"Veiled Flames" by Mara Leigh
What pleasures await when a man’s sausage, hardened into a rod, drills a woman’s cunny? This is the central question of Mara Leigh’s Veiled Flames, a 3-part erotic romantasy series where a theocratic regime reduces women to sex slaves and piss wenches, dragons defend the world of light against invading demons, and male dragon riders stay attached to their beasts through magical butt plugs.
The story follows Princess Rosomon, who flees from an arranged marriage to a tyrannical king, disguises herself as a boy, and sneaks her way into the male-only dragon riding academy. Women are forbidden from riding dragons, as the men of the world monopolize the right to take magic dragon appendages up the rear. Rosomon must keep her hair short and her head low.
However, two elite dragon riders – Prince Tynan and dragon master Saxon - have taken a keen interest in Rosomon, and so she must balance these budding relationships while maintaining her disguise as a boy, competing against other trainees, and participating in sphincter training to mount a dragon’s pommel.
While Rosomon is otherwise a very smart, adventurous, precocious and independent woman of 22, she is hopelessly naïve about sex. She doesn’t know why the heck men have those sausages between their legs. Luckily, Saxon and Tynan are more than willing to show her the ropes.
The lexicon of Veiled Flames book is the wildest part. Penises are almost exclusively referred to as sausages (when soft) and rods (when hard). Vaginas are clefts, cunts, cunnies, or lady channels. Breasts are paps, and soup is sup. Sex is drilling. Asses are bum holes. As such, you have countless scenes where sausages transform into raging hard rods, ready to drill a cleft or bum hole. This brings a lot of levity to the book, which is otherwise insanely horny and at times quite uncomfortable.
To demonstrate, here are a few from the mountain of great lines:
Rosomon's perspective, as Saxon woos her:
“Your paps are like ripe plums. Any larger, and you would not have accomplished your ruse as a boy.”
Saxon’s perspective, as he woos Rosomon:
“My rod pounds with the fury of a hundred stags stampeding across an open field.”
Tynan, wooing Rosomon:
“Hello, grandmother.”
He turns away from the wall, exposing his rod to me, although it’s less of a rod at the moment and more of a sausage, not fully stiffened, his cock dangles dark, red, and damp.
Tynan, on Rosomon’s relationship with Saxon:
“I suppose a runt like you needs to offer his bum hole to curry the master’s favour.”
Dragon master Roule, handing out butt plugs to the students:
“To continue at camp, you must begin your sphincter training tonight.” Roule straightens. “In each of your rooms, you’ll find a dish of bear grease to assist your insertions.”
Rosomon, contemplating sphincter training:
“I’ve heard Tynan and other men discuss drilling bum holes before—he accused Saxon of doing that very thing to me—but I always assumed they were joking, or making idle threats against each other, as men often do.
If such a thing is truly done, I’ve discovered yet another difference between the bodies of men and women, because my bum hole is an exit.
Perhaps this is why women can’t ride dragons.”
All key storytelling elements flow through sex. It is the primary motivation for most characters. Sex is how characters are rewarded when obstacles are overcome, and the quality of sex mirrors character growth across the series (it gets better and better.) Sex is also the core rule in most worldbuilding; the dragon king must have sex in order to regenerate his powers, you must train your anus before you train your dragon, and so on.
The dark side of this is that sexual assault and rape are present throughout; it’s not just that the bad guys want to rape everyone, but the main characters also use sex at various times to intimidate, punish, or bargain. This results in several unsettling scenes where consensual sex turns into assault or humiliation out of revenge or envy. This all occurs within a sort of “reserve harem” female empowerment arc: by the end of the series, Rosomon is in full control of her destiny, her sexuality, and has many husbands that now serve her, but her naivety, her lack of control and the abuse she faces along the way make it feel a bit like Stockholm syndrome.
Of course, we try to evaluate things for what they purport to be. This is not an attempt to write the next great American novel or address subjects too seriously. It is trope-heavy dark fantasy smut exploring a lot of kinks, Leigh is clear about that, and any reader knows what they’re getting into. It is fantastical, cartoonishly horny, juvenile and a bit insane. It is also a genre book in a genre I don’t know at all, so I can only criticize so much as a tourist.
That said, I was only tasked with the first book but ended up reading all three books in the series over 2 weeks – 1500 pages of epic dragon shapeshifting smut. For whatever reason, I was hooked (knotted?) and I had to see it to the end. There was something bizarre and intriguing (not at all arousing) about this world where a character will have a threesome, go out for a run, transform into a stag during the run, then transform back into a man, rock hard and ready to go again. For half a moon, Mara Leigh’s odd horny BDSM universe was like a warm bath I’d get into each night.
This was the only book we’ve covered where my wife really got a kick out of the details and asked for updates each day. We’ve been saying paps, sausage, and sup a lot around the house. I am thankful for the positive impact it has had on my personal life.
I’ll end with the book’s crowning achievement. In one of the final scenes, Rosomon finally mounts a dragon: preparing to take the dragon’s pommel in her bum hole, as she’s been taught by the dragon riders, the dragon suddenly shifts and the pommel enters her cunny instead. They take flight, and instantly she can ride better and communicate with the dragon better than any male rider ever has. The dragon (Zogar) explains:
"Male riders are inferior… Dragons are reluctant to communicate through the opening men present to them.”
After 500 pages, the climax reveals that the theocratic patriarchy spent hundreds of years shoving dragon dongs up their butt and it turns out that’s just the wrong way to do it. That’s pretty funny. It’s hard not envy anyone who took that idea all the way to the end.
