My review of Your Favorite Girl, by Steph Sweeney.
Let me get a few things stated right up front.
Like anything else I review this will be spoiler free. The author put time into creating this story, and I don’t think any reviewer has a right to devalue that time by letting any cats out of any bags.
I don’t expect everyone to like everything I like or to dislike everything I dislike.
And lastly; I read erotic literature with a closed mind.
Yes you read that right.
I have a pretty narrow set of expectations, and if it doesn’t meet them, I don’t enjoy it. I think we’re all that way about the things we’re passionate about.
I’m also close minded about coffee, pasta, scented candles, dogs, and foot rubs. I love these things, and maintain a closed mind about what makes one good. There might be a lot of variables once one is deemed ‘good’, but I can tell pretty quickly if my expectations are being met.
I’m passionate about erotica, since when it’s good it engages my senses and can stir my emotions and arouse my passions. When it’s great it can be literary foreplay.
I’ve been reading erotic literature since I was way too young to understand it. I happened (snooped) upon a book in a brown paper bag in the back of the dresser in my parent’s room, and was fascinated by how those words painted a picture so vividly.
So my expectations are simple and narrow when it comes to erotic fiction.
- It’s got to entertain me. Merely reading about Jane running from place to place to have sexual encounters doesn’t make a good read in my opinion. Even if the sexual encounters are well written. (See Jane Screw would be a good title though!)
- It’s got to be descriptive. I’ve had sex. I’ve thought about sex. I’ve read about sex. I’ve talked about sex. There’s more to sex than an erection, a vagina, and an orgasm. Details, just like in real life, make or break the moment.
- The characters have got to be real. If every female is merely a vagina with a different name, and all the men are merely there to carry their erections from one location to the next I’ll be pretty bored pretty fast.
So with my narrow mind I set about reading Your Favorite Girl, by Steph Sweeney.
I came across Steph on Twitter, and more than one of her tweets made me laugh. We share a sense of humor, and that lead me to her blog. On her blog she had this description of Your Favorite Girl.
When Melissa Reed, a twenty-two-year-old housewife, discovers her millionaire husband Ted has been cheating on her with a recent high school graduate from down the street, she begins to investigate his private life. In his little black book, she finds a single address and phone number: that of Your Favorite Girl, Inc.
Accompanying this blurb was a free sample. I consumed the entire free sample in one sitting, without realizing how quickly I was tearing through the pages. Okay scrolling. And for the record I like books too much to tear the pages.
So I got the whole book.
And loved it. I read it in three sittings, and like any interesting media, the time in between was spent looking forward to the next interaction I’d have with it.
A lot of books can keep you interested while you’re reading them. It’s a gift to be able to read something that pops in and out of your thoughts when you’re not reading it.
My narrow minded critique applied to YFG breaks down like this:
It’s got to entertain me.
It does.
The idea behind the story is fascinating, and with some reworking of the sexual content you’d have a story that would still work as a science fiction piece, with a healthy dose of intrigue and suspense.
If science fiction isn’t your thing don’t bail out yet, because it’s not my favorite thing either, and I still enjoyed every moment of it.
It’s got to be descriptive.
It is.
Sense is a big part of the story, and it’s hard to read without imagining the smells, tastes, and sounds as described by the author. And just to clarify, the descriptions don’t overpower the story, they enhance it. Ever read three pages describing a meal, or a blue couch, or a bedspread? That overuse (abuse) of descriptive language doesn’t happen here, like it does with lots of young authors.
It’s obvious that the author likes the world she’s writing about, so instead of going through the motions in order to keep feeding us plot points or another sexual encounter, she wants to take the time to make sure we like this world as well. But unlike that coworker at the office who can’t stop talking about their stamp collection, Sweeney doesn’t spend so much time describing that I felt like she was trying to force me to like her fictional universe.
The characters have got to be real.
There’s an adage floating around creative writing circles that your characters HAVE TO BE likeable. I think that’s garbage personally. I’d rather read about an interesting bitch than a dull nice girl.
Melissa, the main character in YFG, is very likeable, but she’s not perfect, and that makes for an interesting read. At one point early in the story I actually got mad at her, and would have slapped her had she been real. (Or more likely given her a dirty look and then backed down if she challenged me!)
She does meet some unlikeable folks. You won’t be in love with everyone Melissa encounters. But you won’t be bored by them.
And for the main reason why many of us are drawn to erotic fiction: SEX.
It doesn’t disappoint in this area. Lovemaking is not alluded to. No one’s ‘womanhood yearns for his physical self’. There’s fucking, and plenty of it.
There’s a fine line in erotic fiction, and Steph Sweeney seems to know where it is.
On one side there’s flowery language that gives impressions rather than descriptions. Nothing wrong with that, because done well that can be a beautiful way to describe what happens when two people are intimate. Done poorly it makes the author seem afraid to embrace the way real people think and talk. Even people who wouldn’t curse if they hit their thumb with a hammer don’t think about sex with their husband or wife in flowery allusions. They think about fucking, even if they don’t call it that.
On the other side are authors who liberally embrace words that my fourth grade teacher called ‘street words’ like fuck, cunt, cum, slut, throb, spasm, pussy, and….well you get the idea. If not, you’re reading the wrong blog review of the wrong book. Used poorly ‘street words’ end up sounding like a seventeen year old boy trying to impress his friends. Done well ‘street words’ keep the sex in the story real and convey what’s happening. Sometimes telling us that two people are fucking accomplishes something that telling us those same two people are engaging in sexual intercourse just can’t.
Steph Sweeney might have the vocabulary of a 17 year old boy, but she knows how and where to use those words. The sex scenes vibrate as true, even within the more fictional realms of the story.
Very early in the story there’s a girl/girl encounter and it’s handled very well. It doesn’t seem like it’s there just to impress any male readers (although they certainly won’t find it boring!), and it doesn’t feel like it’s there to fulfill the checklist. You know what I’m referring to here? I’ve read too much erotic fiction where the authors seem to use a checklist to tell their story. Masturbation: check. Male/female: check. Female/male: check. Female/female: check. Female/male/female: check. Blowjob: check. Mention erect nipples: check. Finger in anus: check.
Steph doesn’t seem to be writing off of a checklist, she’s telling a story, and the sexual couplings in the book advance that story and serve the plot.
As an added bonus they’re hot, and left me with one moment where I actually cursed out loud. Recently my magic wand died a noble death after years of solid service. As I put Your Favorite Girl aside to change laundry, start dinner, and answer some emails I realized that the emails could wait until after dinner since the story had physically inspired me to have a pre-dinner-prep ‘moment’. I suddenly remembered that my wand was no more. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement!
If you enjoy erotic fiction give this story a chance. You’ll do two good things for the world of erotic fiction.
- You’ll be treating yourself to a story that’s blazing hot and a plot that carries the sex, which doesn’t happen as often as it should in this genre.
- You’ll be encouraging an author with some obvious talent to keep writing. And when she’s famous you can say you read her way back when.
Your Favorite Girl can be found on Steph’s website:
Steph Sweeney can be found at:
You can contact her directly at:
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Twitter Handle: @StephErotica
Love, Isabella 