Retro Wendy: If You Build It, They Will Come: Erotic World-Building

This post originally ran at Heroes & Heartbreakers on August 5, 2012

Even though I’ve currently declared a moratorium on paranormal reading, that does not mean I ignore the subgenre completely; I still buy plenty for my library patrons to read, and I follow many bloggers who are diehard paranormal fans. One thing that is typically always mentioned in reviews for paranormal books is the world-building. Was it good, bad, or indifferent? In some cases, the world-building can make or break a book for a reader—too much and the romance gets lost. Not enough and the reader is slogging through wallpaper. But what about world-building in other corners of romance? 

Any story worth its salt—regardless of genre or subgenre—needs to have decent world-building. It’s what helps transport the reader into the story, as opposed to relegating us to the sidelines where we’re barely interested observers. I love getting lost in a book, sucked in to the point where I don’t want to come up for air. World-building does that for me.

Some of my favorite worlds have been built within the realm of erotica and erotic romance. An excellent example would be Logan Belle’s Blue Angel series. It follows the travails of Mallory Dale, a law student who hangs up her legal briefs for pasties when she gets sucked into the world of the New York City burlesque scene. What Belle has done very well in this series is flesh out that scene for readers. She’s got an excellent back-drop to populate her characters with, she sprinkles in plenty of drama, and gives readers a soap opera feeling against what, for many of us, is an exotic lifestyle.

Megan Hart takes a slightly different approach, especially in her early Spice novels, Dirty and Broken. It wasn’t the setting so much as the characters. She has a way of slyly interesting recurring characters without beating readers over the head with a series-baiting stick. Newcomers won’t feel like they’re missing anything, but fans will get a giddy thrill recognizing and seeing former secondary players again, waltzing across the pages of multiple books.

But as well as Hart does this, Portia Da Costa is the pro. Da Costa has a long and extensive career that carries across several publishers and lines. What I love about her books is that she’s designed her own erotic universe. It’s like all the characters she’s ever created reside in this giant bubble, and they can pop up in any given book.

One couple that the author seems especially fond of is Maria and the enigmatic Mr. Stone. These two got their own book with Entertaining Mr. Stone, showed up in In Too Deep, and even crossed publishers to make an appearance in the recent Carina Press book, Intimate Exposure. Then there was the time the couple from In Too Deep, one of my personal favorites, was spotted in a crowded restaurant scene in Kiss It Better. It detracts nothing for the newbies, but for someone who had read all those stories, it caused my heart to skip a beat.

The misconception with erotic writing is that as long as the author delivers the sex, readers will happily return to the trough to gorge. Is the sex important? Yes, but it’s not nearly enough. For a book we can really sink our teeth into, one that will linger beyond just a few scintillating moments of feeling naughty? We need the characters and we need the world.

What are some of your favorite moments of world-building in erotica and erotic romance?

Digital Review: Now And Forever

Let's get this out of the way right up front: Now and Forever by Logan Belle is "part two" of a story that started with Now Or Never.  It probably could be read as a stand-alone, but I would not recommend it and actively discourage it.  Because why would you want to deprive yourself of the whole story when that whole story is so amazing?  Belle lays exemplary groundwork in the first novella, and part two is where the real meat and potatoes of the romance is.  Part one gets you hooked and part two gives you the pay-off.

Claire is finally moving forward with her cancer treatment.  While the cancer itself was caught early, Claire discovered she has the faulty BRCA gene.  That means double mastectomy, reconstruction (which she opts for) and an eventual hysterectomy.  So our gal really has no time for a relationship.  She found herself caring for Justin, the playboy who helped her create the "Now or Never" sexual bucket list - but after their one night together, and one of the most gut-wrenching emotional scenes I've ever read, he's off in the wind.  Or is he?  Because as much as Justin tells himself that he's not a relationship guy he finds himself unable to stay away from Claire.  The fly in the ointment?  Claire's not sure this is the time in her life that she should be opening herself up for possible relationship disaster.

