Review: Perfect . . .
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2013
By now there have been so many reviews (and if not, there should be) talking about how amazing Passion's Nectar was, that I'm just jumping on the bandwagon at this point. But I'm going to do it anyway . . .After I read the Prologue, my mouth was literally hanging open. And I became one of those people who emails authors to ask them what happens next, rather than just reads the book. But I had to reach out to The Black and honestly it was not so much to find out where the story went, but to tell him that his work was pure awesomeness. And I guarantee you will have the same urge when you read Passion's Nectar. My next thought was a panicky one: I know this is a series, what if he hasn't written the others yet??? Thankfully he has, with only one installment remaining, which--fingers crossed--is due out later this year.But this one, on its own was perfectly titled for more reasons than one. It was exactly like a nectar--rich, dense, best consumed slowly, and satisfying long after it's done. The story is, ostensibly, about Carrie who goes out to a nightclub with friends and awakens the next morning in a mansion. Her clothes are nowhere in sight and she has no memory (at least not in her mind) of what transpired. But her body remembers, and The Black gives us small, tantalizing does of her sensory-memory of the previous evening. One of my favorite sentences, which is illustrative of how this writer writes: Her body thrummed its memory.How can you not love that!?Oh, and it only gets much, much better. Carrie's flashes of returning recollection are given to us in short spurts, just like real memory. The cadence and pacing of the writing mirroring the nature of remembered scenes in her mind.And as the story unfolds you realize that Carrie is not the star of the show, she is an experiment of sorts. She had been drinking Passion's Nectar, a potent new invention that excites the libido and makes people sexually insatiable, because the formula has yet to be perfected.Finally, near the end of the story (or at least this part of it) we find out exactly how Carrie came to be naked in the mansion, and the writing in that section of the book is among the best I've read in a while to convey thought and action simultaneously:She was so wet.She felt her need slicking the insides of her thighs as she followed him from the garage through the shadows of the cavernous house to the stairs.She took no notice of the house. Her eyes were on him. Her mind was on what he represented.Relief.Release.After that, I was just done. I became Carrie.By this point, I was looking down at my Kindle and noticing with dismay that the story was 78% done. My only comfort at that point was the knowledge that I could go to Amazon and buy Passion's Kiss, Passion's Fire and Passion's Journey.But like Passion's Nectar, I plan to pace myself and read them very, very slowly because I just don't want it to be over.