Good Intentions

* 2013 cover
* 2011 cover

*Good Intentions* is the first book in the *Good Intentions* series by Elliott Kay. It tells how Alex met Lorelei and Rachel and the consequences thereof.

## Publisher’s summary

He knew it was a dumb stunt from the start. A midnight run through a cemetery to impress a couple of girls is hardly the stuff of legend, but Alex Carlisle longs to escape the crushing mediocrity of life after high school.

Then he stumbles upon the ritual, and the cultists, and two bound and bloodied women. Alex intervenes and the ritual blows up in his face, leaving him bound to them both: Rachel and Lorelei, an angel and a succubus. It’s hardly the sort of challenge a guy can face with dignity when he still lives at home with his mom.

Alex never imagined falling for an immortal demon seductress, or that he’d spend his nights dodging her co-workers, her old boss, and every other supernatural freak in Seattle. He never thought a woman like Lorelei could have a rival like Rachel, either. But then, nobody ever said adulthood would be easy.

## Publisher’s warning

Good Intentions contains violence, explicit sex, nudity, inappropriate use of church property, portrayals of beings divine and demonic bearing little or no resemblance to established religion or mythology, trespassing, bad language, sacrilege, blasphemy, attempted murder, arguable murder, divinely mandated murder, justifiable murder, filthy murder, sexual promiscuity, kidnapping, attempted rape (which is never funny), immolation of said attempted rapists, consistent abuse of vampires (which is always funny), arson, dead animals, desecrated graves, gang activity, theft, assault and battery, panties, misuse of the 911 system, fantasy depictions of sorcery and witchcraft, multiple references to various matters of fandom, questionable interrogation tactics, cell phone abuse, reckless driving, even more explicit sexuality, illegal use of firearms within city limits, polyamory, abuse of authority, hit and run driving, destruction of private property, underage drinking, disturbances of the peace, disorderly conduct, internet harassment, bearers of false witness, mayhem, dismemberment, falsification of records, tax evasion, bad study habits, and an uncomfortably sexy mother.

## Appearances

Roughly in order of appearance in the story.

### Characters

* Simon
* Elena (unnamed)
* Marie (mentioned only)
* Alex Carlisle
* Lorelei
* Rachel
* Garrison
	+ Harold and Troy, Garrison’s muscle
* Michelle Carlisle
* Donald (mentioned only)
* Kat
* Stephanie
* Professor Lyons
* Raymond Cordingly
* The gang
	+ Tony Koblitz
	+ J’Von
	+ Mike
	+ Tyrel (innocent, mentioned only)
	+ Damon Bell (mentioned only)
	+ Kimesha, Damon’s girlfriend (mentioned only)
* Audrey
* Taylor
* Robert Gorge
* Azazel (mentioned only)
* Belial (mentioned only)
* Eddie
* Dana, office manager at Keating & Rose
* Courtney, assistant-for-hire
* Jason Cohen
* Drew Jones
* Wade Reinhardt
* Jeffrey, a hotel booking agent
* Caleb
* Ahmed Kovac
* Onyx
* Molly Murray
* Lawrence
* Hannah
* Vincent
* Frank, a restaurant guest and Peggy’s husband
* Peggy, a restaurant guest and Frank’s wife
* Brigitte, a Holocaust survivor
* Thomas, a restaurant guest
* Richard, a restaurant guest
* Harold, a restaurant guest
* Lydia
* The Cartel
	+ Carlos Medina
	+ Paco and Chuy, bodyguards
	+ Pedro Medina, Carlos’s brother (mentioned only)
* Webster, an immoral artist
* The Crusades
	+ John (flashback)
	+ Henry (flashback)
	+ William (flashback, mentioned only)
	+ Katherine (flashback, mentioned only)
* Anastacia Kanatova
* Damien Blackthorne
* Lucien
* Alistair Pennington
* Brittany, Britney, and Brittnee
* Sherri
* Jocelyn
* Tucker and Jimmy, jocks
* Carson, a wannabe playboy
* Sidney, Jocelyn’s guardian angel
* Julia
* Trish
* Gabriel
* Timothy, Gabriel’s guardian angel
* Martina, another guardian angel
* The Old West
	+ Danny Ambrose (flashback)
	+ Whitney Ambrose (flashback)
	+ Oscar Jameson (flashback)
	+ Tom Graham (flashback)
	+ Juanita (flashback)
	+ Siobhan (flashback, mentioned only)
	+ Poppa Ambrose (flashback)
	+ Dick Ambrose (flashback)
	+ Willie Talbot (flashback)
	+ Chris Fisher (flashback)
* The Brotherhood of Apollo
	+ Kenneth
	+ Stefan
	+ Ms. Black
	+ Warren
	+ Mr. White
	+ Mr. Woods
	+ Manny, muscle
* Harrow
* a murder of crows
* an angry alley cat
* Kevin Murray (unnamed)
* Tyrone Johnson
* Attila (unnamed, mentioned only)
* Daniel (angel)
* Rome
	+ Scipio (flashback)
	+ Caesar (mentioned only, flashback)
	+ Opilio (flashback)
	+ Felix (flashback)
	+ Marcus (flashback)
	+ Julian (flashback)
* Natalia
* Spade
* Skorri (flashback)
* Baal
* Talon
* Mitchell
* Diana
* Vietnam LRR patrol
	+ Will (flashback)
	+ Darren (flashback)
	+ Roy Carlisle (flashback)
	+ Haffner, sergeant (flashback)
	+ Jiminez (flashback)
	+ Stephanie (flashback, mentioned only)
* Jack
* Marvin (unnamed)
* Jon (unnamed)
* and students, unnamed thugs, bewildered party-goers, and a conscripted raccoon

