Customer Reviews

All the Wrong Places

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At 26, Brandy Monsoon is about to "grow up." In one week she will: face the ghost of her father and the pain of her childhood; realize that while she might not "know" that she can have "forever after" with one woman, she wants to try; and discover that a family of choice and community are options even for a dyke on an isolated resort island in the Southland.

Employed as a fitness instructor and staff member for Club Sandzibel, Brandy finds a ready supply of casual lovers among the resort's female guests but none of them are interested in more than their holiday fling. Meanwhile, her best friend Tess, though willing to share a more-han-friendly-night occasionally, is supposed to be straight ... a point that confuses both women.

Brandy is the wholesome, girl-next-door, phys-ed major. She clearly enjoys working at the resort, including her shifts teaching children tumbling and various team sports. In a charming scene from the end-of-the-week, Brandy observes, "I was set upon by the toddlers again, and this time I gave chase. We'd had a running battle all week and it was time to show these desperadoes who was the law. That would be me, Sheriff Monsoon.

I hadn't quite proven my superiority when their parents came to claim them for a last good-bye. One protested it wasn't Saturday yet, while the other said I was the best playmate ever. ... I have to say that part of the job is pretty cool. Kids give great hugs." P33-34.

When an all-lesbian tour group arrives for the week, Brandy finds the acceptance and validation that she has rarely enjoyed. Furthermore, the famous lesbian entertainer, Celine Griffin shows clear interest in some after-dinner Brandy. Meanwhile Tess' behavior is becoming less and less straight.

All the Wrong Places is the first erotic novel-length title released by the "Bella After Dark" imprint and there is truth in advertising here. Brandy's sexual encounters are explicit. Kallmaker does not shy away from earthy language during sweaty encounters and she opens the "toy chest" and lets her characters explore "accessories." There is a forthright and evocative negotiation of adult consent as well as a subtle but highly charged power exchange between Brandy and Celine.

Some Kallmaker fans may find themselves challenged by this bolder approach. Hopefully they will also find the story to be arousing entertainment. They can be reassured that All the Wrong Places is also one of the sweetest little romances that Kallmaker has written. For example: "Our bodies were suffused with the golden light that seemed to radiate from her eyes and smile. We were falling together, mouths feathering kisses on any skin we could reach. Touching her anywhere felt like touching sunshine. Her shoulders were as warm as her mouth and we were in danger of losing our edges, our form, as we melted together." p 139

Given the length and focus of the story, Kallmaker's characters show depth, humor, and heart with a willingness to grow. Thus All the Wrong Places has a number of elements readers have come to expect from Kallmaker; in addition to hot sex and sweet romance, there are touching side stories and delightful wit. Indeed the humor is bubbles throughout the story. And in a laugh-out-loud moment for this reviewer, Kallmaker tosses in what has to be the funniest variation on the classic "U-Haul joke" in years.

Brandy is the youngest lead character that Kallmaker has explored in her novels since Reese in Watermark. Hopefully a new generation of readers will find Brandy's voice familiar to their own experience and will consider Kallmaker's other novels as a result. Long time fans can enjoy All the Wrong Places as another example of Kallmaker's willingness to explore new elements in her classic story telling style. All readers can enjoy the affection, validation and respect that she gives her characters and by extension her readers. This erotic romance is a like a lovely slice of the chocolate bread that appears on the resort dessert menu; and like that confection, you'll want to savor it slowly and very likely go back for more.

I am often amazed at how well some authors relay the erotic side of a love story. Kallmaker certainly doesn't disappoint with this one. In fact, it's one of the best Kallmaker books I've read yet. Brandy works at a resort. One of her co-workers is her very close, straight friend Tess. Even though Tess is straight, she relieves sexual tension through periodic encounters with Brandy.

One of Brandy's idols, Celine, comes to the resort, followed by a group of vacationing lesbians. Brandy finds herself in heaven and goes to bed with Celine on the first night. In front of Brandy's surprised eyes, Tess also finds a warm body to share her bed. Even while in bed with Celine, Brandy can't help but think about Tess. These feelings confuse her (are they love, jealousy, what?) and she doesn't know what to do. Little does she know that Tess is having difficulties of her own.

There is a fine love story here even without the erotica, but who am I to complain?

All the Wrong Places is not a typical Karin Kallmaker romance, but a hot and steamy graphic love story. Karin Kallmaker has created the first full length erotica novel for Bella Books, and it is full of tantalizing sex that heats up every page.

