Double Review: Forbidden Fruit & Yank

Title: Forbidden Fruit
Author: Selena Kitt
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: August 30th 2013
Source: Netgalley

★★★★

Four solid stars.

Leah and Erica are best friends that attend the same stuffy Catholic college. Since Erica's mother passed away, Leah's spent so much time over there that she's essentially Mr. Nolan's second daughter. During one of their girl nights, the friends find a box of erotic videos and magazines beneath Mr. Nolan's bed, and it fuels their curiosity and desires, for each other and for the men in their lives.... But that turns into more of a problem when the man in Leah's life becomes her best friend's father.

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Wow. I was not expecting a short novella like this to pack so much steam into such little space. I was very pleasantly surprised.

I liked the actual plot of this short story. Most of the time, with erotic short stories, I don't get a sense of any real plot line, just scene after scene of bedroom activities. But this plot was intriguing- how awkward would it be for everyone involved if you started shagging your best friend's dad in their own house. I was genuinely interested in how long Leah would get away with it, and what would happen once she was busted.

The sex scenes, though frequent, never became boring or repetitive. I'm impressed that Selena Kitt managed to have so much variety in the scenes that she wrote. The descriptions are just the right amount of crass and sensual, and they are more than a little hot. For me, the Catholic school bit was a nice touch, and made it all the sexier.

Be warned that this is an erotic story, and contains sex, Catholicism, toys, girl-on-girl, and strong language. It's a hot, short, kinky read and won't be the last I read by this author.


Title: Yank
Author: Selena Kitt
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: August 28th 2013
Source: Netgalley

★★

Two stars.

Dawn, a foreign exchange student from America, is headed to Surrey for her studies, to stay with childhood friend David. His world becomes shaken up the moment she arrives back, because he's not the little girl that he remembers anymore, and it becomes increasingly more difficult for either of them to resist the temptation that lives only down the hall.

I wasn't so much a fan of this one, in compared to the other Selena Kitt story that I have read.

I didn't feel connected to the plot or the characters. I understand that this is a short story, and an erotic one at that, but there still has to be some level of interest in characters or the rest of the story breaks down. That's how I felt about this one.

The smutty scenes, as always however, are well written and full of blazing heat. If I could rate these separately, I would, because Selena Kitt is a great author when it comes to the x-rated scenes within her stories.

Selena Kitt is known for approaching more taboo subjects, which I found odd seeing that this book seemed relatively tame. True, her host mother insists that the two act like siblings, and the school has a "no relationships with the host family" rule, but that little detail didn't seem so rebellious to me. But then I started reading reviews of this book, and saw that in the original edition of this story, they were related. I very much hate to say that, but I think I would have preferred that they were. It would have added the missing depth to the characters, the plot, and the "taboo" factor.

This is a book intended for adults, so be aware that this book contains vulgar language, crass British slang, and graphic detail. Thanks to Netgalley and eXcessica Publishing for my copies.