Review- Playing With Trouble by Keziah Hill

Playing With Trouble
by Keziah Hill
2006
Erotica/Contemporary/GLBT
Short Story
62 pgs. $2.09
E-book

Buy it eXtasy Books

What do you get when Jake Horsley, Australia’s richest man, marries Chrissy, a hooker forty years his junior? Trouble. Especially when she also loves another woman. Honest and straight forward, Chrissy won’t lie about how she feels about Jen. But Jake isn’t worried. Chrissy is everything he’s always wanted, wild and unconventional. He knows he can’t limit her and doesn’t want to. Trouble however, has other plans. Jake’s son David, appalled by his father’s marriage, plots to hurt Chrissy. Protecting herself and those she loves will challenge everything she’s ever believed about herself and what she’s capable of.

I really enjoyed this short story. Chrissy is such a fun, in-your-face, unapologetic, snarky kind of character and I really liked her. She’s a whore who makes no bones about what she does and the fact that she’s popular because she insists on having her orgasm with her clients. She’s overjoyed though when Jake, a very wealthy dude, wants to marry her because she’s getting older and being in the business is getting old.

Jake has his own reasons to marry Chrissy, which aren’t the greatest. While Jake really does love Chrissy and Chrissy really does love Jake, it is a marriage on Jake’s side mainly for the purpose of sticking it to the world, his business associates, the snooty society in which he is a part of, but mostly, his son, whom he wants to mess with.

On her first outing in high society, Chrissy meets Jen, a much older woman and artist who comes from “old money” and who’s the hostess of this event. Chrissy feels a bit intimidated by Jen, but Jen acts very classy and doesn’t judge Chrissy. She is, in fact, very curious about Chrissy. Jen is a bit frosty and uptight, but when she asks Chrissy to pose for her, she feels very attracted to Chrissy and goes for it with gusto.

Playing With Trouble reads like a mini soap opera. The whore, the upper class cool society woman, the wealthy ruthless business man, May/Dec relationship, and the jealous and spiteful son all come together to create a fun little story with some interesting devious plotting and actions by the characters. For a short story, the characters are clearly and colorfully defined, and there’s an actual plot. Plus, the sex was really good.

Sex rating: Orgasmic: m/f, f/f,

Grade: B+

What women want?

According to this NY Times article, it isn't what most people think. For those of you too lazy-- *ahem* I mean busy to click the link, I'll boil it down to the bare bones for ya. When it comes to erotic material, women want pretty much anything: man, woman, men, women, sex in any gender combination or permutation as long as those portrayed are having a good time. I can't say I'm particularly surprised, since the research findings in the Times article dovetail nicely with another article I linked to awhile back in this here edumicational post, which lays out the not insignificant differences between men and women regarding what gets them off.

I'm not sure whether this means women are more open than men to actually experimenting with their own sex, or whether they're just merely interested in watching/reading about it. Either way, it makes me wonder what's holding the f/f and f/f/m romance subgenres back.

I find it curious, especially considering the fairly mainstream popularity of shows like The L-Word, that even the mildest girl-on-girl content in ebooks is often viewed with dismissal and disdain.

Is it that women who are members of the typical romance ebook reading demographic are not as open to the idea of fluid sexuality as younger women seem to be? And will those women who are now in their late teens and early twenties be the f/f/m romance readers of the next decade? Are we poised on the edge of a new trend?

Or is it, as Emily Veinglory suggested, that women looking for f/f and f/f/m simply can't find the kind of stories they like? Is it that publishers aren't putting the right books in front of the right eyes?

Is it that many straight women have never given the idea much thought, or have just never tried it and don't know what they're missing? That is not to say that every woman will enjoy a lesbian or f/f/m menage romance. I just wonder why so many insist they don't, or wouldn't, or can't, or couldn't, when current research finds this simply not to be the case most of the time.

