1 out of 4 stars
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In The Erotic Awakening of Mary Jane, by Leonard Cascia, a conservative, sheltered housewife explores her sexuality and the BDSM lifestyle. The protagonist, Mary Jane, finds a pornography website on her husband’s computer and suspects him of cheating. She worries that he is not satisfied with her so she investigates the website to find what appeals to him. It is a BDSM website, which means bondage, sadism and masochism. In her online exploration, Mary Jane meets a mentor who trains her in the BDSM lifestyle. She is introduced to the dynamics of Dominant/submissive relationships and a variety of sexual fetishes. Her mentor also focuses on helping Mary Jane build her confidence as a woman by breaking her preconceived definitions of womanhood and sexuality.
I must rate this book 1 out of 4 stars because of the lack of editing and issues with the writing that I will expand on below. I would not recommend this book to any readers. The only thing I liked about it was that the author emphasized informed consent between sexual partners. Whether sex is “kinky” or “vanilla,” informed consent from all parties is critical and I respect that the author incorporated suggestions on how to ensure there is informed consent.
My primary reason for the low rating is the complete lack of editing in this book. Every page was full of grammatical errors including spelling, misused words and incorrect punctuation. One example is using the word “suspension” when the intended word was “suspicion.” Also, there are numerous instances of incorrect use of “their,” “there” and “they’re.” In addition to the grammatical errors, there were inconsistent transitions from past to present tense that made it difficult to read. If the book seemed professionally edited, I would have rated it 2 stars.
One other aspect that could have inspired a higher rating is the erotic scenes. Many erotic fiction books do not showcase the best writing but the physical descriptions can make up for that. That was not the case in The Erotic Awakening of Mary Jane. I was disappointed that there were only three erotic scenes in 233 pages, and they were brief scenes that did not highlight BDSM. The concept of this book had potential for more details and exploration of the various fetishes that are part of BDSM culture.
My final reason for the 1 star rating is that in describing the BDSM culture, the author consistently used the word “Dominate” as the noun for the master in the relationship. That is blatantly incorrect. The correct term is “Dominant,” as in “The Dominant spoke to his submissive in a commanding way.” As a reviewer, I do not want to judge the author’s perception or experience of BDSM. However, this error was too egregious not to mention. If the correct term had been used, I would have rated this book higher.
As I stated above, I would not recommend this book to any readers. I strongly suggest that the author invest in professional editing and expand on the erotic aspect of this book to make it an enjoyable erotic fiction novel.
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The Erotic Awakening of Mary Jane.
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