Jon Hartling - The Snow Owl

The Snow Owl

By Jon Hartling

Kindle Edition Available





Product Description (from Amazon)
Ben thinks his son’s talk of the magical kingdom of Lukana is just typical childhood imagination. But one winter day, when seven year-old Eric sculpts a snow owl in his backyard, he seems to set in motion events that cannot be anything but magical. Now Ben faces the terrifying prospect of losing his only child to a wintry spirit… a spirit that just might be the boy’s true father.

11 pages

About the Author (from Amazon)
Jon Hartling had been writing aimlessly for many years before the stars aligned and he discovered his muse in the classic stories of H.P. Lovecraft.  With the invaluable help of his wife Heather in an editorial and technical capacity, he began writing short stories of weird fiction. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife and children and dreams of one day owning a plush Cthulhu doll that's wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey and helmet. His demented cat Nikki may or may not be head-butting him at this very moment.

http://jonhartling.blogspot.com/

O.Scarlett! REVIEW by Rachel

This is a SHORT short story ... only 11 pages.  This is the second book that I have read written by Jon, I had read Firebug several months ago and didn’t care for it.  

But this story captures the imagination and the heart.  I think it is the love that the father has for this child only because he loved the boys mother so much.  The boy looks nothing like his father, or his mother.  Although he LOVES the winter.  He also tells tales about a land where he is a missing Prince.  One day he created a snow owl, instead of a snow man.  He tells his father that the snow owl is going to take him home – back to the magic land where he belongs.

The anguish the father feels as the story progresses through to the climatic ending is breathtaking.   It’s a great quick read.  And I enjoyed it very much.

This author also wrote Firebug.

Genre/Theme:  Short Story, Fantasy, Family Issues

Reading Level:  TEEN - upper elementary to middle school 
Profanity: NONE - no offensive language 
Sexuality: SUBTLE - hinted, but not explicit   (doubt as to who fathered the child)
Other: Mother dies during childbirth (heart attack) – doubt as to whether she had the baby by another man.

Melissa Foster - Come Back to Me

Come Back to Me


By Melissa Foster

Kindle Edition Available




Product Description (from back cover of paperback)
Tess Johnson has it all: her handsome photographer husband Beau, a thriving busines, and a newly discovered pregnancy.  When Beau accepts an overseas assignment, Tess decide to wait to reveal her secret -- only she's never given the chance.  Beau's helicopter crashes in the desert.

Tess struggles with the news of Beau's death and tries to put her life back together.  Alone and dealing with a  pregnancy that only reminds her of what she has lost, Tess is adrift in a world of failed plans and fallen expectations.  When a new client appears offering more than just a new project, Tess must confront the circumstances of her life head on.

Meanwhile, two Iraqi women who are fleeing honor killings find Beau barely alive in the middle of the desert, his body ravaged by the crash.  Suha, a doctor, and Samira, a widow and mother of three young children, nurse him back to health in a makeshift tent.  Beau bonds with the women and the children, and together, with the help of an underground organization, they continue their dangerous escape.
What happens next is a test of loyalties, strength, and love.

About the Author (from Amazon author page)
"Melissa Foster is a wonderful connector of readers and books, a friend of authors, and a tireless advocate for women. She is the real deal"--Author Jennie Shortridge

Melissa Foster is the bestselling, award-winning author of three novels, Megan's Way, Chasing Amanda, and Come Back to Me. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the Women's Nest, a social and support community for women, the World Literary Cafe, and Fostering Success. Melissa is currently collaborating in the film production of Megan's Way.

Melissa hosts an annual Aspiring Authors contest for children, she's written for Calgary's Child Magazine and Women Business Owners Magazine, and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Melissa is currently working on her next novel, and lives in Maryland with her family. Melissa's interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping women see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod.

Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa on The Women's Nest or her personal website.
This biography was provided by the author or their representative.



O.Scarlett! Review by Tenya

Come Back to Me is a contemporary romance which spans the globe and tugs at the emotions. It did bring me to tears at one point, a difficult task since I do not cry over books easily. I wanted to love this book with a first chapter that captured my attention and compelled me to keep reading.