I don't want to imply that Justin was thinly drawn in the first novella, but readers do really only get to know the surface Justin.  The façade he puts on display for the world.  The devil-may-care playboy who trolls AA meetings to pick-up women, the guy who doesn't have to worry about money because his family has money, the guy who is all surface and flash.  However meeting Claire, spending time with her, and yes - falling in love with her, changes him.  As falling in love tends to do to a person.  The problem is that now he realizes how he feels about her?  Claire is the one running scared.  Not without good reason.  She cares for Justin as well, but she's got a long road ahead of her.  Does she really want to expose him to all that when keeping their time together in a perfect, pristine, bubble - protected from the messiness of her health situation - is more attractive?  She doesn't want Justin to think of her "like that" - with her breasts gone, sporting drainage tubes, in pain, and getting her chest expanded in preparation for reconstruction.  Justin has proven in the past that when life gets messy he runs.  Clare doesn't think she could survive him running, so why not cut him off at the knees now?

It's all very complicated.  However complications are funny things.  Sometimes people make things more complicated than they need to be because they're scared.  And that's our Claire.  She's scared.  Justin has to prove to her she doesn't have to be scared - but that's not easy to do when she seems determined to push him away.

The secondary characters also add a nice dimension, and Belle introduces some new players that were footnotes in the first story.  Readers get to meet the delightful Max, Claire's only son now off at college, and none too pleased his mother kept her health issues a secret for so long.  Also, Justin's completely jacked-up family situation comes into play - with a domineering father, a clinically depressed mother, and wastrel brother.  This really helps further develop Justin as more than a pretty-faced-playboy and molds him into someone more hero-worthy.

While the first novella was all about the heroine's journey, this story gives readers a more finely focused, traditional, romantic story arc.  Justin proves himself, and Claire learns to take a leap of faith.  I didn't love this quite as much as the first novella (which, honestly, was the best kind of emotional gut-punch for me) but this second novella is where these characters firmly cement themselves in my mind as "real people."  Which, of course, they aren't.  I know that.  But when a fictional story tricks me into thinking they are real?  We have a winner.

Final Grade = A-

Digital Review: Now Or Never

I have three categories for erotica: 1) This Made My Eyes Bleed Erotica 2) Total Escapist Fun Erotica and 3) Give Me Some Truth Erotica.  Now, obviously, I loathe the first one.  Nobody ever wants the first one.  However I like the latter two fairly equally.  I can enjoy erotica that is almost completely devoid of reality (hello, Wendy likes boss/secretary stories).  I don't want to read a steady diet of it - but I like the fun factor.  However, it's the Give Me Some Truth erotica, the Rip My Heart Out And Watch It Bleed erotica that really flips my switch.  Logan Belle, up until this point, had given me (me, as a reader) Fun Erotica.  With Now Or Never, the first installment in a series?  She gave me something more.  This story?  This story is breathtaking.

Claire is in her forties and finally ready to get a life.  She married young, got pregnant young, and when her ex decided to split?  She became a single mother young.  She falls into a trap a lot of women do.  She puts herself on hold to raise her son.  She doesn't date.  She doesn't get laid.  She doesn't have a life outside of 1) her job and 2) her kid.  Now that kid is off to college and Claire is ready to find herself.  Except now when she's finally ready to do that living?  She's diagnosed with breast cancer.  Just when she's getting ready to rediscover her body?  Her body betrays her.

Her well-meaning friends insist she start attending a cancer support group at the local Y.  Except Claire accidentally wanders into the wrong room and discovers an Erotic Reading/Writing Salon.  Needless to say, after being sex-less for close to 20 years?  Claire gets an earful.  It's while taking a coffee break afterward that she meets Justin.  Younger-than-her, handsome-as-sin Justin - who just so happens to troll AA meetings to pick up women. 

What follows is Justin inviting Claire for a drink.  For reasons she cannot explain, Claire says yes - and it doesn't take long for her sad tale of woe to come spilling out over cocktails.  So, on a lark, Justin helps Claire write a list.  The "Now Or Never List."  A list of sexual shenanigans (everything from going to a strip club to a one-night-stand) that Claire should now accomplish to make up for lost time.  And Justin?  Yeah, Justin will be her wingman.

