This was a fun short story compilation with some very sci-fi vibes and a touch of dark fairy tale. I enjoyed the stories and do want more. I would love to see a couple of these in a longer format to get to know the characters more, However, the character descriptions are amazing for such short pieces of work.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

While the book isn't everyone's cup of tea, the tea is steamy. Each story will have you pondering what's next. There is something for LGBTQ erotic fans. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Alexa Black's Elysium is a collection of five short stories, all of them involving fantasy worlds and queer relationships, and these stories are definitely spicy.

The main reason I gave this book three stars is because it did its job. The stories were as advertised, so if five spicy queer short stories in fantasy worlds are what you're looking for, reading this book won't be disappointing. At the same time, however, I was not in love with this book. I think that comes down to a couple of reasons.

First, the fantasy is a little overdone. There are sometimes paragraphs or pages of world-building that does not matter because in the end, these are just short stories. We don't need to know about the politics of the world or the history of different kinds of monsters. So that was kind of boring.

Overall, the pacing was a little off too, and that is also due to the unnecessary world-building. Parts that don't matter drag on and on, and there were certain areas that could have use more scene.

Overall, it was nice to have some queer stories to read. If this book intrigues you, what you see is what you get, so go for it (if you want to). I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, but if you stumble upon this book, reading it could be a good way to pass the time.

Well written but I don't know that most of the stories with half-creatures appealed to even me, a fantasy lover.

This is important to know. When I got this eArc, I knew it was LGBT Erotica, but the name was confusing. I had the vague knowledge that the word was from Mythology and meant, Elysium, or the Elysian fields, was the home of the blessed after death, the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the pure. 

I guess you could have LGBT erotica take place in heaven for souls of the heroic and pure...

Then I read just the first story; Bonnie and the Beast. A retelling of the “Beauty and the Beast” tale. Heroes- check, pure- check. Ok, the pure may be stretching it.
Anyway, this was a marvelous retelling of the classic, with modern and LGBT changes. The Beast is a woman of high bred, who is cursed and the curse can only be broken if someone falls in love with the beast. Awkward for two reasons to the noblewoman; She prefers women to men and how can you have someone fall in love with you if you have to trick them or just outright kidnap them to even have a chance. The answer is so well written, kinda funny, and definitely sexy, that I want to kick myself for not writing this! I loved every word on the page.

Thunder; Another F/F story that has magic and love as its cornerstone. An amazing story that with or without the erotic elements, is a good tale

Beginning: F/F story with Sci_fi roots running deeply through it. Didn’t expect to like this one at all, a little too sci-fi for my taste. But I was proven wrong by the very talented Alexa Black. I couldn’t stop reading it until I reached the end.

Then we have two M/M stories. I don’t read a lot of those or haven’t in the last few years, we won’t mention my youth, thank you…

Courting the Flame: A nice little dose of horror/Supernatural in this one. A tale of a human, looking for a vampire to gain eternal life but finds so much more.

The Cyborg He Brought Home: M/M; this one ticks the final box in the LGBT. Again would fall under Sci-fi and Fantasy but is so much more. A Magician picks up a Cyborg to take home for the night, maybe out of curiosity, may be out of lust. Cyborgs are not very popular and are not considered “Real people”. He is warned by another man that the Cyborg is not a real man. Well, yeah...he’s a Cyborg.
This one covers bullying, racism, hate crimes, Trans-phobia, and gender fluidity.
Even though this wasn’t F/F, my preference, it carried so much weight! This was erotica, yeah yeah, but so much more. It told of hate, fear, acceptance, and love. It touched on so many of today’s issues for so many in our LGBT community I was amazed.

All in all, one strong book! You may pick it up just for the promise of sexy erotic stories, but you will get so much more than you paid for. I would happily read Alexa Black again, and you should too.

Thanks to @Netgalley, Supposed Crimes, Acquitted Books, and Alexa Black for the chance to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

The writing for all of these short stories was done amazingly well. The book has an erotic fantasy setting loosely based off of our beloved childhood fairytales with LGBTQ characters. It was great too see these stories with characters that are not exclusively heterosexual.

