A review I won't post on Goodreads

Update to this review:  I have just started watching Breaking Bad.  It provides a whole new spin on the "bathtub randomly falling through the ceiling" plotline.  Maybe the book had an entire meth subplot that I missed?  

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I started to post this review on Goodreads, but I decided it was mean-spirited.  You don't need to know the name of the book or the author to get the gist of it -- it's the same story you see in every Hallmark Christmas movie where the heroine gives up all her dreams and ambition to embrace small-town life.

SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

It wasn't until the end that I understood that this was a poltergeist story parading as a romance.  Blake's brother committed suicide about five years before the action in this book -- or was he pushed?  In revenge for either his murder or the lack of intervention to prevent his suicide, he has come back to make the town where he grew up just . . . a little off.  His main target is Autumn Kingsley, his girlfriend's sister.  We're not sure why.  His interference with her life is at first subtle.  She wants to travel, and there's no reason why she shouldn't.  She has a job, but she also has a close friend in Paris.  For some reason -- presumably the poltergeist -- it is impossible for her to get a passport, buy a plane ticket, and visit her friend.  Instead, she wallows in the misery of the impossibility of ever leaving home, bound there by the poltergeist wall.

There are other strange things in the town, too, that can only be the product of some malignant extra-worldly power.  At an inn owned by Autumn, a bathtub falls from the second story through the floor to the ballroom below, while a crowded party is being held there.  This event is never explained.  There is no discussion of water leakage or weakened floorboards.  Since this is a Christian book, presumably divine intervention prevented anyone from being killed.

But, just as strange as the event itself, it happens in a complete void.  No health inspector comes to  . . .  you know, condemn the building before someone actually gets killed.  No guests check out before they get killed.  No permits are required before major renovations take place.  General contractors who are unlicensed in the state are allowed to do the work.  No occupancy permit is issued.  Life continues on.  Maybe because if the inn closed, Autumn would be allowed to leave?

The most malevolent and mean-spirited act of the poltergeist is the closing of a sweet, well-run group home for mentally disabled adults, with no notice and for no reason other than "grant funding ran out."   Given the complicated public and private funds that keep group homes like this running, the fact that a bunch of residents of the home found themselves literally homeless with a day's notice, with nowhere to go unless virtual strangers with no human services training took them in, this is just cruel.  It may be kind that the poltergeist disappeared all these characters halfway through the book.

The ending is a triumph for the poltergeist.  He finally allows Autumn to leave -- but only for a little while.  She is drawn back to town by the Poltergeist's brother.  The brother has been traveling all over the world for five years.  When he falls in love with Autumn, it's the kind of mean-spirited love that doesn't say, one more year won't kill me, I'll go to Paris with Autumn, where she has found a job.  No, it says, I'm going to make Autumn give up every single dream she ever had so she can be with me.  I'm going to buy the inn she used to own, and hated, and after taking away her ownership interest and therefore financial independence, I'm going to make her work at the inn as an hourly employee, presumably so that she can never save up enough money for another trip to Paris.

Well played, Poltergeist.

 

 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Win a free Kindle copy of my smutty novel, Mindgames, or a bunch of other books!

The amazing blog by Marie Lavendar, Writing in the Modern Age, is hosting a huge book giveaway contest, including Mindgames.  Here's a link to the Mindgames giveaway.  And here's a link to the entire contest. 

My review of Trust in You, by Julia Firlotte

As I mentioned in my last post, Julia Firlotte and I agreed to trade honest reviews of each other's books.  Julia's review of my smutty novel Mindgames is here.  I am delighted to return the favor with Julia's soon-to-be-published novel, Trust in You. 

Trust in You is a romance in the tradition of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey.  As in those books, a young, inexperienced woman becomes involved with, and swept up in the deep problems of, an older, richer, sophisticated man.  The heat content of Trust in You is halfway between the G-rated Twilight and the R? X?-rated Fifty Shades. 

There are some things that Trust in You does extraordinarily well.  (Mild spoilers ahead.) 






The scene in which heroine Ella loses her virginity to bad boy hero Adam is one of the best I have read.  I love that Ella is one hundred percent all in for having sex with Adam, and that he double and triple checks -- in words -- that she wants to have sex with him.  I love that Ella has already had an orgasm, that she is ready for more, that Adam is gentle . . . and that having sex still hurts. And that it hurts the next day, too.  That is the truth for so many women.  The realistic portrayal makes it easier for me to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the romance of the scene. 

I also really enjoyed Ella's character.  She has too many responsibilities for a woman of her age (18).  She is not unrealistically smart or competent.  She makes mistake after mistake.  But throughout the book, she tries to do better.  She wants to be braver, cannier, and more independent.  Sometimes that desire just leads her into more trouble, but I can't help admiring her.  In ten years, she will be force to be reckoned with.

That leads me to the one major criticism I had about the book, which is the age difference between Ella and Adam.  Ella is 18 and Adam is in his late 20's.  It sometimes makes his interest in her borderline creepy.  Nothing would be lost by aging Ella up by five years, and I wouldn't be asking myself what's wrong with Adam that he can't find someone his own age to date.

Trust in You is the first of a series about Ella and, I think, her sisters.  I look forward to reading more.   

Thanks for the reviews!

Trust in You
Thank you to two bloggers who posted reviews of my novel Mindgames recently.   

Julia Firlotte wrote a very positive review on her blog, Where Romance Excites, here.  Julia and I agreed to post honest reviews of each other's books.  I'll be reviewing her book, Trust in You, shortly.  (Spoiler: it's good.)

Holly at The Smut Report was less enamored of Mindgames, but I loved her review as well.  The thing about writing a novel that features naked sex slaves (and torture sex, as Holly called it), is that you know that it's not going to be for everyone -- not even for everyone who likes smut.

If you've followed this blog then you know that I started writing Mindgames for a now-mostly-defunct BDSM story website, where it was wildly popular because the people who came to that website wanted to read exactly the kind of story I was writing.  But when I published on Amazon I struggled a bit to find my audience, in part because I wasn't sure who to market to.  People who love speculative fiction and dystopias?  Romance readers?  Eventually I realized that for those who want to read dark erotica, it's a bonus if it has a strong plot and characterization -- but people who love well-written novels don't necessarily want to read about characters getting whipped in the crotch.

Although my erotica was too dark for Holly's taste, I appreciate that she did not just dismiss Mindgames and looked at some of it's deeper themes.  And I really appreciate that her review has let The Smut Report's readers know that if they like dark erotica, Mindgames is worth taking a look at.