Ruan Willow's "Wicked & Spicy Tales" is a collection of four short stories available on Amazon and various other retailers. It was published back on May 24, 2024.

I received an ARC through BookSirens. Here's my review!

3 STARS

This is a collection of short erotic stories all with themes of magic. I was expecting them all to be about the same quality, but I have to say that the first two stories almost seem written by different people. The quality of writing in The Genie's Wish was of a better caliber and more detailed than The Sex Wizards story. That story truthfully felt sloppily written, like there were a lot of details included that didn't make much sense or were unnecessary, and there was nothing really magical about the sex wizards. Just seemed like a regular orgy, with some attempt at medieval speak thrown in (which wasn't very convincing). Truthfully, after the first story, I wanted to DNF it, but felt like I had to see it through to the end to try and support a fellow author.

The second and third stories, I initially didn't really like, but by the end of them, they got a bit better. I could appreciate the absurdity of some of the situations because I also like to write stories that are a bit strange and weird.

I think some of the stories are creative, but could be better executed. The Tantalus inspired story for example had potential and was kind of comical, but fell flat in the end for me. Perhaps these stories will be someone else's kick, but after reading the first, I kind of slogged through the rest and skipped reading over some of it. Maybe it's just not to my personal taste. I prefer reading stories centered on female pleasure and from the woman's point of view, rather than the dudes', but that's my bad---should have read the description more thoroughly. Overall, 3/5 stars. I didn't find myself attached to any of the stories, but the stories had promise.

Note: I first heard of this author from seeing some of their posts on Threads, then saw that they had ARCs on BookSirens. Thought I'd give it a try. This review is specifically for this book, and since Willow says that this is not what she typically writes, my thoughts here should not be taken as representative of my thoughts on her other writing. 

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

About the Author: Ruan Willow

You can check out her other works, including her audios and podcast, here.

Find her on Instagram. This is her Linktr.ee.

Find her works on Amazon.

Note about ARCs:

I was not paid for this review; I simply signed up on BookSirens, and was able to choose which books I wanted to check out in exchange for a review. Clearly, I'm in the mood for Halloween!

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