Natasha Blackthorne, $0.99, ISBN 978-0463914366
Historical Erotica, 2013 (Reissue)
According to the copyright notes, Natasha Blackthorne’s His Harlot was previously published as A Midsummer’s Sin. I did a quick search and the original publisher was Total-e-Bound.
Now, I’m not sure whether this edition that I am reading is merely a reissue or a revised one, so folks that want to know have best address their questions to the author herself. No, I don’t know her, so I’m afraid I can ask these questions on anyone’s behalf!
Now, with the PSA out of the way, let’s look at the story.
Set in New Balcombe, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690, we have Goodman Thomas Marlowe, a Puritan, lusting after his neighbor’s bondswoman Rosalind Abramson. Well, getting married just to have guilt-free sex isn’t something new, but you know how it is.
He is concerned that marrying for lust alone just isn’t right. It was the right thing to do to leave his late wife alone when physical intimacy was not her thing, so now he has gone without for three years. Perhaps the horny horns are clouding his judgment and tempting him to sin?
Meanwhile Rosalind knows that her scarlet past renders her unworthy of him and will even repulse him should he ever find out. What she doesn’t realize is that he has seen her in London ages ago, and has lusted after her at first sight. Since he’s married at that time, his lust only eats away at him and makes him guilt-ridden all over.
Oh, what can they do? Well, have sex, of course! How else will there be a story?
Well, I like the sexy bits. What, you expect me to wax lyrical about religious profundity or something? The sexy bits are hot, and given the nature of this story, that means it has accomplished most of everything it has set out to do already.
I do wish the author has done away with the mental baggage of the characters, though, because in the end, it doesn’t matter. He’s all, hey, he doesn’t care about her past; he’ll marry her gladly. She’d then go yay and they then copulate merrily ever after, their joyous abandon never to be marred by guilt and doubts ever again.
Hence, the mental yammering only serves as page filler that ends up fizzling out once the freaking up begins. It also puts a damper on the sexy parts a bit, as each shagging is inevitably followed by rues and moans that ruin the mood quite a bit.
Also, I know that we all use Puritan to describe stiff-lipped killjoys that disapprove of sexy fun, but I have also come across some school of thought that points out, with some convincing evidence, that Puritans are all about the sexy times in the marriage bed. The more the better, with too little sex in the marriage bed being a reasonable grounds for dissolving a marriage.
Hence, I wonder about Thomas’s willing acceptance of his wife denying him the pleasure of the marriage bed, because that aspect of the story, from the author’s treatment, feels tad too much like a self-inflicted angst for plot purpose rather than an organic spiritual or religious thing.
Still, the sexy parts are hot, so… yeah, I’m good with this. What can I say, I always have a weakness for hot god-fearing men that turns into one sexy devil of a lover once you drag them to bed!
