Customer Reviews

Sexual Healing

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Who would have ever thought that women could have such power over their sexual lives. Jill Nelson gives that power to us in "spades". This amusing, erotic, sometimes alarming, always entertaining first novel is a must-read from beginning to end. Ms. Nelson captures the frustration and loneliness of African-American women and offers a solution which is unorthodox, pleasurable, and, frequently, downright hysterical. The book is erotic and moving as well as roll on the floor funny. Some of the scenes are so steamy that I was loathe to read them on the subway for fear of embarrasing myself! Ms. Nelson's first work of fiction is as well-written and engaging as her previous non-fiction offerings. The main characters, Lydia and Acey, are fully realized, infinitely human, and engaging, and the plotlines' twists and turns keep you turning pages with a fury. I read the entire book over the weekend! Not content to write a book which deals with women's concerns about finding love and/or sex in the 21st century, Ms. Nelson throws political intrigue, race relations, ghost spouses, and transexuals into the mix. All of these elements come together to bring us a read that is at once thought provoking and entertaining. Don't just walk, run to get this book! You won't regret it. And once you've finished reading Sexual Healing, you'll find yourself clamoring for more fiction from this superb and uproarious author.

Jill Nelson's first foray into fiction is a success!

She has written the outrageous, intelligent and humorous "Sexual Healing," a tale about about two best friends who open a "full-service spa" for African-American sistahs. Lydia and Acey know that women, no matter what their age or financial status, need the kind of affection a only "hard" man can provide. Enduring a few setbacks, the two women finally open the doors of A Sister's Spa -- not without a some oppposition. I won't spoil the the novel, but the hijinks Lydia and Acey endure are worth the lenghty 318 pages "Sexual Healing" boasts. I laughed out loud at the bold Lydia and sympathized with the laid back Acey.

One thing that makes the book so good is the attention to detail. Nelson writes to not only entertain, but to educate. What could have simply been a raunchy sex tale (which partly it is) turns into a book about sexuality with pinches of racism, chauvinism, and feminism. Historical information is intertwined with the madcap that is "Sexual Healing."

What an ingenious idea: a brothel for black women. If only there was really a place like this. Hmm....

Reminiscent of Kathryn Harvey's 1996 novel Butterfly, author Jill Nelson's highly anticipated novel SEXUAL HEALING is the black woman's retort to sex in the 21st century. Best friends Lydia and Acey's humorous and sometimes unbelievable exploits will have readers in a fit of laughter as they embark to fulfill every woman's fantasy while satisfying their own selfish desires.

Lydia Beaucoup and Acey Allen are in their early forties and still "fly". Lydia's profession as sr. account executive at a San Francisco PR firm is monotonous on a good day, while ace-boon-coon and proprietress of a small spa in downtown Oakland , Acey grows weary of husband Matthew and their almost non-existent sex life. Fed up with thwarted relationships and unfulfilling professions, a ludicrous tęte-à-tęte one Sunday afternoon unexpectedly spawns, A Sisters' Spa; a male brothel for African-American women in Reno, Nevada where "a special set of services are designed to meet the most intimate needs of black women." When politics, religion, sexism and scandal threaten to cease operation of A Sisters Spa, Lydia and Acey must pull together a plan of action or their hard work will go "limp" not to mention their male companions.

This is not your mundane relationship sex-filled novel commonly crowding bookshelves today. SEXUAL HEALING is a titillating and side-splitting journey of two sister's determination to become the premier establishment, meeting the needs of dissatisfied black women in a safe, discreet and upscale environment. Jill Nelson's uninhibited characters and quick-witted storytelling will undoubtedly proclaim SEXUAL HEALING as an entertaining summer blockbuster, forming the question- does this place really exist? I highly recommend SEXUAL HEALING to women of all ages. Your reading will be totally pleasurable.

Reviewed by Nicki Lancaster
APOOO BookClub

A GREAT way to start the summer! Ms. Nelson has skillfully combined spiritual, sexual and solidarity in a HOT book about BLACK WOMEN, SEXUALITY and FRIENDSHIP!!! No baby mamma drama here! This book is mature, refreshing and fun. This book is so good that I have purchased extra copies and gave them out as EARLY KWAANZA PRESENTS! I really wish there was such a spa!

