fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2012-12-17 07:04 am
some_stars) wrote2012-12-17 07:04 am
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So via a complex series of coincidences, I ended up purchasing some semi-mainstream erotica e-books! What happened is, someone (I forget who, perhaps you?) linked to Jennifer Armintrout's readthrough of 50 Shades of Grey, and I started to read them, and at one point she mentions that she's working on a book about gay baseball players who have a lot of sex with each other. And I thought, hey, I've heard of that book! Which actually I was thinking of something else, but by then I was on her porn-writing pseudonym's webpage, reading summaries of all her books, several of which are M/F/M (with actual threesome content, not just extra heterosexual dick to go around). And as we all know, M/F/M is my happiest of happy places.
I still probably wouldn't have braved the waters of direct-to-ebook straight lady porn, but I was about to have the ten hour rehearsal, and at the time it looked like there was going to be three hours of dead time in the middle. So I wanted something light to read, and also literally light, as in something I could put on my new used Kindle. And they were cheap, being ebook-only books. So I got four, two M/M and two M/F/M. I've now read one of each, and the gay one (which was actually M/M/M) was pretty unceasingly dreadful, with only one good scene and a couple more good lines. But the M/F/M one, Ravenous, was...well, it's not great, and the M/F sex scenes are mostly dull as anything, and the first third or so is remarkably heteronormative. Or I guess not remarkably, since this isn't actually queer erotica, it's by a straight woman for straight women.
But! I kept reading! I actually finished the whole thing, staying up too late two nights in a row to do so (not that it's long; the printed length is about a hundred pages--I just can't focus on reading during the day mostly). Two of the characters get really interesting, and while the third is much more of a straight-up cliche he's still enjoyable. There's two really hot M/M scenes, one of which has the female character being a voyeur, and a great threesome scene full of feelings and anal. Which is really all I ask from my original small-press erotica ebooks. Unfortunately all the lady sex is described with terms like "her petals" and "her pearl," but in this life we cannot have everything. And some of the M/F scenes might work fine for other people. Actually, come to think of it, there is one M/F sex scene I really like, although technically no one has sex in it, but there's public masturbation so I feel confident in labeling it as such. And both the M/F relationships are good, sex aside; one is wonderful.
I was very, very wary at the hints (and occasional flat-out statements) in the first half or so that the M/M relationship was less meaningful than, and secondary to, the two M/F relationships. The last time I read a book that promised bisexual pirates, it ended up being about a noble hetero couple and the evil queer who tries to destroy them. I really really did not want to go there again. And there's some really uncomfortable stuff here, stuff that makes it excruciatingly clear that this setup is a heterosexual female fantasy and the male fantasy objects' desire for the woman must always come first.
But this got better in two ways. First, by the two-thirds point or thereabouts, the one dude realizes and eventually says that he loves the other dude just as much as the lady. And second, because the other dude, who I was worried was going to become the evil queer (or at least the tragic queer), is just such a delightful, complicated character, and for all that I'm usually screaming about ~context matters~, I really love his story arc despite the uncomfortable cliches--even more now without the threat of evil/tragedy hanging over my head. I really love the lady character's story arc too, for that matter; she also spends the first third-ish of the book making me wonder why the hell I paid even $3.44 for this, but then she gets amazing.
Clearly, I am recommending this book. I do this both because I want you to be happy, and because I am DYING for fic. I wish I'd read it three months earlier, because I wouldn't have been able to stop myself signing up for Yuletide just to request it. The story is just wide open for prequels and sequels; I'm already writing two of them in my head, although that's probably where they'll stay because blaaaah writing is haaaaaard. But fandom could do SO MUCH with this book. It's cheap and a quick read and it will most likely improve your life. If you don't have a Kindle, I know there are free programs that can convert Kindle format ebooks into formats other ereaders can use, or that can be read on the computer, and I would be happy to locate these for you. :D? :D?
I still probably wouldn't have braved the waters of direct-to-ebook straight lady porn, but I was about to have the ten hour rehearsal, and at the time it looked like there was going to be three hours of dead time in the middle. So I wanted something light to read, and also literally light, as in something I could put on my new used Kindle. And they were cheap, being ebook-only books. So I got four, two M/M and two M/F/M. I've now read one of each, and the gay one (which was actually M/M/M) was pretty unceasingly dreadful, with only one good scene and a couple more good lines. But the M/F/M one, Ravenous, was...well, it's not great, and the M/F sex scenes are mostly dull as anything, and the first third or so is remarkably heteronormative. Or I guess not remarkably, since this isn't actually queer erotica, it's by a straight woman for straight women.
But! I kept reading! I actually finished the whole thing, staying up too late two nights in a row to do so (not that it's long; the printed length is about a hundred pages--I just can't focus on reading during the day mostly). Two of the characters get really interesting, and while the third is much more of a straight-up cliche he's still enjoyable. There's two really hot M/M scenes, one of which has the female character being a voyeur, and a great threesome scene full of feelings and anal. Which is really all I ask from my original small-press erotica ebooks. Unfortunately all the lady sex is described with terms like "her petals" and "her pearl," but in this life we cannot have everything. And some of the M/F scenes might work fine for other people. Actually, come to think of it, there is one M/F sex scene I really like, although technically no one has sex in it, but there's public masturbation so I feel confident in labeling it as such. And both the M/F relationships are good, sex aside; one is wonderful.
I was very, very wary at the hints (and occasional flat-out statements) in the first half or so that the M/M relationship was less meaningful than, and secondary to, the two M/F relationships. The last time I read a book that promised bisexual pirates, it ended up being about a noble hetero couple and the evil queer who tries to destroy them. I really really did not want to go there again. And there's some really uncomfortable stuff here, stuff that makes it excruciatingly clear that this setup is a heterosexual female fantasy and the male fantasy objects' desire for the woman must always come first.
But this got better in two ways. First, by the two-thirds point or thereabouts, the one dude realizes and eventually says that he loves the other dude just as much as the lady. And second, because the other dude, who I was worried was going to become the evil queer (or at least the tragic queer), is just such a delightful, complicated character, and for all that I'm usually screaming about ~context matters~, I really love his story arc despite the uncomfortable cliches--even more now without the threat of evil/tragedy hanging over my head. I really love the lady character's story arc too, for that matter; she also spends the first third-ish of the book making me wonder why the hell I paid even $3.44 for this, but then she gets amazing.
Clearly, I am recommending this book. I do this both because I want you to be happy, and because I am DYING for fic. I wish I'd read it three months earlier, because I wouldn't have been able to stop myself signing up for Yuletide just to request it. The story is just wide open for prequels and sequels; I'm already writing two of them in my head, although that's probably where they'll stay because blaaaah writing is haaaaaard. But fandom could do SO MUCH with this book. It's cheap and a quick read and it will most likely improve your life. If you don't have a Kindle, I know there are free programs that can convert Kindle format ebooks into formats other ereaders can use, or that can be read on the computer, and I would be happy to locate these for you. :D? :D?
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