Sharazade

Q: How do you choose the books you review?

A: In various ways. Some are books I’ve chosen to read on my own; some are books that friends or contacts have asked me to review; some are books that publishers have asked me to review; sometimes I’ve seen requests for reviewers and have answered those ads.

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Q: Do you only review books that you liked?

A: Yes.

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Q: Why?

A: I figure most readers who read a review are looking for a book they might like — they’re looking for recommendations, in other words. I don’t think there’s much point in reading a whole essay in order to see what not to put into your Amazon cart. I also review manuscripts (of a very different type) for publishers — in those cases, I review what I’m given, and if I don’t think the manuscript should be published, or if I think it needs changes, I certainly say so. But these are published books. I don’t want to obligate myself to finish something that isn’t to my liking, let alone write a whole piece on it. If I like a book, though, then I want to share that and explain why. That’s why my reviews are more about why I liked a certain book than whether I liked it.

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Q: Do you get paid for reviews?

A: No. If someone has requested that I review the book, I get a complimentary copy of the book, which I can keep. But there is no additional compensation.

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Q: Do you know the people whose books you review personally?

A: Sometimes (see my post on Who are a writer’s friends?). But I really don’t think that makes any difference. The writers I know would not be upset if I said, “Oh, you know, this book wasn’t quite to my taste, so I’d rather not write up a review of it.” They understand that not everybody likes everything.

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Q: Would you review my book?

A: Quite possibly! It depends a bit on my schedule and also whether the book sounds like it’s going to be something I’ll like. To inquire, add a comment to this post describing the book and including an email, and I’ll let you know. (Your comment/request will not be posted to this site; think of it as my blog voicemail.) I’ll review either ebooks or print books, though print ones get read, and thus reviewed, more quickly (because I can read them in the bath). I don’t care how long or short something is or whether it’s an anthology or by a single author. I do have some subject matter preferences, so do include a brief description of your story or book.

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Q: Could I review your book(s)?

A: Why, certainly! Again, just leave me a message here, and let me know whether you would prefer an ebook or a print book.

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Calendar Girl, by Sommer Marsden; published by Xcite Books, 2010.

The title points to the premise: Merritt is recently divorced and hurting, and had only one serious relationship before her marriage. Her Sassy Gay Friend decides that what she needs is more experience, some confidence boosters, and lots of good sex, and sells her on the idea of dating one new man per month of the new year.

It’s really a brilliant plot device. There’s a reason to have a wide variety of very different lovers, all in a context that makes sense, and there’s the chronology moving forward, but in a contained amount of time.

As a reader, I fell immediately into the same trap Merritt did: I really liked Mr. January! Why couldn’t she just stay with him?? But at the same time, I did buy into premise, that it’s hard for Merritt to really know what kind of man is best for her if she’s never had very many. So, like her, I regretfully watched the very sexy Mr. January exit and Mr. February enter (and he was great too). The Lovers of the Month were all sexy, and all in different ways. Merritt is, as they say, “good, giving, and game” and she gives them all a fair chance; treats none of them poorly; and has just a ton of hot sex.

It’s also a plot device that could bog down if adhered to too closely. I mean, if Chapter 1 was January and Chapter 2 was February, and so on, till December in Chapter 12, you might find yourself getting bored with the predictability. So yay for a clever author who knew that and threw in some surprises and twists. I don’t want to give any of them away; suffice to say that the main plot allowed for a clever, structured story line that never became too restrictive.

There were two things I especially liked about this book (in addition to Mr. January): 1) very good sex scenes, and 2) the various subplots. Each of Merritt’s men is very different, which means that the sex is different, but even within one month the descriptions were just the way I like them: explicit without being crude, affectionate without being precious, and varied without depending on a lot of odd synonyms for body parts. OK, wait, three things, with 3) being her writing style in general. I especially liked some of the humorous descriptions from the first-person narrator, such as I wiped my nose and checked my face. Red nose like Rudolph, red cheeks, red eyes. Basically when I cry I start to resemble a cherry tomato. Or a lifelong drunkard.

