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These are, respectively, entries 4 and 5 in the Wild Irish series. They are published by Ellora's Cave, which is a mostly-e-publisher (they do a small number of titles in small runs on paper) of mostly erotica. This particular series has already explored some lifestyle BDSM, so it is not particularly surprising that Thursday is a menage and really not surprising that Friday has an older woman with a younger man. The gimmick for the series is a large family. Mother (Sunday) died some years ago and Father has health problems in the course of the series. The adult children are participants in romances, 1 romance per book. At this point, earlier romances have resulted in marriage and, in one case, a child.
The menage includes half of the twins (Killian) in the family and his best friends from high school: Justin and Lily. Justin and Killian spent a number of years in the army in Iraq; Lily got an PhD in Marine Biology in California. Everyone is back in Baltimore and attending a 10 year high school reunion when Lily proposes something she's been wanting to do since high school. See, Justin and K had a rep for sharing girls even back then, and Lily has been pining for the pair forever. The initial deal is for one night, then one weekend. They are interrupted by Lily's younger brother Chad and Killian's brother Sean, who had been invited over to watch the ball game on Sunday, which went completely out of everyone's head, what with all the sex that had been happening since Friday night.
No guy-on-guy action, unless you count the description of (hey, if you're too young to be reading this, stop right now.) the one-hesitates-to-call-it-climatic double penetration scene near the end when the guys are noticing they can feel each other through Lily. Ahem.
I have to hand it to Carr: she handled the "coming out" of the threesome really well, particularly considering that she hasn't had a gay or lesbian couple as even a background character in the series. When Sean is talking to Justin about whether the morose threesome can turn a 2 night fantasy into a lifetime of looooovvvveee, he gestures to a biracial couple and a gay couple in the bar, and points out that if the world can change enough to accept them, it might one day make a triad part of normal, too (altho the term triad is not used). That's a normalization strategy destined to make this real popular among the poly community.
Other aspects of the novel, not so much. Justin, in particular, seems a little concerned whether all this makes him "gay". Er, homophobic, much? Besides, it wouldn't make him gay anyway; it might make him bi. Carr plays up the whole good girl/bad girl theme more than I care for, and the nicknames the guys have for Lily ("sweetness", "baby girl") were a little grating. I have to suspect, however, that Carr knew she was doing that. At one point she describes Lily as squirming like a toddler in church, and if _that_ isn't an intentionally shocking simile to use in a sex scene, I don't know what would be.
Friday shows us Ewan making a play for Natalie, photographer of Sky (and now Teagan). She's got some serious mental health issues as a result of her sister dying some years ago and a generally unloving family (not necessarily abuse -- just real standoffish). Natalie lives for sarcasm, which Ewan admires, but he's worried about her and when Nat says she wishes she weren't always the one taking the pictures but sometimes the one in the picture. Ewan gives her a week of being in the middle of her life: taking her out one night with Riley and Aaron, romancing her, taking her fishing. She gets a bit frantic and attempts to back out when she realizes the depth of her attachment to Ewan, but pictures save the day -- taken by Ewan, of Natalie, living her life.
These books aren't going to be for everyone (even I would not let a prepubescent kid near them): you have to have some kind of e-reader (altho you can get free ones for a regular computer, and you don't have to get this through kindle -- EC offers it elsewhere and in various formats), you have to be interested in, not just okay with, very detailed sex scenes used to describe a developing relationship. But if this is the kind of thing you like, it's done really well. I'll keep reading the series, and will probably try some of Carr's other books when it is complete.
The menage includes half of the twins (Killian) in the family and his best friends from high school: Justin and Lily. Justin and Killian spent a number of years in the army in Iraq; Lily got an PhD in Marine Biology in California. Everyone is back in Baltimore and attending a 10 year high school reunion when Lily proposes something she's been wanting to do since high school. See, Justin and K had a rep for sharing girls even back then, and Lily has been pining for the pair forever. The initial deal is for one night, then one weekend. They are interrupted by Lily's younger brother Chad and Killian's brother Sean, who had been invited over to watch the ball game on Sunday, which went completely out of everyone's head, what with all the sex that had been happening since Friday night.
No guy-on-guy action, unless you count the description of (hey, if you're too young to be reading this, stop right now.) the one-hesitates-to-call-it-climatic double penetration scene near the end when the guys are noticing they can feel each other through Lily. Ahem.
I have to hand it to Carr: she handled the "coming out" of the threesome really well, particularly considering that she hasn't had a gay or lesbian couple as even a background character in the series. When Sean is talking to Justin about whether the morose threesome can turn a 2 night fantasy into a lifetime of looooovvvveee, he gestures to a biracial couple and a gay couple in the bar, and points out that if the world can change enough to accept them, it might one day make a triad part of normal, too (altho the term triad is not used). That's a normalization strategy destined to make this real popular among the poly community.
