This was... okay. Underwhelming, but okay. Well enough written, though containing a couple of spag issues, sort of a Disney-version of polyamory and p This was... okay. Underwhelming, but okay. Well enough written, though containing a couple of spag issues, sort of a Disney-version of polyamory and pregnancy with some artificial drama thrown in. I did finish it though, hence the two stars.
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Buuuuuuuuuuuut...
Upon getting herself knocked up by a one night stand with two gay men, our heroine asks herself:
"How the hell was I going to take care of a baby when I could barely afford to take care of myself?"
Well, the one obvious answer - abortion - doesn't come to her mind. In fact, she later states "abortion is of course out of the question". Well, whyever? It's not even so that all religious people are so rigourously against abortion. Quite a few of those had them. In her situation I'm astonished that she doesn't even contemplate the notion.
So then she tells the guys and arguments that she would like them becoming daddies and support the baby, but then goes on:
"I was actually kind of looking forward to getting back in the saddle. You know, even just getting laid once in a goddamned while."
WTF? I mean, she just was so stupid and got herself knocked up while "getting laid" and hasn't learned a bit by that? And what is it about people recently all wishing to get willy-nilly laid? Are we supposed to consider this particularly liberated or modern or balanced or what?
And she follows this up next with...
“We’re just friends with benefits until the baby gets here?”
What a load of crock. I can, tentatively, unterstand someone turning to such a relationship after a long time of being with no one, but in general I certainly side eye people who already proved to be incapable of taking care of themselves in sexual situations. Carmen has such a bad track record, that she doesn't endear herself to me with such statements. And treatment of these guys.
And then - after the first deed - they have "the talk" and just trust each other, without tests. I mean, good grief, people have been known to acquire STIs via other routes than sexual congress. It's not as if that never happened, or even happens only rarely. When taking up sexual relations with a specific high risk group, and gay men still are that to the day, then anyone halfway endowed with the right amount of marbles would want to see test results first. Especially when preggers.
I'm also a tad miffed by the presentation of poly. Everything was just too pat, came about too happenstance, without any compromises, without having to work at it and all the drama came from outside the threesome. Also, in most of the cases of poly I personally know, the love came before the sex. In fact, love is what qualifies polyamory.
ETA: Oh, and what seriously bugged me is that both gay/bi men were written as if it needed this super-fabulous, special woman to "turn them", and as described she almost became the most attractive member of the threesome. This is quite a derogatory and assumptive plot device and really not how poly takes place....more
I often rate and wait, because it tends to show me which authors have "
Review to follow when I have shed the treacle.
----- Lots of spoilers ahead! -----
I often rate and wait, because it tends to show me which authors have "street teams" or "fan girls". Hibbert appears to have one or both, as they descended on this book like worker bees doing their best to repair the "harm" done by an honest (aka not premeditated positive) rating or review. As this rarely is noticed by time-pressed readers who check ratings before buying, it needs to be clearly stated. If within 24 hours of a negative review/rating twelve (!) 4 and 5 star ratings "happen", and only one single other normal looking review, on a book which at this time has only 83 ratings all put together, then I tend to believe appearances. It's a common enough pattern with authors placing a lot of import on marketing and business practice. Others name this pattern for what it is: shilling. Look at it and form your own verdict, but be aware of it.
With that we come to the story itself.
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Okay, this book came with solid recommendations as a sex-positive, interracial romance from two people whose verdicts I tend to value highly, which is why I read it. Now, after the deed, I wonder whether we actually read the same book - or what else may have happened.
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Let's start with saying that by now, after the umpteenth romance featuring either clinical depression, or PTSD due rape, or shell-shock or some other form of mental illness of that type, I am absolutely tired of reading of it as the cause for romantic complications or problems. For one thing, but very rarely are these illnesses depicted realistically, for another, I loathe when magic genitals then cure them, and lastly, the way they usually get written is utterly boring. This book was no different in this aspect than any other abusing mental illness to facilitate tropes.
What happened to people just falling in love? Without issues?
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Next, I remember having a quite heated discussion with one of the people recommending this WIP about the use of words like "caramel", "chocolate" or "olive" for skin tone. As a writer, though Caucasian myself, I argued that of course such comparisons invoke a taste and along with that an emotion and that this is something I want to do, especially in an erotic context. Now call me bowled over when I now find a PoC writer using these expressions several times and said reviewer doesn't complain. Either it is okay for a PoC writer to do so, and not for a Caucasian writer, which would be utter hypocrisy, or I made a point? Heh. I don't know which, but I am amused. I still do not mind the use of edible comparisons for skin tone.