Beau and Tess are separated from one another by his photography assignment in war-torn Iraq, but this job could bring the recognition that will break Beau’s career wide-open. When the wreckage of Beau’s chopper with bodies burned beyond recognition is found in the desert, Tess cannot accept his death. She has newly discovered she is pregnant; however, that fact does not fit her husband’s five-year-plan. Now that he might be dead, Tess’s only hope to keep her sanity is hanging onto Beau’s promise that he will come back to her.

After month’s go by, she slowly learns to let go of Beau and begins to accept the child growing inside of her. Surrounded by a set of rather tragic characters (her friends), Tess struggles to find the path back to wholeness and normality. Perhaps her new client, Louie is the way she can find herself again.

Meanwhile, Beau struggles to survive in the desert, miraculously aided by two women and a group of children as he recovers from his wounds. In turn, he is obligated to assist them in escaping from the hellish life they have known in Iraq. The bonds which grow between him, the children and their mother are intense, but Beau hangs on to one thing – Tess! Will he be able to return to her?

At the end of the book, I felt a bit unsatisfied. It seemed more of a tragedy than a romance. I have no problem with the author ending it this way, but too many loose ends remained. One of the characters had suffered a brutal attack, but the psychological issues of that were never addressed. Too many things were too neatly tied up in pretty packages in the final chapter while other things were ignored and not tied up at all.

This book is well-written (as far as style) and formatted successfully. The cultural aspects about the women from Iraq and their interactions with Beau and others are authentic and obviously well researched.  The basic plot is intriguing and draws the reader into the world of the main characters immediately. One really cares about what happens to these people and how the conflicts will be solved.

NOTE:
     I usually enjoy a romance with a good plot, so I believed I would like this book. As far as plots go, I did enjoy it, for the most part. The consistently bad language throughout the book, which even permeated the private thoughts of the characters, ruined the story for me. This reader found the profanity of the female characters particularly disturbing, especially since it included the most vulgar of words. The Lord’s name was not used wrongly much in this book, but just about every swear word was used – and frequently toward the end of the story.
     There are many instances of adult situations in this book including rape and abuse, especially within the context of the back story of one of the Iraqi women. A couple of the characters have rather “loose” morals. No qualms are raised concerning “sleeping around” before marriage except for the one female character that has a few too many one-night-stands and suffers the tragic consequences. Quite a few scenes take place in a bar where people are drinking alcohol.


Genre/Theme: Contemporary Romance
Reading Level: (by appropriateness) Mature Teen to Adult (except those offended by bad language or loose morality)
Profanity: The amount in the text bordered on EXTREME (all kinds of words used, even the worst)
Sexuality: OBVIOUS - Nothing explicit, but sexuality is most definitely a major theme throughout.
Other: Adult themes: some violence, rape, abuse, language, tragic death, etc.

Catherine Kirby - Sari Caste

Sari Caste

By Catherine M. Kirby

Kindle Edition Available

Product Description (from Amazon)

 A courageous voyage through destitution, intrigue and murder.

Manasa is abandoned by the man she should marry. He marries her sister instead. Meanwhile Manasa finds herself pregnant with his child. She flees her Bengali village wondering where to go. Eventually, she finds herself wandering the streets of Calcutta. Without money or food, life is a daily struggle. Finally, she is taken on by a brothel. She is desperately unhappy until she meets a different sort of man. This man she marries in secret and together they plan her escape from the brothel.

Murder, corruption, and intrigue threaten to swallow up the new life they attempt to establish in the beautiful hill country of Darjeeling.

About the Author (from Amazon author page)

Writing has always been a passion for me. I started with short stories, poems and haikus and finally found myself writing a novel. It was exciting to see it grow and take shape. I had no idea where the story would take me. I just found my starting point and followed the muse. The research was fascinating, time consuming but absorbing. Once I reached those magical words 'The End', I was overjoyed. Then the real work of editing and rewriting began. Once I'd finished my first novel, I was keen to write another. My novels do not follow the same genre but do deal with the intricacies of relationships - what makes them go wrong and what, if anything, can save them from destruction. I hope my readers will enjoy the results.

This biography provided by the author or their representative.

O.Scarlett Review by Tenya

The description of this book grabbed my attention because the subject matter is something which interests me.  I advocate for necessary changes in this world to stop the exploitation of women and children around the globe.  I hope to do this by bringing awareness to these matters in entertaining stories, the novels I write.  Ms. Kirby has done the same in Sari Caste, a contemporary story set in the country of India. 

