The ecstasy and the agony of sexual obsession...
584906
If you want nothing but a sexual fantasy from your erotica, this book may not be to your taste. Cassie Caine certainly delivers the eroticism. The scenes of sexual excess are wild, sweaty and dangerous. That's the key word here. We may revel in the debauchery, but we also worry about the welfare of the lead character. Caine captures perfectly both the ecstasy and the agony of sexual obsession in this tale of Crystal, a psychologically fragile woman who fetishises men's belts and what a man can use them to do to her body. She is the kept woman of a man who knows how to give her the most intense pleasure but who looks on her more as a possession than a person. A handsome hero may come to her rescue, but he has his own demons. There are plenty of books which cynically exploit the concept of women being treated sadistically. And there are even more which romanticise sado-masochistic relationships. This book is a rarity in taking neither of these approaches. It is both brutal and compassionate. Rough sex and strappings are to Crystal what cocaine is to other characters in the story. With her we enjoy the rush, but know that it can be a dangerous addiction if it continues to undermine her self-esteem and autonomy.
1288535
This book"s tales take you into a erotic escapade where your mind body and soul become aroused craving each word ast if they're  tasty morsels for your sexual appetite.
1649674
A somewhat difficult read as the English terminology was somewhat confusing at times for American readers. The story parallels the struggle of many who suffer through their sexual inclination as well as the consequences of promiscuous sex, despite how justified they think it is.
1800149
I have never read anything so preoccupied with intimate sexual acts.  It is if there was nothing else in life but sexual gratification.
4181308
...ok, I simply have to say a few words about this book. I was a repressed teen. Had fantasies but felt shameful, dirty, weird. I don't even recall how it was that I found myself in a bookstore thumbing through this book, but I felt SO aroused and...more to the point, LIBERATED..and validated. I wasn't alone in my "weird" fantasies! . I left the store with red ears and a throbbing pulse. Took me many weeks ( maybe it even was months..I don't really remember now, as it was a lot of years ago!) to go back and shame-facedly purchase the book. I won't go into detail here, but suffice it to say, certain pages were dog eared..for many years. ( other pages were never even looked at twice)  That one book was the key that opened me up to being a very sexually open and expressive woman. Bravo. Lisa in CT
3285086
CURIOSITY KILLS THE CAT. OR, IN MY CASE, PREVENTS SLEEP. THE REASON? I CANNOT POSSIBLY REST WHEN I HAVENT LEARNED THE OUTCOME OF A STIMULATING STORY. AND, LET ME TELL YOU MY FELLOW INTROVERTS, THIS BOOK IS A ROLLER-COASTER ON THE TABOO TRAIN. TOOT-TOOT! BUCKLE UP AND GET READY FOR A WILD RIDE.

IN ALL HONESTY, IM A LOVER OF HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE. I RELISH THE KINKY AND EVEN THE UNSPEAKABLE. HOWEVER, I CRAVE THE INTIMATE EXPERIENCE OF TWO UNLIKELY PEOPLE UNABLE TO RESIST THEIR ATTRACTION. THAT MOMENT WHEN THEY SUBMIT TO THEIR MUTUAL PASSIONS NOT ONLY GIVES ME A HIGH, IT MAKES ME FEEL HOPEFUL THAT LOVE EXISTS. 30755704THAT BOND IS WHAT MAKES THE SENSUALLY EXPLICIT COME TO LIFE FOR ME. WHY AM I SAYING THIS? I SAY THIS BECAUSE EROTIC ROMANCE IS NOT IN MY WHEEL HOUSE. AND NO, IM NOT A PRUDE. ITS SIMPLY THAT I DONT FEEL THE SAME HEART-WRENCHING CONNECTION WITH EROTIC ROMANCE AS I DO WITH HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY.

IM SURE BY NOW YOU MUST BE WONDERING WHY I DECIDED TO REVIEW THE RED. THE ANSWER IS ID READ A WONDERFUL REVIEW OF THE BOOK THAT PIQUED MY INTEREST AND I APPLIED TO READ THE BOOK BASED ON THAT INDIVIDUALS REVIEW. I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED, EITHER. MS. REISZ COULDNT HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB OF PENNING AN EROTIC JOURNEY OF SEXUAL EXPLOITS. SHE INCLUDED A MYSTERIOUS ELEMENT THAT KEEP ME GLUED TO THE PAGE. HER DETAIL-ORIENTED WRITING STYLE MADE ME FEEL AS IF I WERE A VOYEUR. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE ULTIMATE ESCAPE, READ THE RED. IN MY OPINION, THIS LUST-FILLED EROTIC ADVENTURE WILL KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT WITH ITS OVER-THE-TOP SINFUL FANTASIES.