Unfortunately that was about the last moment I was amused with this book. Next I learned that not just the FMC is suffering from PTSD and is clinically depressed to boot, the MMC is also clinically depressed. A fine twosome! Good grief, how dreary.
From there on Eros entered the picture and things went sharply downhill. I don't know why people think this book and this style of writing is in any way, shape or form erotic...
Let me state that something which is skeevy when you apply it to a penis, is exactly as skeevy when you do it with a clitoris. I'm an equal opportunities girl, meaning that what is good for the gander is always also good for the goose!
At that point, her brain powered down completely to accommodate for all the extra blood her other body parts were demanding. And by ‘other body parts’ she meant her clit, which might as well be a bloody landmine. One touch and she’d explode.
I already find this offensive when written about a guy, because while erections take place unvoluntarily, they - as a rule - do not mean your brain is out of the equation. The very idea reduces men - when applied to penes - to brutes, and it isn't in the slightest more of a compliment when applied to women. On the contrary! It reduces people to their genitals and objectifies them, and unfortunately this isn't the last time this book does just that.
The heroine, Aria, ogles the hero (Nic), drools over him, objectifies him at every turn, in short she behaves towards him exactly the way that feminists have been fighting against men behaving towards women. I say it again, just because it is a woman doing this to a man instead of the other way around, doesn't mean it is acceptable, amusing or sex-positive behaviour. On the contrary, this is as close to rape culture as a twin. Or as fellow writer Eric Plume put it:
"In all seriousness though, I do wish more writers would realize that "sex positive" does not equate out to "would fuck anything that will hold still long enough". For a variety of reasons that is not sex positivity, that's just letting society's conventions about sex define one's choices, just in a different way."
He nails one of my main problems with the entire book. It reads like straight, skeevy gender-inversion: everything which especially feminist women loathe in patriarchal men is what the heroine of this book does to the male hero and is how she herself behaves. The farther I read the more I came to loathe Aria, whose behaviour was getting more unacceptable by the chapter.
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This wasn't helped by the fact that practically all of the sex, including the sex toy scenes, read like porn I watched in the past. There was no passion, no emotion and above all no love or falling in love involved, it all was pure lust. As such - so sorry - it leaves me disinterested. Two rutting animals? And rutting to scripts I know from porn movies? I didn't experience even a flicker of emotion digging through an endless amount of coarse, vulgar, mechanic sex scenes.
And, oh, the assumptions of the author: that women as a rule are excited by or love potty-mouthed MCs for instance. I sure as hell don't enjoy vulgar language, it is not a taboo, it is just the sign of lacking education. By the way, the heroine is written as actually being proud of her lack of education. That was a new one for me! My respect for Aria was non-existant at that point, especially as the author did her very best to paint Nic also being an idiot with an IQ of less than room temperature. Neither of them subverted this by behaving intelligently later, either.
Or the assumption that women in general like being eaten out, always come like a train from being eaten out, or love deep throating men. Hello? Roughly half of all women prefer vaginal orgasms to clitoral ones, at least a third dislike oral sex and the absolute majority of women do not consider BJs per se something which turns them on. Most try their damndest to avoid having to give them and no woman has a clit in her throat either. Now think hard how erotic sex scenes are which mostly consist of such stuff...
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What stayed with me in the end was the fact that this book had lots and lots of sex directly written down from porn flicks, and a couple which never felt like falling in love. They both were just horny and acted upon their lust without the slightest attempt at sophistication, emotion or aestheticism. It was as erotic as watching two snails fornicate.
So where is the bloody romance?
Ha!
Yes, for good measure Hibbert threw in a few typical romance tropes after roughly 80% of the book. E.g. the Big Misunderstanding, which was completely contrived (I mean, how stupid is Aria? She asked for that job!). Next came something which I really hate: Aria and Jen decide that Nic will have to grovel. What for? For Aria's utter stupidity? For the fact that she prostituted* herself? And last but not least the HEA of a marriage with children lasting already 25 years in a soppy epilogue so sweet it gave me caries. None of this convinced me Aria and Nic fell in love in the course of the book.