Is the prevailing sentiment that f/f is a tough sell actually true, or is it just that those on the extreme hetero end of the sexual continuum are the most vocal in their disapproval, while all those millions upon millions of middle-of-the-Kinsey-scale, potential girl-on-girl readers are just not quite curious enough to bother seeking it out?

What do you all think?

Review - Burn by Anne Rainey

Burn
by Anne Rainey
Jan. 6, 2009
Contemporary
Short Story
Ebook

Buy it Samhain

A woman scorned…can be damned delicious!

Ally Ryanaldo and Blake Steele were high school sweethearts, in love and inseparable. Ally always assumed she’d be his wife, raise his babies and live happily ever after. Those dreams were shattered the day Blake left her and his small town life for the bright lights of New York City.

Now, ten years later, Blake is back—and wants to pick up where they left off. Ally has other ideas. Naughty ideas. With the help of her kinky girlfriend, Heather, Ally shows Blake her wild side.

When her little plan backfires, though, Ally’s very much afraid she may lose the only man she’s ever loved—for good.

Burn is one of those short, sexy stories that are good for a quick pick me up. It’s also one of those few books out there that have a ménage between two women and a man, one of my favorite scenarios and it was pretty hotly written.

Ally lost her virginity to her high school sweetheart, the only guy she’s ever loved, and then he dumped her without a word, going to NY. Even though it really hurt her, she got on with her life and has become a famous, successful writer.

Blake seduced and sweet talked Ally as teenagers into having sex, telling her how special she was and how much he cared for her, then he took off to make something of himself. Now that he’s successful, he’s come back home and wants Ally back.

At first Ally is all pissed off with him and tries to act all nonchalant about the fact that all those old feelings have come up and she still wants him, and she does manage to hold him off briefly. In the meantime, her best friend is visiting from Florida and she cooks up a scheme to get back at Blake by having a threesome, which includes her friend. Her friend Heather is bisexual and they did have a sexual encounter years ago, so Heather readily agrees to it.

This is a short story, but it did manage to affect me on quite a few levels. Ally is very interesting to me in that because Blake really did treat her like crap, she’s trying to be strong and fight off all those old feelings that never went away, but doesn’t quite make it. I had all these mixed feelings about how she reacts. I wanted to tell her to just be done with him. He doesn’t really apologize to her or even act that contrite, but comes back expecting, hoping to some degree that she will still want him just because he loves her.

Ally does vacillate quite a bit both fighting and giving into her desires, still feeling like she’d do anything for him and yet trying to let him know that she won’t tolerate him hurting her again. I finally did believe that maybe she could be strong enough to not let him get away with more disrespectful treatment in the future. Yet at the same time, I felt on some level that if he really pushed it, she would let him walk all over her again once she really opens up to him again.

Blake got on my nerves a bit as well. Ultimately he does come across as someone who really does love Ally and really wants to settle down with her. But his actions were a bit contradictory to me at times. He’s made something of himself and now he’s ready to be with her. What really pissed me off here is that he’s that typical high school guy who promises all kinds of crap to a girl to get laid and then blows her off after getting it. And then, although after getting back he tells her that he’s always loved her and such, because HE is ready, then she should give him a second chance. He doesn’t come off as apologetic enough for me as I think he was a real ass to her and really thinks all is OK now that she’ll see him again.

I kept thinking that if he really cared about her, the least he could have done was to contact her at some point and tell her that he loved her but that he really needed to make something of himself so he’d have something to offer her when they did get together. That would have endeared him to me a bit more.

The scheme that Ally cooks up to get back at Blake on their first date again seemed a bit odd and a bit childish to me as well. What I did like about that part is that Ally has a nice, easy relationship with Heather in which they can be sexual together without any big emotional issues or complications between them. Heather is bisexual and Ally really isn’t but it came across as very sweet between them. I was actually a bit disappointed that Blake was there because then it got a bit weird, even though the sex was pretty hot. What I didn’t understand really was why Ally thought this would be something to get back at Blake with. But that’s what it is and I enjoyed reading that particular scene at any rate.