What Belle has done is create a truly interesting, remarkable and totally relatable heroine.  Me, personally?  I don't "relate" to Claire in the strictest since of the word (I'm not a single, don't have any kids and don't have breast cancer).  But I felt like I knew this woman.  And I think for some readers?  Claire is going to be like looking in a mirror.  Is it sad that Claire hasn't had much of a life for the last 18 years?  Yes, it's really sad.  But, especially as a fellow woman, you understand how she fell into the trap that she did.  A lot of women have been here.  A lot. 

Justin is, to put it mildly, kind of a jerk.  But he's a relatable jerk.  He actually says stuff that I've heard other, as-in-real, guys say (The whole bit about how easy it is for a woman to get laid?  Yeah, I've heard that.  Actually spoken out of a real guy's mouth).  He's Mr. Anti-Commitment all the way.  It's why he hits up AA meetings looking for tail.  Those woman?  Yeah, need to concentrate on recovery.  They know they have no business looking for love - so they don't.  Looking for sex?  That's another kettle of fish entirely.  Is Justin a nice guy?  Not really.  But I liked him in spite of it and Belle does a wonderful job of slowly working his own personal baggage into the story.

There were several moments in this story that were like a punch in the gut.  Things Claire says, things Justin says, things Claire feels.  And the ending?  The ending just killed me.  It literally sucked all the oxygen out of the room.  It's that moment in any great story where the author, in ethereal form, shows up in your living room, reaches into your chest, rips your heart out and says, "Oh, look what I found!"  It's that good, that heartbreaking, that sublimely wonderful.  I'm also willing to admit that I also may now hate the author a little bit for making me wait until January to get the next installment. 

It's erotica that makes you think, feel, and bleed.  It's erotica that turns a strong, focused eye on the heroine.  In other words?  It's my favorite sort of read.  Don't miss this novella - it's wonderful.

Final Grade = A

Digital Review: Bettie Page Presents The Librarian

Disclaimer: I am mentioned in the author's opening acknowledgments (by name and everything!).  I was one of her librarian contacts for researching this book.

I knew a couple of things going into Bettie Page Presents: The Librarian.  One, Logan Belle worked with the Page estate while researching this book and two, I was going to have to slog through some BDSM.  Yes, even though I've publicly declared that I am beyond "over" BDSM.  So color me surprised that, for the most part, the BDSM elements didn't annoy me too much.  Well, that is until the ending.  But more on that in a moment.

Regina Finch is fresh out of library school and starting her dream job at the main branch of the New York Public Library (you know, the one with the lions in the front).  While Regina has gone through college, she's lived a very sheltered life.  She's fairly prudish, having zero experience with men, and is wound so tight it's amazing she doesn't crap out diamonds.  Normally I loathe the shorthand of librarian = repressed heroine, but Belle at least lays groundwork for why Regina is the way she is.  She's not this way because she's a librarian.  She could easily be a bus driver, waitress or lawyer and be wound this tight.

Anyhoodle, while at work one day she enters a special collection room to discover Sebastian Barnes getting his groove thang on with a willing blonde.  Regina is one part shocked (Seriously, in a library?!?!  How DARE they!), while the other part of her starts feeling all tingly for Sebastian.  Turns out the feeling is mutual.  Sebastian is a major library benefactor and soon ropes in Regina to help him with a project.  And that's not all he ropes her into.  Naturally he's a Dom and naturally he thinks Regina will be the perfect sub.  BDSM ahoy!

If you've read even one BDSM erotica novel you pretty much know where this is going.  I will say that while Sebastian is a bit of a condescending jackass - he's not quite as annoying as other heroes of this ilk I've slogged through over the years.  I also really appreciated that Regina doesn't turn into Super Sub over night.  She pushes back a bit.  She doesn't jump whole hog into the scene.  Sebastian has to coax her along, and even if she whimpers and simpers when something makes her uncomfortable, he at least goes through the motions of listening to her.

So yeah, even though I'm over BDSM, I can recognize that others who aren't over it may enjoy this book - so I was ready to slap this one with my patented "It's OK" rating until I got to the ending.

Yeah, the ending.

I'm going to try to be vague, but there's really no way for me to foam at the mouth without giving away some spoilers.  Let's just say my feminist underpants got in a serious wad.  There isn't enough fabric softener on the planet to make me overlook this ending.

