Review: The Good and the Bad about The Orphanage Blues!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2013
Overall this story is a very good tale and I enjoyed reading it.  It has its strengths and only a few weaknesses.  Its strengths lie in the author's ability to create the world in which his story evolves out of.  'The Orphanage Blues' is set in the last year of World War II with most of the story taking place in small town Nebraska, and while some of the narrative describing the setting and the environment into which the principal characters interact, could easily be described as `Hollywood' cliché, those descriptions did create an imagery that was easily recognizable.  As such, I found it easy to settle into the book and to identify and relate to the events, the characters, and the story in whole.  This is what makes a good story.  For an erotic romance, very little is about the sex and a lot is about the people and personalities.  The author puts depth into them and that depth gives the reader the sustenance to read on.  What is also strong in this book is the manner in which events evolve.  Things happen and they happen innocently.  This allows the author to present his views on sexual issues that might not be readily acceptable by some people.  Because they come about through innocence, the reader being immersed within the narrative finds that these topics are less offensive or threatening than if they had been displayed in a blunt and deliberate manner.What is bad about 'The Orphanage Blues' is mostly technical in nature.  The author in the early part of the book states that the late husband of `Mavis' had died in a mining accident.  Later in the book, the author states that `Mavis's' husband was a merchant and died of a cough (tuberculosis or pneumonia??).  The author also slips up with some dialogue in which he contradicts what he has said a few pages before.  This is mainly related to discussions on what the women have done with the main male character, `Bobby'.  This is shown when Prudence assumes that Meg and Sally have had intercourse with Bobby even though he informed her that he had been a virgin when Prudence took him to bed, and again when Mavis thought Meg and Sally had had intercourse in the bathtub with Bobby even though he said he had not.  Consistency and continuity is important in building a good story.  If the reader stumbles over something that conflicts with what he has read before, then it distracts from the overall enjoyment that he is getting from reading the story.  A good proof reader should have picked up these problems.  Additionally, dropped prepositions and the use of `he' verses `her' at points throughout the story, coloured my opinion.  Orphanage Blues has been on the author's website for a few years now, so one could have expected that he would have cleaned up any errors before publishing it as an e-book.Still, Orphanage Blues is a very good story.  I have read many of the author's works off of his website and I would rate this to be amongst his better works.  If you love stories that are well thought out and carefully detailed, with the right mix of romance to eroticism, then this story is for you.  Give it a try.