AUTHOR: Amy Redwood
PUBLISHER: Cobblestone Press
LENGTH: Short Story (roughly 13k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $3.99
For the past thirteen weeks, Chloe has gone to the same shop, at the same time, and stolen a single flower, all for the adrenaline rush of getting away with it. For her, the rush is better than sex, and it only gets better each time she escapes without getting caught. Except she has been caught. By Daniel, the frustrated painter who is running the shop while his sister recuperates. Chloe just doesn’t know it. When he decides to take matters into his own hands, she’s not ready for his plan of seduction…or is she?
A Dangerous Craving does, in my mind, what a lot of short, sensual pieces currently on the e-romance market fail to do. It uses its brief space in time to offer a unique perspective on a couple of not-your-typical leads in order to create a portrait of sensuality that so intrigued me, I actually went back and read it a second time. I don’t do that. I don’t have time. But I haven’t read a short story like this in quite a while, and I wanted to savor it.
While this is most definitely an erotic short story, the author chooses to build the tension using sensory descriptions of the flowers for a good part of the first half. There's a juxtaposition between appreciating a flower and appreciating other things that resonated for me. There was even a time there where I wondered if they were going to have sex at all, if maybe all of this was about finding satisfaction by other means. Surprisingly, I would have been more than okay with that. The author’s prose is smooth and elegant, evocative without being over the top. I was fascinated by the responses of these two people to such simple objects, enough so that when more “romancey” elements got introduced, I almost resented them.
The hero and heroine are far from the norm as well. Chloe is a kleptomaniac, with obvious disdain for her co-workers, girls nights out, things that would typify a lot of single working women. Daniel has a controlling streak he uses to manipulate Chloe into getting what he wants, and while he tries to justify it in the end by saying going the unconventional route was the only way to get her to agree to see him, I firmly believe that some of the power games they played in the flower shop will continue long into their relationship. Beyond the flower foreplay, my favorite erotic scene was a small moment where Daniel orders her to take off her clothes, the better for him to sketch. His distance combined with her excitement/frustration and translated into a very intense moment for me.
The story’s not perfect. The author headhops, though not often and not jarringly. I find myself with too many questions about outside aspects of the flower shop – Daniel’s odd relationship with his sister, what Chloe’s real animosity is toward her co-workers – to feel truly satisfied, too. Beyond that, however, it’s a little gem. If you’re interested in some elegant sensuality with offbeat, edgier characters, this is the story for you.
| Readability | 7/10 – Mild headhopping, but elegant sensuality helps to compensate |
| Hero | 7/10 – Though we don’t know much about him, there’s enough of a sinister air about him to make him interesting. |
| Heroine | 7/10 – Edgy and more interesting than a lot of short story heroines tend to be |
| Entertainment value | 8/10 – A unique approach and sensuality that appeals on more than one level elevates what could otherwise be a forgettable story |
| World building | 7/10 – The flower shop is painted extremely well; it’s the other aspects of the story that suffer |
| TOTAL: | 36/50 |
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