The Particulars: Erotica, Harlequin Spice, 2008, Out of print, Available in audio (Audible exclusive), Book 1 in loosely connected duet
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Y'all my print TBR is a sickness. This book is autographed, which means I picked it up at an RWA conference and I know it was the 2009 conference because the author dated her signature. Seriously, I have a problem.
The Review: For this month's Rizz theme I thought it would be fun to read an erotic romance since it's literally been forever since I've read one. Why? Well, the subgenre changed. Folks, I'm just not interested in reading about an endless series of kinks without any passion to back it up, and I, personally, felt like that was what the subgenre was devolving into. I need passion. I need emotion. Frankly I need more than sex on the page otherwise what's the point exactly?
This book was published in 2008 and back then it would have been considered a throwback, which means it's very much a throwback in 2025. Told in first person through the written journal entries of our heroine, Anne Cozette, it starts in the summer 1869 and takes us through the spring of 1875. Young Cozette is being shuttled off to live with an aunt and uncle. Her father killed in an accident and most of her siblings dead from cholera, her mother and last remaining sibling are on the brink of death. For reasons she doesn't understand, Cozette has been spared sickness, and it's her mother's dying wish to see her 14-year-old daughter cared for. She can already read and write, and the aunt will make sure to continue her schooling.
Of course life with her aunt and uncle does not go according to plan. Also in residence is a cousin, a lad so foul he once tried to drown a litter of kittens for fun. Naturally he makes advances on Cozette, who manages to fend him off and run away before he rapes her. Of course the sack of garbage spins a tale for Mom and Dad that Cozette is a wayward girl, out to tempt him with her wicked ways, and before we know it Cozette is shuttled off to an orphanage. She's there for a stretch when she meets her first love, a young man named Ernest doing chores around the property to earn money to help his sickly mother. There's a sexual interlude between them where Cozette's "virtue" is left intact which helps to wash away the horrors experienced with her cousin. Of course life in the orphanage is not good, especially for the girls - some of whom seem to be "disappearing." Cozette has largely flown under the radar until one day Ernest overhears there are plans to sell Cozette to a man who came around flashing a wad of cash. He gives Cozette money from his own savings, tells her to flee to London, that he will follow and find her once it is safe.
Ernest, of course, never comes and Cozette is a young girl alone in London. She learns quickly to survive by her wits and with the help of others on the street who take her under their wing. She is soon disguising herself as a boy, making "friends," and working in a brothel, scrubbing floors and "managing" one of her "friends" who has a stripper-burlesque-type act. Eventually a good deed at a local market leads to employment with Lord and Lady Archibald, who, once realizing Cozette is actually a girl and not a boy, take her in and offer her employment as a maid. This is where the majority of the story unfolds and Cozette soon discovers a family with the Archibald's like she's never known.
This story is a curious mix of erotica, erotic romance, and coming of age. The style in which it's written harkens back to the lusty bodice rippers of the 1970s/1980s that featured heroines who had several adventures, with several lovers, before settling down with their one true love - all of which was told in an often verbose purple prose style that I will admit, rarely works for me. McIntyre doesn't go full-blown purple here though, it's more like a lavender tinge. Expect a lot of fruit and flower euphemisms for sex and lady parts and you'll have a rough idea of what to expect.
Cozette takes her fair share of lovers throughout the book - starting with Ernest and including everyone from an untrustworthy Lord next door, but boy he makes her lady parts tingle, a solider before he's shipped off to Canada, and a budding artist (who is the hero in the second, loosely connected book). Then there's Mr. Coven, the man who manages Lord Archibald's stables. A man with physical scars, who wears an eye patch, and starts verbally sparring, sometimes flirtatiously so, with Cozette the moment she arrives at the estate looking like an urchin who probably has lice.
This story reminded me of why erotic romance pulled me in as a reader early on - Cozette is driving this story and her own destiny. Make no mistake, she has luck on her side, but she's making choices, she's calling the shots, and she will let nobody consent to touch her without her say so. She's a heroine choosing passion, does not shirk her desires, and given the series of lovers she enjoys this definitely reads more like erotica. Also, given her age, her trials and tribulations, it's very coming of age. A young girl going through a sexual awakening. She starts this story at 14 (when she is nearly raped by her cousin), her first pleasurable sexual experience is at 16, and her first time with intercourse being at 17. One would expect an "ick" factor here - but I gotta admit, not really for me. I think the historical time period helped tremendously. Certainly a story of this ilk written in present day would not have hit nearly the same way. But the historical setting, the lavender tinged writing style, this one was pure escapism for me.
That said, it does fall apart at the end. There's a big reveal, an A Ha! moment, that just did not work for me. I can suspend disbelief but not to the point where it snaps entirely - and snap here it does. Also, while I can normally take or leave epilogues, I kind of felt like this story needed one. I had grown attached to the odd little Found Family at the Archibald estate and would have liked one final moment for a Where Are They Now? recap.
