Book of the week- On Demand by Justine Elyot

So in my quest to blog more, and my quest to spend less time on random internet sites that are bad for me , i'm going to try something new and review a book every week. i've been able to read 2-3 books a week at my top speed, so it shouldn't be too hard. i hope you all like it out there in computer land.

This week's book is On Demand by Justine Elyot . it's an adult book, and i'll try to keep this review as pg-13 as i can, but you may not want to click read more if that's not your thing.

I'm a big fan of the fanfiction and original fiction by this author, so when i heard that she was not only going to be published but also optioned for a print novel, i was really, really excited! she wrote some really amazing original fiction i'll link to later if you decide you want to take a look.

So my expectations were really high coming into this book. and they were mostly met, but not completely. one of the things i love about ms. elyot's writing style is that she strikes the perfect balance of porn and plot for me. enough that you care about and identify with the characters. and unlike a lot of these stories, the characters seem like real women who like sex a lot, not fake, weird fantasies of stupidly rebellious women who need to be "tamed" or physically perfect nymphs with no personality. Sophie, her protagonist in this book still has the amazing wit i love about her characters, and she's definitely an interesting, intelligent woman who knows what she likes in the bedroom, but... the first chapter deals with her having a random one night stand with a man who thinks she's a prostitute. this chapter is incredibly hot, mind you, but the main character then discovers she has a kind of fetish for being... well, in her own words, she goes to this place dressed a certain way, and then she "can't say no." to anyone who propositions her. while i respect that and it makes a good premise for this type of novel, i found Sophie a little hard to relate to at first because of it.

The story also jumps around a lot... it's set at a hotel, and Sophie is the receptionist. although many of the stories involve her, she is not the main character in all of them. this might bother some readers, but i really liked it! it gave the opportunity for her to showcase a lot of different scenarios, and the transitions are always done seamlessly and even characters for a one shot, such as a woman who checks into the hotel with her illicit lover because she wants to experience anal sex, are believable and interesting.

I tried to pick a favorite story to tell you about, but i honestly can't pick one.

The most obvious, considering it's me, is the one where Sophie is called by some people staying in the hotel because they're worried that the man in the next room might be hurting the girl she's staying with, only what they're doing is completely consensual! since both the guests are very angry, and she's a bit curious, she finds an interesting way of paying them back. but of course, if you know me well enough, you'd know that anything that involves a paddle and over the knee striped socks is going to be a favorite of mine.

Of course, there's also the story where two friends decide to take a player down a peg or two, the photography session where a female photographer takes photos of two handsome, gradually disrobing men, the wonderful group scene in the hotel pool, and the scene where Sophie does work for a friend who designs lingerie and sex toys and winds up giving a few select customers a private demonstration. even though each scene is very different, everything is consensual, and rather than the slightly creepy feeling you sometimes get that underlies some books that deal with these subjects, there is never any sense that the people in question are less than classy.

The ending was fairly satisfying, although massively unexpected, i won't spoil it for you, but all her novel length stories end in the main character finding a happy relationship with someone. i feel that the ending of this particular story suffered a little from the fact that the author is used to being able to take as long as she likes telling the story, whereas with a print novel her editors may want a certain length, but nowhere near enough to make the book un-enjoyable. there are some things that involve a bit of a fetish element, but nothing so hard that your average woman might not be able to enjoy the story. the only thing that might rub some the wrong way is the woman who chooses to cheat on her husband, but in the story i had no trouble relating to her and thought she behaved very honorably for someone in her situation.

I purchased this book from amazon, but since it's published in the uk,i had to pay a bundle for shipping. i've heard, though, that the book depository doesn't charge for shipping, so then it's about $10 for you to pick up a copy.

If you want to read some of Justine's work online, check out her blog , which contains previews of her work, and a short story currently not available elsewhere called Lecture Notes. (mainly a bdsm story.) if you prefer period perversion, you can try 1888 , which contains a variety of different things.