A note on butt plugs....

Just finished reading Playing the Field by Sophie Oak and Chloe Lang.  I don't think I can review it.  I'm not a prude.  I mean my blog's title is a tribute to my vibrator and alcohol.  But.  Oh.  My.  God.  That was waaaaaaaaaay out of my league!

So I don't feel like I can review it as a romance because I think of a romance as something a little more traditional... one on one.  This was something..... different.  1, 2, 3 and sometimes 5 men at a time and not the one on one happy ending that one would expect of even erotic romance.

There were butt plugs and anal sex and spanking and submission and group sex and leg spreaders... holy crap.  I learned a little about BDSM and female submission and all sorts of alternative lifestyles.  I also learned that I have a hard time keeping up with who belongs to what body part in group sex scenes.

So again, I don't feel like I can really judge it on the same rules as I do what I normally read so I'll just give my basics:

• Written in third person with multiple POV, seriously, many multiple POV and angles and... um... orifices.
• Attractive, successful woman (who has body issues that you don't really get into until the middle of the book) and multiple alpha males/professional athletes.
• While I may be saying it's not even an erotic romance... technically it is:  story line focuses on a love story (just not a "normal" one), characters meet early on and there is a happy ending.  Several happy endings.
• Not for the faint of heart.
• Not to be read at work unless you want your employees to ask you if you brought a fresh pair of panties.  True story.

For what it was I would give it two thumbs up but I think that would be inappropriate but I think I'm too embarrassed to say what's actually pointing upwards, but apparently there are 5 of them.

Holy Guacamole! Where are my cigarettes? A review of Indulgent Pleasures by Karen Erickson

I think my face might be red but I'm smiling!  This was my first trip into erotic romance and I LIKED IT!
I'm a contemporary romance kind of girl.  My favorite authors are probably Jennifer Crusie and Rachel Gibson.  If those two are filet mignon and lobster then Karen Erickson is a giant piece of chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and hot fudge and chocolate sprinkles.  And then maybe some more fudge.
I don't know what I expected from Indulgent Pleasures.  I have to admit that I stumbled upon it and probably would not have bought it except it was only 99 cents.  I think I assumed that I'd get some great sex scenes but that I would be sacrificing the story.  But I got the story too!
The basic idea is:  She is a reporter, he is a famous former baseball player that is media shy (of course).  She is researching women's sexual fantasies and wants to try some out and he is a willing participant.  I'm sure you can figure out where the sex scenes come in.
If you like contemporary romance should you read it:  Yes!  Obviously if the sex scenes in a Susan Andersen book make you uncomfortable then don't, but if every now and then you want a little more but don't want to sacrifice the story then this is what you want.
What I'm looking for:

• Written in third person with multiple points of view.  For most of the book it was written with his/hers POV but towards the end we get the POV of two lesser characters.  I understood why it happened but it threw me off a little to get that only at the end.
• OK... cover your ears (or eyes) if you don't want "language" but it was actually a little refreshing to see a phrase like "her pussy was wet" instead of "her womanly center was glistening with desire".
• I may have been too turned on to notice but I'm pretty sure I didn't see the word "throb" at all.
• My only real complaint, and it's not really a complaint, was that it was long.  756 pages on my nook. I am often disappointed at the end of a book because I wanted more but I think I, personally, want something longer than 400 pages but shorter than this.  I am a girl with a limited attention span!  I was anxious to find out what happened!

In short, I will be reading more Karen Erickson and probably more erotic romance in general. Can I live off chocolate cake?  No.  I still love steak and lobster but I know where to get dessert now!