Book Review for "Beyond Shame" by Kit Rocha
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So sexy and delicious!! I loved this book! I'll admit that I went in ready to read the first chapter and put it down. I went in and read it straight through! I've been trudging through a lot of 1st in series books lately and this was a delightful gem to find! I'm excited to keep reading the series!
Set the scene in a post-apocalyptic world where the elite live a strictly controlled, monitored, and sterile existence in a walled city named Eden. The poor but surviving live on far flung farms and communes and in between you find the sectors. Where all manner of vice and sin and decadence can be yours if you survive the violent anarchy. Really great world building for an erotic novel! I'm excited to find out more about all the different aspects of this world and society. The fall of society being due to solar flares rather than zombies, global economic collapse, or germ warfare was a nice touch.
This first novel is the story of Noelle and Jasper. The recent exile from the perfect, sterile Eden searching for something more and the badass enforcer for the local rum-running gang that owns Sector 4. This was an ingenue and corrupter that I heartily enjoyed! She's inexperienced not because she wants to be but because the world she's from doesn't allow any kind of physical affection or titillation at all. She's longing to discover though, in fact it's what got her booted out of Eden. He's seen it all and done it all twice. From a culture that has no sexual taboos or shame in enjoying ones body (or ones friends' bodies) he's got all the experience she could ever want for anything she could ever want to try. Yummy!!
There were a few things that caused me to fall particularly in love with this world:
First off there is no expectation of monogamy!! Hooray! Even committed couples continue to explore and experience others sexually, they just do it together. This makes me so happy! I'm an avid fan of the paranormal romance genre and the one thing that gets to me after a while is the hard core monogamy. "You are the only one ever who could possibly be right for me and sex with you is better than it could ever be with anyone else and I can try things I never ever would with anyone with you because it's you and you can't leave me and now that I've found you I can't possibly even think of even looking at anyone else therefore you own me and I own you. Forever. It was destined." gets old. I still enjoy the genre and some of my favourite worlds and authors fall firmly into this trope. I reread Nalini Singh and Thea Harrison like the addict I am. It is, however, really nice to find a world that explores other options.
There is no slut shaming!! Huzzah!! Woman, as well as men, are sexual creatures and it's a thing to celebrate and enjoy! Experience is a good thing! This totally makes me do a happy dance. I love finding worlds where woman are understood to be just as sexual as the man around them. Praised for it even!!
It's sexy and kink-tastic! Sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me!! Hooray for steamy, kinky, inventive sex!! In a group, as a couple, on stage, at the weekly orgy and/or whatever and whenever makes you happy!! Hooray!! Three cheers for a kinky sexually liberated (and focused) world!! This is the kind of writing that leaves not a dry seat in the house. Enthusiastic, gritty, experienced, and detailed. I look hard to find kink that makes me happy and this is some of the best I've found in a long time. Sex scenes that are finger sizzling, panty wetting, hot!! So yummy!!
All together this is a lovely debut to what I can only hope will continue to be a delicious series.
When I picked up this book it was available for the incredibly reasonable price of $0 on my kindle. So if you're on the fence about giving it a try you're not in it for anything other than the time it takes to download. Personally, I'm going to march right out and throw my money at the rest of the series. With fervour and enthusiasm!! I hope you'll join me!