The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles- Book 1 is the erotic story of Dii, an slave elf that recently ran away from the estate of her master, pursued by seemingly everyone in sundry. Dii walks a path of uncertainty and liberation while events beyond her control are beginning to paint this world in a much differ color to the world she once knew.

It is always interesting when a writer takes a classic fantasy figure, in this case the elf, and does something rather quite different. When thinking about the classic elf, one tends to think of a very noble, highly intelligent immortal being, who seems to possess traits and knowledge second only to the gods. They are a race that all other races in one way or another are envious of. While this story does have some of these themes, essentially most elves in this story are “bed-slaves.” They are considered property, lowly figures that aren’t to be admired or sought after with the exception of satisfying one’s cardinal lust. So immediately when I began reading this I knew I was in for something quite a bit different to what I was use to.

This book dealt with themes that I had read about before, but deals with them from a different perspective. So for example the theme of a slave escaping or being liberated, when this occurs a slave normally does something of their own choosing that is clearly influenced by their time as a slave. Having recently read Walter Rhein’s Reader of Acheron, I shall use his character Kikkan as a contrasting example. Kikkan was essentially a labor slave, he was used to plow fields and the like, so his most useful trait was his strength, when he took his own freedom he began to use his strength to accomplish tasks of his own choosing. Dii, being a sex slave was eager to choose her own “lover.” It is the same theme of liberation but presented from two very different angles.

I’ve never been a big fan of erotica for the simple reason it doesn’t really interest me. Most erotica has a very specific purpose in mind and is meant to entertain in a very specific way. For me that is where this story outshines most of the erotic genre, it is rather quite clear that Alex Butcher has a genuine love for the fantasy genre.

I am not talking about how one “loves” fantasy because they are a fan of a song of ice and fire but haven’t read anything else in the genre. I mean no offense to anybody, but that is the equivalent of saying you love sea food because you love a particular crab cake a certain bakery sells, but have absolutely no interest in any other seafood. I am talking about a real affection for the fantasy genre has a whole, not one tiny corner of it.

This is first and foremost a dark erotic story, filled with plenty of scenes of sex, both consensual and often not. Dii is sexually desired by most males in this story and that is the biggest theme, but not the only one. Beyond the erotic aspects there is an interesting world and story taking place within the pages of this book.

I found the aspect of magic being illegal most intriguing, I particular liked the quest of Archos, why he was interested in Dii beyond her obvious beauty. The mythology of the Arcane realms I thought was as well presented as a lot of fantasy books I have read. The witch-hunters were capable villains, Lord Joset, the man who once “owned” Dii was a particular vile character.

This story is dark and gritty, but through all of it the author manages to obtain a subtle sense of hope, while never compromising the brutality and wickedness of her presented world. This certainly isn’t a world without heroes, but much like Dii a lot of them are victims of circumstance.

As I said in an earlier paragraph, this goes beyond simply being a stock standard erotica and tells a compelling story, one that I personally enjoyed reading.

A good romance/dark fantasy read! Yes, I said romance AND dark fantasy. WARNING: This novel contains graphic sex and rape scenes. If you enjoy dark fantasies with lots of horrible things happening to the abused main characters, almost everyone being brutish you'll enjoy this to no end.

I am not a regular dark fantasy reader and read this as it was the book of the month read for the Goodreads group Indie Book Club. As I read it all I could think for the first half of the book was "oh my word how can it possibly get worse." Of course Alexandra managed to make the bleak dark world even more brutish by the word. The characters were interesting with only a couple coming off as standard fantasy villains. The world was well constructed and interesting. I really enjoyed Alexandra's unique take on magic and specifically magical artifacts.

The novel stands well on its own. The story took some fun twists that kept me wondering were it was going. The characters and events have stayed in my mind in that happy place I reserve for memorable fiction characters I liked. In short the world is interesting, the plots are compelling, the bad guys are really bad, and the good guys have some redeeming qualities. ;^) Even though it is a standalone novel it has some nice plot hooks for follow on books. The ending is an all-around reasonable ending with only the epilog providing a light cliff hanger hook for the next book.

Be warned this is a very graphic romance novel. This is where Alexandra deserves some serious credit. She has masterfully managed to mix two genre's which I would not have thought possible to mix into a believable compelling tale.

The only down side to this novel is I believe it was published a little too early. It needs a couple rounds of editing for language, improved depth to a few characters/ scenes, and correcting/replacing some of the repetitive phrases. A second edition of this with some of these problems cleaned up would be an easy 4 or 5 star.

This is my review that requires 20 or more words. Sorry but it is just not my style of reading.

A long time ago, I thought it was unfair that in the fantasy books I read, wizards never got to have personal lives. Kings and princes and ordinary village guys and everyone else, yes, but not wizards. "The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles" certainly makes up for that.