HAPPY READING!

SYNOPSIS:

MONA LISA ST. JAMES IS BALANCING ON THE EDGE OF FINANCIAL RUIN AFTER INHERITING HER MOTHERS ART GALLERY. WHEN A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER OFFERS TO SAVE THE GALLERY IN EXCHANGE FOR A YEAR OF CART BLANCH SEXUAL EXPLOITS WITH MONA, SHE AGREES TO BECOME HIS WHORE. IT ISNT LONG BEFORE THE HANDSOME ENGLISHMAN HAS MONA SUBMITTING TO HIS EVERY DESIRE.
228518
With revealing and introspective first-person narration, the plot follows conventional methods. The characters are skillfully delineated in the exposition; the central conflict lies within the Tiffanie herself as she considers using her body to gain intimacy and only later realizes that this supposed sexual satisfaction is, in fact, exacting a heavy price. The reader is taken steadily toward a moment of truthfulness, when she finally reveals the reason for her pain. The story does not ends abruptly, though there is a denouement that satisfies and leaves one believing in the power confronting evil. Moreover, readers are left wondering if she has confronted the very thing she fears.

Despite intentions to remain emotionally removed from their story, Tiffanie and Damon move subtly into self-reflection. Each begins searching for understanding and meaning. Though, she languishes in sorrow and he embraces rationality, if only momentarily. This more honest tone takes over the story as Tiffanies mood becomes confessional, revealing pain and loneliness rather than a flat recounting. Murray wants readers to see that for this sexually unsatisfied Christian wife, self-awareness follows and is a consequence of impetuous, self-damaging actions. Enter Trey, the novels antagonist and a scholar of the streets and lust. Tiffanie is faced with the ultimate choice. The choice between the hearth (home) or the furnace (Trey), and uncharacteristic of a preachers grandchild, she wants both. While managing to only share the details with her best friend, she begins to recoil from the destructive desire she develops for Trey. When Tiffanie realizes her love for Damon exceeds the confines of sexual fulfillment, she realizes she is merely the victim of her mothers faults and almost curses the day she was born. Appearing to be a slave to lust and the mistress of repression, Tiffanie struggles between the two facets of her character. However, this pattern of restlessness, dissatisfaction, and emotional destruction continues until she finally realizes is happening.

What Murray seems to do in Lust is construct a kind of summary of sexuality, in which she attempts to integrate sex with other aspects of human experience. Moreover, lust is used here as a metaphor for the human condition. The human longing for relational passion is the central doctrine. It is a source of both aspiration and destruction, the most fundamental ingredient for survival and, in the struggle between license and restraint, the means by which human beings exercise their freedom.

Exquisitely and powerfully, Murray presents the story of a young womans effort to face a family secret that has held her emotionally hostage, preventing her from arriving at both sexual and romantic happiness.

Upon delving further into the story, I believe it portrays a dissatisfaction almost inherent in the lives of women  the inability to experience passion and peace and the ephemerality of marital (or relational bliss) in the midst of emotional turmoil. The explicitness and concern with a womans sexual satisfaction, and subsequent relinquishment of her heart, exists in Lust, but Murray is less intent on rendering the reader into shock through blatant exhibitionism.

Murray renders, though will all the delicacy and appropriateness required of Christian fiction readers, the reader to see Tiffanie as one of us. She is not a warped, lustful woman wrapped in her own self-imprisonment; but, a woman (our sister, daughter, or best friend) whose initial avoidance of love reveals the tragic-comic dimensions of our own lives and the subsequent effect of lust.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
4093957
In THE PROFESSOR OF DESIRE, Roth intertwines three subjects. These are the academic travails and career of professor David Kepesh; the struggle between the professor's lustful nature and his search for love in marriage; and the simultaneous closeness and distance that exists between the sophisticated professor Kepesh and his parents, who owned a hotel in the Catskills.