* I wished authors would realise that every time their characters exchange sexual behaviour against money or favours these characters prostitute themselves and turn the other into a punter or a pimp. For more than 300,000 £? That's prostitution all right, don't kid yourself! Which adds a particular level of ickiness to this book, as no one even seems to reflect on that fact. And prostitution, so sorry, is for this reader the opposite of sex-positivity.
Then, I personally do not like tattoos. But to each their own. However, describing the hero getting "a stick-and-poke" without any input and under decidedly negative circumstances (the alcohol level in his blood alone should have meant abstaining) just convinces me he is too stupid for his own good. Which makes him less of a prize, except for his money. Which is very materialistic, right?
Lastly, the author claims that her story contains subverted biphobia. I disagree.
Yes, she has bisexual characters. Yes, one character gets aggressed and talked about for sleeping with both men and women. Yes, that snitch gets a kick in the shin. But the author shouldn't think she acquired any laurels by that, because at the same time she portrayed bisexual people as so randy for anything which moves as to fuck everybody without cause or discern - just because.
As if being bisexual is some mental illness which turns people into sexaddicts incapable of keeping their vaginas and penes in their trousers for a few moments a day. In short, she portrays bisexual people as the sleazos and debauched lechers they already are in the opinion of heteronormative people anyway.
So a huge thank you for absolutely nothing!...more
271 fuck and derivatives 89 ass 84 shit 41 damn 32 assorted vulgarities (bitch, slut, etc.)
and thaThere will be spoilers below...
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This book features
271 fuck and derivatives 89 ass 84 shit 41 damn 32 assorted vulgarities (bitch, slut, etc.)
and that's only the ones I looked for. In short, these two guys are pottymouthed like giggling teenagers, and just as attractive (not).
Indeed, the "teenager" verdict stays with this book, for the author's narrative and prose as much as for the characters. It's childish, super-melodramatic, it's clearly written by a female author trying hard, but never succeeding, to represent an adult male mindset, and - what is way worse - it is also, sometimes latently, sometimes directly, bi-phobic and misogynic. The alleged humour entirely bypassed me: I never found it to be funny. Instead the attempts at humour ended up giving me this "tooth-achey" feeling you have when you witness something stupid, done by someone you used to respect, and now want to be miles away. I think the neologism is "external shame". Ick.
The story itself is facile and non-believable, whether in set-up or in execution. I skimmed the many, very unerotic sex scenes pretty soon, and ended up skimming largish portions of narrative as well, the farther I got. It was all rather boring. As a bisexual/pansexual queer I would prefer if authors engaged a couple of bi/pan beta readers, of age groups above 30 as well please. How Tristan came to own up to his bisexuality was... offensive.
Not interesting. Not romantic. Unerotic.
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Oh, and something I really, really hate: ex-wives who are painted being cold bitches, not wanting romantic relationships and children, in short, women who pushed away the poor bluidy weeny gay-bi-whatever-hunk into the arms of a sooo much better gay partner. Double-ick....more
Firstly, how can anyone rate such an atrociously written book as high as I see it done in hundreds of ratings? Dear me, I was wincing all the time whiFirstly, how can anyone rate such an atrociously written book as high as I see it done in hundreds of ratings? Dear me, I was wincing all the time while reading. The excruciatingly bad prose, including some horrific abuse of grammar, was having an effect like a severe toothache on me. Where was the fecking editor of this book? Because this sort of prose was in no way typical of writers of the 1980s (book is from 1987), when you get such female SciFi, Fantasy and spec authors as C.J. Cherryh, Ursula K. Le Guin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Katherine Kurtz , Margaret Atwood, Anne McCaffrey or Tanith Lee. The sheer reading experience was awful enough already.
Then... why do I have the impression that a large amount of American feminist women hate men from the ground up? While I have read a couple of enlightening feminist books, even books which shoehorn feminism sideways into genre fiction (abovementioned female spec authors certainly did that now and then), there seems to be a large pool of female writers who have to hate men, who seem to hate their own gender as much in a way, who really carry boulder-like chips on their shoulders and somehow don't notice they entirely lost their grip on reality. Is it so easy to hate men in America? Does it come so naturally? Whatever the cause or reason: it disgusts me. It pushes me away from US feminism in a major way.