In the end though, Anne Rainey did manage to convey and make me believe that both Ally and Blake could make it as a couple and that they would have a fairly equal relationship without Blake thinking he can get away with everything by sweet talking or having expectations that she will be his doormat, and that Ally wouldn’t be giving up her self worth to be with him, which saved this book for me in the end. Besides which, Anne Rainey writes really smoking hawt sex and that was a huge part the story.

Sex rating: Orgasmic. f/f/m, m/f, toys, food, anal

Grade: C+

A Heaping Dish of Guest Blog!

...with side of contest!

Anne Rainey's latest book, Burn, was released on Tuesday from Samhain, and contains one scorching hot menage scene--so hot she had to set it in a swimming pool to avoid the horrifying and potentially tragic spontaneous combustion of her characters. A week ago, I emailed Anne and asked her if she'd like to do a post for LVLM, telling us why she chose to write a story containing f/f/m.

Here's what she had to say:

Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece. ~Author Unknown

Is that a great quote or what? I’ve always thought women were beautiful, mysterious and just downright intoxicating. To clear one thing up, I’m 100% heterosexual and I have a husband and two daughters. I’m quite happily married. So when I wrote Haley’s Cabin awhile back, I knew folks were going to be shocked at the f/f/m ‘dream’ scene at the beginning of it. I was nervous about how my family and friends would react. I wanted them to see the beauty in the scene, not turn it into something dirty and bad.

At first, I bit the bullet and sent the scene to a few close friends, a group of ladies I knew I could count on to tell me the truth. Imagine my surprise when these heterosexual ladies emailed me saying they thought it was one of the hottest scenes they’d ever read. Wow, okay, so I’m NOT the only woman who finds that type of scene sexy. Good to know! LOL Haley’s Cabin sold like hotcakes. It still blows me away when I think about how well it was received by readers.

Since that story released, I’ve wanted to do more books with scenes like that one. I just didn’t have the right story. Have you ever wanted to write something so bad, but you just couldn’t quite find the story to fit the idea? That’s what I was going through. But I wasn’t ready to give up on the idea yet. I guess I just really like the thought of writing about a straight woman who receives pleasure at the hands and lips of another woman. To me, it’s incredibly sexy and just downright delicious!

Then one day, Ally sprang to mind. After being dumped by her high school sweetheart, Ally sort of sinks herself into her writing. She’s strong, independent, and doesn’t need a man to complete her. Until said sweetheart comes back to town and turns her world upside down. Then Heather, Ally’s best friend, slipped into my head like the naughty minx she is. She’s bi-sexual, bold as hell and nearly stole the show. I love Heather! But this couldn’t be like my other stories. I don’t know, I guess I just wanted readers to feel as if they were in Ally’s head, to fully experience the f/f/m pool scene from a heterosexual point of view.

I really worried when I sent it off to Samhain, let me tell ya. One, first person point of view doesn’t always go over well. Two, they may not be okay with the f/f aspect of the story, considering it’s pretty erotic and all. Imagine my surprise when not one but two Samhain editors emailed to tell me how much they loved Burn. Yes!

But what do you, the reader, think? Does a m/f romance that features a scorching f/f/m scene appeal to you?

If Burn does well and readers enjoy it, then Heather gets a story, if not...poor Heather, lol. Leave me a comment and your name goes into a hat for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Amazon!

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Anne, as well as your offer of a GC! (And for letting me know about that scene in Haley's Cabin. *ahem*) Allow me to be the first to answer your question. Does a m/f romance that features a scorching f/f/m scene appeal to you? Hot holy damn, does it ever! But I can't imagine you'll find many dissenters around this neck of the woods, either, LOL.

And all of you all out there--you need to buy Burn right now. Because I totally, totally need Anne to write Heather's story, and I need her to do it posthaste! And don't forget to leave a comment for that chance to win a $10 Amazon GC!

*sneaks off to buy Haley's Cabin*