Mother’s Bridge Club, we meet eight amazing women who live, love and laugh in the heart of southern Arizona over monthly games of Bunko. At first, you wonder if you’ll spend the entire read flipping back to the first chapter where Van Ort Cozzens first introduces us to these complex women, but before long the reader will recognize the distinct personalities of these women. While I didn’t have a favorite Bunko babe, I really grew to appreciate these women as a whole unit. As the book progresses, these women do become more of a unit each filling in for the short-comings and complimenting the strengths of the others—sometimes unconsciously. This story doesn’t just weave the story of a series of monthly women’s nights out and their Bunko blow-outs. We get a snapshot of each woman’s life leading up to the well-deserved Bunko nights with the girls where the strictest rules are “No men. No kids. And No drink counters”.

            The author flawlessly gives Blanca—the Hispanic and African-American model, art saleswoman and single mom, Shonah—the newspaper columnist, Tara—the pottery artist, Tootsie—the former golf pro, Chloe—the former nurse and full-time mom, Amanda—the paralegal, Sylvia—the kind yet pampered lawyer’s wife, and Brandy—the physical therapist and mother of five, her own voice. These women fight, love, drink and laugh like a real group of woman friends do.  Not just a chick novel, Van Ort Cozzens’ introduces great conflict and suspense-building making this woman’s fiction novel an enjoyable journey. It’s Not Your Mother’s Bridge Club earns five out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: McKenna Publishing Group

 Format: Print

Price: $14.50

Now we’re getting to the best part, Shobhan! Your work!

SLR: You make the weaving of Indian culture in FORBIDDEN appear effortless. Is it difficult deciding what to include and what to leave out regarding such a complex and rich culture?

SB: The old gem of wisdom, “write what you know” is what I have employed in my writing. After being raised in a conservative Hindu family in India, incorporating cultural elements into my stories comes naturally. I simply set up my characters in their natural milieu and weave my stories around their lives. By its very nature, a culture of arranged marriages, dowries, and unique women’s issues intrigues American readers. The difficult part sometimes is deciding how much explaining and translating I should do when I introduce Indian terms and customs.

SLR: And I loved reading the terms and learning more about Indian culture not just from behavior and activities of the characters but the food and the references you made as well.

Readers, if you’d like to get a “taste” of Shobhan’s culture before you buy her book (of course) jet over to Shobhan’s Spice Corner, for info and recipes to tantalize your senses and your taste buds!

Once you get your fill, head on back here tomorrow when Shobhan discusses the uphill climbs and the fun slope rides of writing Forbidden Daughter.

If you haven’t already done so, this might be an excellent time to join the Sable Lit Reviews blog feed, so you don’t miss a day of our interview with Shobhan Bantwal or any of the other multicultural authors we feature. It’s simple just enter your email address in the “Posts Via Email” box located near the top right side of this page. Hit subscribe and follow the directions to send this great content to your favorite blog post archive system or your email in-box! Do it now, you’ll be glad you did!

Tomorrow kicks off my interview with Shobhan Bantwal, Kensington author of Forbidden Daughter and The Dowry Bride.

Each day for five days you’ll get a snippet of our interview to learn more about Shobhan Bantwal and the her multicultural writing.  If  you are a member of the Newsletter, you will get additional access to more in-depth analysis of the Shobhan’s motivations behind Forbidden Daughter and the culture in which this story was influenced and an excerpt selected by the author herself.

Stay tuned as  you are in for an exciting ride. Click on the author image for  more information on Shobhan Bantwal and her work!