Welcome to the official author website for Janine Ashbless.

So … What sort of erotica will you find in a Janine Ashbless book?

"Vivid and tempestuous and dangerous, and bursting with sacrifice, death and love. "   (Portia Da Costa)

"One of the hands-down masters of erotic writing."  "Janine Ashbless showed me that erotica can be literature."     (Violet Blue)

"Writer of the Year 2009" (Jade: the International Erotic Art and Literature Magazine)

 "The best erotic fairytale writer around,"  (Saskia Walker)

I write erotic fantasy and paranormal stories and novels – ‘Fantasy’ as in swords-and-sorcery or magical realism, set in others worlds or in this one. Sometimes I put my own twist on fairy tales and mythology, folklore and traditional ballads. 

Will you like my work? Well, are you the sort of person who loved The Lord of the Rings or Gladiator? Did you think the characters in Troy were hot? Do you love Angela Carter's fairy stories? Do you like some action and emotion and drama with your erotica? Are you intrigued by the idea of werewolf initiation rites, battles between shapeshifting sorcerors, talking (and doing rather more) to dragons, or rakes who return from beyond the grave for one last conquest? Do ancient temples and ruined palaces seem the natural settings for sensual fantasies to you? Are you able to see the erotic potential in characters that are not human, perhaps alarmingly so? Then you may be my ideal reader…

Will you dislike my work? Well, if you’re even slightly prudish then I’m probably not the writer for you: I don’t concentrate exclusively on any particular fetish but in different places I’ll write about bondage, S/M,  gay and lesbian sex, dominance and submission - and very occasionally edgy stuff such as necrophilia. I also like men and women of action, and there is blood, sweat and sometimes death in my pages. Black Lace books are publicised as ‘Erotica by women for women’, but I don't adopt an exclusively female viewpoint. Men like my tales too.

I aim to transport you to other lands and times, places where life hangs by a thread and that stranger might be about to bring you terror or ecstasy or both; he may be about to destroy you or transform you, save your life or damn your soul…

Red Grow the Roses 

Publisher's synopsis:

Maybe you’ll be lucky. Maybe he’s not human. He’ll take you in his arms and you’ll feel his strength - a strength that makes it impossible to fight him. But you’ve already lost the will to resist, that moment he looked into your eyes and showed you all his hunger and his promise. You knew then. You knew that this is what you are for – what we are all for - with our warm beating hearts and our aching sexual needs.

We are for them.

There are six vampires in the city. Ageless, terrifyingly beautiful and always hungry – not just for blood but for the other pleasures the human body offers. Sadistic chanteuse Estelle; feckless Ben; Roisin, the mirror-ghost; Wakefield, haunted by his own damnation; Naylor, the most feral of them all.

And Reynauld is the Good Shepherd, the one who holds them all in check. But his grip on his own humanity is fading, and when Wakefield accidentally kills a woman and Naylor gets the blame, a power-struggle erupts between the city’s immortal undead.

Red Grow the Roses tells of bloodlust and sexual desire; for vampires the two are indistinguishable. These transgressive, startling stories draw the reader down the darkest and most seductive paths of pleasure - to where the monsters are waiting. 

Out 7th February 2012 (e-book) from Mischief. 

Heart of Flame 

Publisher's synopsis:

And on the One-Thousand-and-Second night, Scheherazade told this story…

By day, Taqla uses her forbidden sorcery to move freely about the city of Damascus in the guise of an old sage. Her true identity known only by her faithful servant woman, Taqla is content with the comfortable, if restrictive, life that keeps her safe from the control of any man. Until she lays eyes on a handsome merchant-traveler. Suddenly her magical disguise doesn’t rest so easily on her shoulders.

When long-time widower, Rafiq, hears that the Amir’s beautiful daughter has been kidnapped by a scheming djinni—and that she will be given in marriage to her rescuer—he seeks the help of “Umar the Wise” to ensure he will be that man. Yet as he and the disguised Taqla set off, he senses that his prickly male companion is hiding something.

In a moment of dire peril, all of Taqla’s secrets are stripped bare—her fears, her sorcery and, worst of all, her love for Rafiq. Yet the princess’s life hangs in the balance, and there is no running away or turning back. Even though passion may yet betray them all... 

Product Warnings:
Scary monsters and creepy ruins in the desert—check. Pagan gods that demand blood-sacrifices—double check. A handsome hero who looks good in a robe and even better out of it—oh yeah. Check, check and check. That’s worth a heroine dropping a veil or two. 

Out 20th December 2011 (e-book) and 6th November 2012 (paperback) from Samhain. 

The King's Viper

Publisher's synopsis:

When Lady Eloise of the Isle of Venn becomes betrothed to the King of Ystria, she looks forward to a life of luxury and status at the royal court. She certainly doesn’t anticipate being shipwrecked on the way to her wedding, escorted by the King’s assassin, Severin de Meynard, the most hated man in the kingdom. Nor does she anticipate them having to make their way back home to Ystria on foot, through hundreds of miles of enemy territory. Above all, she doesn’t expect to fall in love with the cynical, ruthless Severin.

Eloise and Severin struggle to control their growing attraction to each other because if they do not—if she returns to the King no longer a virgin—then they will both be executed. Yet their passion threatens to be far stronger than their self-control, leading them to other ways to satisfy their desires. Severin and Eloise are torn between duty and their burning need for one another, and both will face bitter sacrifice before the end.

Download from Ellora's Cave. 

Dark Enchantment

Publisher's Synopsis:

When Desire Casts Its Spell.