Many of the subplots involve family members. At the same time that I read Calendar Girl, I reread Anna Karenina. Even if you’ve never read it, you may be familiar with its opening line, because it’s just That Famous: All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. When I first read Anna Karenina in high school, I thought that line was very clever. As an adult, though, I find myself disagreeing. I know lots of happy families who are very different from one another. And, just going out on a limb here, I’m going to say that the happy families in Calendar Girl are like nothing Tolstoy ever knew. Now, granted, Calendar Girl is a different type of fiction — it’s light, humorous, exaggerated, and intended to arouse. Still, though, the sentiments rang true for me. There are brothers and mothers (and mothers-in-law) and spouses and ex-spouses (and friends), and they fight and feel frustrated and misunderstand one another — but they love one another and work through their problems. While some of the scenes were pretty wild, the feelings were familiar. This is how complex, loving family members deal with each other. It wasn’t the main point of the book, perhaps, but it was a nice side element, as was the treatment of Merritt’s job.

Great plot device. Enjoyable writing. Hot sex. Rich characters. Zany situations. Hot sex (it’s worth saying twice). Yes, I recommend this book.

Calendar Girl is available as an ebook from Xcite books here, and at Amazon for the Kindle here.

The fact that one of the protagonists is a strong, smart, educated, sexy woman is not what I like best about Rock My Socks Off (Jeremy Edwards, Xcite Books, 2010). I’m a strong, smart, educated, sexy woman, and I know plenty of others. Yet some authors seem blown away by the presence of these women in their own books. I read one not too long ago by an author so famous I’m not going to mention his name here in case I piss off his legion of fans. Practically from page 1 we heard that his protagonist woman was beautiful—and yet smart! Oh my gosh! A few pages later, we learned that while she was smart, she was also… very beautiful! And he kept that up throughout the entire book. In fact, this woman was only able to defeat the Evil Bad Guy because the EBG was not prepared for the fact that she was so smart—because she was so beautiful!! I cannot believe the author actually knew any strong, smart, educated, sexy women, because if he had, they would have strangled him dead to death.

Jeremy Edwards must actually know some strong, smart, educated, sexy women, because his Normandie (née Brittany, but in her disgust at having been stuck with such a trendy name explains that she took the next French province over) is, well, strong, smart, educated, and sexy; and this is perfectly natural. Her boyfriend Jacob is no slouch, but Normandie is better-educated and in a higher-level job. And what makes that so enchanting to me is precisely the author’s not making a big deal of it. So that is Good Point Number One (there will be four, if you’re the sort who likes to keep track of these things, and GP#3 was what I liked best about this book).

Good Point Number Two is that I see why Normandie and Jacob like each other. You know? And it’s not just because they’re too sexy for their pages. Lots of characters in erotic romances have luscious bosoms and throbbing members (not on the same character) (usually), so I want to know what about the characters’ personalities attracts them to each other. These are two wise-cracking, affectionate smart-asses. They’re a good match, and it’s a pleasure to watch them interact. Their sex is believable (and hot) because their attraction is believable.

Now, these two characters have a lot of sex. I mean… they have a lot of sex. From their first encounter, they have sex every few pages. And yet I’m going to say that Good Point Number Three is the plot. If you took out all of the sex, you’d still have a great story (although you’d also have a much shorter book!). It’s the sort of plot you often see called a “romp”—fast-paced and just a heck of a lot of fun. There are twists, there are surprises, there are Oh, I hoped that would happens, and there are Oh, my, s/he couldn’t really haves.

However, this is an erotic novel, not just a novel, and so the sex counts. That is Good Point Number Four. Did I mention these characters have a lot of sex? Because they have a lot of sex. However, it’s different every time—by which I mean both that the characters go for different positions and locations every time, and that the author describes it differently every time; sometimes in graphic detail and then sometimes just by ending a chapter with something as simple as She took his hand again. They have sex predominantly with each other, but sometimes a friend joins the two—some of my favorite scenes. The side characters are quirky but believable, and I’d call the actual sex scenes among them ‘quirky but believable’ as well. Third partners have their own lives and personalities and motivations, and aren’t just tossed in there to get a threeway into the book.

