To the Victor Go the Spoils by Sherrill Quinn

TITLE: To the Victor Go the Spoils
AUTHOR: Sherrill Quinn
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 20k)
GENRE: Futuristic erotic romance
COST: $4.45

Resistance fighter Devon Maertissa is wanted for a murder she didn’t commit. Bounty hunter Bane Carrodoc is determined to take her in, no matter what the cost. Neither expects the sparks to fly when he finally gets his hands on her, but with other hunters determined to get Devon’s bounty for themselves, they have to do everything they can in order to clear her name…

There are certain words that just don’t work for me in erotic scenes, and unfortunately, one of them is used and abused in this particular story. It’s used early enough, in fact, that any investment I had in the story completely fled, never to return. I spent the remaining 17k snickering every time it came up, or rolling my eyes. What that ultimately means, then, is that this author’s erotic voice is just not for me.

What’s the offending word? Cream. As in, … a hot slick of cream slid from her core, and … Her core turned liquid, hot cream sliding out to lie thickly along her sex, and … As cream slid from her core to coat her labia… The word just makes me ewww, and combine it with the image of it sliding thickly, something that happens in the first major sex scene, and all I can think is that someone needs to talk to this girl about yeast infections. There is no going back into feeling sexy after you start thinking about yeast infections, let me tell you.

I have a few other problems with what the author presents as sexy. Bane and Devon go at it for four days after their first time, but what Bane really wants is to fuck Devon in the ass. Devon is reluctant – most likely due to Bane’s size, and seriously, she actually considers whether or not he’s had a penile implant at one point – but decides after these four days to give it to him. There’s a battle in the spaceship, then once they get away, they decide to pass the time with – surprise surprise – more sex. Bane orders her to get on the bed, and this is the next paragraph:

Without a word, but with plenty of banked humor and flaring passion in her eyes, she turned and did as he said. But instead of lying on her back as she usually did, she got on her knees, both hands gripping her buttocks to spread her cheeks and show him the puckered rosette of her anus.

Do I need to say more than that really doesn’t work for me? Because it doesn't. The position seems far too porny, and "anus" is another of those words that yank me out of anything sexy. Is there anyone who thinks that word is a turn-on?

Because of my strong non-arousing reaction to the erotic portions of this story, it’s next to impossible to have much to say about the rest of it. You get into a certain mindset, and you can’t get out of it, no matter how much you might want to. As such, take this as you will. Some readers, I’m sure, will have absolutely zero problems with what spoiled the story for me. Just as I now know this author’s style isn't my cup of tea.

Readability	6/10 – The author’s voice in her erotic scenes really didn’t work for me. I'm not even going to mention the headhopping.
Hero	5/10 – It’s hard to respect someone who’s supposedly so big and bad when he’s banging his prey within hours of meeting her.
Heroine	4/10 – She fought well enough when she had to, but I spent most of the story thinking she probably deserved to get caught.
Entertainment value	2/10 – Between the erotic wording that really didn’t work for me, and a plot that just made me shake my head most of the time, I only enjoyed this for how much worse it could get for me.
World building	5/10 – I don’t know that much about the worlds or the Resistance, but hey, at least the heroine is savvy enough to mock bounty hunters named Bane and Slaughter.
TOTAL:	22/50