Tag Archives: 50BookPledge2012

Review | S.E.C.R.E.T., L. Marie Adeline (Preview Sample)

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Given the fervor for the erotic genre, was it possible to write a book that was first and foremost a smart and engaging novel and, second, erotically charged? And if someone wrote that in the current publishing climate, would readers respond?

[Letter from Doubleday Canada that came with the sneak preview uncorrected proof]

16099174Admittedly, my experience with erotic fiction is very limited. I suppose I’ve always viewed erotic fiction with Anne Rice’s frame of mind. In the introduction to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, she writes that she wastes no time in getting to the sexual content: “every page is meant to give you pleasure.” The classic Story of O establishes the mood of sexual desire from the very first page. So when I read the promotional letter about S.E.C.R.E.T., my initial reaction was to wonder, perhaps naively, how an author who set about making the eroticism second priority could differentiate her book from a racy Harlequin romance.

“No judgments. No limits. No shame.” What if you could have your every sexual fantasy fulfilled, in a safe, supportive environment where the men are hot and you are in total control? For shy, awkward waitress Cassie Robichaud, the idea is too wild to even contemplate — and yet too tempting to pass up. The premise of S.E.C.R.E.T. sounds very erotically charged, but the book itself lives up to its promise to put the story first. The story opens with Cassie observing the people at the cafe where she works, and reflecting on her fourteen year marriage to an angry drunk:

Waitresses are adept at reading body language. So are wives who’ve lived under the same roof as an angry drunk. […] And yet whenever I tried to turn that skill on myself, to anticipate my own needs, I couldn’t. [p. 1]

When it comes to sex, Cassie hasn’t had any in five years. She calls her vagina “down there” because it seemed the only appropriate term when by yourself — to the author’s credit, this hesitation on Cassie’s part arouses sympathy rather than irritation. This is a woman who calls a red dress “brave” and is so shocked at reading about a woman having two men at the same time that she immediately slams the book shut. So when S.E.C.R.E.T., a society of women who help other women achieve sexual fulfillment, reaches out to Cassie, you can’t help but cheer her on. As one of the members of S.E.C.R.E.T. says, “We definitely found the right candidate in you. You can’t even say the word [fantasies]!” [p. 70]

As far as the erotica goes, S.E.C.R.E.T. is beyond vanilla, and fittingly so. The sampler I got included only the first fantasy (Cassie will have a total of nine fulfilled), and featured “a lanky, good-looking man” with “puppy-dog brown eyes.” Despite an intro straight out of a porn movie, the fantasy scene is ultimately rather sweet.

I covered my face with my hands.

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It is. This is all for you.”

[…] The contact felt amazing. His hands on my thirsty skin. How long had it been since I’d been touched, let alone like this? I couldn’t even remember. [p. 74]

It’s the ultimate fantasy, isn’t it? The kind, considerate, handsome man who tells you you’re beautiful, who asks you exactly what you want, and who you know will stop at the slightest hint that you want him to. There is no romance in this scene — we don’t even know the man’s name — yet there is much romancing in it. It’s a lovely scene, and Adeline does a masterful job in showing just how much such small gestures mean to Cassie.

There are moments when I wondered if Adeline was poking fun at Fifty Shades, most notably with Five Years. It’s been five years since Cassie has had sex, and she calls her celibacy a “skinny old dog […] Five Years came with me everywhere, tongue lolling out, trotting on its toes.” [p. 3] I seriously hope the author meant that as a jibe against Anastasia Steel’s inner goddess rather than a serious attempt at metaphor, because seriously? Five Years the dog? He’s mentioned again a couple of times later on, and at one point I had to go back to check that Cassie wasn’t referring to an actual dog.

From the 81 page preview, this book definitely shows promise. Cassie still has eight fantasies to go through, and I believe they’ll just get more and more erotically charged as she becomes more open to her sexuality. There’s a hint of potential romance for Cassie with another character, but from the preview, the focus is clearly on her and her alone. She’s a sympathetic figure, and I look forward to seeing her regain her confidence and sense of identity through S.E.C.R.E.T.

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NOTE: I received the sneak preview for this book before the holidays, and had originally scheduled the review for the release date in February. I just received the final book in the mail today, and am delighted at the opportunity to find out more about Cassie’s story. So I’ve decided to bump up this post a couple of weeks, and let you all in on the S.E.C.R.E.T. a bit early as well!

Interested in finding out more? The preview I just reviewed (Step I of S.E.C.R.E.T. / first fantasy fulfillment) is now available online at the book’s website! Check it out here. And if you want to keep reading Cassie’s experience with Step II (second fantasy fulfillment), check it out here.

Stay tuned for my review of the full book in February!

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Thank you to Random House Canada for the uncorrected proof preview of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | A Door in the River, Inger Ash Wolfe

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Inger Ash Wolfe’s A Door in the River is my first Hazel Micallef mystery, and at first I didn’t believe the person on Twitter who told me the series was disturbing. After all, I’ve read Stuart MacBride and Val McDermid, and at first glance, the mystery of a well-liked man being killed by a bee sting didn’t sound too horrific. The book doesn’t get quite as gruesome or horrific as MacBride and McDermid, but it does enter some pretty emotionally and psychologically intense territory.