### Locations & organizations

* Germany (prologue)
* Seattle
	+ Sacred Heart Cemetery
	+ Michelle’s and Alex’s home
	+ Keating & Rose
	+ North Seattle Community College
	+ Raymond Cordingly’s home in Magnolia
	+ Pacific Place, a shopping mall
	+ Harborview Medical Center
	+ Seattle Police Department
	+ Ahmed Kovac’s pool hall
	+ An Episcopal parish church
	+ The Shoreline apartment
	+ An sophisticated restaurant
	+ A luxury hotel
	+ Capitol Hill
		- St. Mark’s Cathedral
		- A luxurious home filled with foulness and sin
		- A bookstore, probably Circle’s End
	+ Anastacia’s Court
	+ Sherri’s home in Magnolia
	+ The Brotherhood of Apollo
	+ Leticia’s and Drew’s house
	+ University of Washington (mentioned only)
	+ Native circle (mentioned only, unnamed)
	+ Blackthorne Manor
* Antioch, Syria (flashback)
* Normandy, France (flashback)
* A Wild West saloon and brothel (flashback)
* Rome (flashback)
* Scandinavia (flashback)
* Vietnam (flashback)
* Hell

### Items

* Lorelei’s Lexus
* The Iron crown

## Continuity

*Good Intentions* is set in mid-September. It is the first book written in the Good Intentions series, and introduces most of the main storylines and characters within it.

Key events of the story include the Sacred Heart Cemetery Fire, the Pool hall fight, Sherri’s party, and the Battle of Blackthorne Manor.

## Theories

The informal congress of angels is because the events in Seattle were the most juicy since the end of the First World War.⁠ What could have been so interesting for the angels during that time?

During Sherri’s party, Trish mentions that she doesn’t know Taylor. However, Taylor later says to Drew that she knows Trish.⁠⁠ One possibility is that Trish has prosopagnosia.

Lorelei didn’t allow Taylor to give her attention during their lovemaking at the hotel.⁠ Some reasons for this might be:

1. Lorelei didn’t want to risk the addictive or binding effect of doing cunnilingus on a succubus to affect Taylor.⁠
2. Lorelei didn’t want to risk being bound to Taylor too, after her experience with Alex doing cunnilingus on her.⁠
3. Lorelei simply preferred to focus on pleasuring Taylor at the time.

Taylor gets the job of crashing a car on fire because she is the only one besides Wade who has experience driving manual. Later on, Jason spins Wade’s truck—presumably a manual one—and hits Harrow with its rear side.⁠ A possibility is that he is assisted by his guardian angel Daniel, much like Amber was assisted later on by her guardian angel during the Battle of Magnuson Park.⁠

There is an earlier incident of Lorelei braving holy ground in support of someone else, before she walked into the church with Rachel.⁠ It was when she remounted an Orthodox cross in order to help and protect Stelia from her father.⁠

## Trivia

Alex’s initial knowledge of succubae came from Jason’s D&D Monster manual.⁠⁠

Tony says that customers having sex in the back rooms of a lingerie store only happens in porn. Alex and Taylor did indeed have sex in the back room. This is arguably a self-reference.⁠

Jason talks about freaks writing smut with vampires on the internet.⁠ Given that the book originated on Literotica, this is a clear self-reference.

Despite indications to the contrary, *Good Intentions* does in fact include a defenestration, as Alex throws Lydia through a window.⁠

Elliott Kay has a blog post about things he feels he could have done better or differently in *Good Intentions*: Owning Mistakes, aka Hindsight, aka Learning.

See also Pop culture references in Good Intentions.

## Publication history

The first edition of *Good Intentions* was self-published as an ebook on June 3, 2011 with a cover by Jesse Means. It was republished with slight editorial edits and with a new cover by Lee Moyer in July 2013, with a paperback release in September 2013.

An audiobook version was published by Audible on August 18, 2015, narrated by Tess Irondale.

A draft of this story was originally serialized on Literotica—an erotic literature website—under the title *Angels, Demons, and Alex* between September 2010 and February 2011. Compared to this draft, the published version removed the epilogue, removed or shortened several sex scenes, changed a lot of the stereotypically pornographic language from the remaining sex scenes, and dropped one minor plotline. The prose is also better edited and tightened up, a few scenes switched places, and a few characters changed name. The main plot of the book remains wholly unchanged.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 13
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 16
3. ↑  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 14
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 6
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 17
6. ↑  *Natural Consequences*, chapter 17
7. ↑  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 19
8. ↑ “Amends”
9. ↑  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 2
10. ↑ *Days of High Adventure*
11. ↑  ***Good Intentions***, chapter 8
12. ↑ Go Ahead. Judge This Book By It's Cover. I Don't Mind., Elliott Kay’s blog, June 7, 2013
13. ↑ Progress, Updates, and Goodies, Elliott Kay’s blog, September 26, 2013
14. ↑ About That Oft-Rumored “Original” Version..., Elliott Kay’s blog, January 31, 2013