After having read Lori Foster’s Jamie, I was in a book buying mood, so I immediately went to EC and purchased Sexy Sweet: Triple Play by Rhyannon Byrd.
I have actually read a book by Ms Byrd in the past, (when I first discovered EC), but I still recall being bemused at the amount of time the hero and heroine spent in bed. A strange comment you may think, but you need to read the book and you’ll understand what I mean.
Because it’s been months since I read Waiting For It, I decided to have another look at Ms Byrd’s offerings, so of course I went and purchased Triple Play.
Now the blurb sounded great (as did ‘Waiting for it’) so I read an excerpt, and thought, yeah, I’m gonna buy!
So I bought. And I read. And I read.
Here’s my standard blurb:
Girl Assistant has been in love with her boss for years but despairs that he’ll ever notice her, as anything other than his overweight (the wording in the book is actually lush, I’ll use overweight) assistant.
Boy Boss has lusted after Girl Assistant for years, but he has a guilty secret, which weighs heavily on his mind, and he thinks that he’s not worthy of Girl Assistant.
Attractive Third Wheel is the best friend of Boy Boss, and knows that he is secretly in love with Girl Assistant.
Thus on Boy Boss’s 35th Birthday, Attractive Third Wheel gives him a ‘present’ that will change his life forever.
A Menage A trois follows.
Girl Assistant, Boy Boss, and Attractive Third Wheel then proceed to shag each other to within an inch of their lives.
Again.
And Again
And again
Attractive Third Wheel eventually leaves, and Girl Assistant and Boy Boss live happily ever after.
Seriously, that’s the book. Nothing else happens, nada, nil, zero, zilch. NOTHING!
They started having sex on page 67, and didn’t finish until half way down page 266. The hero and the heroine then spoke for a while, this is when the he told the her about his past. Then they had the obligatory after-secret-revelation-shag.
What the hell? I know this is an erotic romance book, but they didn’t do ANYTHING ELSE, other than swap saliva, go down on each other, moan a lot, penetrate various holes, shoot out enough come to fill the Pacific Ocean, and every now and then tell us what an emotional event this was for them.
This book had the potential to be a wonderful book, but unfortunately it fell short due to one major thing. The ménage a trois that just lasted too damn long.
The book was technically excellent, the author had a fantastic way with words, she had the ability to wring out every kind of emotion from her characters, and make them believable, but there just needed to be a little more going on.
The most intriguing character was The Attractive Third Wheel, and if there had been a bit more in terms of plot, I probably would have looked forward to reading about his adventures next (I’m sure Ms Byrd will write his story at some point) but as it is, I’ll probably give it a miss, cuz as much as I like reading about people having sex, I like them to do other stuff too.
So sorry Rhyannon, great writing, but 200 consecutive pages of nothing but sex, gets a little boring after a while.
This is just my opinion obviously, so if anybody has read this book, and had a different take on it, please feel free to comment.
Anne
June 13
2:36 pm
Thanks for pointing this out Karen! I’d have been pissed had I bought this book and it had nothing but sex in it. I like a little romance with my sex… oh, and a decent plot.
Nicole
June 13
4:41 pm
I think that’s what’s driving me nuts lately with erotic romance, just too much sex and not enough plot. I’m all for great sex, but please, give me a good plot!!!! And if they’re always shagging, how am I to believe that they’ll have a HEA in the “real” world outside the bed? Page after page might be well-written and arousing, but when that’s it for the book, I’m left feeling pretty darn unfulfilled.
Sam
June 13
6:18 pm
This kind of feedback is really useful to us authors! I think it’s a good idea to start with a story and then add the sex.
🙂
Mel
June 13
11:25 pm
In my opinion it’s books like these that give erotic romance a bad name. This sounds more like erotica, than a romance.
Thanks for the heads up Karen.
Karen Scott
June 14
4:08 pm
Anne, it was a real shame about this book, because I think Ryhannon could have made it wonderful if she’d only added a bit more story to it.
Nicole, that’s just how I feel about the whole thing, if they stay in bed constantly, how do they know they’re compatible outside it?
Sam, no doubt there’ll be at least one rabid RB fan that I’ve offended, who’ll rush off and tell her that a miscreant has been slagging her book off, but I have to tell it, like I see it.
Besides if I’d written to her complaining about her characters doing nothing else but shagging in Waiting For It, she might not have done the same thing again…. although, I doubt it somehow (grin)
Karen Scott
June 14
4:10 pm
Mel, I’m not sure about giving Erotic romance a bad name, but there definitely should have been more substance to the story.
Rocio
June 14
4:37 pm
When I started reading romance, the books sex scenes always let me wanting for more, and when new sex up line of book start to show up..I thought “fulfillment at last!”..But I was wrong, finding a good read is as hard as ever is not worse. MOst of the erotic romance seems to be develop with a sex scene as the main topic (menage, anal sex or whatever!)..But even more than that, sometimes I feel like there were some kind of competition of who wrote the most agrssive, weird, risque, unimaginable sex scene!!! So, I often find myself longing for a lot more “normal” sex between two believable characters and that it actually mean and add something to the story and not the other way around. Am I asking for too much? Or am I too old fashioned?
Destruction Angel
June 14
7:06 pm
I’ve read a Rhyannon Byrd, though not this one, and I agree.
It’s basically sex scene after sex scene after sex scene. Which is not to say Ms Byrd doesn’t write good sex scenes, but that people do get bored after all.
Anonymous
June 15
4:34 am
I dunno, Karen. I love Rhyannon. I just love to have a nice long wallow in all those wonderful words and emotions and feelings so is so very good at. She DOES write good sex and her stories never lack romance AND you can’t help but fall in love with her men, they’re SOOOO passionate, LOLOL!
Have you taken a look at the story she’s writing in her newsetter, PureMagick?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PureMagick
madi
Karen Scott
June 17
3:40 pm
Ro, no you’re not old fashioned, if you have sex with no other interaction in a book, then you shouldn’t be surprised if sooner or later, somebody labels it porn.
Destruction Angel, 200 pages of sex is an awful lot, who the hell isn’t gonna get bored by that? Also, if you were reading it purely for the sexual stimultaion, surely it wouldn’t take 200 pages to get your rocks off?
Madi, RB had a good ‘voice’ but the story just wasn’t there for me. I already read Waiting For It, last summer, I was annoyed by the amount of sex then, and by God, I was annoyed by exactly the same thing this time, so I’m thinking maybe that’s her writing style, thus I will not be purchasing any more of her books.