Other aspects of the novel, not so much. Justin, in particular, seems a little concerned whether all this makes him "gay". Er, homophobic, much? Besides, it wouldn't make him gay anyway; it might make him bi. Carr plays up the whole good girl/bad girl theme more than I care for, and the nicknames the guys have for Lily ("sweetness", "baby girl") were a little grating. I have to suspect, however, that Carr knew she was doing that. At one point she describes Lily as squirming like a toddler in church, and if _that_ isn't an intentionally shocking simile to use in a sex scene, I don't know what would be.
Friday shows us Ewan making a play for Natalie, photographer of Sky (and now Teagan). She's got some serious mental health issues as a result of her sister dying some years ago and a generally unloving family (not necessarily abuse -- just real standoffish). Natalie lives for sarcasm, which Ewan admires, but he's worried about her and when Nat says she wishes she weren't always the one taking the pictures but sometimes the one in the picture. Ewan gives her a week of being in the middle of her life: taking her out one night with Riley and Aaron, romancing her, taking her fishing. She gets a bit frantic and attempts to back out when she realizes the depth of her attachment to Ewan, but pictures save the day -- taken by Ewan, of Natalie, living her life.
These books aren't going to be for everyone (even I would not let a prepubescent kid near them): you have to have some kind of e-reader (altho you can get free ones for a regular computer, and you don't have to get this through kindle -- EC offers it elsewhere and in various formats), you have to be interested in, not just okay with, very detailed sex scenes used to describe a developing relationship. But if this is the kind of thing you like, it's done really well. I'll keep reading the series, and will probably try some of Carr's other books when it is complete.
Subtitled a Bisexual Regency Romance. Anne Herendeen
That subtitle should prevent anyone from complaining about surprise about what they were getting into. Just in case they missed that subtitle, the opening scene is of a hungover Andrew waking up in bed next to Kit, whose name he has forgotten, and who he realizes he should never have brought home.
After my extensive post about _Coulters' Woman_ (yes, Coulter brothers sharing one woman), a friend sent me a pointer to a review she'd read of this book, thinking I might be interested.
Let me just say, Thank You. Both to the friend, and to the reviewer, and to the author, and to everyone else involved in this book existing. That was amazingly fun. The author did a certain amount of research, which was really cool, and then made some reasonable decisions about using that research (choosing to not limit herself to period slang terms for private parts, for example). The author appears to have read. A Lot. I mean, like, a whole lot. She managed to pack into this admittedly long novel nearly every possible Regency novel convention. We've got the low-class family from which virginal heroine springs, complete with dead military dad. City kids with gutteral English are welcomed into the household and taught to read. (Wait -- she missed one: no dogs! Dang! And the horses are only mentioned in passing.) Society folk who present themselves as respectable but who are sleeping around on each other. The trip to the modiste which is amazingly efficient. It includes the sophisticate helping the country girl. The slut overriding the chaste woman's taste. The new husband finding out and getting all up in an uproar. A bet at White's.
I could go on. There's even a younger brother with pockets to let because he keeps losing his allowance betting. But I'll just stop and say that every convention of regency romance makes an appearance here (except dogs. No dogs.).
Andrew (rich, will be a peer) decides to get married and reproduce, despite his definite preference for men. He elicits the help of the brotherhood of the title, which are other men who feel similarly. Not the best way to find a wife in some ways, but in others, quite reasonable. Phyllida, the bride, has published one gothic romance and has another in proof sheets. In the wake of her first sexual experiences with her new husband (his preference isn't _that_ definite), she does a little rewriting. A subplot involving a would-be spy and blackmailer introduces a substantial amount of Misunderstanding. Andrew is Dear John'ed by his three years in the military young man and meets a new beau, Matthew. Phyllida's younger sister arrives to have her Season. Phyllida gets knocked up. Antics ensue.
The triangle is a V. Unlike the star configuration of _Coulters' Woman_, Phyllida getting knocked up does not mean that no one gets laid. Very unlike _Coulters' Woman_ in that there is man-on-man action and no action involving all three at once in the titular relationship. (In fact, no three ways occur on page in the book, altho John Church does wander off with Monkton and Verney near the end.) Well, unless you count Phyllida watching Matthew and Andrew, and her lap-surfing at the wedding.
