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Book Review: Not So Erotic Erotica...


Eighty Days Red by Vina Jackson is as cheesy as cheesy gets. The cover image, legs in grey stockings, gives the impression that what’s inside is chapter after chapter of hot 'read-on-your-own' moments between the characters. Instead this felt like something out of Bold and The Beautiful – with a bit more drama.

Erotica is not my usual kind of read but when a friend bought me Eighty Days Red; I thought this would be a great intro to the genre. Yes, I didn’t read any of the Shades of Grey.

Eighty Days is a trilogy, a series that follows the love story of Summer and Dominik. The other two are Eighty Days Yellow and Eighty Days Blue.You can read the third one and you won’t feel like you’ve missed out on the drama from the past.

Simply put; they are a couple who have an on and off relationship and in the third book they have broken up but end up in each other’s arms. The story is depressingly predictable. I finished the book because for some odd reason I thought it would have some kind of twist…like maybe they don’t end up together…

The “erotic” scenes: nothing to run home about! They felt safe; they did nothing for my senses and didn’t leave me “breathless” as the blurb promised. It was instead a good light read, a break from my other books, like a soapie. So you have moments of “let me check what happened to Dominick and that call…” or “I wonder if she will ever find the violin”.

The violin – the object that brings them together and in a weird way keeps them together when they had broken up. Dominick, an author, bought Summer, a musician, this violin. According to the history lesson - some flavour to the drama, it turns out this violin is a collector’s item and many people want to get their hands on it because of its history. In true soapie style, while on tour, someone steals it from Summer. Although Summer is torn apart simply because it is her one link to Dominick – it is Dominick who reveals the importance of this violin - and goes forth to find this violin.

Before Dominick gets into Sherlock Holmes mode – we already know who the thief is. The story goes south from there because everything becomes about finding out who the thief is.

Once the thief is discovered – with a whole lot of drama later – the thief does something that pissed me off a little. But I won’t spoil that part for you – but for lack of a better word – the thief’s reaction was rather lame.

If you are looking for erotica – this is not the book for you. But if you are looking for a light read, that doesn’t require much thought – get this book!

The author, Vina Jackson, is the pseudonym for two published writers working together for the first time.  




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