In the follow-up to her peerless first collection, Cruel Enchantment,  Janine Ashbless brings you more breathtaking tales of lust and magic, dark fantasy and even darker desire. An unearthly stranger who pursues a newlywed on her Mediterranean holiday, an opera production where emotions run out of control, and a ghost who wants one thing only from the descendant of her murderer are just three of the seductive and stylishly written stories that will tease, tempt and transport you to fantastic realms where dreams - and nightmares - can come true.

ISBN: 0 352 34513 4

Wildwood

Publisher's Synopsis:

Two Men. One Wood. One choice that will change the world.

Avril Shearing is a landscape gardener borught in to reclaim an overgrown woodland for the handsome and manipulative Michael Deverick. But among the trees lurks a tribe of environmental activists determined to stop anyone getting in, lead by the enigmatic Ash who regards Michael as his mortal enemy. Avril soon discovers that on the Kester Estate nothing is as it seems. Creatures that belong in dreams or in nightmares emerge after dark to prowl the grounds, and hidden in the heart of the wood is something so important that people will kill, or die, for it. Ash and Michael become locked in a deadly battle for the Wildwood - and for Avril herself.

ISBN: 0 352 34194 5

Burning Bright

Publisher’s Synopsis:
Love in the time of Tyrants
Two lovers brought together by a forbidden passion are on the run from their pasts. Veraine was once commander in the Imperial Army; Myrna was the divine priestess he seduced and stole from her desert temple. But travelling through a jungle kingdom they fall prey to slavers and are separated. Veraine is left for dead. Myrna is taken as a slave to the city of the Tiger Lords, inhuman tyrants with a taste for human flesh. There she must learn the tricks of survival in a cruel and exotic court where erotic desire is not the only animal passion.

Myrna still has faith that Veraine will find her. But Veraine, badly injured, has forgotten everything: his past, his lover, even his own identity. As he undertakes a journey through a fevered landscape of lush promise and supernatural danger, he knows only one thing - that he must somehow find the unknown woman who holds the key to his soul.

"Enduring favorite" - Erotica Readers and Writers Association

ISBN 0 352 34085 6

Cruel Enchantment

1st Edition cover, 2000		2nd edition cover, 2005

Divine Torment

Japanese cover		UK/US cover, 2002		UK/US cover, 2007

Novellas

'In Appreciation of Their Cox'

(2010): download from Ellora's Cave

"The experience will leave you breathless. 5/5"  - RomFan Reviews

'Bear Skin' in

Enchanted (2008): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34195 2

                                                              

                                          

                                        

'The House of Dust' in

Magic And Desire (2008): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34183 9

                     " Ms. Ashbless gives her readers a walk on the dark side, and does a fabulous job doing it" - Coffee Time Romance    

"Truly a magical read . Ms Ashbless has a wonderful mind" - Dark Angel Reviews    

                             

                                                                                         

                                                                                             

'Bound in Skin' in

'Bound In Skin':  A Collection of Gothic Romances Both Modern and Traditional  (2007): ed. Sonya M. Shannon, CatScratch Books, ISBN 13: 978-0-9790889-2-6

Other Short Stories:

'Cover Him With Darkness' in

Red Velvet and Absinthe: paranormal erotic romance (2011): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344716 4

'The Servant Question' in

Carnal Machines: steampunk erotica (2011): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344654 9

'Reckless' in

The Handsome Prince: gay erotic romance (2011): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344659 4

'Forsaking All Others' in

With this Ring, I Thee Bed (2011): Harlequin Spice, ISBN 978 037360555 2

'Good Doggy' in

Nice Girls, Naughty Sex: twenty erotic tales (2011): Seal Press, ISBN 978 1580053433

'The Ingénue' in

Best Bondage Erotica 2011 (2010): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344426 2

'Abigail's Ice Cream' in 

Best Women's Erotica 2011 (2010): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344423 1

'The Grief of the Bond-Maid' in

Cast the Cards (2010): Storm Moon Press, ISBN 978 098270081 5

'Sleep Tight'

in

Fairy Tale Lust(2010): Cleis Press, ISBN 978 157344397 5

'Gold, on Snow' in
Alison's Wonderland (2010): Spice, ISBN 978 037360545 3

'In Real Life' and "Cherry" in
Surprise (2010): Racy Pages Press, ISBN 978 09843714 02

'Jump or Fall?' in

Sweet Love (2010): Cleis Press, ISBN 1  57344 381 4

'Shot to the Heart' in

Sex, Love and Valentines (2010): Xcite, ISBN 978-1907016103

'The High Ground' in

The Affair (2009): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34517 2

'Icing on the Cake' in

Misbehaviour (2009): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34518 9

'Michelangelo's Men' in

Sexy Little Numbers (2009): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34538 7

'Roadside Rescue' in

Liaisons(2009): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34516 5

'Scorched' in

Playing with Fire(2009): Cleis Press, ISBN 1 57344 348 7

'Quarantine' in

Experimental:an anthology on sex and science  (2009): Ravenous Romance - also available to download as a short story

'Honey Trap' in

Seduction (2009): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 345103

'Ritual Space' in

Best Women's Erotica 2009 (2008): Cleis Press, ISBN 1 573 44338 7  

'Pirate Treasure' in

Frenzy: 60 stories of sudden sex (2008): Cleis Press,  ISBN  1 573 44331 9

'The Blood of the Martyrs' in

Lust at First Bite: sexy vampire short stories (2008): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34506 6

'Wet' in
I is for Indecent (2008): Cleis Press, ISBN 1-800-780-2279

'Sun Seeking' in
Love on the Dark Side (2007): Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 34132 7

‘Party Piece’ in
Sugar & Spice 2 (1998) Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 33309 X

‘Midsummer Madness’ in
More Wicked Words (2000) Black Lace, ISBN 0 352 33487 8

“Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there.

These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power, provide refuge and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist, and thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?”