Honey, Does This Make Me Look Fat?

Erotica seems to be branching out these days.  In the far-ago past when I first read erotica stories and novels, they were wall-to-wall sex scenes with very little binding them together.  In fact, they were what I imagine early porn movies were like: no characters, only body parts.

My review of Heavy Issues by Elle Aycart went live on AAR this morning, and as I say in the review, this is a good erotica novel for contemporary romance readers who've toyed with venturing into the erotica pool.  There are real characters and real issues in this book as well as sex, sex, sex.  Aycart is good at writing steamy scenes and personal angst, which is a real feat.

Heavy Issues is a slender book that could have been fleshed out (sorry for the pun!) to make it a viable contemporary romance.  Just a few more scenes between Cole and Christy is all I ask!

Meeting the Movie Star

For some reason I seem to be on a YA (young adult) roll these days--and honestly loving it.  I'm still perplexed as to why these books are categorized as YA.  Seems to me that if they had male protagonists and didn't have romance at their core, they would be called "coming of age" novels and shelved in the adult reading section.  But look at life from the viewpoint of a woman in her early to mid-20s and have that look include romance, and suddenly the book isn't about coming of age, but is assigned a YA label.

Today my review of E.M. Tippetts' Somebody Else's Fairy Tale goes live at AAR.  It's the marvelous story of a dedicated college senior who's had a difficult past, but has pulled herself up out of her navel gazing and gotten on with life.  When she accidentally meets a superstar as she's standing in a group of extras on his movie set, she blows off his interest.  She doesn't have time for superstars in her life plan. 

What Tippetts is doing is debunking one of those fairytales so many men and women have about meeting

Easy to Enjoy

My review of the YA (young adult) book Easy by Tammara Webber went live this weekend on AAR.  I'm still confused by the YA designation in fiction books.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away (Nebraska), I was a library page and then a library aide.  Back then, when the University of Nebraska / Lincoln housed one of the largest displays of dinosaur bones, YA books were meant for junior high and early high school readers.

Easy might be read by those readers today, but because of its theme of consensual sex and its milieu of frat parties, dorms, and large lecture classes, I can't imagine it makes much sense to young adults in the early years of high school.

But that's not what bothers me.  What bothers me is that the readers who should be reading it--those who are just going off to college or are in their first year--will be missing a very good book, not to mention some good tips on how to cope with being alone on campus for the first time away from family.

So my real question is why we need to segment the adult designation for books.  Why can't we just call these books fiction without having to designate what age "adult" will enjoy them?  Can't I as an adult enjoy a book that centers around adults of any age?  Or must the standard be that adults begin life in their mid-20s?

Can Buy Me Love

I gave a starred review rating for Molly O'Keefe's latest Can't Buy Me Love in Booklist a while back.  Now LinnieGayle weighs in with her take on the book.  While she didn't agree with my A grade, she did give it a stellar B+ which makes us quibble just a hair.

LG does agree that when an author can turn an unlikeable character into a likable one that the author is doing quite a feat.  To turn two such characters like O'Keefe does into likable, sympathetic ones is the hallmark of a wonderful writer, someone readers should watch.

The cover, however, is another matter since that's definitely not the body of a 30-something ice hockey player who was fabulously talented but is at the end of his career.

Let Me Pick That Out for You

Not to take anything away from automated referral systems, but I'm still trying to get my mind around services like E-Harmony and Rhapsody that take something I like and then tell me what else I will like.  Most of the time with the music services, I feel like my choices are hemming me into a small box.  Often having the same suggestions made over and over annoy me to the point of wanting to shake the service in order to get a better match.  (I haven't tried e-Harmony since I've been married 40 years and so far haven't needed to try it.)

So I was pleasantly surprised when Amazon made a suggestion for an author unfamiliar to me and I actually loved the book.  My review for About Last Night by Ruthie Knox is on AAR today.  My skepticism about electronic recommendations is lessened by this very enjoyable book.

An Angel in the End

I read Cindy Holby's Angel's End before I went into surgery in May and really enjoyed the book.  But I didn't start writing the review until I was recovering in June.  Turns out that writing a review when on drugs didn't help my reviewing at all.  Or so my husband, who edits my reviews, says.

I guess I'm just not a Charles Bukowski or Hemingway type writer who can ingest copious amounts of drugs--either solid or liquid--and write a lucid sentence.  In fact, after the first attempt, my husband's question was "Did you like the book or not?  I can't tell."  Oops!  That's bad for a reviewer.  If the reader can't tell on a basic level what the reviewer thinks, then the review fails in a big way.

While I'd like you to read the review that's posted on AAR today, I will say that my bottom line was that I liked the book very much.  And as I say there, I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

I'm Persuaded

My review of Persuasion: A Latter Day Tale by Rebecca H. Jamison went live on AAR today.  I was prepared to bash the book because it's a contemporary retelling of Austen's Persuasion, only set in a Mormon community in Northern Virginia.

Instead, it turned out to be quite clever and enjoyable, proving once again that I should never start a book with a preconceived notion.  I seem to be proved wrong almost every time.
I even love the cover of the book.  Go figure!