Brandy Monsoon and her best friend Tess work at a Caribbean resort doing almost anything to meet their guests' needs. For Brandy this means giving straight women the pleasure they cannot get from their husbands or boyfriends. Tess, who is straight, comes crying to Brandy one evening, because she is not satisfied with her most recent date and is very hormonal at that moment. So they experiment that night and decide that becoming sex buddies can work out. Brandy is giving her best friend the physical pleasure without the emotional attachments. Then a tour group of 300 lesbians comes to the resort for a week, and that is where the fun really begins.

Kallmaker has always been a master at creating tension-filled romances that affirm the power of love and a promise of a future. All the Wrong Places is no exception, but even as she teases the reader, she gives us release along the way with visually explicit sex. The book isn't all erotica either. The romance is front and center throughout.

Throughout the pages, Kallmaker describes so well through her characters' thoughts and actions the difference between sex and lovemaking. Her mix of erotica with the romantic plot is balanced. Her trademark in all of her romances is that she creates intelligent and strong-minded women, and she does that beautifully here. One of my favorite lines of any book is when one of the characters gives advice to Brandy, "... Dance through life any way you want and don't worry about people who can't hear the music," (pg. 104).

This is definitely a book that you may want to have two copies - one in the bedroom and one that you carry with you. Both will become tattered with use because you will reread this delicious book over and over again.

"All the Wrong Places" by Karin Kallmaker is a steamy romance novel about Brandy Monsoon, a fitness instructor at a Florida resort who is looking for love in all the wrong places. Brandy gives sex "lessons" to the curious and primarily straight women who frequent Club Sandzibel. After one of her morning stretch classes, Brandy gives a quick lesson to a guest named Paige, but soon tires of such dalliances. "... the allure of straight-but-looking-for-thrills Paiges had paled along the way" (p. 4). During breaks and time off, Brandy hangs out, and ultimately falls in love with her best friend Tess, a fellow instructor who sleeps around-with men! Will Brandy ever find her true love?

The tropical setting for "All the Wrong Places" makes you feel like packing up and heading for a vacation to the alluring paradise, especially when the Ladies on Vacation Enterprises (LOVE), a large group of lesbians, heads for some fun in the sun. Brandy cannot believe her luck when she discovers Club Sandzibel will be host to the members of LOVE for a whole week. One of the guests happens to be the famous lesbian comedienne, Celine Griffin. When Celine shows an interest in Brandy, it's her dream come true and the fantasy of a lifetime fulfilled. Will a tryst with Celine be enough to satisfy Brandy over the long run?

Kallmaker frequently had me laughing out loud, for instance, when Brandy thinks, "...I didn't think I could ask her to do that for me through some sort of cling plastic wrap...I mean, it's just not what most people think of when they're glad they've got Glad" (p. 56). When I wasn't laughing, I was engrossed in the plot. It was easy to root for Brandy's success at finding love and resolving her issues with her homophobic family, while at the same time enjoying some hot sex scenes. The most notable performance is between Brandy and Celine, (you may want to read this one twice!), but the romps between Brandy and Tess were equally sexy and even more appealing because of love. Kallmaker's style is clear, crisp, believable, and fun.

Karin Kallmaker is a prolific writer who is not only a crowd pleaser, but in my opinion, a great storyteller. You can read "All the Wrong Places" in one sitting, but you'll want to savor each delectable detail. Kallmaker deserves her numerous accolades, and I'm sure her loyal fans will just love this one as well. "All the Wrong Places" is recommended for both serious fans of erotica and romance as well as anyone who enjoys good, hot storytelling.

First off, do not read this book waiting outside the movie theater on that off day you decide to check out an afternoon show. One, you may blush and if you don't catch yourself, some strange man will come up to you and ask if you are ill. Second, read this book if you want a delightful read as in all of Ms. Kallmaker's books. The characters are believable and likeable, even if some are like the women your mother told you not to date (wait, most of our mothers told us not to date women.) While the book contains more of an erotic flavor, it still has that tell tale warmth, vulnerability, and charm that are so recognizable of this author. In the content of 174 pages you get to witness the progression of Brandy's search for sex, (the author may disagree) and her eventual stumble across love. Dang it, if that doesn't make sex look second best. If I told you the story, you might not read it. So, READ IT. It's a good read. Every Kallmaker book explores a different perspective and this book is no exception. I think the "Bella After Dark" has a definite good start.

I am the first to admit that my lesbian-focused reading is of the "Plot, What Plot?" variety. I like reading about women enjoying each others' bodies in well-written, usually short story formats. On one such reading binge I found a story by a writer I presumed was too vanilla for my tastes, but the story was sexy, hot and explicit.

