Unmasqued

Unmasqued Colette Gale Grade: D- Sensuality: Burning This is another book that won't be released for a while, but it was so bad - and laughably purple - I had to mention it.

Gale is a pen name for an author who apparently writes historical fiction, and she has another "treat" in store for readers after the release of Unmasqued, which is an erotic re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera. That "treat" is an erotic re-telling of Alexander Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask. Guess what? I won't be reading it.

Just a couple of pages in a 352 page book saved the book from being a total failure...a snippet of a scene from the hero's POV that I found poignant. When I looked for early reviews of the book online, I found only praise, particularly for one love scene involving a harp that was inventive, but not particularly titillating (sorry, I couldn't resist that one) to me. I too will never look at a harp the same way, but for me the memory won't be as arousing as it will be for others.

I learned two important things from reading Unmasqued. The first is that all of France must be into D/s sex, because every single character encountered in the book likes either to humiliate or cause pain to their sex partners...or to be humiliated or feel pain during sex. What else did I learn? To no longer equate the word "pip" with Gladys Knight. It's used in the book many, many times and now, forever in my brain, it joins "little man in the boat" and "Delores!" as a word for that "nubbin of flesh".

P.S. - I later thought about my grade for this book. Those two pages aren't enough to save this one from F-dom.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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