Helpful Score: 5
If you're looking for fun, exciting erotica this is NOT it. I did not read the first book and won't bother to now. Each story is supposed to be a take on a fairy tale like Georgie Porgie or Goldie Locks...
But almost every story has a depressing aspect to it from trading bodies with someone who doesn't want to & is now trapped, to how to keep the man you cheated on your husband with happy after you've both left your spouses, to thinking the wonderful new man you met was probably the local hunted serial killer, to women who constantly sabotage their wonderful relationships (a running theme through MOST of the stories) and sorry later. There was only one story that wasn't depressing in its very nature but was sad since the man was disfigured and picked on by the men of the town.
In all I read to the end hoping that the next story wouldn't have a pathetic female lead but that seems to be Nancy Madore's forte. If you like you're women sad, malcontented, self-distructive & weak then this is the book for you!
And the erotica part? I had a hard time being interested in the stories let alone being interested in sex after reading. Ugh.
But almost every story has a depressing aspect to it from trading bodies with someone who doesn't want to & is now trapped, to how to keep the man you cheated on your husband with happy after you've both left your spouses, to thinking the wonderful new man you met was probably the local hunted serial killer, to women who constantly sabotage their wonderful relationships (a running theme through MOST of the stories) and sorry later. There was only one story that wasn't depressing in its very nature but was sad since the man was disfigured and picked on by the men of the town.
In all I read to the end hoping that the next story wouldn't have a pathetic female lead but that seems to be Nancy Madore's forte. If you like you're women sad, malcontented, self-distructive & weak then this is the book for you!
And the erotica part? I had a hard time being interested in the stories let alone being interested in sex after reading. Ugh.
Helpful Score: 3
Very dark, rather disturbing tales. Not what I expected at all.
Helpful Score: 2
Only a couple of these short stories kept my interest. Some of them were too long for me to enjoy what the point was. I just didn't seem to care. I'd put the book down walk away and forget.
I was on a quest to get a couple of erotica books a few years ago. This was one of the ones I picked up that looked interesting. Unfortunately, this was pretty much an awful book. I was expecting a series of erotic stories based on fairy tales, this was really not that at all.
Each story starts with a nursery rhyme and that is supposedly what the story is based off of (which is a bit...uh...weird). There is absolutely no element of fantasy in these stories (there is a bit of magical realism in one of them I guess). These are supposed to be "erotic bedtime stories for women" but in the majority of the stories the women in them are abused, subjecated, and manipulated by the men in them.
The characters are deceitful and manipulative; which makes them hard to engage with or care about. I do understand this is supposed to be erotica which is maybe less about emotion than a romance, but it still helps to have characters that are engaging and interesting.
However, given the above I at least expect the sex scenes throughout to actually be good...which they really weren't. Basically the majority of sex scenes consisted of the man going down on the woman and then having vigorous sex with her, rinse and repeat for scene after scene. Soooo boring. Even the description of the scenes is a bit awkward at times and could have flowed much better and been written with much more engaging descriptions.
The first story of the book did have some interesting and creative sex scenes, although they were also very violent, disturbing, and demeaning to the woman in them.
My favorite story of the book was one called Hot Cross Buns, which did a really nice job of showing a functional and loving submissive/dominant relationship between a man and a woman. This was hands down the best story of the bunch (although again, why did the woman have to be the submissive one?).
I don't read a ton of of erotica, maybe a book or two a year. So I am definitely not all that knowledgeable about it...however this was just a poorly written book in a number of ways.
Overall this was just a bad book plain and simple. Most of the stories in this book just left me feeling mildly disgusted; both with the writing quality and the content. I did read Taboo by Jess Michaels last year and enjoyed that book, so I would recommend that book over this one if you are looking for an engaging erotica.
Each story starts with a nursery rhyme and that is supposedly what the story is based off of (which is a bit...uh...weird). There is absolutely no element of fantasy in these stories (there is a bit of magical realism in one of them I guess). These are supposed to be "erotic bedtime stories for women" but in the majority of the stories the women in them are abused, subjecated, and manipulated by the men in them.
The characters are deceitful and manipulative; which makes them hard to engage with or care about. I do understand this is supposed to be erotica which is maybe less about emotion than a romance, but it still helps to have characters that are engaging and interesting.
However, given the above I at least expect the sex scenes throughout to actually be good...which they really weren't. Basically the majority of sex scenes consisted of the man going down on the woman and then having vigorous sex with her, rinse and repeat for scene after scene. Soooo boring. Even the description of the scenes is a bit awkward at times and could have flowed much better and been written with much more engaging descriptions.
The first story of the book did have some interesting and creative sex scenes, although they were also very violent, disturbing, and demeaning to the woman in them.
My favorite story of the book was one called Hot Cross Buns, which did a really nice job of showing a functional and loving submissive/dominant relationship between a man and a woman. This was hands down the best story of the bunch (although again, why did the woman have to be the submissive one?).
I don't read a ton of of erotica, maybe a book or two a year. So I am definitely not all that knowledgeable about it...however this was just a poorly written book in a number of ways.
Overall this was just a bad book plain and simple. Most of the stories in this book just left me feeling mildly disgusted; both with the writing quality and the content. I did read Taboo by Jess Michaels last year and enjoyed that book, so I would recommend that book over this one if you are looking for an engaging erotica.