It's with chagrin that I discovered, upon looking at Karin Kallmaker's website, that I had little idea of what it was she wrote. Yes, the majority of her works are romances (for which I have little taste, but I just read my first of hers, Sugar, and to my shock, I liked it). There's also science fiction, fantasy, gothic and erotica. So far her writing is professional, smooth, witty, at times thought-provoking and always enjoyably escapist.

But can she *really* write erotica when her stock-in-trade is vanilla romance? The answer is a resounding YES! Her erotica is drenched in the pleasures of the female body and her work is wholly about women with women in safe, pleasurable, consensual fun. Her characters are clear about what they like, why they like it and make no excuses for it, either.

All the Wrong Places is part romance novel and part erotic journey. Some writers might fail on one count or the other, but Kallmaker delivers wonderfully on both levels. That might explain why this novel has been nominated for awards in both romance and erotica categories.

All the Wrong Place's seemingly simple premise and presentation is a tribute to the writer's craft because a complicated, deftly delivered weaving of memory and immediacy underlies the story. While Brandy dallies with two of the resort guests over course of a few days, we are treated to a minute-by-minute recounting, in intimate, delicious detail, of her first night with Tess, the woman she's falling in love with. On one level we get in-the-moment raw sex, and on the other lovingly detailed intimate play. We, like Brandy, can't help but compare the experiences. Both levels are fantastically satisfying. But it's with Tess that Brandy finds pleasures beyond the bed.

When Brandy is forced to leave the resort for a family funeral, she recalls in painful detail the reasons she no longer makes contact with her family. Brandy vows that she will not have "a tankard of Trapped for dinner chased by a bowl of Bitter for breakfast" as her mother did. It's these confrontations that sharpen her appreciation for what real love might be like. We are given, through artful storytelling, the sharp contrast of her father's deceitful, abusive womanizing compared to Brandy's loving, respectful woman-centric sexuality.

One of the reasons I've not cared for romances is that a common story is the woman who plays around decides it's time to settle down and renounces her sexual range and play. When finding true love she becomes less than she was, especially sexually. All the Wrong Places takes no such tone. Brandy doesn't go searching for a "suitable" long term mate after sowing her wild oats; she realizes that the relationship she is crafting with Tess might be good for the long haul. As Brandy herself relates, "Forever isn't a destination, it's a journey."

Anyone who likes erotica about women with women doing women and being women will like this novel. It's just plain hot. Brandy is enthuasiastic and wry, full of insight and sometimes clueless and brash. She reminds me of me a certain number of years ago.

Anyone who likes a good, romantic plot complete with seduction, foreplay, angst and that hope of happily ever after will enjoy this tale as well. Watching Brandy and Tess work out their issues came across to me as honest and earnest without being cloying.

This is one of those seemingly simple books that delivers delightful escapist enjoyment from start to finish. The reason it succeeds so well is that the writer truly knows her craft.

Romance or erotica? Who cares?!

I didn't really take note of the special design on the cover of "All the Wrong Places," which is Karin Kallmaker's latest offering. I read all her books, enjoying the sheer variety almost more than any other aspect of her writing. I sit down with a cup of tea, put my feet up and open to the first page asking myself "Where are we going this time?"

We've been to rare settings like ancient Britain, the most mystical of Navajo landmarks, and to the edge of suicide with a tormented violinist. Spent lots of time just hanging out with friends in a coffee bar, at work, and in the kitchen. Everywhere we go there are lesbians -- women who embrace the love of other women.

This novel is deceptively simple and comes loaded with oodles of hot, steamy, explicit lesbian sex (that's why it's proclaimed an "After Dark" novel). Taken at that level it's a 5 star experience. I bemoaned my single status at times, and tried to stop reading at others so as not to waste all that heat in a single night. If bedtime reading is all you want from a book, you're in for a real treat.

There's more going on in All the Wrong Places, however. Brandy and Tess are just friends who occasionally fall into bed together. The sex is great, as is sex with other partners who flit through their lives. But as the story progresses, the encounters between Brandy and Tess take on increasing tension and intimacy until, near the conclusion of the book, a single kiss packs more heat than most of what they've already done. This is a wonderful love story about discovering what real intimacy is all about. Kallmaker has done a masterful job of exploring how love can be far scarier and intimate than any bedroom encounter.

If more adventurous sex that includes accessories and edgier dynamics than you normally find in a Kallmaker romance might bother you, then you might want to skip this book, but I urge you not to. The encounters may be edgier yes, but still respectful, consensual, affirmational and wholly female on female.

When I finished All the Wrong Places I wished I wasn't single. Not just wanting a partner for the obvious effects of excellent erotica, but wishing I could wake in the morning and, as Brandy does in her final line of this wonderful story, get up to make breakfast for the woman I love.