For each of these subjects, Roth shows a professor Kepesh who is highly conflicted. As a lustful young Fulbright scholar, for example, Kepesh connects to two Swedish college students. As a mnage a trois, they push the boundaries of sex, expressing a need deep in David. But in doing so, Kepesh loses his academic focus and becomes obsessed with the anguish the mnage inflicts on one partner. Later, Kepesh marries Helen, who is an image of female perfection and an apparent solution to his sexual and marital desires. But Helen is unhappy in mundane marriage and tortures David, makes him impotent, and causes him to behave strangely with his pupils. Ultimately, Kepesh is able to sublimate his intense sexual drive, creating a great-books course where sex is the preoccupation of each author. But such sophistication separates him from his salt-of-the-earth parents. And, it does nothing to accommodate professor Kepesh to the ordinariness of a steady relationship and mature love.

TPOD is an engrossing book but ultimately very sad, with Kepesh identifying dynamics in his life that resemble the literature of Chekov--where characters are quietly unsatisfied--and Kafka--where a blocked and distorted sexuality often energizes the narrative. Says the professor of desire: "And this life I love and have hardly gotten to know! And robbed by whom? It always comes down to myself!"
806297
With this his eighth book, award-winning poet, novelist and memoirist Rigoberto Gonzlez brings us an unapologetically erotic and, at times, brutal homage to Gay relationships in all their permutations. In the title poem, the narrator contemplates the inherent danger--and exhilaration--of meeting a man at a bar: "I dance, I drink, I follow. / I can trust a man without clothes. / Naked he conceals no weapons, no threat / but the blood in his erection." There's the surprise of finding a lover who has a button fetish in "Breads That Hunger": "He yanks each piece of / plastic with his teeth and swallows it, then inserts the / cusp of his tongue into the buttonhole." And yes, there are unabashed love poems with erotic tributes such as these first lines from "In Praise of the Mouth": "Your throat, moan-cluttered, opens / like a desert's flower." But in "Body, Anti-Body," there can also be disillusionment when boredom sets in: "His lust became wallpaper- / tame after only a year / in his bed." In all, Gonzlez offers us tough, as nothing less than essential and unified elements of life.  [This review first appeared in the MultiCultural Review.]
2607614
The protagonist is a wannabe sexual masochist (male), longing to be dominated by a beautiful cruel sex-goddess.  He meets his dream girl (Venus) who he slowly seduces into (reluctantly) satisfying his masochistic sexual desires.  Venus is hesitant at first, then really begins to enjoy the role of cruel dominatrix, to the point that she makes him her total slave.  Eventually her sadism far surpass his masochism, causing him to re-think his lust-affair with masochism. In the end he decides that maybe things would have worked out better if he had whipped her into submission, instead of the other way around.

This book is not in any way spiritual, unless paganism is your religion.
2773568
Elegantly Naked In My Sexy Mental Illness.
A Review by Mikel K

The title of this book was enough to raise curiosity in me and make me want to read it: Elegantly Naked In My Sexy Mental Illness. Was this book about sex? Was it about mental illness?

Had the author come to some correlation between the two of them? It turns out that the book is a collection of eighteen amazing short stories, mostly bizarre in some fashion or other, all titillating and fun.

 In the first story, The Handlicker, the protagonist, a guy named Evan, is good in bed, but he is not too good mentally. This is the story where the book gets its title from. According to Evan he he picked a womans pussy better than a thief did a lock. The love of Evans life has blown him off as the story gets started, but the story has a happy ending when Evan finds new love in the library with a blind gal. I would like you to tell me when to take my medicine, Evan says to his new lover.

Losing Married Women, is the story of a gay woman who speciailizes in picking up married women.

Speak To Me With Tenderness Howard Sun, Is the story of a woman of a man and a woman who work in the same office. The man seems to have a crush on the woman, even creating multiple Facebook personalities to contact her through.  Lisa gets tired of Howards mamby pamby courting of her and comes right out and asks him if he wants to sleep with her. She never sees Howard again and misses him madly.

 Taking Celine, is a weird and uncomfortable story about Celine who is getting banged regularly by Harry. Celine is a patient in a mental hospital and Harry is her shrink.  Author Heather Fowler has a very vivid and crazed mind!

Blood, Hunger, Child, is another uncomfortable story about a woman whose baby is still born, and since the mother and her lover are starving to death, she decides to cook the dead baby. Heather, where do you get these ideas?!

Ever, hits close to reality. Caroline Light is frantic because she is being stalked by an ex-boyfriend and no one will believe her. The ex slits her throat.

