Helpful Score: 6
This book is a keeper for me since I like erotica and this book is full of steam!
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Johnson (To Please a Lady) is at it again: turn the air conditioner on high and take out the fireproof oven mitts before opening the pages of this erotic Victorian romance. Jack Fitz-James, a dissolute young marquis renowned for his bedroom skills, meets Venus, an independent-minded Frenchwoman whose carnal appetites surpass even his own. Johnson fans know her plots are pretexts for one sexual encounter after another. (Every so often a historical "fact" is thrown into the brew, but it hardly makes a splash.) How long will it take Jack to give up his dedicated-to-pleasure life and admit he's fallen in love with the delectable Venus? Almost 300 pages, several dozen positions and variations of the same. Not satisfied with the now-standard dildo scene, Johnson adds a cognac bottle, too. Is this pornography? It depends on one's definition, but Johnson's romances are not for the demure. (To quote the amazing Jack: "He didn't know it was possible to fuck oneself to death... but he was willing to try.") Here, as usual, readers get their money's worth from Johnson's erotic-escapade novels.
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Johnson (To Please a Lady) is at it again: turn the air conditioner on high and take out the fireproof oven mitts before opening the pages of this erotic Victorian romance. Jack Fitz-James, a dissolute young marquis renowned for his bedroom skills, meets Venus, an independent-minded Frenchwoman whose carnal appetites surpass even his own. Johnson fans know her plots are pretexts for one sexual encounter after another. (Every so often a historical "fact" is thrown into the brew, but it hardly makes a splash.) How long will it take Jack to give up his dedicated-to-pleasure life and admit he's fallen in love with the delectable Venus? Almost 300 pages, several dozen positions and variations of the same. Not satisfied with the now-standard dildo scene, Johnson adds a cognac bottle, too. Is this pornography? It depends on one's definition, but Johnson's romances are not for the demure. (To quote the amazing Jack: "He didn't know it was possible to fuck oneself to death... but he was willing to try.") Here, as usual, readers get their money's worth from Johnson's erotic-escapade novels.
Helpful Score: 4
This was my first Susan Johnson, recommended by a friend who knows that I enjoy both erotica and bodice-rippers upon occasion. As far as erotica goes the sex scenes are very well done, thoroughly described but not disgusting or pornographic, and the emotion is slowly but clearly shown from the start. However, from the first very hot tryst there are less and less sex scenes (and less description) until finally there are none at all for the final quarter of the book or so. The story was well-done, though I did find both main characters to act far more mature than most 25-year-olds I've known (or was). Overall, recommended to readers of this type of fiction but don't get your hopes up too high. Still, I'll be reading more of Johnson's work and have two more of her books on order.
woof! No one writes steamy sex scenes like Susan Johnson, she is the utmost! But another thing that makes her a standout writer is that she heavily footnotes her historical fiction and offers fascinating facts and the real life sources of her inspiration in the back. I enjoy her footnotes as much as the novels.
Helpful Score: 1
Jack Fitz-James and Venus Duras are stunningly attractive, wealthy, independent, and bored, bored, BORED! Bored with popular society and it's aimless pursuits. Bored with the countless members of the opposite sex who throw themselves at them. Bored with the love affairs that they have both had. And then...Venus and Jack meet. Sparks fly. Clothes are thrown off. A torrid love affair begins. And Venus and Jack begin to wonder - is this just lust? Or is the irrestible pull they feel toward each other something more
Helpful Score: 1
This is a very steamy historical romance novel by Susan Johnson. I enjoyed this one much more than her other books, it seemed to have a stronger plotline. :)
