anatomy-of-janeThis novel was the first (non-fanfiction) three-way erotica I’ve read, and it both met and failed my expectations in different ways and on different levels. I absolutely don’t regret purchasing this ebook. But I’m not sure whether I will be purchasing the sequel, despite the fact that this book ends on a ridiculous cliffhanger (one of the ways in which it failed me).

I appreciated that Jane was indisputably the hero of her own story. The two men each had their own point-of-view scenes and secondary plots, but Jane stole the show at every turn. I especially appreciated that her relationship with the two men was never the primary end-point of the story. Rather, her succeeding in life on her own terms made this a very feminist book despite the proportion of men to women in the relationship. This book is a very good example of what “fiction for women by women” should mean.

If the cover did not make it obvious, this book includes explicit erotica. Any parts of the sexual encounters that required suspension of disbelief fell into the wish-fulfillment fantasy category rather than “that’s just not physically possible.”

Unfortunately, this self-published novel commits two major sins. The cliffhanger is the first, which leaves readers unsatisfied with an incomplete plot and forces them to pay money for a second novel. The second was the copy-editing that became steadily worse as the book progressed. I was both stuck in a hotel during a dull work trip and just caught up enough by the characters to keep reading. I’m not sure that I would have otherwise.

Rating: 3 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Currently reading: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Chronicles of St. Mary’s #6) by Jodi Taylor

Currently writing: 85,726/90k words