Amazon.com Review
The difficulty with erotic novels, as opposed to short erotica, is that they set up conflicting expectations. Readers who've made the commitment to push past page 30 demand depth of character, an emotional journey, and an engaging plotline in exchange. But, as readers of erotica, they also expect frequent bouts of blistering sex, in various modes and positions with a host of exciting partners. Although The Price of Passion succeeds better than many erotic novels, it errs on the side of plot and character, so that the sex, however compelling in the opening pages, is increasingly perfunctory. Wells has cleverly addressed this problem by taking her main character along a similar emotional arc. Simone, an orphan, is told that she must earn her inheritance by traveling the globe, Emmanuelle-like, in search of her dying grandmother's female lovers. Most of them are so touched at being remembered in this way that they immediately seduce Simone or fall breathless into her arms. Eventually, though, Simone tires of carnality. She loses sight of the message her grandmother had hoped to impart, the "gift" of passion that one singular, chosen woman can convey. It takes a beating with lemongrass and a mass orgy in Thailand to rouse her libido, and to remind our heroine that "sex and freedom and boundless pleasure still existed in the world, a lightning rod drawing a sexual current and spreading it through the earth." We are left wondering if Simone will return to any of the women who offered her more than "freedom and boundless pleasure." But that story would be in the Romance section. --Regina Marler