Apparently "dream jobs" start to be incidental after you meet a hunky studly man to teach you the ways of being a sub.  Because, you know, "dream jobs" pale in comparison to a hunky studly man who tells you what to do, when to do it, what to wear, buys you whatever his heart desires, and takes care of you like a pampered pet.  Don't worry your pretty little head over anything Regina, Daddy's here to take care of everything for you.  You just stand there looking pretty while wearing that designer dress I bought you, oh and you need to bend over now because it's time for your 3PM spanking.

Ugh!

As for the librarian stuff?  It's mostly good.  Regina is fairly ignorant on social media, which for someone her age coming out of library science school?  Just wouldn't happen.  Also, given the turn of events regarding Regina's job at the end?  Yeah, it wouldn't happen that easily.  At least not in a library world with the amount of bureaucracy that NYPL most likely has (I don't know for sure, I'm just going on my personal experience with other large library systems).  There is a lovely older librarian as a secondary character (I mentally started calling her The Battle Ax) who is very spot-on.  Belle also weaves some current-day issues facing libraries into the story, which was very nice.

So where does that leave us?  I really tend to enjoy Logan Belle's writing, and this book continues with that.  I wasn't overly annoyed by the BDSM elements, which is a tall order these days considering my current prejudice for the trend.  But that ending?  I just.....can't get past the ending.  It reinforces a lot of elements that I tend to hate in BDSM fiction and it also reinforces elements that I've slogged through over the years while reading really bad romance novels.  May be worth a look for you if you're not "over" BDSM, just don't say I didn't warn you about that ending.....

Final Grade = D

All The Boys Get Lonely After You Leave

You know why authors and publishers keep cramming connected books down our throats?  I'll tell you why - because readers are suckers.  Truly we are.  Oh sure, we may moan and grown "Dear God, not another series?!" - but secretly, deep down inside, in places we don't want to acknowledge?  We want that series.  We need that series.  We want to get hooked.

Which brings me to Naked Angel by Logan Belle, the third and final book in her Club Burlesque trilogy.  What I loved about the first two books were the world-building, the colorful secondary characters, and the huge-honkin' soap opera plot.  What I didn't love so much?  The main character Mallory Dale.  So it was a bit of a relief to find Mallory and her boyfriend Alec are relegated to minor roles for the vast majority of this closing chapter.

After months of hard work it's opening night for The Painted Lady, the sexy new burlesque club Mallory and Alec are launching.  The biggest night of her life just keeps getting better too, because right there on stage, Alec gets down on bended knee and proposes!  Mallory, of course, accepts - but it's a bumpy ride on the way to wedded bliss.  First, there's Nadia - a ballerina who has had to hang up her pointe shoes after one too many foot injuries.  She's hoping to find solace and satisfaction on the stage of The Painted Lady - if only the new man in her life weren't so outraged by the idea.  Then one half of the married financial backers of the club decides to get involved with the sexy British costume designer Mallory has hired - not only putting his marriage at risk, but also the financial stability of Mallory's new endeavor.  Waiting in the wings?  Our villain, Violet Offender, new owner of the Blue Angel, and gunning for Mallory at an upcoming burlesque competition in Las Vegas. 

Let's get this out of the way first - this book does not stand alone.  Readers should start at the beginning of the trilogy and read in order to achieve the maximum effect of soapy goodness.  While all the players in this story are certainly interesting, there's not a whole lot of what I call in-depth character development.  This is more of a plot driven story, and no this is not automatically a "bad" thing.  It just means it's a different sort of read with different sorts of expectations.  I want to be transported back into the world that Belle has created, and that is what she does.  She gives me the scandal, the sex, the drama, all wrapped up in feather boas and tasseled pasties.

