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DANGEROUS PLEASURES
Bertrice Small
New American Library
ISBN: 978-0-451-22397-5
August 2008
Ultimate Romance
Annie Miller is a widowed mother with
five children. When her husband was killed in an
accident a few years prior to the beginning of the book,
his death ended a happy marriage and the financial
security of the family. Relying on the goodness of her
parents and her sister, she is struggling with her
children and their growing demands. Her sister, thinking
she needs a break, enters her in a contest sponsored by
the Channel, a network catering to delivering women's
sexual fantasies. She wins the grand prize, a week at a
local new spa and a year's subscription to the Channel.
The luxurious new spa is owned by a secret organization
and Annie is quickly enamored by the surroundings, the
staff catering to every need, and most of all, the
fantasy fulfillment offered by nightly forays into the
Channel.
Much to her surprise, Annie quickly engages in a bondage
fantasy between a beauty and a beast that is totally out
of the realm of her previous intimate experiences. She
also garners the attention of the management and at the
end of her week is offered a position managing the gift
shop.
This is where Annie makes some radical changes in her
behavior, her appearance, her willingness to engage in
casual sexual experiences, and her increased comfort
with more and more responsibility in the spa.
While this book is probably about a woman's awakening
sexual desires and her discovery of self, something was
very off about the idea of a widow with five children
engaging in unprotected sex with multiple partners. Her
behavior in the last third of the book didn't fit with
the personality readers were introduced to in the
beginning. Predictably she is forced to confront the
reality of her employers and what her own personal
choices must look like.
While this is a well-written book with excellent plot, I
found the concept distasteful. In the end it felt like
Annie had sold out herself and her morals for a system
that was opposite the one she chose for her children.
Just how much of one's value system should be
relinquished in the pursuit of financial stability or
even hedonistic pleasure? This book will cause readers
to ask this question.
Reviewed by Jeri Neal
Rating: 3
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