Reed Whitney is a regular teenage boy who often has sex on the brain. Unfortunately, he hasn’t done the deed yet with his steady girlfriend Aubrey, mostly due to nerves, when his father steps in to help supplement his lack of experience. As it turns out, Preston Whitney—and the other Whitney men before him—have all been sort of gatekeepers to a wealth of knowledge about women and sex. However, Preston doesn’t want his son to just learn the art of lovemaking but THE ART OF WORSHIP.
The novel focuses mostly on its descriptive sex scenes, whether they’re between Reed and Aubrey or Preston and his wife, Kate. As such, many other aspects of storytelling take a backseat to the sex, but most regular readers of erotica won’t be surprised by this. Still, as the story progresses, more interesting concepts begin to surface in and out of the bedroom. Kate and Aubrey’s conversation is cute, and although it is still heavily focused on the men in their lives, it provides a bit of a feminine perspective in an otherwise male-centric tale. What’s more, the relationship between Aubrey and her father, Police Chief Truman, could have been extremely misogynistic, but instead, it sweetens organically, especially toward the end of the book. All in all, Blades manages to ease feminism and equality into her novel, which is always a delight to see in a genre written and read mostly by women.
The sex scenes themselves, which make up most of the book, are steamy and only every so often is there a word or phrase that causes a grimace rather than a sigh. It’s a difficult momentum to keep, but Blades does it well. The story itself may come off as just a sexy romp if it weren’t for the theme of love tying all the trysts together. Yes, Preston and Reed both may own the secrets to sexual prowess, but they each only have eyes for their prospective lovers, leaving readers with a feeling far more romantic than erotic when they turn the last page in this short but sweet novella.
Readers looking for a tale that blends soft-core sex, romance, humor, and feminism will enjoy THE ART OF WORSHIP.
~Julia Tilford for IndieReader