Big Thanks to Alexa Black, Supposed Crimes and Netgalley for the eAC in exchange for a review.

A beast with a curse, a beautiful woman and a tale a old as time. If you didn't quite feel you fit into a world as a human, would you choose to go back? A lovely beast and a lovely woman find that a curse may only be a curse to those who see it as such.

A man who knows the vampires exist wants so badly to join them, he fills every stereotype he can. Until he meets a real vampire and finds that fitting into a mould isn't how to attract a vampire.

A woman who can control the weather has a passionate night in the storm.

A witch meets a cyborg and despite the discrimination they each face, they realize they belong together.

Lost in space, at the end of the universe, nothing exists. Until you find it. Would it be possible to teach a being love and passion?

5 short stories, all lgbtq+ characters who find their someone, if only for a time. The stories are all unrelated, each in their own universe, realm, time or world. I always find it hard to rate books like this because I'm rating the whole book, not just a single story. Some stories were better than others and I think the author has a better talent for writing sci-fi, verses urban fantasy/fantasy. The end of the universe story and the cyborg story had better depth and world building than the vampire and storm story. Beauty and the best was decently done as well. The beast's story was more in focus than Beauties was which I enjoyed.

I'm giving it 3.5, rounded down to 3

Before jumping in I did not know it has 5 short stories rather than 1 single. But, it was a kind of a relief!
I enjoyed 2 out of these very much :
1. The Cyborg he brought home
2. Thunder
Bonnie & the beast was OK
The rest 2 were - not of my taste.

Overall the book was engaging but I would still like to explore works from this author

A fun collection of novellas.

This collection includes five short paranormal (mostly) novellas spanning a variety of types of couples. The first is a Beauty and the Beast retelling. The second is about a man trying to become a vampire. The third is a story about a woman who can call storms. The forth is about a cyborg and a wizard realizing they might enjoy each others' company and the fifth is about the Finishers, the ender of worlds finding a human to love.

Each of these story stories is very quick and just a bit of a snapshot into the world. I enjoyed the world-building that occurred and would definitely like to see some of these couples in a longer full-length novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Sounded right up my street—LGBTQIA+ erotica of a paranormal/sci-fi/fairy tale nature. Simply: all the monsterfucking. Yes, yes and yes. I'd say it's worth a read, but I've read better erotica.

I find rating short stories very difficult, it’s often hard for me to take them for what they are; but, as promised to NetGalley, I've done my best:

Bonnie and the Beast (F/F) - 4 star. First monsterfucking WLW I've had the pleasure of reading. We need more!!

Courting the Flame (M/M) - 2 stars. I think I’ve been spoiled with vampire smut over the past two years, this felt a little mediocre in comparison to some fanfiction I’ve read.

Thunder (F/F) - 3 stars. Magic sex! But the scene felt... lacking. Frustratingly so because the concept was interesting and the writing was very atmospheric.

The Cyborg He Brought Home (M/M) - 3 stars. A trans cyborg and magic sex—so much potential! But, it felt… wasted. The worldbuilding was very interesting and the concept really cool but, much like the vampire story the sex was… fine. And the ending felt very abrupt and sloppy. Out of all of these though, if this was fleshed out into a fuller story and given a good edit, I’d be up for reading that.

Beginnings (F/F) - 4 stars. Alien sex. This story was much better written than the rest and a really interesting concept.

The stories were all really interesting. I was a little bored of the vampire story, since I feel like vampires are done to death. Overall, not a bad series of stories.

