I stole time to read WICKED by Sasha White this past couple days and I enjoyed it immensely, so I thought I’d share some thoughts.
If you don’t know Sasha’s work, you’ve been under a rock. LOL! In a short space of time Sasha White has carved herself out a dedicated readership by writing stories that explore the sexual and emotional dynamics in a relationship, and she’s gained multiple contracts these last three years as a result.
What appeals to me most about Sasha’s work is her voice, how natural it sounds and how it draws me into the story. She has a distinctive writing style and yet it’s accessible, and we all know what that means. Easy reading is hard writing! She delivers hot erotica with an emotional punch; her characters have to overcome obstacles to be together, to learn about themselves, and to address their own issues. This is how she builds solid realism in her characters. I found WICKED an especially good example of this.
Hero Karl Dawson is a masterful dominant. He’s experienced, self-assured, and he has a wry attitude to relationships. Heroine Lara Fox is also confident, sassy too, and this is where it gets interesting. Sasha sets up the D/s relationship in such a way that it’s sparking on the page and rife with challenge, making this a dynamic and compelling read. When Lara begins to address her true wants we discover along with her what that means; the gift of trust, the pleasure, the rewards. Along the way she and Karl have to face both physical and emotional barriers, and the read is hugely satisfying because of what they learn about themselves, as well as each other.
This is my favourite by Sasha to date, and, like her novella SEX AS A WEAPON (in THE COP antho, my previous fave) we’ve got both the hero and heroine PoV, which is my personal preference as a reader. Sasha is good with first person voice, and that takes skill, but I love to get inside a man's mind – especially a man like Karl. :) He really is a complex, attractive man and that makes it all the more enjoyable a read. ;) Pick him up, err… I mean pick it up, the book :) and find out for yourself.
Next up on my reading list is Megan Hart’s BROKEN, which I’ve been anticipating for a long while, the story premise really caught my attention. What are you reading at the moment?