The reader is quickly drawn into the traumatic world of Manasa, one of four daughters unwanted by their father.  (Culturally, India still values the birth of male offspring over that of girls, and I’m reminded of an article I read recently about Indian girls and women changing their names in mass groups because the names they had been given by their parents meant “unwanted.”)  The father is abusive toward Manasa’s mother, blaming her for a lack of sons in the family.  He’s a drunkard who takes every advantage to marry off his daughters as cheaply as possible, hoping their required dowries won’t deplete the coffers he has failed to fill.

Locked into working long hours to provide a dowry which will allow her younger sister to marry the man Manasa loves, the drama of this family’s life captures the attention and compassion of the reader.  Finally, Manasa is forced to flee her country village with her newborn child and seek out a new, and hopefully better, life in the city.  But, the city is not all she dreamed it would be.  She soon discovers that her dreams may end in starvation for her and her baby.  The only true friends she finds are “pavement dwellers,” street people, who experience tragedy heaped upon tragedy.

Desperate to provide for her own child and her friends, Manasa takes a job in a brothel.  Eventually, her sister escapes to the city and joins her.  As Manasa and Kajal struggle to survive their circumstances, one would think it could not get any worse, but it does.  Discovering that the orphan children living at the brothel are being exploited in the worst way by the owners, Manasa determines she must save herself and anyone else she possibly can.  The bulk of the book deals with the struggles she endures and her efforts to escape a life of prostitution and slavery.

For such a horribly difficult subject, I cannot imagine that anyone could have handled the presentation of the situation into which young Manasa is forced, out of necessity, any more tactfully than this author has done.  This story is hard to read, simply because of the subject matter, but Catherine Kirby has written it in a compelling way that forces the reader to continue to the last page, no matter how horrific the lives of the characters become.

Sari Caste is a work of fiction, but the heart-wrenching situations and tragic circumstances of Manasa and the other characters are far too real for many people living in India today.  Yes, today, not one hundred years ago!  Your support of organizations that strive to help women escape this kind of hopeless lifestyle is important.  Often stores or internet retailers who offer Fair Trade merchandise will carry items produced by people like Manasa who have been rescued from the horrors of forced prostitution, or prevented them from choosing it as a desperate means of survival.   The jewelry, handbags and other lovely items produced by these people is astoundingly beautiful!

Is there victory and escape in this story?  Truthfully, the end left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.  Every man in this book ends up being a total louse!  I resolve my dissatisfaction by remembering that true liberty is having the freedom to mess up your own life rather than letting others do it for you.  It is a most compelling and heart-wrenching story that I recommend to adults who like some real 'meat' in their fiction.

Notes:

As previously stated, the subject matter of this book is difficult.  Obviously, there’s going to be sex involved because much of the story takes place in a brothel.  There are descriptions of certain situations, but they are not overly explicit.  The events are clear without becoming vulgar.

The book is written in first person which is not my favorite.  I really did become tired of the word “I” but this is probably just a personal pet peeve of mine. If you are not a great fan of first person narrative, be prepared when you do read this book.  Don’t let it keep you from reading! The story is compelling enough to overlook such a simple thing, and truthfully, Catherine pulls it off very well.  After a few chapters I did not even notice anymore.

Genre/Theme:  India, Human Trafficking/Slavery, Drama

Reading Level: (by appropriateness) ADULT – because of subject matter

Profanity:  NONE – I cannot remember any.

Sexuality:  BLATANT – subject matter could not be presented without it, but it is never vulgar or overly explicit

Other:

There are many tragic things in this book including children starving to death, murder, rape, and the general horrors of the exploitation of women and children in the forced sex trade.  Several very unwholesome characters appear, and their behavior is characteristically lecherous.

Expect this story to shock you!  It should. 

Sam Torode - The Dirty Parts of the Bible

The Dirty Parts of the Bible
by Sam Torode

Kindle Edition & Paperback Available through Amazon





Product Description (from Amazon)

From the Back Cover

     It's 1936, and Tobias Henry is stuck in the frozen hinterlands of Michigan. Tobias is obsessed with two things: God and girls.