While Mallory and Alex are still the main players in this universe, this story focuses more on ballerina Nadia and costume designer, Gemma Kole.  While it was good to see that Mallory and Alec have, for the most part, moved past the issues that were clogging up the first two books - here they seem firmly rooted in Happy Ever After Land, although the author does try to juice up some conflict by having Alec suggest that maybe Mallory might want to cut back on preforming once they marry.  I didn't really buy into that though, as far as "serious" conflict.  No, the meat and potatoes involve Nadia, and her burgeoning relationship with a man who runs his own ballet academy - a man who thinks that just because she can no longer dance en pointe, doesn't mean she should throw out the baby with the bathwater.  He's also big on issuing ultimatums as far as the burlesque thing goes.  Honestly, even though the author does sell it fairly well in terms of his back-story and "personal issues," I still couldn't help but feel like Nadia should have told this jackass to take a long walk off a short pier - but to each his own.

Gemma is the show-stopper though.  She's one part sex kitten, two parts cold fish.  And for a big chunk of the story you're not sure what side of the page she's going to fall on - heroine or villain?  Enter Violet Offender, our clear-cut villain from the previous book, who arrives on the scene to muck things up a bit.

Everything culminates at the end of the book, with Mallory and Alec getting more page time once the story lands in Las Vegas.  This is also where the author wraps up her trilogy with a skilled hand.  I loved that while it ends happily, it isn't unrelenting sunshine and rainbows.  I loved that while it didn't seem like the villains were totally vanquished - it also doesn't mean they really "won" either.  Mallory and Alec do ride off into the sunset though, and while we don't have a crystal ball - I think those two crazy kids just might be able to make things work.  And trust me, that wouldn't have been the easiest thing to say after the first two books.

In the end, I'm left with fond memories of the world, the soap opera that left me in a swoon, and a cast of colorful secondary characters that I loved re-visiting.  I rationally know it's not the sort of thing that could go on forever without wearing thin, but darn it all - I didn't really want it to end.  The sign of any memorable trilogy, to be sure.

Final Grade = B-

Side note: I was reading this book on my lunch breaks at work, and my boss got one look at the cover and suggested, jokingly, he "book talk" it at the next manager's meeting.  I told him that wasn't a bad idea (it would certainly spice up those affairs!) - but that he really should tackle the books in order. 

Wants It All Mama's Fallen Angel

Fallen Angel by Logan Belle is the second book in her Club Burlesque series that follows the exploits of former aspiring lawyer, turned burlesque performer, Mallory Dale.  The issues I had with the first book, Blue Angel, are the exact same issues I had with this book.  Which tells me two things: 1) the author is consistent and 2) I am a hopeless sucker for a soap opera.

As much as Mallory Dale loves performing at the burlesque club, Blue Angel, it doesn't pay the bills.  Especially in New York City.  So she lands herself a day job as a paralegal, working for a divorce lawyer.  Besides being inappropriately attracted to her boss, she has other problems on the home front.  Her boyfriend, Alec, loves pushing sexual boundaries with her, and Mallory gets the feeling that he wants them to hook up with the newest performer at the club, Violet Offender.  Violet is a dominatrix, is more into stripping than burlesque, has major ambition - oh, and she wants Mallory.  Like, bad.  Really bad.  Naturally complications abound.

What follows is Mallory and Alec hitting the skids, Violet manipulating things behind the scenes to get what she wants, Bette Noir rolling back into town, and Mallory exploring her attraction with her sexy boss.  It's soapy, it's sudsy, and it's compulsively readable for it's "OMG, what is going to happen next?!" factor.

My issue is basically with Mallory.  She's one of those females that obviously hasn't heard the expression "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."  She gets insanely jealous and angry with Alec if he so much as looks at another woman - but it's apparently OK for her to have some hot girl-on-girl action.  I mean, golly - why is he so upset with her? 

Oh, I don't know - could it be the whole you're an unfaithful hypocritical slut thing? 

Just a guess.

Sigh.

 Now in her defense, she did display this behavior in the last book - so I shouldn't have been surprised.  And I really wasn't.  The bigger sin here is that she's the sort of female who is easily manipulated.  She went through all of the last book debating on what she wanted, what she wanted to do - and she ended up dumping the idea of being a lawyer and went burlesque.  But in this book?  When her hunky boss suggests that she'd be a "good lawyer" - she makes moves to dump burlesque and head back to law.  I mean, seriously?!  Make a choice and stick with it cupcake.  Be who you are and own it.  If the man doesn't like that?  Well, maybe the door won't smack him too hard in the butt on his way out.