Con Vola, is a story about a weird college professor who loves a burlap doll and gets fascinated with his housekeeper who is aware of his relationship with his doll.

I could go through the remaining short stories, but I am going to leave that for you to do. The remaining short stories are as amazing and amazingly bizarre as the ones that I have related to you. Heather Fowler is an amazing talent. She is the best short story writer who I have come across since Thom Jones.  Pick up a copy of this book for your own self. You won't be disappointed I assure you.

Buy the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Elegantly-Naked-Sexy-Mental-Illness/dp/1938466284

Heather Fowler's website:

 http://www.heatherfowlerwrites.com/
594655
Oh, where to begin with this heap of libelous garbage?

I'll be reviewing the first edition of the book because it was the one I snatched up as a teenager after finding it in the free section of a used bookstore.  As an asexual young person eager to learn about the obsession that the other ninety-nine percent of the human population harbored, I thought that Reuben's well-known bestseller would serve its promised purpose.  The introduction asserted that no one could "live up to his human potential" without having an active, healthy sex life, which should have been my first hint that the author was writing with an agenda in mind.  I don't know what the more recent edition says about transsexuals, and, for personal reasons, I don't want to know.)

Well, it's been over forty years, and EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX: BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK has become more and more risible as more time passes.  From start to finish, EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX is a transparent attempt to convince the reader to practice vanilla-flavored marital intercourse to the exclusion of all other forms of sex.  The descriptions of the male and female sexual organs, as simple anatomy lessons, are exempt.  The chapter titled "Male Homosexuality" is particularly notorious for insisting that gay men are prone to anonymous hookups in public bathrooms, cannot live together lovingly ("The bitterest argument between husband and wife is a passionate love sonnet compared to the average conversation between a butch and his queen"), can be "cured" of their homosexuality by visiting psychiatrists, and, most bizarrely, get pleasure from penetrating themselves with foreign objects such as fruit and shot glasses.  The "Prostitution" chapter is similarly defamatory--it is the only section of the book that discusses female homosexuality, and asserts that the lesbians who become prostitutes do it to take the money of the men they despise and infect them with diseases.  Reuben bestows his blessing upon oral sex between a man and a woman but cautions them that they may have "emotional problems" if they prefer it to intercourse.  "The ideal sex act" adds procreation to pleasure and an emotional connection, according to him.  Yes, he actually uses the phrase "ideal sex act."  Plato may or may not be proud.  Modern readers will also note that the book is totally innocent of the concepts of fisting, lesbian sadomasochism, and heterosexual anal sex.

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX does offer some entertainment value: the "interviews" from medical clients who are obviously the author's inventions provide most of the laughs.  A prostitute visited in the daytime by a stingy john apparently dealt with him by saying, "What do you think this, the kiddie matinee?  You can come over here for half price but you only get half a screw!"  If you wish that your sex manuals of choice had the tone of judgmental sitcoms, this book may be to your liking.  Just put "Reproduction" from GREASE 2 on repeat, and you'll be all set for an evening of stern lectures against almost every conceivable sex act.  Otherwise, stay very, very far away from this thinly disguised propaganda.
1869395
I'm not even sure the best way to summarize this book without taking anything away from your own individual reading experience. It's an introspective study of Elle, a woman who has perfected the art of keeping her act together despite the odds of her past conspiring against her. Elle meets Dan in a candy store, and she finds herself unable to put him out of her mind, despite the fact they exchanged only words. When they run into each other again weeks later, she's torn between protecting herself and allowing herself to feel something. She's determined to cut out emotional attachment like some sort of cancer, and, intrigued, Dan agrees to come along for the ride. What results is a tormented exploration into unknown territory for the both of them.

Dirty is, by far, my top pick of Megan Hart's work. It's an intense study about both the physical and emotional aspects of relationships, and not just romantic ones. It is, in my mind, a perfect example of erotic literature. Yes, literature. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for something that will take you on a sensual and complicated journey.
2086585
Oh my God! I have NEVER read a book like this before. I am enthralled with the talent of this author. While I have definitely experienced the physicality and emotions associated with the sexual act, this author has totally blown my mind! I have finally experienced, for lack of a better description, a mental orgasm. I laughed, smoldered, ached, burned, got angry, got confused, felt evil, felt purity, felt used, felt loved. I even cried.

