Review: Bastian by Elizabeth Amber

Bastian (Lords of Satyr, Book 6)
~Elizabeth Amber

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Kensington Aphrodisia
Publish Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 0758241305
ISBN-13: 978-0758241306

From the author's website:
Man-gods born to live and love forever, the Lords of Satyr are renowned for their sexual prowess…and unquenchable lust…

Call My Name

The forum excavations in Rome go on, directed by the iron-willed, charismatic Lord Bastian Satyr. Out of nowhere, a mysterious, haunting voice calls out to him…and lures him to the site of a long-vanished temple, where vestal virgins once performed rites of erotic surrender. The temple is the find of his career, but his heart is about to face the unknown…

Michaela is a pure Ephemeral. She can enter the bodies of others—and become any woman a man might wish to possess. His choice is her pleasure. And the commanding and utterly virile Bastian is the only man she desires…

Silvia has been traveling the earth for centuries - she was the virgin servant of the goddess Vesta, along with 11 other "sisters".  Part of their duties to the goddess was to keep her fire lit, and they were each entrusted a sacred stone to keep in the fire pit.  When the temple was destroyed, the girls fled, and the stones were scattered.  She's now charged by the evil Pontifex to find the stones.  He's imprisoned her sisters and he's getting impatient.  Silvia's best friend, Michaela, left the sisterhood and has taken her human form permanently; she's fallen in love with Bastian, one of the last remaining Satyrs.

Bastian Satyr has been excavating the ruins of Vesta's virgins, and Silvia needs to help him along, thinking she'll find the stones.  Using her ability to possess a body near death, she take the form of a young street urchin, and in that body gets to know Bastian much better - he really is as wonderful as Michaela says he is.  Silvia is beginning to fall for Bastian too, but between Michaela's affections for him and her own vow of chastity, she resists.  When tragedy befalls Michaela, she begs Silvia to take her body and make love to Bastian.

In fulfilling her best friends dying wish, Silvia experiences a sensual new world that leaves her wanting more of what she knows she can't have. Between trying to outsmart Bastian to find the stones, and trying to keep the Pontifex from getting the stones, Silvia is having quite a time of it. Bastian eventually figures out who she is and wants to help her, but she refuses.  Silvia is torn - should she choose a human life of happiness with Bastian or find the stones and turn them over to the Pontifex in the hopes that he might free her sisters?

Elizabeth Amber has created a fascinating world with her Lords of Satyr. The creatures of Else World, a parallel world to Earth, is in turns sultry and scary:  There are the Satyrs - four sexy brothers who protect the gate between worlds, and on the other side is The Pontifex, a disgusting, sex-starved denizen in Else World. Bastian was an interesting story, I liked the ancient ruins as a setting - I could easily envision the dust in the air and men digging, finding pieces of history and cataloging their treasures. The scenes with Bastian and Silvia as a young boy were wonderfully written and fun.  Once she lost the boy's body, though, I got frustrated with Sylvia's "body hopping" (she can only spend a month in each body) - I wanted her to take her human form for Bastian.

The erotic aspect of Bastian was very, very sensual. Silvia's ability to possess other bodies made for quite a bit of variation in the sex play. There was some f/f and m/m activity, which I wasn't expecting. And yes, this is the series where the hero has two penises, but in this particular book that plays a very small part. Bastian is the second book I've read in this series and I'd like to go back and read the earlier stories of his brothers.

My Rating:

This book was received from the author in exchange for an honest review.