Review: Nicely paced BDSM romp
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2014
Merissa (Call Girls #1) is a competently crafted erotic novel, but I do think it could have benefited from a bit more editing.The overall plot: young shy grad student Merissa lives in a gorgeous flat at a ridiculously low price. Turns out there's a reason the price is so low: the landlady isn't only master of the house, she has another business on the side, and Merissa is drafted into servicing her clientele. BDSM with an attractive (and rich, of course. Why are these smoldering objects of female lust always loaded?) dominant male ensues. You can take it from there.What takes place transpires at a leisurely pace, and I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing: I saw it as more of a striptease, with the author taking this novice to naughtiness (and the reader, vicariously) down a kinky path that ultimately gets you where you want to go. I liked the fact that the heroine was not a classic stick figure, but had curves and body image issues. That made her more believable to me.While a slow pace that builds to an...ahem...climax is not a bad thing, I do think that this story could have been improved by some judicious pruning. There are several things that are repeated a lot: for example, we are told Marissa is painfully shy on several occasions and that one of her friends has mad computer skills at least three times. This is a case where showing not telling would be more effective. There was a lot of head hopping taking place, too.Also, there are many spelling errors...is this an overall problem with this genre? The last BDSM book (which was not as well written, by far) had the same problem. The most glaring to me was "When he opened her eyes, to her ointment, the passion has been restrained." I mean, there could have been ointment involved, given the context, but I think Emma Jaye meant to use the word "disappointment."Those things aside, I liked the pacing of the book, and the characters felt more realistic to me than many books I've read in this genre. For example, Merissa's work as a grad student felt completely real, and the descriptions of the locations all seemed authentic. The sex scenes also worked for me, although I kind of wish they were a bit more explicate. The author likes to tease, as I said, and I like that, but for a sex novel, there has to be an ultimate pay off. In this case, a bit more of a graphic treatment eventually would made the build-up even more worth it.I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I give it a 3.5 out of 5.Note: Since I read this, I have been told that a number of the typos (including the ointment!) have been corrected. That absolutely bumps my review up to a 4.