Berkley Sensation, $14.00, ISBN 978-0-425-21705-4
Fantasy Erotica, 2007
Welcome to Fairyville, a town located a little north of Sedona. The residents of this tourist town love to call the place the “Number One Fairy-Spotting Capital” of USA and no, this isn’t a place where hedonistic homosexuals party all year long in their birthday suits. We are talking about those little fellows with wings and all. Fairyville attracts mediums, clairvoyants, psychics, and seers as well as curious tourists and those genuinely interested in procuring their services. Some of these mediums and what-not may even be genuine.
Zoe Clare is genuine. She can see ghosts as well as fairies since she was a child and today, she makes a living contacting ghosts for folks who want to communicate with these ghosts. Actually, as she’d tell you, the ghosts contact her instead of the other way around and she’s more like a messenger than a conductor. She is in love with Magnus Monroe, the owner and manager of most of the properties in Fairyville, but that man seems immune to her charms. Instead, once a month he’d take a lover and leave the lucky woman bandy-shagged, as they’d say, the next morning. Zoe is most put out. What do those women have that she doesn’t?
Elsewhere, Zoe’s high-school boyfriend Alex Goodbody – no, really, that is his name – is now a PI. When the story introduces him and his PI partner Bryan McCallum, they shortly after consummate the attraction that Bryan felt until then was well-hidden from Alex. Alex and Bryan end up in Fairyville while investigating the case of infants possibly switched at birth, catch up with Zoe and Magnus, and… well, magic happens.
This is an erotic paranormal romance where Alex, Bryan, Zoe, and Magnus get involved in various degrees of sexual contact in all possible combinations, with the number of people happily playing ride the pogo stick not necessarily be only two at one time. Yes, this means that there are scenes of men having sex with each other here. You know what to do if such scenes are not what you like to come across in your preferred reading material.
There is a plot here, by the way, so don’t worry, involving fairies big and small, with the story being very well-paced and most enjoyable. The only thing is that you will have to accept that the characters are already in love when the story begins and any relationship development here deals mainly in getting the characters involved to acknowledge their feelings. Still, the romantic aspects of the story are pretty well done and balance the erotic aspects of the story very well. I love how the characters come off as genuinely into each other instead of merely going through the slot-tabbing motions.
The characters are likable, with Zoe being most adorably sane and lusty instead of being some neurotic creature needing to be schooled in pleasure. Alex, Bryan, and Magnus are lusty hunks with flexible sexuality, all to pleasure and please the woman, of course. The love scenes are really well-written and most erotic as well, but then again, this is Emma Holly we are talking about. Newer upstart erotic romance authors may come and go, but Ms Holly can still teach them a thing or two about effective sensual phraseology that makes a sex scene burn.
Fairyville is, all in all, a most enjoyable kind of sensual read that has a pretty strong plot as well as romantic elements. It’s great to realize that when Ms Holly is in fine form, she’s still got it. Lots of it.