The setting is Port Dundas, Ontario, and the heroine is a snappy, broody sixty-plus year old inspector who lives with her eighty eight year old mother. Hazel is sharp, has issues with authority, and is overall a great series character, but for me, it’s her mother who takes the spotlight. Cranky and a bit emo in this book, Hazel’s mother is hilarious and compelling, and I love seeing them interact with each other.

From a seemingly straightforward murder, Wolfe takes the mystery to a place that totally blindsided me. More than a surprise however, the story suddenly takes a much darker, more emotionally fraught tone, and the crime much more horrific.

A Door in the River is a good, solid mystery, and I like the surprise twist. It didn’t quite blow me away, and a few parts dragged, but Wolfe does pull at the heartstrings. His story is horrific, not because it’s gruesome or especially dark and twisty, but because the crime is horrible, and all too easily imagined in real life headlines.

It’s a good book, and worth reading particularly for Hazel and her mother.

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Thank you to Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | Endgame, Nancy Garden

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9780152063771By utter coincidence, I started reading Nancy Garden’s Endgame on the same day I heard about the Newtown shooting. Endgame happens to be about a high school shooter, and returning to the book felt a bit like a betrayal to the Newtown victims. I steeled myself against any attempt by Garden to elicit sympathy for the shooter, and to be fair, this did colour my approach to the book.

The back cover blurb is what I would expect for a teen book told from the perspective of the shooter — fourteen year old Gray Wilton is bullied at school, can find no support, and his “only joys are taken away… first his beloved drums, then his dog, and finally his only friend.” To the author’s credit, despite all Gray goes through, she very clearly establishes his disturbed nature. Rather than a total innocent who suddenly snaps, Garden portrays Gray as full of anger, fantasizing about torturing and killing his bullies. She contrasts the violence of Gray’s anger with that of his best friend Ross, who is also bullied, and who also fantasizes about getting back at the bullies, and yet laughs nervously at the extent of Gray’s fantasies, suggesting perhaps milder forms of revenge. With this contrast, we see how, despite what Gray is going through, he is still a psychologically disturbed individual who will clearly make the wrong decision.

Again, to be fair, I’ve been biased against Gray from the beginning, because I know from the back cover that he kills his classmates with his father’s semiautomatic. Granted, I feel sorry for him for being bullied, because the school bullies in the book really are major jerks. Still, when Gray complains about his father limiting his drum practice time at home and requiring Gray to use padded sticks, all I could think was, of course, otherwise you’d disturb the neighbours. Perhaps I’m just becoming old and cranky, but really, Gray, it’s not the most unreasonable request.

Gray’s parents are interesting characters. His mother is a sympathetic figure, too weak-willed to stand up to her overbearing husband, which is too bad because she seems smarter than the father and might’ve kept him from pushing Gray over the edge. Gray’s father, while understandable in some respects, such as his concern about Gray potentially taking weapons to school, is inept at best (Gray easily sneaks a knife past his father’s daily body checks), and must share in much of the blame for Gray’s shooting spree. Despite Gray’s anger issues, it is his father who pushes him to take up shooting in order to “man up” and face the bullies. There’s an uncomfortable parallel here with the Newtown shooter, and in Gray’s case at least, you can’t help but want to yell at the father to see all the warning signs. Much easier to do in a book where you know how it’ll turn out, rather than in real life, of course.

I love the character of Lindsay, the girlfriend of Gray’s brother. She is the only one who really reaches out to Gray and tries to help him face his problems in a non-violent manner. She is a hero, and her ultimate failure in preventing Gray from his shooting spree is utterly tragic.

Garden does take us into Gray’s head — we learn about the events leading up to the shooting from Gray talking to his lawyer. Tellingly, he claims to not remember the details of the actual shooting. Garden does make us feel his guilt, and his grief, in his unwillingness to think about the students he’s killed.  You may be reminded that he’s only fourteen, and himself a victim of bullying. As well, Garden does show how Gray tries to get teachers to help him with the bullies, but they generally turn a blind eye. So she does present both sides of the story, and we can view Gray in a sympathetic light. Personally, I had little sympathy.

Endgame isn’t quite as brilliant as We Need to Talk About Kevin, but in some ways, it feels much grittier. We actually see the progression of a school shooter’s thoughts, and given how much anger Gray had since the beginning of the story, his crime seemed inevitable. This is an emotional book, however it ends up making you feel about Gray and his experiences. I don’t know if Nancy Garden set out to present Gray as a sympathetic character, a victim of bullying, or if she wanted to present him as I ended up seeing him — a disturbed person who had little to no justification for his actions. I admit it may be my personal bias, but again, kudos to Nancy Garden for the ambiguity created by her straightforward narration.

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Thank you to Thomas Allen Ltd for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.