Finally, I liked the rocking horse theme—which shows up in various and sometimes surprising ways throughout the book. And yes, there are socks, too.

These are some of my favorite socks, by the way, that I wore while reading this book:

Clearly, I got the hard copy version, but it’s available as an e-book too. In fact, it’s available in so many ways in so many places that I’m going to let the author’s website explain it all to you.

(Excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Secret Circus of Pain and Degradation by Fulani; Pink Flamingo Publications, 2010)

It had started, if not innocently, then with only with a lightly wicked sense of fun.

“Hmm,” Amy mused, covertly admiring the lean, muscled form of a circus-hand as he walked past, checking the guy-ropes. “The last time I was taken to a circus must have been twelve years ago, and I’m sure it was, well, not quite so abandoned.”

Paula looked at her with concern. “But you’d only have been about eight then,” she observed. “And you probably went to an afternoon show. Didn’t you like what we saw?”

Amy smiled, a slight twist of the mouth and a glint of cat-green eyes that didn’t quite reveal her thoughts. “On the contrary, maybe I liked it too much…”

The performance the two women have just attended was titillating; but there are other, darker performances given by this particular circus. Driven by curiosity, Amy and Paula attend the special after-hours show, where they are selected as “volunteers” for the hypnotism demonstration… and come to hours later as the circus’ newest recruits, restrained and forced to submit to the special training required by the sadistic ringmaster and his henchmen. It’s an inversion of the classic dream of running away to join the circus—here is a circus that runs away with you! Well, with them, anyway. But you’re free to imagine yourself in their places…

The Secret Circus is one of male domination and female submission. 113 pages of very well-written prose cover a wide range of power exchange acts—bondage, caning, collaring, flogging, humiliation, objectification, piercing, predicaments, training, wax play, whipping and more (I alphabetized those so as not to give away any plot sequences!); oh, and lots of sex, woven into an engaging plot.

A friend asked me, as I was reading this, if it would be a good book for him to give to his shy and conventional wife, in hopes of opening her up to slightly kinkier sex.

Well… no. There are other books out there that slowly introduce the mindset behind domination and submission—but this is not one of them. The audience for Secret Circus already knows the difference between domination and assault, and understands the mindset of a submissive who finds freedom in the act of surrendering control. Don’t pick up a book called The Secret Circus of Pain and Degradation if you’re not sure if a swat to the behind could ever feel good. But do pick it up if you’d like a mature erotic novel with strong BDSM themes.

A plot device I particularly loathe is the very common one of some character who “lectures” the audience through the means of “explaining” to some other character what is happening. “But before I kill you, Mr. Bond, let me show you exactly how my doomsday machine works.” That sort of thing. I hate that! And the Secret Circus has none of that. The two female protagonists are new to the lifestyle, but Fulani knows the difference between his characters and his readers, and treats both with respect. It’s a tricky thing, really, to show the evolution of a character without talking down to a more knowledgeable audience, and this book does it well, with the emphasis on showing, not telling.

The pacing of the plot is also appropriate. Amy and Paula don’t roll over and submit to new pleasures in five pages. Their training unfolds at a believable pace, with mixed feelings and reactions and inner turmoil described convincingly.

As the two women struggle and change and submit, other plot elements emerge, including a raid against the circus by a disgruntled private client, and the question of whether the traveling circus might be able to adapt to a permanent, stationary position in the city.

A circus theme allows for a variety of characters and types and scenes. I actually know a number of professional circus-type performers, so I was prepared to have to suspend belief a bit and not argue that this juggling act couldn’t be done, that aerialists would never behave like that, etc.; but I didn’t have to. The showmanship was believable as well as interesting. There is, of course, a overtone of exaggeration throughout—it’s fiction—but nothing that jars.

Am I allowed to say this in a review? It’s what my friends all asked me… “Did it pass the ‘wetness test’?”

Yes.

Oh my, yes.

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The Secret Circus of Pain and Degradation is available as a print book and an e-book from Pink Flamingo Publications. Click here to order and to read an excerpt from the first chapter.

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