     Mostly girls, of course.
     But being a Baptist preacher's son, he can't escape God.
     When his father is blinded in a bizarre accident (involving hard cider and bird droppings), Tobias must ride the rails to Texas to recover a long-hidden stash of money. Along the way, he's initiated into the hobo brotherhood by Craw, a ribald vagabond-philosopher. Obstacles arise in the form of a saucy prostitute, a flaming boxcar, and a man-eating catfish. But when he meets Sarah, a tough farm girl under a dark curse, he finds out that the greatest challenge of all is love.

About the Author (from Amazon author page)

     I'm a writer, artist, and book designer enjoying life in Nashville, Tennessee.

I found this for free via Pixel of Ink.  I was going to skip over it, until I saw the review comparing the story to Mark Twain and Johnny Cash.  Curious, I checked out the reviews on Amazon.

      Historical fiction is among my favorites, so when I read on the Amazon reviews that this was a surprisingly mild story, considering the title, about the Great Depression, I decided to give it a chance.  Besides, the story was to take place in an area not far from where I grew up, and it was in a era of time that I’ve heard so much about from my own maternal grandparents and family friends.  The Great Depression is one fascinating time.
      The opening paragraphs are shocking .. a description of his birth (or at least it has a lot of swear words) and the admission that he was an only child and that his parents had no more children after that – and his father loves winter because it allowed him to keep his passions under control.   This book told as a sort of autobiography – of a nearly 20 year old boy on the brink of adulthood.  While the boy has been raised in a “Christian Home” – his dad is a preacher, he still struggles with the desires of the flesh and his understanding of scripture.  It is a walk in his mind, mulling through his questions of right and wrong and how society views life and the world, and as such, some parts are quite raunchy and quite crass and others will make you mad.  Still others will make your heart ache with his struggles.  

     His father is a Baptist Pastor in a small town in Michigan.  His parents have never displayed much, if any, affection for each other.  But of course he’s a normal boy .. and you get inside a boys head as he describes his awareness of  girls around him and his own development, or lack thereof.  The first chapter is rather shocking.  But you learn a lot about this teenaged boy on the brink of adulthood about to loose the girl of his dreams to the boy from his nightmares.   Lars really isn’t that bad.  But he is all the man that Tobias can only wish to be, especially as he’s about to marry Tobias’ girl.
      The writing does often overdo the swearing and frank descriptions.  Sometimes there are sentences that don’t quite make sense, and I spotted over a dozen grammar and typo errors.   Still, the writing style did match that of a teenaged boy’s struggles with the world around him, especially as it was in 1936.  I was surprised that one of the Amazon reviews said that they had chosen this book as a church book club read ... and the reviewer had been shocked and stopped reading at the end of the first chapter.  Someone else had commented, “With a title like that, and the picture on the front cover, what else would you expect?”  Indeed.
      I kept reading though, I’ve always been fascinated by frank history, much more than sugar coated.  And this story promised to be full of onions and garlic without a chocolate coating.

Basic Plot

      Tobias has always felt trapped in the tiny Michigan town of Remus, where his father has been the Baptist preacher since Tobias was three.  He is an only child.  He has many friends, but has never quite fit in with the others because his father is against everything fun (from a nearly 20 year old boy’s point of view).

     One day, one of his friends shows him the Song of Solomon.  And afterwards, church was a lot less horrible, as he could open his Bible and read these interesting parts while his father droned on about the evils of cards, drinking, and other sins.  His father was also very pleased to see his son’s sudden interest in Bible study.

     One night, after a fight with his wife, his father stopped at a bar for some apple juice and the bar tender gave him hard apple cider.  And the preacher got drunk, wrecked his car, and was punished with blindness.  He finally confided to his son that he had left behind a considerable amount of money in an old abandoned well back in his hometown where he grew up in Texas.  He told Tobias how to find his uncle and gave him instructions and money for the train ride south.
       By this time, I was 3 chapters in, and I wanted to know if Tobias made it to Texas, and I wondered if this story would match those of my elder relatives.
       At first the train ride was a great adventure, but as he got use to the train, and being away from home, he got bolder.  He tried a sleeping car ... and later adventured to find a motel, but the man who gave him instructions, directed him to a “house of women” instead.  He ended up sleeping on the floor, and the girl stole all of his money.
      Now he was in the Midwest, no money, and no way to get home, or continue on to Texas.  He stumbles back to the railroad and there is taken in by an old ragged hobo – a big black man named Craw.
      Craw takes him under wing and helps him jump his first train – which nearly kills Tobias.  But by some miracle, he survives, but looses everything else he owns as his back pack is lost in the attempt.  Food is scarce and adventure is high.  Craw is full of surprises and cures for their problems.   And there are many near death adventures (burning train cars, giant cat fish, and prickle plants to name a few) as they work their way south.