Angels, demons, Vampyre, humans, God, choices, free will, deception, honesty, evil, purity...all are included in this book. It is a stand alone book, yet is the beginning of a series. It is a full length book, yet I was so gripped by the tale, that I read it in less than 24 hours.

Fallen angels who dare to hope for redemption. They find it in the human woman who demands entry into Pravus, a bar she stumbles upon. She has no clue of who they are, but her intuition tells her to beware. They all want her and will try anything to gain her trust so that she may choose. Throughout her intense journey, she learns more than she thought she could fathom. Self discovery is filled with pleasure, torment, confusion, love, lust, pain, fear, insanity, blistering coldness and searing heat. What or who will she choose? Read the book to find out.

Sexually graphic: Mature readers only.
2415245
I'm lost to all of it.  The feelings, the control, the deceit, heaven forbid ... Love!? It's mostly addicting. I need that next book.
4912646
I don't know about many of our listeners, but I look at the world we live in today and cant help but feel how ugly its becoming. With each passing day theres a heightened anxiety when I walk outside around other people, and I don't like it. Maybe thats why I was constantly finding myself relating to Michael Friday, the pissed off, art historian and psychotic anti-hero in Barbie Wildes highly disturbing and sexy crime novel, The Venus Complex.

The story begins with Michael starting a daily journal to cope with his recent downfall into depression after the death of his wife Angie in a car accident. Surprisingly, in the first entry he confesses that he drove the car into a tree on purpose because she was having an affair with one of his best friends. Its not much of a loss since he didn't care for her that much anyway. Afterwards, hes left with severe head trauma which causes him to experience perverse dreams ranging from memories of his sad childhood to having sex with dead women. With each new entry, Michaels mental state slowly begins to breakdown into a silent rage that only gets worse through lack of sex and the continuing deterioration of the civilized world. Thats until he meets a woman by the name of Elene Sheppard, a psychologist who helps the police with profiling serial killers. He becomes obsessed with her. Shes going to be his new project, so he can have a reason to live again. But when she declines to take him on as a new patient, he snaps.

So, whats the only thing a potential psychopath can do when they don't get what they want? Well, become one of course. Barbie Wilde does an excellent job of creating a psychopath with a psychosis thats more sophisticated than your typical killer. Instead of creating a Hannibal Lector or Patrick Bateman clone, shes made Michael a more artistic serial killer that who uses the goddess of love Venus to create a series of murders that he wants to stand for something. I compare him to the sadistic murderer John Doe from David Finchers classic horror film Se7en. The only difference between them is that Michael is into kinky sex. Lots of it. Wilde doesnt hold back on the eroticism here. The sex gets juicy in certain passages. Its only when Wilde starts to throw murder into the mix, that it all turns bizarre and sinister. Make no mistake, Michaels one sick puppy when he carries out his killings.

She also creates very horrific, sexual imagery when it comes to Michaels dreams. One of my favorites is when he imagines himself as superhero serial killer and he has to save Elene from the Devil. Her description of Satan is one of the most unique Ive read in quite sometime.

While the sex and death elements are certainly disturbing, the parts that I found getting under my skin were the rants Michael would write about concerning the decline of our civilization. To put it simply, he thinks mankind is going to the pits and I couldn't agree more. These sections of the book made it hard for me to read because of the truth of how stupid humans can be sometimes. Or maybe all the time? I found that much scarier than anything Michael did to his victims. But, maybe Im being too serious? Wilde does inject enough humor throughout the story to make sure it doesnt become all gloom and doom. Some of Michaels rants on the decline of humanity had me in stitches. Jesus Christ, do we really need books on dating?

Overall, The Venus Complex is a solid piece of storytelling that has a lot more on its mind than murder and sex. Also, I don't want our listeners to think Im agree with Michaels actions. I don't believe in them at all, but if you look at the subtext of some of his entries, I believe Michael is pleading with humanity to get over itself and be happy with the simple things in life. Now, that I can agree with.

HIGHLY RECOMMENED!

The Venus Complex is published by Comet Press and is available as a paperback and Kindle on all the Amazons, etc. Its also soon to be an audio book narrated by Doug Hellraisers Pinhead Bradley.
2370323
...who was responsible for the filth and degeneracy is society and the pure poison that was and IS affecting my generation and surely the one coming after me. Besides pushing this filth, they are literally rewiring our brains to only be able to become aroused to porn and not our significant others. The long term implications for societal health is dire when you see the long term strategy of these vermin.