Review: A surprising blend of drama and the erotic
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2014
You know, I wonder how many people looked at the title of this and probably thought this was going to be another superficial fetish story where there is no depth and the only thing the prospective reader had to look forward to was the breeding sex. Maybe coming from another author, this might have been. But having only just discovered Arthur Mitchell's work in my quest to read more taboo erotica, I am coming to really like his style (I'm assuming this author is a man despite the woman's pic in his bio - if not, whoops! But in my own defense, the biography refers to him as a "he" as well, so hold the insults).I've only read two other stories by Mitchell, one of which I gave four-stars (Kept Pregnant) and the other (The Farm) I gave three-stars, yet I can already see that he is not the standard in what I've come to call "penny smut". With the exception of the one I gave three-stars to, I feel the characters in his stories are wonderfully developed and the scenarios depicted aren't as shallow as I've come to accept about most of these kinds of stories I've read in the genre where a lot of times I felt like I was just channel surfing and just happened to stumble onto an interesting porn scene.This certainly isn't the case with Dark Prairie Fire. I liked how this was a short story and yet I knew enough about Ethan and Cat that I didn't feel like they were just thrown together. That is often a real problem with short stories, particularly in the erotica genre - it's almost like the author can get intimidated by their own guidelines and in an effort to get to the point of a story (ie: the sex in an erotic story), they omit the build-up any good story needs to make for a more satisfying climax and an even more satisfying end.Even more impressive than the very physical sex in this story was the drama thrown in right from the very beginning. The tragedy Cat comes home to sets the tone for an emotional and tense atmosphere ripe with a danger that remains unseen, but felt for most of the story until the climax. In the middle of it all is the sexy rancher next door, Ethan, who comes to help Cat cope with her loss and in doing so helps her realize her truest, most deepest desires, leading to some very hot sexual encounters between them.And it wasn't overdone, that was the thing. Somehow Mitchell was able to achieve that tenuous balance between erotica and drama that made no one aspect of the story outshine the other. Really, this is impressive in a short story especially, but is impressive all the way around. Although I notice a lot of his shorter stories are a bit overpriced, I do look forward to reading more of Mitchell's work.