Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Down And Dirty

Since Memorial Day is often seen as the "unofficial" first day of summer, I thought I'd take a break from review books and read something truly trashy. Since the last erotically-bent (that sounds a bit kinky) book I read was a disappointment - I thought I'd dive into a Black Lace novel - Queen Of The Road by Lois Phoenix.

Now, everybody's idea of "erotic" is different - but frankly, I have yet to read anything in erotic romance that makes me go "ewwww." To get on my true smutty fix, I always go to Black Lace. I can relay on their authors to push the envelope, and often times I find a good trashy plot to go along with all the naughty reindeer games.

Queen Of The Road is currently holding the distinction of being the filthiest (and I mean this in a good way) erotic novel I've ever read. I mean, there were a couple of scenes that had me going "ewwww" and trust me when I say not a whole lot presses my ick buttons. Truly. I've long adopted the belief that as long as it involves consenting adults, no one comes to harm, and it's done in the privacy of their own home - well have at it!

Which I guess puts me in the running for the World's Most Open-Minded Librarian.

Anyway - the story. Toni Marconi is a Los Angeles private eye who has been hired to find a runaway heiress. That seems simple enough, except the heiress seems to have fallen in with an outlaw biker gang (only in a Black Lace novel). Toni believes in mixing business with pleasure, and the chance to infiltrate a biker gang is just too naughty and dirty for our girl to pass up.

What I liked a lot here is that Toni is dominant to the point of being a bitch. Some readers are likely to be extremely turned off by this as Toni doesn't have sex for lurve. She has sex as a way to quench her throbbing libido and to take control over men. Toni likes to control men a lot in this book. Of course, further on in the novel, Toni finds herself in a position where she must surrender - but she's still a gal who calls the shots at the close of the last chapter.

OK, the sex. Um, Toni likes multiple partners - a lot! I don't think she has sex with just one person at a time in the whole story. She enjoys lots of men, one woman and is pretty much game for anything as long as she's the one running the show.

The "ewwww" moments both involved bodily fluids - one of which Toni witnesses but doesn't take part in. And frankly, it could have been a whole lot nastier, so I tended to read right over these moments.

Still, this is one filthy book. And I mean that in a good way. I would recommend this only to readers who enjoy a truly trashy, smutty story. Those of you who read Black Lace fairly religiously. Those who go for the more "romantic" take on erotica? Um, this one might kill you.

And yes, this is currently out of print. That's what happens when Wendy leaves books she bought new in her TBR for too long. And note to my younger sister - yeah Sheri, I'm sending this one to you.

6 comments:

Mailyn said...

LOL. your review is hella funny. I don't think I'm interested in anything involving bodily fluids but it sounds interesting nonetheless. (O.o)

Karen Scott said...

I've never actually read a Black Lace book, although I do read lots of erotic romance. I guess I'm going to have to embrace my inner slut a bit more.

Wendy said...

OMG - Karen! Emma Holly wrote her best stuff for Black Lace (*ahem* OK, that's just my opinion)

Karen Scott said...

Which Emma Holly books were published by Black Lace then? I may have inadvertently read one of them without realising who the publishers were. *g*

Wendy said...

Menage, Cooking Up A Storm, Velvet Glove, Top Of Her Game, In The Flesh....

I think that's all of them.

Another Black Lace author you might know from blogging is Wendy Wootton AKA Portia Da Costa.
http://wendywoo.bravejournal.com/

Karen Scott said...

Ahh, ok, so I have read Black Lace books then. I rarely pay enough attention to publishers, perhaps I should?

I've also read Portia Da whatshername, although I wasn't overly imnpressed with her EC offering.