      Once in Texas, Craw and Tobias find their way to his uncle’s ranch – where Tobias is welcomed as family by Aunt Millie and Uncle Wilburn.  Craw is less than welcome, but is given a shed to bed down in, and food to eat, and together they work a job putting in a fence for some bulls, a job that turns out to be far harder than anything Tobias’s done in his life.  But he settles into life on the ranch, and gets to know these relatives that he has never known and his parents have seldom mentioned.

     Life is good, especially when he discovers that the only other person his age on the land is a girl – a gorgeous girl – with a hard edge and a curse.  Every boy that has ever liked her has died. 
      The book now falls into the rhythm of ranch life, building the fences, morning chores, and trips to town to sell the garden and ranch goods.  Tobias all but forgets about the reason he first came to Texas, and his heart is fast falling for Sarah.  Tobias has a knack for getting into trouble – and Sarah has that curse to complicate matters.  You won’t believe all of the trouble the two get into and get out of – sometimes with Craw’s help, and sometimes without.  I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to town, what a great adventure, and the family reunion had me chuckling as I remembered some of the ones I had gone to as a child.
      When Tobias does find the money, not only does it nearly kill him, but the money came with an unexpected end. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
       I have read much worse books – and as books go, the story is quite believable.  Growing up near the area in the book, I found the descriptions to be realistic.  Also, since most of my maternal family grew up here, I’ve heard dozens of stories of their growing up in the Great Depression.  Also, from those stories, I have heard many of the same objections to religion, comments on social issues (blacks and white) and how life was back then.  I have more than one relative that could cuss just as well as any of the characters in this book.  One Amazon review found the old folks hard to believe – but I don’t agree as my relatives would have fit right in with them.
       I also found this to be an interesting walk through the mind of a teen struggling with thoughts of girls, religion, life, and love.  Many times over the last few months, I’ve found myself considering the viewpoint of the young man and his choices and world view.  It left me feeling sad, and with a better understanding of the struggle between the world and the Bible that our world faces. 

     I think what has made this book so popular is that so many people can relate to Tobias and his struggles with his flesh, with his understanding of religion, and growing up in general.  It’s a walk in somebody else’s shoes.

Note:  Not for younger readers at all.  The author based this novel on stories told to him by his grandparents ... and is a retelling of the “Book of Tobit”, and old Jewish tale, but told in the era of the Great Depression. 

Genre/Theme:  Coming of Age, Historical Fiction (Great Depression)
Reading Level:  Mature Teen/Adult
Profanity:  HIGH
Sexuality:  OBVIOUS - girls and sex are one of the main thoughts of this older teen boy.

OTHER:  There are a lot of graphic descriptions in this book.  Some of it is quite violent, and the life of a Hobo is told in stomach churning detail at times.  Body functions are discussed several times, but in context, such as the boy’s search for a bathroom in a crowded city after a long overnight train ride.  This book is written to mimic an autobiographical novel, written from an older teen boys point of view on life, adventure, girls, and his human heart and soul, it can be quite raunchy and extremely crass some of the time. 
     After a while, I became so engrossed in the story and the choices of the young man, that I failed to notice the language.  It wasn’t until I skimmed it a second time for this review that I realized that it was much more prevalent than I remembered.  The same can be said of the sexuality, as this is a teen boy, he is obsessed with hair and where it is located, and bodies of girls – among other things.  The author did a fairly good job of sticking to wording of the King James as Tobias’s main source of knowledge was the Bible and a medical book he found in one of his mother’s drawers.  Ironically, nobody really does anything until the last few paragraphs, when he takes his new bride out to a quiet meadow and discovers just what Solomon meant in his great Song of Solomon, on the other hand, he doesn’t hold back much describing Tobias’s feelings at every event.