This book is misandrist, misogynic, gender essentialist, heterosexist, cissexist, homophobic, biphobic, trans*phobic and maniacally egotistic dross. It shocked me to learn that the author obviously supports the eugenics she writes about here! Good grief.
Open for a review of one short story at a time... (view spoiler)[
1. Security -- 1*
I wished there were negative ratings. This was the single mos [image]
Open for a review of one short story at a time... (view spoiler)[
1. Security -- 1*
I wished there were negative ratings. This was the single most unerotic thing I have read in a long, long, very long time! The story of a security guard who blackmails female shoplifters into fellating him, until he meets with the ultimate shoplifter of hell.
Not all women find BJs in any way, shape or form erotic, I sure don't. Neither do I consider physical shaming of people erotic, be it the small penis of a man, or the aged or dishevelled looks of a woman. And lastly: humiliation of the enforced, non-consensual sort from the vantage point of the humiliator is the very last thing I find erotic.
Definitely not BDSM.
2. Winnat's Pass -- 1*
Well, for literary erotica there's a lot of vulgar and obscene language around. This allegedly is some 18th century historical with necro leanings, but the feel is entirely modern. An illicit couple of handyman and rich lady get waylaid and killed, and she comes back from the grave. Unfortunately, and I like necro stories, this again was entirely unerotic and didn't even read horrific. I suggest the author reads "Orion Rising" by Angelia Sparrow to see how it's done sensually and with lasting clout.
Definitely not BDSM.
3. Fruits de Mer -- 1*
Too much vulgar language again. These stories come across as written for male readers. They are porny rather than erotic. Then, the author needs a course in female anatomy, I've yet to see labiae pulse (especially without an orgasm in sight) or the Musculus ischiocavernosus guard the clitoris. And again, quite frankly, I don't at all care for cunnilingus, and the association of fish or mussles with the female genitalia gives me indigestion. It doesn't turn me on, it left me queasy. Oh, and I adore eating fruits de mer. I sincerely hope I won't remember this short the next time I do. That would be the real horror. Patently unerotic, and slowly but surely I'm becoming irritated.
Definitely not BDSM. So far I don't get why this is touted as BDSM.
4. Sherlock Holmes & the Curse of the Moonstone -- 1*
Duh. The author writes about nothing but oral sex and in a truly rote manner. The same every time. Zzzzzzzzzz... Plotholes galore, Watson at one point is written to be ignorant of the female orgasm, next he knows about the French version of it. Unfortunately neither Watson, nor Holmes were anywhere close to being in character (though I've read my share of excellent fanfic of the two). The sex was so atypical for what could have taken place between them, it was downright jarring. The end had some anal to it as well, not very erotically described either.
I'm close to a DNF, because so far every story is a turn-off. They all come across as written for male readers.
Definitely not BDSM.
5. Dirty Phone Call -- 2*
.........aaaaaaaaaaaand we're at it again. Now masturbation mixed with oral sex. Vulgar, samey language. Obviously this author as well thinks all women adore lace panties and French lingerie (newsflash: some women dislike the stuff). The MC hasn't had an O in ten years? Really? And now wants to draw it out when she finally has a chance? Are you kidding me? The end adds a point. Erotic? No.
Definitely not BDSM.
6. Body Swap -- 2*
The magical hymen of a 21-year-old that the cock of the deflowerer feels splitting upon entry. Aaand we have a paranormal PI story (with the step-daughter entering the household as a baby, no less). Oh, newsflash: no one can ejaculate directly into a woman's womb, short of splitting open her cervix, which sure as hell wouldn't find her agreeable to the deed. Just saying. Literary doesn't mean you can take liberties with anatomy. Oh and, yeah right, we have a virgin who passionately comes her first time around. With her dad, no less. Guh.
The basic idea is interesting, an extra star for that, but the way it was written was boring and also unerotic. Again. Six stories in, none in the slightest erotic so far. I wished the author would get her act together and cease writing as if she delivered to The Hustler.
No BDSM.
7. Retribution -- 2*
The author still has an anatomy problem (up to the first digit =/= up to the first phalanx). Also, still the same coarse, off-turning and denigratingly negative language usage. I'm by now heartily sick of it. This is the opposite of sex-positive and keeps this story from being erotic.
This is the Sequel to "Dirty Phone Sex". As a femdom-style story I liked it, and it could have achieved 3* if only it had been less porny in language, and hadn't carried the non-con stalker-vibe.
