Review: 4.5 stars, surprisingly emotional / warm-fuzzy + sexy story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 7, 2013
Other reviewers provide lovely summaries, so I'm going to write why I liked this short story so much.It felt honest. It felt relatable. It was inspiring. I liked the way Wendy, the late-30s mom of three, is harried. I liked that she'd felt her sex life with Frank, her husband of fifteen (or so) years, had become stale, and that she (like so many of us!) was really enjoying the erotic stories on her Kindle. I liked that Wendy used some of the language / ideas from her erotica, trying to get her husband to engage with her. And I liked the way her husband kinda didn't hear her -- he was in his own space and (appeared to be) content with the status quo.I liked the way Frank, Wendy's husband, was interested enough in his wife to be creative when he thought of what her Kindle passcode would be. I liked that he cared enough about his wife to pay attention to what she was reading, and hypothesize **why** she might be reading such erotica. I liked that he clearly not only loved Wendy but was still in love with Wendy enough to want to be the person who was turning her on in her Kindle, and that Frank went to great lengths to do just that (joining online forums, going to a sex toy store, etc.).I loved that after all these years together they know each other, are comfortable with one another, and trust the other. Frank was able to assume this dominant role (per Wendy's literary choices), even though it wasn't "natural" for him, because he knew Wendy would like it and wouldn't laugh at him. Wendy was able to submit to Frank's domination because she knew was safe and adored.My favorite part of the book, though, is that in between their delicious and fun experimentation / love making, they talked. They really talked, even if it was embarrassing or uncomfortable. They had conversations people who love each other, who live together, who've made a life together should be able to. For too many sex is something to have but not be honest about, to not say "I need this / that / the other" or "I like this / that / the other." Instead, it's almost as if we've been trained to be embarrassed or something, and probably a lot of us (cough cough) have had sex partners who clearly don't care if it's doing it for us or not -- they're only after their own gratification. If you have those partners often enough and / or early enough in your sex life, then it can have a prolonged and negative impact.So it gave me a real warm fuzzy how honest and loving these married characters were with another, and that they clearly wanted to know what the other was thinking. They want to be the other's alpha and omega.A few days after reading this my husband, who does not read fiction of any sort, and I went on a date and I told him in great detail about this book and what it meant to me.Who would've thought such a slim tome could've resulted in such thought provoking, and in such a feel-good, warmhearted way?