Review: Spicy subject, sweet romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2011
If someone had told me that I would read an erotica novel where the focus was on rough sex and acting out rape fantasies between the h/h and my overwhelming impression of the book after I'd finish it was that ...it was kinda sweet...I'd think they were smoking crack. But in fact, that is exactly what I felt like. A lot of this had to do with the hero, strangely enough.Mike Flynn is a big, blue collar bruiser who works in construction and fights in underground cage matches at a dive bar on the weekends just for fun. He is also very open about his sexual preferences. As he puts it, this type of rough sex, and domination 'turns his crank'. The author could have very easily made him into an alpha jerk but instead he was incredibly appealing. At one point Laurel, the heroine, thinks to herself somewhat surprised "I like him." Well I did too, Laurel.There was just something so rawly honest both about Flynn and about how he and Laurel approached their Friends With Benefits relationship. Laurel first sees him breaking up a fight between a young couple and she is drawn to his overwhelming manliness. She impulsively asks him out on a date. He at first is reluctant but gives her the address of the bar where he fights. We find out later that Flynn is cautious about women, wanting to make sure they know 'what turns his crank' before getting involved with him. Laurel's intro to Flynn's rough sex/rape fantasy play is when she is invited back to his place to watch him and his current occasional other FWB in action. Laurel is turned on and she wants to actually pursue further acquaintance with him.As the two get together, the readers are introduced to an incredibly sexy but weirdly sweet erotic adventure. I thought for sure I'd find at least the rape fantasy stuff a little disturbing, but it really wasn't. In fact, the scenes (with graphic language, hair pulling, name calling etc.) was more erotically romantic than anything I'd read in a long while. One reason for this is that Flynn and Laurel talked about their sexual exploration. He was clear about what he wanted and what she could expect. The trust between the two was established quite strongly as is necessary in these situations. Flynn took the safe word seriously, he made sure she was aware of her own power etc. As a result there was never any unease as you're reading. It was also nice that they were clear on their boundaries between when they were engaging in sexual role play vs. when they simply wanted to be together just for togetherness. They also laughed and joked around with each other and began to develop that language, those emotional code words that lovers develop with each other.  And in the end they really genuinely like each other and it is clear they are on their way to falling for each other.Another piece of the story that I loved is that the two characters were just so darned aggressively blue collar. I don't know what it says about the umbrella romance genre as a whole that this would be so welcome to me. Maybe because if you read romances you'd think 90% of the white male population are billionaires? But with Flynn I could picture him in jeans, tee shirt work boots with his heavy Boston accent, growing up and living in a not too great neighborhood in the southside solidly lower income. No college, but a real salt of the earth guy. Laurel did go to college which makes Flynn a bit envious, but she is unrelentingly unambitious. She has a degree in engineering but lives with two roommates and works as a waitress and she's somewhat fine with that.So yeah, this was surprisingly sweet and I do recommend to readers who enjoy erotica.