Review: Intriguing and Evocative Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2014
*THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE EROTIC DARK!!!!*If you had committed a crime that would absolutely send you to prison, and if the evidence was incontrovertible and you were sure of conviction, and if you had an opportunity to disappear — not just get out of your just punishment, but disappear — would you take it even if it meant becoming the property of three men living a hedonistic lifestyle in a plantation known as La Nouvelle Vie?  This is the question that forms the basis for the story line in Nina Lane's book The Erotic Dark.  Jane Worthington AKA Lydia is not an admirable woman.  Although she comes from wealth and privilege, Jane decides to embezzle money from her employer.  When she is caught, she takes advantage of a man who has been obsessed with her since childhood . . . one whom she knows has the power to make everything go away through his dubious connections.  When Jane agrees to Preston Severine's shocking proposition to become his property as well as Kruin's and Gabriel's in exchange for her disappearance, she can't possibly know what awaits her behind the door of La Novelle Vie.  The Erotic Dark is the story of how Jane becomes Lydia and finds herself  the center of a dark and sensuous world where she functions at the whim of three very different men.  The language of this book is lyrical, almost like a fantasy and the author uses it to seduce her readers so they are able to envision La Nouvelle Vie, home to every form of sensory and sensual delight, truly a "new life" for Lydia.  As Lydia explores a side of herself she didn't dream existed, we see her opening up like a budding flower and becoming an instrument to be played by her housemates. Gradually Lydia comes to realize that she is at home in this new world and that she has never felt more alive than she does with her three men.In The Erotic Light, Nina Lane poses another question: once having experienced an idyllic existence at LA Nouvelle Vie with its sensual, dreamlike quality and erotic atmosphere, will Lydia be able to return to being Jane?  Having fallen a bit in love with the brooding Kruin, beautiful Gabriel and even the cruel and mercurial Preston, Lydia suffers a bit from "Stockholm Syndrome" and is appalled when she finds she is being returned to the care of her family where she must make restitution for her crimes under the watchful eye of her domineering father. To be perfectly honest, had I been the author I might have exchanged the titles of these two books because I found The Erotic Dark to be light with its air of whimsical eroticism despite the fact that Jane/Lydia is captive to the three men.  The Erotic Light, on the other hand, with its revelations of the characters' back stories, the cold indifference of Jane's family home and the growing madness and obsession of Preston, was very dark.  The characters in these books are not nice people and I found it interesting that I actually enjoyed reading a book where I didn't really like anybody.  There is, however, redemption of sorts for some characters, an HEA, whether deserved or not, for others, and an ending that will leave the mouths of most readers hanging open and pondering their powers of prediction.  Congratulations to Nina Lane on another intriguing and evocative story!