This has to be one of the worst books ever written! This book was absolutely horrible. It was so bad I found myself midway skim-speed reading just so I could finish this. I have to admit the title, cover art, author, story line & rave reviews listed on the front and back covers drew me in. Boy, what a mistake. I have so many issues with this book that it will be hard to break them down. But I will try:

1st: Too wordy!! too many unnecessary details about things and people you could care less about! This book would have been BETTER WITH HALF THE WORDS.

2nd: Am I the only one that had issues with the names of these characters. I found the names annoying and SILLY!! "T.Terry Tiger" are you serious? "LaShaWanda" "Odell" "DeQuan, DeJuan & whatever the other one is" "Exultia" "Sequoia". There were so many others I made myself forget. The names of the organizations were laughable at best. Actually the characters themselves were laughable at all times!

3rd: The main characters seemed more like they had the perspective of a 50-something year woman than that of today's modern 40 year old.

4th: Please tell me WHY and WHAT was the relevance of Acey being visited by her dead husband!! This does not fit the storyline. Its misplaced and weird. Completely unnecessary.

5th: Sexually liberated? Forget it. These women WERE hardly sexually liberated, sexually experimental maybe. They had to incessantly maintain some type of sexual modesty or closed-minded view of others' sexuality at all times. I am sure if you have the displeasure of reading this book you will see the contradictions. Did they ever use condoms themselves?

6th: Please help me to understand why when they found out they were $40,000 dollars short to qualify for a loan, they simply did not adjust their loan request amount? Why is it when she found out her ex-husband STOLE THE MONEY FROM HERE ACCOUNT she didn't file criminal charges against him and or the bank for releasing this money without her permission. No that would make too much sense, instead she decided to forgive him AND hire him as a cook in her spa after he used all the money up paying for spa & sex services from "A Sisters' Spa" and for of all things, a sex change!!

7th: Who would ask their 70-year old mother to research information on brothels?

8th: Why spend the majority of the book trying to get the spa instead of 3/4 of the book on the spa's goings on which would be far more interesting to readers than ghosts, preachers and jimmy choo boots.

9th: Was that not the CORNIEST ENDING EVER??? What the hell? The sex worker gets the preachers wife pregnant after she comes to the spa "undercover" only to find out the preacher is his long lost FATHER. RIGHT. And then the duo go TO AFRICA and begin recruiting. WOW. OK. I was so exasperated by the end that I wanted to throw the book in the garbage.

10th: The sheer arrogance of the author to make you sift through her mental ramblings of her fairytale black/white male/female reality coupled with the blatant neglect and incompetency of the editor in not doing a better job curtailing and guiding this literary garbage to something ALMOST REALISTIC and REMOTELY ENJOYABLE is disgraceful. Her approach was obviously like a journalist/reporter. Jill get a new editor and stop having your friends write reviews on AMAZON for you!

If you insist on reading this book BORROW it, other wise you will regret spending ANY of your hard earned cash for it.

Hilarious, sexy and thought-provoking, Jill Nelson's debut novel is the perfect summer read. At one level, it's a funny and lighthearted romp; at another, it's a commentary on the mores of the middle class. Read it either way or both ways, but read it! Nelson is a jewel.

Wow! Jill Nelson leaps out of the non-fiction box and brings all of her writing power with her in the creation of her new novel "Sexual Healing." Her new book is inventive, outrageous, and challenges readers to get out of their boxes and think differently about the world, sex, color and how things are organized. This is a book filled with wonderful characters, great belly laughs throughout, and many new thoughts about things sexual. I am still laughing outloud about the scene in the bank when they go for the loan. Jill exposes race secrets, sexual secrets, and woman secrets with the same great style she used to expose journalism in "Volunteer Slavery." What a writer, what a book, what a great read. This is MUST reading for 2003 and beyond. -- Bill Perry

With her debut novel, Jill Nelson has created a work that is sensual, political, thought provoking, and definitely entertaining. In Sexual Healing, