Book Review

Too Taboo: An Erotic Anthology

Anthologies are always tough to grade. Do I grade the entire thing and how cohesive it is? Do I just grade each story individually and average it out? Halp!

Normally, I wind up doing the latter because sometimes the stories inside an anthology don’t have a common thread aside from the genre. Such is the case with Too Taboo. It’s an erotic romance anthology, with an emphasis on taboo situations. It seemed right up my alley, given my love for dark romance. I also find that anthologies work as a good palate cleanser because you can easily come back to them.

The anthology contains three stories, averaging around 100 pages each:

“Absolve Me” by Morgaine Cameron ( A | BN | K | AB )
“Twice as Hard” by Amber Bardan ( A | BN | K | AB )
“Seduction Squad: Captured” by Amanda Stewart ( A | BN | K | AB )

Let’s go in order, shall we?

“Absolve Me” is about a sexual surrogate/therapist, Liza, and her client, Dominic. The characterization of a sexual surrogate has interested me since I read Roni Loren’s Off the Clock. A surrogate helps people work through issues dealing with sexual activity and I think it’s fascinating, though I’m not terribly sure how much I’ve read is fact and how much is fiction. Liza finds out after a session or two that Dominic is a priest, and part of the reason he’s seeing her is how can he reconcile having these intense, “forbidden” sexual desires while also remaining celibate and serving God.

The concept is really interesting to me, and with a full-length novel, it’d open up plenty of discussion in terms of faith vs. sexual needs. Is it possible to marry them both in a healthy way? Or does it have to be one over the other?

Where the romance fails for me (and this is often a common problem I’ve found with novella-length stories) is that things feel rushed to the point of questionable behavior. For example, after Liza and Dominic’s first session, Liza feels shame because she’s attracted to her client and she allowed him to give her an orgasm, when their sessions are supposed to be about him. Later on, after their last scheduled session, Liza shows up at Dominic’s work (a church). She hasn’t heard from him on whether their therapy has worked out his sexual desires or if he’s going to decide to leave the clergy.

But frankly, that’s none of her business. If I stopped seeing my therapist and she showed up at my work (which is technically my home and makes it way weirder), I’d be extremely concerned at the lack of boundaries. Since, and I’m speculating, the characters have to reach an HEA in a matter of a hundred pages, sex and courtship is cranked up to eleven. But the rush of Liza and Dominic getting together leads to really unhealthy and unprofessional decisions on Liza’s part and, as someone who attends therapy regularly, my nope reflexes kicked in immediately.

It’s an intriguing concept that could have led to a deeper look in how religion can play into an individual’s sex life. However, the heroine’s decisions as a mental health professional were troubling and not romantic in the slightest.

Grade: D+

“Twice as Hard” by Amber Bardan is the clear winner out of the three stories. You might remember Bardan from Elyse’s King’s Captive review. It seems like smart, smutty stories with amazing twists are Bardan’s thing and I’m here for it because this novella really blew me away.

Gabby is hiking out in the mountains, led through the trails by a mysterious series of letters from her husband. Is he dead? A final goodbye before they divorce? It’s not immediately clear what the heck happened between Gabby and her husband. Not until later, of course.

She finds a waterfall. Strips down. She’s soon discovered by a pair of mountain men brothers who leer at her and tell her that everything on this particular side of the mountain belongs to them. Trespassing will not be tolerated and they send her off with a warning.

As I said before, Bardan does smart and smutty well. She also goes a great job adding some levity to the overall story, which I appreciated. The other two novellas were dramatic and it’s a nice reminder that sexual attraction can be fun!

“You have two pastries on your table.”

I glance at the scattered food. Yes, there are. I ordered two Danishes right off the bat without even seeing if one would do. Disobeyed instructions. Was greedy.

I clear my throat. “I like having two of a good thing.”

Luke straightens to standing. There’s something too intense about him. He still hasn’t said a word, but the way his attention hones so sharply on me now, is bolder than anything I’ve ever been told. It’s a knife through butter.

“Do you?” Clarke’s voice is huskier than before. I look back at him and reexamine what I just said.

I like having two of a good thing.

My blood goes combustible because now I’m picturing two of a good thing. I’m picturing being the soft apple center in their man-pastry.

I’m sure you’ve guessed that Gabby finds herself caught by these two brothers and there are several, pretty hot menage scenes. But, oh boy, there’s a twist.

Plot twist explanation that spoils the whole thing so do NOT read if you're going to read this!
The two men aren’t really brothers. This is a role-play scene Gabby has requested from her husband and her former friend/husband’s step brother. She has a problem communicating what she wants sexually from her husband and she takes to writing her desires down. She writes this one down and her husband disappears. She thinks that this request has finally driven him away because what she really wants is a polyamorous relationship. And then, the letters start coming, directing her where to go and what to do.

And consent and safe words make an appearance! Yay for that! It turns the scene on its head once you realize that this “capture” has all been planned on beforehand.

There was some confusion at first once the plot twist happens, but do read on. It’ll make sense. I kept reading the same paragraph over and over, trying to find anything I missed, but it clears up if you keep reading.

The two men are also opposites. A lithe, charming blonde and a grizzly silent one with a broad chest and beard. Definitely catnippy for me. There’s an epilogue to this novella, which I could have done without. It was sweet, but unnecessary and felt disjointed from the rest of the romance.

Imagine the most twisty, unexpected story, then add hot, menage erotica. Just be prepared for a bit of confusion. Bardan is definitely an author to follow.

Grade: B+

“Seduction Squad: Captured” is my least favorite of the three and what a shame, because I was hoping to end the three stories on a high note. Major trigger warning for this one.

Once again, the concept was interesting! Inge is part of the Seduction Squad, a global group of courtesan assassins. Yes, please! They sleep with powerful individuals in order to gain useful information. And sometimes, they kill people.

Reminder: TRIGGER WARNING

Inge is captured by Jake, who is hired to get information about Ricky Villacruz, an individual to whom Inge has ties. Jake was chosen because his boss believes he’s least likely to be swayed by Inge’s seduction tactics.

Trigger warnings ahoy!
Jake is biracial and was a child soldier for a time in Zimbabwe. His family was raped and murdered in front of his eyes. The man who took him under his wing to become a soldier also raped him as a child.

Ricky and Inge have a past. She has a child from her teenage relationship with Ricky, but Ricky is a grade-A asshole, threatening Inge’s family and their child’s life to keep Inge coming back to him. She’s worried that if she gives up any information on him, her child will be killed.

All of this is a lot. For a hundred pages, there’s so much tragic backstory. Too much. You know I love dark, angsty romance, but this was so much tragedy and so much pain, as a reader, I needed a buffer between all these unfortunate things at once.

But the biggest thing that gave me pause were some consent issues. While being held as Jake’s captive, Inge admits that she “likes being forced,” as in rape play.

Show Spoiler
Later on, Inge tries to escape the bunker where she’s being held. Jake catches up to her and rapes her, but she then starts to enjoy it.

Listen. There’s nothing wrong if you enjoy rape fantasies. What bothers me is that confessing an enjoyment of a particular kink does not give a person carte blanche to engage you in that kink whenever they feel like it. These things should be discussed each and every time. Jake shouldn’t have assumed Inge would ALWAYS want to engage in this type of play. In the scene described above, I definitely felt he didn’t have Inge’s full consent. 

I’m not trying to undermine the seriousness of this scene, but let me use a more innocuous example. I like burgers. My boyfriend knows this. But that doesn’t mean I always want burgers for dinner. In fact, I’d prefer to discuss what we’re going to be having for dinner beforehand and, unless specified ahead of time, I don’t need my boyfriend making any sort of executive decisions on what we decide to eat.

Despite the let down of this story and its consent issues, I’m curious if the author will continue with the Seduction Squad and its members. If so, I’m at least marginally intrigued.

I get that these stories are supposed to have “taboo” elements, but dubious consent is something I don’t like to mess with.

Grade: D

Several elements of this collection didn’t work for me, namely the problems with boundaries and the pacing of the romance. If those things don’t bother you, nab the anthology. It’s a quick read. But I believe all three stories are available individually. Maybe just save yourself the trouble and pick up “Twice As Hard.” That one I definitely recommend.

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Too Taboo by Morgaine Cameron

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  1. Ren Benton says:

    “Liza feels shame because she’s attracted to her client and she allowed him to give her an orgasm, when their sessions are supposed to be about him”

    That sounds like a super unhealthy attitude for someone who’s supposed to be helping other people work through issues dealing with sexual activity. Sex positivity and orgasm shaming/”sex is only about one participant” really don’t play well together.

  2. Rose says:

    I always love your reviews, Amanda! I have the same literary tastes as you do and you always do such a great job highlighting the excellent and the troublesome in this genre. Thank you!

  3. G says:

    Look maybe she did lots of research but I’m already puzzled… how old is Jake? The Zimbabwean liberation war ended in 1979. And who was his recruiter a child soldier for?

  4. Amanda says:

    @Rose: Thank you! You just made my morning!

    @G: He’s young. Definitely no more than 30 years old and his recruiter’s “faction” was never revealed, I don’t think.

  5. DonnaMarie says:

    I always leave the author I know and like for last when I read anthologies. Like a reward.

  6. Maite says:

    If you are interested into the sexual surrogate stuff, there’s an Irving Wallace novel called “The Celestial Bed” that is precisely about that. I read it a while ago (it’s from the 80s), so I have no idea how well it would hold up today.
    I do remember Wallace did the research, it was amazingly sex-positive for its time, and there are a couple romances there.
    TW: marital rape, both discussed and shown.

  7. Sara Rider says:

    I might be in the minority here but I really liked Absolve Me. The discussions around consent and desires were really hot and refreshingly mature. I wasn’t as bothered by the visit to the church because it wasn’t a big dramatic thing and the character was reflective about her actions and reasons afterward. The HFN didn’t completely satisfy but that was due to length of the story more than the characters, if that makes sense. It definitely made the author one I’m going to read again.

    I’ve just started the second story and had to take a break because of the consent issues. I think I need to be in a different headspace to enjoy this story. That being said, I really trust the author to deliver and there are enough hints to make me think the consent stuff isn’t problematic as it seems on the surface.

  8. G says:

    Ugh so we can add “Africa is a country” to the list of things messed up about that story. I read a book that vaguely mentioned ethnic cleansing and rebel forces to give a missionary character a troubled background – in a country where nothing like that had ever happened. It’s so lazy and reductive.if you really wanted to have a character who was a child soldier there’s no end to accurate stories you could draw on – with the caveat that in my opinion child soldiers do not belong anywhere near romance.

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