Aside from the sex scenes (which are not frequent, but are very explicit, occasionally bordering on kinky), The Light Beyond the Storm is an intriguing tale of a world where elves and mages are oppressed, an elf woman, Dii, who decides to fight for her freedom, and the powerful human mage, Archos, who assists her and becomes a force for helping elves and other oppressed people against the cruel, decadent nobility and the ruthless Order of Witch Hunters. It also involves two very sweet love stories.

Dii, who starts out the novel, kind of fades into the background after Archos comes on the scene, but Archos is such a seriously cool character that I didn't mind too much, though I do like to see the female character take a more active role. Even so, it's clear that Dii is a big motivation for everything Archos does. And, to be fair, with Dii being a female elf mage, she has virtually no freedom or ability to act independently in this world. Archos is awesome - handsome, powerful, scary when he's doing his really cool magic, completely badass and ruthless when he has to be, but also with a very tender side, and a genuinely good heart when it comes to helping the unfortunate and oppressed. I don't know if it's kind of contradictory to say this of a book with such graphic sexual content, but it's refreshing to read a fantasy novel with a clear moral compass, where the good people are strong, smart, and admirable, instead of being weak, stupid, and pathetic as is so common in current "dark" or "gritty" fantasy (*coughgrrmartincough*). I enjoyed the other characters, but Archos especially stands out.

The world is painted in vivid detail, from ancient magic caves to fields and forests to the dark and dangerous city. I would have liked to know more about why elves are so oppressed, how they came to be treated as little more than property to be used and abused, and what gives the Order of Witch Hunters so much power. The background of the elves is hinted at a little bit late in the book; I get the feeling we'll learn more about that in the next book.

The book could use a careful edit to smooth out some long, tangled sentences and tidy up the punctuation.

For those who prefer not to read such graphic content, I would say that this book can still be enjoyed even if you skim over or skip the sex scenes. Also, there are a number of rapes that occur in the book, but none of them are described in detail.

Overall, I found myself caught up in wanting to see if Dii could keep her new-found freedom and if Archos could help the captured, enslaved elves, and in the two romances. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens in the next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of the “Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles,” although there are many things about it that I confess I have issues with. However, the book gave me a lot to think about, and it is capably and effectively written so it’s definitely a series to explore.

Some readers might be put off somewhat by the adult content of this novel. Adult content is not the type of thing that is going to bother me, but I didn’t find the examples that appeared in “Light” to be all that graphic. I was 10 percent of the way through the book before I got to the first sex scene, which was really little more than a moment of standard lovemaking.

However, that scene did put me in a contemplative mood for several reasons. The protagonist of “Light” is a “kept” elf maiden named Dii who also has a talent for magic. The word “kept” is a polite way to say that she’s basically a sex slave to a rich family that doesn’t seem to have much of a problem passing her around amongst themselves or to other people to whom they owe a favor. Amazingly, the sex bondage theme is dealt with pretty lightly, which gives this book a kind of harmlessly voyeuristic quality. I suppose if Dii had been left psychologically and emotionally traumatized by her imprisonment and repeated rape, it would make the scene where she decides to “take a lover of her own choosing” less delightful. As it’s written, Dii has no desire to return to her previous life, but she doesn’t appear to harbor much resentment. Maybe this can be chalked up to the fact that Dii is an elf maiden—not human—and maybe they’re just into that (don’t judge people, c’mon!).

Don’t get me wrong, I like Dii, although she also seems a bit powerful for a woman who was kept as a sex slave. Again, this isn’t bad, I think it’s just a result of “sanitizing” the themes of this book and keeping it as a piece of escapist entertainment. Toni Morrison, for example, would have dealt with this theme differently, and I have no doubt that the final result would have been significantly less fun than “The Light Beyond the Storm” (in fact, I think Morrison’s version would have been unreadable, so Butcher is already ahead on points in my book).

Let me discuss a scene that will give you a better idea of Dii’s personality. Dii is offered a bag of coins from a recent lover. Dii, of course, didn’t have sex with the guy for money, and she considers giving the money back. However, in the end, she decides to keep the coin because, you know, she really is kind of desperate. Now, I had a hard time believing that Dii could afford herself that inner dialogue. I don’t know if writing it that way was an attempt by the author to justify Dii to less mature readers who would have been uncomfortable with her just taking the cash from the start. As far as I’m concerned, somebody who had been through the things Dii had, would DESERVE all the cash she could get her hands on. I also think that she would think she deserved it herself (and the disconnect between what she thinks and what society as a whole thinks—and what potential readers think—would create all kinds of potentially interesting situations for social commentary). Sidestepping this seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity to me.

Still, Butcher’s choices weave an interesting tapestry. I’m left a little confused as to whether my own interpretations of this novel are a critique of Butcher, society as a whole, men’s vs women’s issues, or my own screwed up perception of things. Any book that get your head spinning in such a delightful way is worth a look in my opinion. I’ll be curious to hear the responses to this review from other readers and, hopefully, the writer as well.

