Liquid Silver Books, $5.75, ISBN 978-1-59578-455-1
Contemporary Erotica, 2008
What would you do if your fiancé begins going on constant business trips and at the same time starts getting all frisky about the idea of tying you up during sex? Decide that he must be cheating on you with some bondage queen on the sly and start snooping around his stuff looking for incriminating evidence?
Most importantly, will you forgive your fiancé for arranging to meet with that bondage queen that he met online – at her dungeon – while you’re trapped in a freezer and wondering whether anyone will let you out before you turn into an icicle permanently frozen in the act of trying to scrawl on the wall, “I wish I could rip out my fiancé’s eyeballs before I die!”? Okay, so Peter Maddock comes this close to taking off into the air before he remembers that he’s supposed to be engaged to Meghan Tiller and therefore he didn’t actually physically cheat on Meghan, but still…
Your answer to the above two questions will determine your reaction to Nina Pierce’s Arranging Love. Yes, I know someone is trying to kill Meghan here, but it’s quite funny how I find myself hoping that the villain accidentally puts a bullet into Peter’s private parts by mistake. When it comes to fiction, sometimes my priorities can be so screwed up like that. The first two chapters of this novella really push my hot buttons. Sorry, folks, but I’m not hip or modern enough to enjoy reading about guys who come this close to cheating on the fiancée. As a result, I can’t really get into the rest of the story. I can only wish that Meghan will find a way to ensure that Peter will never get online in any way ever again if she knows what is good for her. Can you imagine what will happen if he gets hooked on, say, toilet fetish or tentacle hentai next? Will he come this close to sticking it into a woman wearing a Winnie the Pooh costume in a furry convention sometime in the future?
Arranging Love is a hot button read where I am concerned, and as a result, I just can’t get into this one at all. Sorry.