This book was fun. Five very different short stories, all well written and all of them with a same sex encounter. While I like nothing more than losing myself in a good book, sometimes short stories are a welcome relief. I like putting a book down when I finish a short story, having a moment to ponder, before going back to whatever my longer read at the time was. My current long read at the moment is the Red Knight series by Miles Cameron.
Anyway, back to Elysium. The first story is about a monster, who could be a werewolf, and a young woman sent out to save the monster. Does the monster want to be saved, and does the woman want to be devoured. She is devoured, but in a different way.
Next up we have a strange man who wants to become a vampire. He has the books, wears the velvet smoking jacket, has done his research into the local clans, and is left very disappointed by his encounter, until his encounter changes. I was worried that each story would be classic monsters, but the third story, far shorter, is about a woman who possibly is a thunderstorm.
The last two stories move off into far off planets, with a distance town full of mages, along with a cyborg.
Finally, a desperate freedom fighter cast adrift in space finder what she believes to be a planet, but it is so not a planet.
I don't want to give too much away, but I gave this book 4 out of 5 on Goodreads, and would definitely read more books by Alexa Black in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Sounded right up my street—LGBTQIA+ erotica of a paranormal/sci-fi/fairy tale nature. Simply: all the monsterfucking. Yes, yes and yes. I'd say it's worth a read, but I've read better erotica.

I find rating short stories very difficult, it’s often hard for me to take them for what they are; but, as promised to NetGalley, I've done my best:

Bonnie and the Beast (F/F) - 4 star. First monsterfucking WLW I've had the pleasure of reading. We need more!!

Courting the Flame (M/M) - 2 stars. I think I’ve been spoiled with vampire smut over the past two years, this felt a little mediocre in comparison to some fanfiction I’ve read.

Thunder (F/F) - 3 stars. Magic sex! But the scene felt... lacking. Frustratingly so because the concept was interesting and the writing was very atmospheric.

The Cyborg He Brought Home (M/M) - 3 stars. A trans cyborg and magic sex—so much potential! But, it felt… wasted. The worldbuilding was very interesting and the concept really cool but, much like the vampire story the sex was… fine. And the ending felt very abrupt and sloppy. Out of all of these though, if this was fleshed out into a fuller story and given a good edit, I’d be up for reading that.

Beginnings (F/F) - 4 stars. Alien sex. This story was much better written than the rest and a really interesting concept.

This anthology was very entertaining. But not all the stories are equally good. Actually I'll say they keep getting better. But this means the first story of the beast is a little weak. It felt unfinished instead of open, the description of the beast was lacking and I wasn't able  to form a image of it in my head, and the sex was rush, I didn't liked this story at all and I thought in just stop reading, but I continued and I'm glad, even when the next story about a vampire wasn't great either.  It was just a one night stand with a vampire and a sex scene  overly rush and undetailed as well. Ah, but then the story about the girl  who cals a storm was much more interesting, even when the sex here was also rush and undetailed, the concept was beautiful and the writing  great.
The story about the cyborg is my favourite, it end open, it is also a one night stand but gives you the taste of more if you want to continue the story in your imagination, the sex in this one is detailed and diferent and also beautiful.
And the last story longer more complex and very interesting, was also a favourite. The differences, the concept, the multy conscious ente and the sex scene, was all great here, the ending is still open but much more conclusive than the previous stories, and the feelings here play a bigger part.
Overall was a good read, only stained for my by the beast story

Posted on goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4286716670

This was a well-written supernatural/sci-fi LGBTQ erotica that has all of the fun elements of fairytales and sci-fi stories! They were very short and not exactly for everyone but they were fun and steamy!

Oh, I loved this anthology of LGBTQIA+ paranormal/sci-fi/fairy tale (it's really hard to describe, y'all) erotica. So steamy. I feel a little like Bill Hader's character named Stefon on Saturday Night Live. https://youtu.be/NctoAyRDtzU

This one has everything. The hottest LGBTQIA Anthology is Elysium ... You've got a Beauty and the Beast retelling ... gay vampires ... gay mages ... a gay trans cyborg (loved that one especially) and well, I don't know, you just have to read it.

A huge thanks to the author, Alexa Black; the publisher, Supposed Crimes; and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.

#AMHawke #AlexaBlack #SupposedCrimes #NetGalley #LGBTQIA #Erotica

I kinda feel these stories could have been better if they were longer. If you like fast paced/instalove stories then this would be your speed. I just wanted to connect with the characters. I wanted more slow burner I guess.
This is an alright book. Quick reads for sure. But I just feel like it could have been better if they where longer.

This is a collection of 5 stories that have very unusual storylines. They're very short stories, so it's tough for the author to go into depth with the characters. Each plotline includes a very unlikely love story.