But you can’t respond unless you read it...so get on that people!

FOR 18+ ONLY! In a world where human lords ruled over lands with elven and human villages and often enslaved female elves and woman for their Keep, while an Order of Witch-Hunters sought to enforce their laws against mages and their use of magic, Dii, a young elven woman with a magical spark, has escaped her lord’s keep and found herself in the land of Tremellic, which is owned by a much gentler and fairer lord, Archos, who has also researched and seeks to empower himself with the wonders of magic. Archos brings her into his protection, but the cruelty of his fellow lords comes to his land when slavers overwhelm a nearby elven village, taking many of the women and children into bondage. An elven huntress, Ozena, whose younger sister was one of the girls taken, seeks help from Archos and his servant Olek to find and save her sister, while seeking justice for the village, leading Archos, Dii, Olek, and Ozena on a secret and dangerous mission in the neighboring lands. This is a stark fantasy world of good and evil, where vengeance meets up against prejudice and slavery entitlement. Sexual encounters and conflicts, both positive and negative, are very strongly described. Sometimes, the descriptions are overdone, slowing the pace of the story, but “Game of Thrones” fans will probably still enjoy the rough conflict and vengeful magic fantasy tale.

I learned of this book through one of the promotions on my facebook writer groups and decided to check it out.

Full disclosure, not my usual genre. I'm not a big fan of elves, magic spells and curses, but this book did hold my attention. It starts a little slow and it took me a while to adapt to the writing style, but once I got past the first couple of chapters, it picked up steam. I didn't really connect with the main 'elven' character, but I did like that she was resourceful and not so dependent on men for her survival like most female characters seem to be written these days.

Given the vivid world that the author created, I would have liked a little more action and less internal reflection and dialogue. There were too many parts where it seemed like characters were 'preparing' to do something, or talking about what needs to be done instead of actually doing anything. Its a little frustrating to have an environment with so much potential only to have to sift through so much down time where not much is happening.

There are also some huge blocks of dialogue from some long-winded blowhard characters. Not sure if this is common for the genre, but I kept expecting to hear "Here ye. Here ye." every time a male character opened his mouth. Also, it's third person but the POV seems to shift focus between characters at different points. That was a little distracting.

There was even sex... most notably some elven sex, which if you'd told me that going in, I would have passed, but the author actually did a good job with it.

What I liked most was that the author wasn't afraid to let her imagination run wild with the details. The scenes where one of the main characters "Dii" has to use magic spells are very well done and written in a way where I could actually see what the author was describing. A lot of times when authors write scenes where supernatural abilities are involved, you end up scratching your head and going 'huh? what just happened?' or the powers are so ludicrous in scope that you're like 'well why don't they just use that spell/power/ability all the time? The story could have been over in five minutes.' It's a real pet peeve of mine and I was glad to see that this author knew how to describe the world of magic very well.

Yet, even though she gets very creative with her scenes, I didn't see much by way of filler stuff that didn't fit with the story. I felt like everything was done for a reason and that too is very rare.

I was a little bummed at the ending, mainly because it seemed a little drawn out, but it is a series and she made sure to leave a nice set up for the next book.

Overall, this book entertained me and I enjoyed the read. I was leaning toward 5 stars, just because I did get caught up in the story and the world the author created, but some of the technical stuff took away points.

I really struggled with the rating on this book the writing is 4.5 stars easily, but for some sentences that do go on and some a bit too cliche. The story, not so much, 3.5 stars. Having said that, I did like the story but for all the violent descriptions, slavery, rape scenes, and violence against woman and children, it was just too much and I am not sure it was necessary. The author is too good to have to resort to such graphic evil. I did not like that the elves were so weak, constantly enslaved, defiled and submissive. I wanted them to be stronger and not so easily vanquished. Every human especially the men, but for a couple such as the main mage Archos and some people on his lands, was evil. The writing was good and made me not like any of them and I was really pulling for the elves. The sex in this book seemed mechanical and graphic when it was trying hard to be romantic.

I did like all the good characters and of course all the elves. There were two love story lines that were the saving grace of this book and the only reason I continued on. I got this on audio and I really hate to say it, but the narrator was mechanical sounding especially when it came to the dialogue. He did well on the story part where he wasn't talking for people and it was a shame because it could have been so much better.

I probably will not go on with this series because of all of the graphic violence but I am not giving up on this author as I have read Tales of Erana: The Warrior's Curse and loved it. Alexandra Butcher is on her way to being a good writer if she could just follow the style she began with in Tales of Erana. This book is not for the faint of heart and I do suggest it should be read instead of listened to, but that is just my opinion.

It's magic and mages meets little women with sex!