Very nice review of Above All over on Globug and Hootie Need a Book. What I love is how Amanda (“Hootie”) really got Above All and what the book is aiming for. She writes, “Above All sounded like a wonderful story about healing from a broken heart and finding something better along with the added bonus of some steamy romance to come. It was everything I had hoped but this wasn’t just your typical erotic romance.”
What’s not typical about it? Well, she goes on to explain that “Above All is classified as erotica and from my experience with the genre it’s mostly sex, sex, sex and very little story. That wasn’t the case with Above All. There was a plethora of story with some hot sex mixed in and I love that in my books.”
Cue happy dance. Hootie points exactly to the kind of genre blurring I dig: in this case, an adult contemporary that’s also erotic. See, I really wanted to write a book that was story AND sizzle, that used the characters and their situation to add to the passion and chemistry they share so that the two pieces become inextricable. I didn’t want sex scenes with a thin story linking them together (yawn), but I also didn’t want a rich story with some sex thrown in—let’s not shortchange the good stuff! The two components had to work together, so that each component felt absolutely necessary. I’m really glad that Hootie loved Ben and Casey as much as I do. I’m also really glad that a story about one woman’s growing into herself can also be hot enough to be called “SEXellent!”
If you haven’t checked out Globug and Hootie’s reviews, it’s a great way to find that next book to read (as though you don’t have enough already on your list!). What do you think? When you’re in the mood for an erotic book do you just want sex, or do you like a story to draw you in?