More typical romances often involve subplots in which other, established relationships are shown developing, and othe relationships develop. Similarly, the established three-way (a complete triangle, in every way, but not shown on page) between Lord and Lady Isham and Archbold; the new three-way (I think it's a three-way) between Kit, Nan and Philip. You'll notice a theme. Just as in typical romances everything is one-man/one-woman, in this atypical romance, it's all two-men/one woman, and the vertex is one of the men. Unless you count the Church/Verney/Monkton three-way, which looks like a one-night stand.
Regular readers of this page will not be surprised at my reaction to the post-pregnancy depiction of Phyllida. She chooses to nurse Sophia herself and when her sister-in-law gives her crap about it, she tosses it right back at her. And when George's portrait of her winds up being her wearing only the rubies, reclining, feeding Sophia. Heh. Gotta love that.
Given the content of this book, it's not nearly as graphic as _Coulters' Woman_. It really is mostly about the relationship developing. While there's a fair amount of sexual activity not involving the main players, that, too, is clearly in service of the plot.
RHI a regular publisher has picked this up and will be bringing it out this year. We'll see if that proves to be true.
That subtitle should prevent anyone from complaining about surprise about what they were getting into. Just in case they missed that subtitle, the opening scene is of a hungover Andrew waking up in bed next to Kit, whose name he has forgotten, and who he realizes he should never have brought home.
After my extensive post about _Coulters' Woman_ (yes, Coulter brothers sharing one woman), a friend sent me a pointer to a review she'd read of this book, thinking I might be interested.
Let me just say, Thank You. Both to the friend, and to the reviewer, and to the author, and to everyone else involved in this book existing. That was amazingly fun. The author did a certain amount of research, which was really cool, and then made some reasonable decisions about using that research (choosing to not limit herself to period slang terms for private parts, for example). The author appears to have read. A Lot. I mean, like, a whole lot. She managed to pack into this admittedly long novel nearly every possible Regency novel convention. We've got the low-class family from which virginal heroine springs, complete with dead military dad. City kids with gutteral English are welcomed into the household and taught to read. (Wait -- she missed one: no dogs! Dang! And the horses are only mentioned in passing.) Society folk who present themselves as respectable but who are sleeping around on each other. The trip to the modiste which is amazingly efficient. It includes the sophisticate helping the country girl. The slut overriding the chaste woman's taste. The new husband finding out and getting all up in an uproar. A bet at White's.
I could go on. There's even a younger brother with pockets to let because he keeps losing his allowance betting. But I'll just stop and say that every convention of regency romance makes an appearance here (except dogs. No dogs.).
Andrew (rich, will be a peer) decides to get married and reproduce, despite his definite preference for men. He elicits the help of the brotherhood of the title, which are other men who feel similarly. Not the best way to find a wife in some ways, but in others, quite reasonable. Phyllida, the bride, has published one gothic romance and has another in proof sheets. In the wake of her first sexual experiences with her new husband (his preference isn't _that_ definite), she does a little rewriting. A subplot involving a would-be spy and blackmailer introduces a substantial amount of Misunderstanding. Andrew is Dear John'ed by his three years in the military young man and meets a new beau, Matthew. Phyllida's younger sister arrives to have her Season. Phyllida gets knocked up. Antics ensue.
The triangle is a V. Unlike the star configuration of _Coulters' Woman_, Phyllida getting knocked up does not mean that no one gets laid. Very unlike _Coulters' Woman_ in that there is man-on-man action and no action involving all three at once in the titular relationship. (In fact, no three ways occur on page in the book, altho John Church does wander off with Monkton and Verney near the end.) Well, unless you count Phyllida watching Matthew and Andrew, and her lap-surfing at the wedding.
More typical romances often involve subplots in which other, established relationships are shown developing, and othe relationships develop. Similarly, the established three-way (a complete triangle, in every way, but not shown on page) between Lord and Lady Isham and Archbold; the new three-way (I think it's a three-way) between Kit, Nan and Philip. You'll notice a theme. Just as in typical romances everything is one-man/one-woman, in this atypical romance, it's all two-men/one woman, and the vertex is one of the men. Unless you count the Church/Verney/Monkton three-way, which looks like a one-night stand.
Regular readers of this page will not be surprised at my reaction to the post-pregnancy depiction of Phyllida. She chooses to nurse Sophia herself and when her sister-in-law gives her crap about it, she tosses it right back at her. And when George's portrait of her winds up being her wearing only the rubies, reclining, feeding Sophia. Heh. Gotta love that.
Given the content of this book, it's not nearly as graphic as _Coulters' Woman_. It really is mostly about the relationship developing. While there's a fair amount of sexual activity not involving the main players, that, too, is clearly in service of the plot.
RHI a regular publisher has picked this up and will be bringing it out this year. We'll see if that proves to be true.