Now, all that being said, Belle continues to excel at delivering on her world-building.  Yeah, I'm hooked now.  She's created the club, created the culture, and populated it with secondary characters who keep the whole thing chugging along.  She also delivers us a villain in the form of Violet, who sure as shootin' is going to play a sizable role in the next book, Naked Angel.

So I'm pretty much left at the same bus stop I was at when I finished the last book.  I still can't really wrap my loving arms around Mallory, but like Shakespeare said, the play's the thing.  Er, or the burlesque stage.  Er, or more like it, the plot.  Belle's got me sucked in with her plot.  So yeah, I might want to smack Mallory upside the head - but that doesn't mean I don't care.  I do.

Now, what happens next?  And what do you mean I have to wait until the end of March 2012 to find out?  Ugh.

Final Grade = C+

Show Me How You Burlesque

When I was at RWA this summer, living it up as Librarian of the Year (maybe you heard about that?) one of the publisher signings I went to was for Kensington.  Logan Belle was there signing copies of Blue Angel.  I hadn't heard of this book, didn't know a darn thing about it in fact, but I took one look at that cover and had to have it.  Never underestimate the power of a good book cover.

Mallory Dale burns the candle at both ends working for a prestigious law firm in Manhattan.  It's what she's always wanted, and with two lawyer parents, she figured it was her destiny to practice law.  Unfortunately, her first round with the bar exam has left her down for the count.  She's still working insane hours, she's still stung by the fact that she failed the bar first go-around, and now her journalist boyfriend is dragging her into a burlesque club for her 25th birthday.  She is not amused, but decides to suck it up to please Alec.  What she gets is a sexual awakening and identity shift for herself.

It's while she's at the club that night that she meets the headliner, Bette Noir.  Bette is a girl with big ambitions, and when she sees Alec with his boss (a trust fund baby who runs a men's magazine), she sees it as her way to the top.  And to get what she wants?  She's going to sink her claws into Mallory, who may look like a mousy little thing, but is up for some adventures, in and out of the bedroom.

This is a book that starts out in one direction, and then takes a sharp U-turn.  Alec comes off as a major dill-hole in the early chapters.  Besides dragging Mallory around to further his career, he's pressuring her to have a three-some, which she is extremely hesitant about.  When Bette enters into the picture, it sends things topsy-turvy.  Bette is fame-hungry and will do just about anything to become a "somebody."  So she starts to manipulate Mallory to further her own ambitions.

But then, something happens - the story shifts.  Mallory starts hanging out with Bette, blowing off her job, getting entranced by burlesque, and not being remotely truthful with Alec.  Gosh, she just doesn't understand why he's so upset.  I mean, she's only doing a complete 180, and then when they have a fight she runs over to Bette's for a sympathetic ear that quickly turns into something else.  Even though I started out really disliking him, for the bulk of the second half, I kinda thought Alec had a point, and Mallory comes off like a hypocritical rhymes with witch.

What we have here is a good old-fashioned sudsy soap opera plot with some naughty times tossed in the mix.  The downside to that is that I really didn't care about the characters.  Mallory is a hypocrite, Alec is a jerk, and Bette's greatest ambition in life is to be a Kardashian sister (::shudder::).  Now that said, soap opera plots work because they're....soapy.  You keep reading just to see what will happen next.  Oh, and to get to the steaminess, which is well-done here.  The author doesn't make the mistake of skimping on plot, keeps it moving forward, and doesn't get derailed by padding her story with sexual encounters (although have no fear pervs, there's still plenty to go around).

What this book has is good world-building, which no should never just be limited to science fiction, fantasy and paranormal.  The author creates this whole world inside the Blue Angel club.  She populates it with secondary characters that operate on the fringe of the story, and ultimately work to push Mallory towards her awakening.  It's good stuff.

What I'm left with is an enjoyable "world," a soap opera plot that makes my Melrose Place lovin' heart go squee!, but characters that I had a hard time wrapping my arms around.  However it is a page-turner, and I've already started the second book in the Mallory Dale saga, Fallen Angel.

Final Grade = C+