What??!! There’s SEX in this book??

I’ve been reading a lot of book reviews lately for various authors who are published by Ellora’s Cave like me. I respect the fact that everyone has their own opinion and that there are people out there who will not care for either individual author styles or specific books. I’m also totally ok with opinions that are polar opposites of mine. But I’ve discovered I have a pet peeve about one certain element that seems to pop up in a surprising amount of reviews regarding books from Ellora’s Cave.

oxoxox

A reviewer can say any and everything about the style, characterization, storyline, etc. but it really irritates me when an erotic romance gets dinged for having too much sex in it. Here’s a hint – if you don’t want a lot of sex, and graphic sex at that, don’t pick up an erotic romance to read. Especially romances from Ellora’s Cave. Their webpage makes it abundantly clear that their books contain sex, sex and more sex! They even have a Sex Rating System on the home page where the “Sensuous” level (the one for the books with the lowest amount of sexual intensity) is  described as having love scenes that “are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination”. And if that doesn’t adequately caution a potential reader, the warnings on the excerpts, the themes (which include Gay/Lesbian and Ménage a Trois and More), titles of certain series (Exotika and Torrid Tarot) and the Got Sex? link on the side bar should be taken as a strong indication that these stories will have a LOT of sex, and graphic sex in them. If this doesn’t convince the would-be reader, they should check out the guidelines given to the authors themselves, which include instructions such as “The story must include abundant and explicit sex and sexual tension, starting early and continuing throughout. Sex scenes must be described in graphic detail and explicit wording, not delicate euphemisms or purple prose.” So why would a reviewer censure a book sold on this site for containing a lot of sex? Thus my pet peeve.

oxoxox

Tell readers in the review that the book contains a large amount of graphic sex. Point out flaws in the in the story, holes in the plot, dragging dialogue and plastic characters. But don’t criticize an author for using elements intrinsic to the genre they’re writing in. For me, that diminishes the entire review. That’s like knocking a Star Trek novel for having space ships in it, slamming on Stephen King for scaring the hell out of you with one of his thrillers, or getting upset that a sweet series romance has a happily ever after ending. And think, if a food critic condemned the chocolate cake because there was too much cake and chocolate in it, would you put much value in anything else he had to say?

Nothing like a breath of frozen air

Cold days. Very cold days here. When I’m out in the weather going to work, picking up kids, or running errands and the biting wind is trying to snap my nose and fingertips off – it’s hard to understand what could be so bad about global warming. (Ok, not really – no howling emails please!) But since it looks like I’m going to be freezing my ass off for a while, I decided to make a list of things this kind of cold is good for. And after about an hour of staring at a blank piece of paper (can you tell I’d rather live in the tropics – sans bugs the size of my fist?), I finally came up with these:

1. hot coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate (love hot drinks, but don’t to drink them during hot weather)
2. window designs made by Jack Frost
3. icicles sparkling against a bright blue sky
4. the looks on my kids’ faces when it starts to snow
5. when I’m outside exercising and I finally start to get warm and quit feeling like my jacket and sweats are full of ice cubes
6. scooting over close to my boyfriend under a soft, warm blanket when the rest of the house is still morning cold

So that’s my list for the moment. As the months go on, I could probably add some more. Maybe. Or I might just start dreaming of the spring thaw, green grass and afternoons at the pool.

McD’s fries

Ok, if you’ve read the “about me” list on my website you know my favorite fast food is McDonald’s french fries. And I’ve got to admit, there are days that I just absolutely NEED a fix of fries. I know, I know. As good as they are for me, I should just jam them into my veins and glue them to my butt. But – oh my god! They even taste good cold.

I also love powdered donuts, twinkies and strawberry malts. Powdered donuts are my comfort food, twinkies is my favorite writing snack, and strawberry malts – heck, I just love them. But my only real craving is those damn fries. Well, fast food craving, that is.

Eve