BDSM-fail.
8. Sanctity -- 1*
Ugh. Not everyone has a taboo about religion or priests. "Dirt hole" for anus is just about the most unerotic term I've read in such repetition yet. And present tense is... ugh. A real turn-off, this one. When do any of these stories become erotic? Or not geared to the male gaze?
No BDSM.
9. La Frotteuse -- 1*
Since when can wombs spasm at memories? Sure, with an orgasm, or with cramps, or with labour. But a memory? Dear me. And a womb which floods with liquid upon sexual arousal, well, it has a health problem!
Also why is anything sexual and erotic always described as being "filthy" or "dirty". Once again, the absolute opposite of sensual and sex-positive, also what I associate with a malecentric POV.
And now a taste of Ana. The Goddess. My arse.
No BDSM, and very boring.
10. A Holiday Romance -- 1*
And we have again such wonderfully unerotic, vulgar language, with sex which of course is filthy and dirty, a wife who of course refuses the wishes of her husband, and a Mistress who doesn't need consent or heeds basic safety measures. Yeah. Right. How very sexy. Not. As to the rest of it. Just as unerotic. Chewing chunks out of a man's scrotum? Ugh. Yeah, how very unsafe, insane and definitely not consensual. Why do so many authors believe they need to turn BDSM into something sordid so it supposedly is erotic or edgy?
BDSM-fail.
11. The Diary -- 1*
Slut-shaming. Bi-phobia. Womb spasms again. Juices soaking so much I wonder whether she has a disease. A whinging wimp. A husband so vile he squeaks. Duh. The last thing I now want is anything related to sex.
BDSM-fail, all the way and back.
12. Anastasia -- 1*
"...my clitoris beat a sweet rhythm..." Yeah. Right.
Here the author rides what apparently is her personal hobbyhorse or fetish. Sorry, it doesn't even remotely coincide with anything I find erotic. Possibly more for others into humiliation and withdrawal kink.
Okay. This is touted as being super-erotic literary erotica, different from the usual run of cheap mummy porn or whatever else is considered non-literary erotica.
It certainly was different, but it also definitely wasn't erotic. And I mean: at all. I was so turned off that I ended up with what felt like frozen genitals and a distinctly queasy stomach. The stories were very samey in their vulgar, obscene language. They all felt more like having been written for the male consumer than a lot of erotica I lately read (Gengoroh Tagame or Erich von Götha for instance) written/drawn by men. In fact, the whole set screamed for a publication in The Hustler or a very daring edition of the Playboy.
I may be a genderfluid woman, but I am not a typical straight male while at the opposite end of the axis. In consequence I was so massively turned off by the constantly repeated take down of female sexuality, sexual organs and sexual expression, that I had difficulties finishing this. For something which alleges to be literary the verbiage and terminology is astonishingly limited. Not just limited, but if there are 5 different words for a sexually relevant body part or activity, this author is guaranteed to use the most vulgar and offensive. This doesn't sit well with me, it comes across as sex-negative. It also turns me off rather than on.
Which leads to the next problem. Clearly the author thought long and hard which taboos and transgressive acts she believes are not regularly written about and might titillate her readers. Unfortunately there are readers like me out there who couldn't care less about taboos. I'm not tickled by taboos, and a lot of them are ridicule-inducing to me. It also isn't helpful when you read the exact same wording for the exact same act four times in a row. Mostly these stories rely exclusively on the transgressiveness of the acts they describe upon arousing the reader.
The emotions of the characters themselves are rarely described, and when, come across as very one-dimensional and trite. There was exactly one short scene (the caller in Retribution) which achieved a minor modicum of emotional engagement of a character.
To make this short: no, I didn't find this erotic. I also wouldn't call it "literary erotica". I have a few go-to authors for that, e.g. Remittance Girl or Ashley Zacharias for instance, both of whom also excel at writing realistic breathing people. Yes, indeed this wasn't entirely the same as cheap erotica either. But it also was nothing I want to experience again.
As to the instances of Femdom in this. Absolutely not my thing. I don't understand why some readers shelve this as BDSM. It wasn't, it was more in the line of sadomasochism, and not of the healthy kind. I found little consent and sanity in this, and e.g. biting off bits of genital tissues such as the scrotum is absolutely unsafe. None of these alleged Femdoms are people I would want to be around. ...more
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