Beasts (Novel)

For other uses of the word Incubus, see Incubus (disambiguation).

Beasts
Beasts Book Cover, written by Desiree Acuna
Beasts Book Cover, written by Desiree Acuna
Author(s) Desiree Acuna
Publisher CreateSpace
Publication date June 27, 2010
Media type Paperback
Length 204 Pages
ISBN 978-1453634103
Followed by Demonic Possession


Beasts is a collection of works written by Kimberly Raye, which is the pseudonym of the author Kimberly Zant. In this collection, an Incubus, named Baelin, is a central character of the work Summoning the Beast.


Overview

  • Title: Beasts
  • Author: Desiree Acuna
  • Published By: CreateSpace
  • Length: 204 Pages
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN-10: 145363410X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1453634103
  • Publishing Date: June 27, 2010


Plot Summary

Summoning the Beast: Having exhausted every avenue open to her in her quest to save her mother's life, Cara resorts to the unorthodox. She never really believed in the occult, however, and therein lies her problem. A believer wouldn't have been as careless and left herself wide open to the wiles of an incubus like Baelin!

The BeastMaster's Slave: As a reluctant favor to her parents, and because it aroused her suspicions, Maura agreed to check out the link between the suicides and the owner of Noir. She got far more than she bargained for.


Book Review

The following review was originally published by Tera on her Blog, A Succubi's Tale on April 11, 2017


An anthology of three stories which tell of the trails and tribulations of incubi summoned to Earth and the ones that summoned them. There is misunderstanding, need, want and in time, the realization that there’s more to life than what each thinks is their lot. It’s the question of what happens when they can be more than they are.

Each work in the collection is written with strong characters, well thought out scenes, both passionate and not so much so. There’s time taken to draw the world, centre the characters and, in time, develop them beyond what might otherwise be expected. As such, the depth of the author’s writing gives rise to some amazingly good storytelling.

The incubi of the work are not kept static as each story unfolds. They grow, explore themselves and come to see that while they are incubi, that doesn’t mean they have no soul, cannot feel or understand. It’s a learning experience for them all, as is that of each of the mortals they are connected to. The changing of their perceptions of not just who they are, but humanity as a whole, and the souls they come to, is a deeply told plot on its own.

The erotica has lovely heat and keeps that through each story as the characters develop and the raw need changes over time. It’s quite telling as the incubi themselves find their understanding of themselves and mortals, being bent, then reformed into something far different than it was at the beginning.

The writing is very good, but if there’s one thing that I didn’t quite enjoy, it was the endings of each part of the collection. They felt too rushed, almost pat or expected at times. Given the time to draw the characters together, the heat of the erotica, it was a bit disappointing when the endings rushed through the choices made, the results of those choices and then quickly ended the tale. I’d have loved to know more of what comes next for each, even if that was only to clear up some dangling plots and perhaps tie up a few loose ends. It’s a minor quibble, I admit, but it just seemed to take something from each work and that was a shame.

Four out of five pitchforks.

Delightfully moving, well written and most of all, the characters weren’t silly, acted odd or worse, were far too over the top. Each character, incubus or not, felt real, made sense and in being so the erotica was stronger, the passions more alive.

There wasn’t perfection to be found, each character had to figure things out on their own, especially the incubi themselves. A lovely read, one that I loved dearly overall. I just wish that the endings for each part weren’t so quickly done as they were.


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