The Sweetest Taboo
Grade : B-

One lonely horny evening, after reading erotica and lusting after her upstairs neighbor but before engaging in a bout of self-gratification, Erin Thatcher dashes off an email to her two on-line buds, throwing down a gauntlet. Inspired by a Cosmo-style article, "Men to Do Before Saying I Do", Erin challenges herself and her two friends to pick one guy they know is not their type and have a wild sexy fling. For herself, she chooses the aforementioned neighbor, who (whom?) she dubs "The Scary Guy."

"The Scary Guy" is Sebastian Gallo, who is actually an author and about as isolated as a guy can be without having severed heads in his freezer. After a horrible childhood, Gallo has vowed to be totally self-sufficient, not relying on anyone but himself for all sustenance in his life, economic, emotional and otherwise. But as he works on his novel (he's a best-selling author) he's haunted by his fascination with Erin.

When Erin and Sebastian simultaneously decide to go after their lust objects, it isn't long before clothes start flying and the pages start heating up. And boy howdy, do they heat up! I was sipping ice water and had a fan handy and I still got mighty warm.

Edgier, more explicit sex scenes are the selling point of the Blaze line, and Alison Kent delivers imaginative romps in Sebastian's incredibly luxurious shower room (forget hunky Sebastian - I want his bathroom!), the condo building's mail room, and a dark corner of the bar that Erin owns and manages. These scenes are fun, sometimes funny, and very, very hot.

If the hot sex is what you are looking for, The Sweetest Taboo has lots of it, and it's well written and visualized. However, the main and secondary romances occurring in between the hormonal bouts were not as strong as I would have liked.

Very quickly, Erin finds herself doing the old "oops, I said I just wanted sex but I'm falling in love" angst. The emails that fly between her and her fellow Men to Do-ers on this topic are funny and ring all too true. But the emotion itself, from both her and Sebastian, seems oddly muted.

Both have internal conflicts - Sebastian has his loveless past to overcome, as well as the fear that opening up his life will make his work impossible. Erin is struggling to make her bar a success even as she wonders if this is really her life's calling, or just a debt she feels she owes to the grandfather who raised her. Deep issues, and I longed to see them dealt with, but both Sebastian's and Erin's dilemmas are resolved bloodlessly with convenient deus ex machina at the book's denouement.

I was more disappointed by the secondary romance between Erin's best friend Cali and her screenplay collaborator Will. In contrast to Erin and Sebastian, their longing for each other is based as much on emotion as sex appeal. The scene where Cali takes the plunge and decides to up the ante in their relationship was adorable, as was Will's Beta-guy personality. However, my liking for Will went downhill as a seemingly petty issue blew up into increasingly bitchy arguments with Cali. I didn't really understand what his problem was, and didn't think that the conflict really went away when the required happy resolution occurred.

That said, there's a lot to like in this book. I liked Erin and Sebastian very much, and I love the strong female bonding that is a hallmark of Alison Kent's Blaze stories. The girl-talk is fun and funny, and I can relate more to a character who emails her buddies to talk sex and shoes than I can to the more traditional category heroines. I passed a pleasant few hours with The Sweetest Taboo and look forward to seeing what the other two women do with their Men to Do.

Reviewed by Colleen McMahon
Grade : B-
Book Type: Series Romance

Sensuality: Burning

Review Date : November 3, 2002

Publication Date: 2002/12

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Colleen McMahon

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