Favorite authors include Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Garrison Keillor, G. K. Chesterton, P. G. Wodehouse, Joseph Campbell, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and many others.

     As Groucho Marx said, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

     Website: http://www.torodedesign.com/  Readers can keep in touch with me on Google Plus.

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

O.Scarlett! Review by Rachel

Treasure Me - Christine Nolfi

Treasure Me
The Liberty Series #2


by Christine Nolfi

Kindle Edition & Paper Available




Product Description (From Amazon)

Petty thief Birdie Kaminsky has arrived in Liberty, Ohio to steal a treasure hidden since the Civil War. She’s in possession of a charming clue passed down in her family for generations: Liberty safeguards the cherished heart.

The beautiful thief wants to go straight. She secretly admires the clue’s author, freedwoman Justice Postell, who rose above the horrors of slavery to build a new life in Ohio. According to family lore, Justice left South Carolina at the dawn of the Civil War. Heavy with child, she carried untold riches on her journey north. As Birdie searches for the treasure, she begins to believe a questionable part of the story: a tale of love between Justice and Lucas Postell, the French plantation owner who was Birdie’s ancestor.

If the stories are true, Justice bore a child with Lucas. Some of those black relatives might still live in town. Birdie can’t help but wonder if she’s found one—Liberty’s feisty matriarch, Theodora Hendricks, who packs a pistol and heartwarming stories about Justice. Birdie doesn’t know that an investigative reporter who has arrived in town will trip her up—as will her conscience when she begins to wonder if it’s possible to start a new life with stolen riches. Yet with each new clue she unearths, Birdie begins to discover a family history more precious than gems, a tradition of love richer than she could imagine.

About the Author (from book page on Amazon)
Christine owned a small public relations firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Her articles and
press releases have appeared regionally in The Plain Dealer, The Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Magazine and other media outlets. Her short story,
Night Hour, appeared in Working Mother magazine.

Christine closed the firm fifteen years ago after she traveled to the Philippines and
adopted a sibling group of four children. She has been writing novels fulltime since 2004.

Contact her at
christinenolfibooks.blogspot.com/
and christinenolfi@gmail.com

Christine's other books:  The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge
O.Scarlett! REVIEW by Tenya

I found this novel a charmer because it's cleverly written! I really enjoyd the author's writing style. Ms. Nolfi has talent with words that pushed my eyes down the page. This was an easy read, but the plot kept my interest. Honestly, I did not feel it started slowly as she built the backgrounds for her characters. Because my favorite stories (of any kind) show how broken people can be mended, I was pulled in by the main protagonists. I really wanted to see them find wholeness.

Beautiful Birdie is a thief with a jaded, hurtful past which is shrouded in mystery, even to herself.  Hugh is a reporter with his own secrets, which he keeps for good reason.  The story follows many of the formulas for traditional romance fiction, but with enough twists and turns to carry this book beyond the ordinary.  Lives woven together, although unknown to the protagonists, is a knot the reader must unravel before putting the book down.

As contemporary romances go, this is a good write and a pleasant read. Shrouded in a bit of mystery, there's enough attraction and breaks between the scenes of the main characters to keep urging one toward the next chapter. I rated this five stars on Amazon because within its genre, Treasure Me is a very worth-while piece of fiction.

The descriptions of the little town of Liberty and its cast of homespun inhabitants returned me to my own roots of growing up in a small, snowy town filled with people so unique one would believe they could only exist in books. Yes, it made me homesick, and I'm glad for it. It's the reason I enjoyed the book so much!

Notes:  My greatest disappointment with this book was that I found the cover art to be very misleading.  I picked this up, expecting a period romance, but got a contemporary one instead.  This did not bother me because I did enjoy the story; however, I always had that Victorian woman in the back of my mind.  The art does relate to the story, just not directly.

If you get hung up on conservative morality, this book probably is not for you as the story is about characters who have been casual about their sexual relationships outside of marriage.  Some of the characters are a bit course and there's a little language and some sensual/sexual description.

Genre/Theme: Contemporary Romance
Reading Level: Mature Teen to Adult
Profanity: Low with a few instances of swearing
Sexuality: Obvious but not overly explicit - only two small scenes I can remember
Other:  This is a secular romance.  Illicit sexual relationships and adultery are hinted at and carry a large part of the plot.