WHEN LUST LIGHTNING STRIKES FOR LUCKY MS AVERAGE

I've read a few erotic novellas recently. There are plenty to choose from in what a weary publisher might call, 'this crowded and competitive market place'.

So when I came to read Fall Into Love I was a jaded reader. This is because I am sated by erotic writing, much of which -- with a few notable exceptions -- is formulaic, and by the tidal wave of erotic imagery around us. My brain is dulled by what I have already read and seen.

So it will take something pretty special to win my approval.

FALL INTO LOVE is special. Why? Not because of the sex but because of the expertly drawn character of Simone, a woman on the loose in NY but who is spectacularly so not up for it she can't wait for her evening clubbing to draw to a close so she can go home. She pays lip service to sex to please her friends.

Simone has not has sex for four years after being totally turned off by her ex-husband. A fact which will have many a reader nodding, 'yep, that's me.'

Simone's girlfriends do their best to get her laid again, but she is just not up for it.

I enjoyed how unfashionably sexless she was. There was an intelligence about her resingnation. We sense she could easily see her 4 years of celibacy stretch into 40, thus sparing herself all manner of nuisance.

But then she falls from her bar stool .. aggggggg! .. right into strong arms of Zane .. ahhhhhh!

And so it begins.

The first third of so of FALL INTO LOVE expertly details all the little stages of Simone's slow but steady awakening to the possibilities facing her. She dares to dream the dream of unbridled nookie. And because she is so used to nothing good happening, she has nothing to lose and so risks all. And, to her surprise, Zane the Hunk of fine American muscle and sinew, obliges her in every detail.

Zane The Grim is brilliantly drawn. I'd best not give too much away, but here is one dab of Zane: 'The rippling melody of his voice is raked with gravel..' Marvellous stuff. The story almost blinks at itself in some odd way.

And it takes its time. A less cunning author might have unleashed her sex card much earlier and more than once. Not so the author of FALL INTO LOVE. She holds back. She builds. A little detail here. A mood shift there. All very experctly done. The slow ride in the life back to Zanes luxury suite.

And then the sex. There is a deliberate gear shift just after half way when the story comes out of the blocks like a thoroughbred stallion on Derby Day. The sex is at intense as the build up to it is studied. The philosophy of pleasure hovers in the background, too. It is all very intelligent.

So far, so enjoyable. It gets better. FALL INTO LOVE totally won my eyes and bossed my curiosity. I like to think I am a cunning reader, but even I was caught out by the ending, not so much the manner of the twist but by Simone's state of mind at the very end after her intense sexual adventure. You will have to read the story to see if you agree with me.

So the strength of the story for me was not about the raw and intense sex, which I enjoyed because of the confidence and joy it conveyed, but more about the character of Simone and her relationship with said sex and of its impact on her emotional and spiritual estate.

The way we consume sex these days in literature or on the internet is often lopsided. The focus is on the act, or images of the act. But mostly we never actually know what the people are feeling, their deeper responsess, the broader context of their lives.

Simone felt like a fairly normal person who suddenly found herself in a maelstrom of the hottest imaginable sex with an impossibly hunky hunk of well-oiled and up-for-it sex machine.

The genius of all this is that Simone is a very average woman in looks and expectations, maybe even a little drab and dour. She is everywoman in some ways. A female reader could quietly identify with her, or feel pity for her and think herself better off than Simone the innocent. I can't believe many female readers would not secretly fancy a round or two with Zane The Huge.

I know the author has another couple of stories up her sleeve. I for one will read them to see if she can pull it off again with such story-telling skill.

Ron AskewFall Into Love