This may be one of Kallmaker's most satisfying romantic couplings ever, and that is saying something.

The reviewer from Pennsylvania apparently wasn't paying attention to all the PR or reader reviews concerning Kallmaker's Lambda Award Nominated Romance, All the Wrong Places. This "Bella After Dark" tale is more erotically adventurous and, yes, more explicit than most of Kallmaker's earlier novels. (Although fans that have been following her recent short stories will be less surprised.) However, there is nothing to "ouch" about here. (Quite the contrary in my book.) Everything is consensual and certainly within the realm of possibility.

All the Wrong Places continues to have Kallmaker's trademark humor, researched setting and character development. Indeed if you look at her last three novels, you'll see a broad range of story and style. One Degree of Separation and the more recent, Sugar are light romantic comedies. The Lambda winning Maybe Next Time is a heart-rending tale of music, love and redemption that is probably her most complex work to date. Kallmaker is the Queen of Lesbian Romance, but her books should not be stereotyped or limited. Her writing reflects many different aspects of what it means to be lesbian looking for love today. And I have found something in all her novels to enjoy. All the Wrong Places is no exception.

The "Bella After Dark" titles are designated as more "earthy" in their content. Kallmaker and Bella are very clear about that and I for one was very happy with the whole book, not just the last chapter. There is truth in advertising here and I appreciate that. As always I will be curious to see what direction Kallmaker's next book takes her readers.

I sometimes can't believe people read the same book I did when they post a review. But then again, I think if a person immediately begins skipping pages of a book they "hated" then they're really *not* reading the book the way I did -- they're not even reading the book, by their own admission! (And yet, they seem so clear on *ahem* certain elements of the book they claim to really "hate" leading to wonder if they read those parts more than once.)

Is Brandy as complicated a character as some Kallmaker has written? No, she's not. Compare her to Bree Starling in Maybe Next Time - there's no contest. (And read reviews by people who hated the book because it was too complicated for them!)

I do wonder how any writer can please everyone. I do wonder how someone can buy a book labeled "a full length erotic novel" and then cry about it being full of "depravity and negativity." I find that remark insulting to the many lesbians who like sex as it's presented in this book. We get called "depraved" enough by straight society, so it's hard to accept that label from someone claiming to be one of us.

I enjoyed this "full length erotic novel" all the way from start to finish. I don't even get why someone would say it was full of "negativity." None of the characters behave in any way harmful to themselves or others. They're funny and kind. The only negative events in it are when Brandy tries to deal with her family of origin. I think Kallmaker makes a beautiful point in this book about the reality of families of choice for so many of us when Brandy is short of cash and her co-workers pass the hat for her because Brandy is one them, and has done that for them in their times of need, too.

My advice to anyone who is not sure they want to read this book is if use of the d-word and leather goods that go with them, who don't like to describe a part of themselves with the c-word, and most assuredly don't like books about lesbians who like to f-word, then don't read this book. But if you do ... you will love it as much as I did.

It's fun, hot, realistic sex set in a delightful romantic tale. Given how sweet Kallmaker's characters can be, it was interesting to see what happens when one of them rolls up her sleeve, so to speak. The build up to the final scene between Brandy and Tess when their hearts are finally open is wonderful!

I meant to write this review a couple of weeks ago, but I'm glad I waited so I can say my piece about being called "depraved." Because if this book is "depraved" then so am I and if you're going to call me names, that's Ms. Depraved to you!

I've known all along that Kalmaker can write steamy hot love scenes in her romances and some of her recent short stories have gotten really racy without losing her romantic touch. I didn't know what to expect from this romance, which is touted as a "full-length erotic novel." Lots of hot scenes but less of the woman-to-woman emotional bonding that I love about her work?

Kallmaker did both! The evolving love story between Brandy and Tess is incredibly sweet, emotionally honest and fraught with the pitfalls of communication. Both young women are well-versed in saying what they like in bed (and brace yourself because *nothing* is left unsaid!), but neither have a clue how to say what they want in *life*. Along the way, they figure it out.

Meanwhile, through artful flashbacks of the first time Brandy and Tess got together (just friends!) interlaced with current encounters the plot provides some of the steamiest reading I've found in a long time. I had to make myself stop reading the first night because I wanted to make it last a really long time. This is definitely grownup bedtime after dark reading! If you don't care for hot, explicit lesbian sex, then don't read this book. Don't say you weren't warned!

A lot of erotica leaves me cold because the people don't seem to have any emotional connection. This book was red hot emotionally and that's why, for me, the sex was red hot too. More, I want more! So does my girlfriend, who said this book was definitely one she enjoyed both while reading it and after.