McIntyre wrote a couple of books and some shorts for Harlequin Spice, most of which are out of print now, and her website is scrubbed of any reference to these works (Because they're out of print? Because she moved on and rebranded? No clue). Most recently she's moved over to writing contemporary westerns and from what I can tell her last book came out in 2019. I'm sorry I left this one languishing in my TBR for so long. It's hardly perfect but damn if this isn't interesting - and frankly an interesting erotic romance is something I haven't read in a long time. It gives me an itch to dig around for more of the sub genre languishing in my TBR.
Final Grade = B-
6 comments:
I decided I was going to interpret "rizz" liberally and read something where the setting had a lot of rizz rather than the characters. Yes, I know that setting is next month's challenge, but work with me here. ;-)
I've been really struggling with romance lately and nothing in my TBR with an obvious charismatic character was working for me. So I went with a romantic mystery RISKY WHISKEY that is set in one of my absolute favorite cities in the world, New Orleans. I was hoping something a little different would shake me out of my funk.
Pepper Revelle is a bartender who is in New Orleans working at a cocktail convention called Cocktalia. Trouble starts right off with a co-worker being poisoned by a bad batch of whiskey, a new brand that was set to debut at the convention. Pepper gets mixed up in an investigation, along with another bartender named Neil, someone she doesn’t know well but would like to know better.
First of all, yes, this author absolutely got New Orleans right, both its scuzzy, gross side and more charming romantic side. It was worth reading just to visit N’awlins. The heroine had a charming character voice and the book wasn’t too dark but it wasn’t as cutesy as a lot of cozies. Definitely had a bit of more swearing and sexually suggestive moments than a straight up cozy. Think a little bit of early Stephanie Plum but less over the top wacky stuff and you’ve got the tone right.
So, what kept this from being a real A read for me? Both the romance and mystery elements were competently done but nothing special. I figured out the bad guy early on. It was believable the heroine wouldn’t do the same, but it definitely lacked some suspense. The romantic hero, Neil, didn’t quite have rizz. He was more the quiet, redheaded, nerdy type (my favorite!) which would have been fine, but the attraction b/t him in the heroine felt manufactured and abrupt. I liked them both separately, I just didn’t get why they liked each other b/c they had just met and barely spent any time together. They also both had an annoying tic of hinting they found another (third) person attractive and then being pleased when their partner got jealous. Maybe I just don’t know how to flirt, but that felt pretty juvenile to me and in real life, it would be a obvious red flag.
So would I read the next one in the series? Maybe. I have to admit b/c the voice and setting was so fun, I might try one, but the setting for most of the books is Florida which I have little interest in. Kudos to the author for trying something a little different than mainstream cozies though. Onward!
Sounds like you found a real winner! At least until the ending - that really bites, that the ending didn't match the rest of the story. I agree that the historical setting helps immensely, as does the fact that she's basically on her own from such a young age. She had to mature pretty quickly in some respects, so 16/17 would be just about right, especially if she's with men her own age.
I chose a pleasant surprise myself, a rather sweet Loveswept title called Still Waters. It features a charismatic hero and an unusual heroine, and it really hit the right emotional notes for me, for the most part. The H getting shouty at the h in the second half of the book was not to my particular taste, but I blame it on the contemporary 80s setting. Fun fact: this was apparently the RITA winner for Short Category Romance in 1987.
I'd definitely read this author again - I'd also not be surprised if it turns out that she pivoted to inspies and/or WF.
"I'm just not interested in reading about an endless series of kinks without any passion to back it up..." THIS 100% I will admit I jumped on the erotic band wagon 15 years ago, but now I'm over it. I don't even enjoy contemporaries that go from one sex scene to another without the emotion to hold it together. That said, I've also notices some of my well-read authors pulling away from sex scenes, which is another issue all together.
I had no clue what Rizz was, but your help of "playboy and rake" worked for me. I picked a historical with a male MC who pretends to be a playboy/rake to keep people at a distance.
Jill: This one does sound interesting (I am here for non-cutesy cozies!) although it's a shame the romance fell flat. Ugh, and the whole "I'm going to make them jealous by pointing out that other person is hot" is the worst.
Oh, Kathleen Creighton! I have no idea if she's still writing, but she eventually landed over at Harlequin and wrote a number of books for Romance Suspense and the dearly departed Intimate Moments line. Still Waters sounds like a winner.
Jen: Yes, pulling away from sex scenes is another issue entirely, and I fear we're going to see more of that coming because ::gestures wildly at current events::
I also jumped hard on to the erotic romance bandwagon back in the Kensington Brava days, and now those would probably be considered more "hot" than "erotic." I started getting disenchanted when BDSM become the overall trend of the moment - which is when "throw in a bunch of kinky stuff, never mind the emotion" seemed to take root for me. But I've still got a ton of it in my TBR and reading this one gave me a itch to read more in the near future.
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