St Martin’s Press, $6.50, ISBN 0-312-98460-X
Historical Erotica, 2003
The main characters in Complete Abandon are interesting people, but the book is tough to swallow – pardon the awful pun – because the author proceeds to swamp her story with clichés. There are evil sluts galore whose demonization sit awkwardly beside the author’s romanticizing of the slutty heroes and there’s even everybody’s favorite evil pedophile villain. Is there anything in this book that Cheryl Holt can call uniquely hers, I wonder?
The tedious cycle of clichés begin when Emma Fitzgerald, a vicar’s daughter, storms the home of the new Viscount Wakefield only to – yup, you guess it – stumble upon him in a state of dishabille and just completed some afternoon pumpies with his latest girlie. That girlie, like every other girlie in this book, is naturally vile, possessive, bitchy, and skanky. Meanwhile, our hero John, who is vile, possessive, bitchy, and skanky, is a catch. Really. Don’t believe me? Take a look at that silly evil debutante caricature who is determined to marry John. Meanwhile, an evil ho decides to make a move on John’s brother Ian. But while we are supposed to condemn such pathetically nasty women even as we secretly giggle at the tantalizingly skanky scenes, we are also supposed to gasp in outraged pleasure when Emma and John discusses a bargain: she will do him one sexual favor for every tenant he chooses not to evict. (The tenants being the reason why Emma is here.) I recalled someone called Annabelle Chong…
Anyway, of course Emma and John will have sex and fall in love. But I do like how Emma comes off as a woman with real passions and emotions. She may be aware of the constraints and restrictions placed on her, but she does feel lust and she can get tempted. She’s no naive dingbat, and I really like that. John is the skanky and oversexed slut type, but I also like how the author manages to make him grow into a more rounded human being. John is a man that is changed by love, maybe a little too unrealistically perhaps, but still. Again, I like that. Emma and John make a great couple with palpable sexual chemistry.
But with the ridiculous other elements of the plot that only serves to drive home the hypocritical double standards that arise from the author’s lazy reliance on skanky female villains and psychotic pedophile nutcases, all that is good and original about Cheryl Holt’s Complete Abandon is swept away in a tidal wave of painful silliness. It is a clumsy, sometimes good but more often than not an awkwardly plotted story that doesn’t quite seem to bring out the best the author can offer to her readers.
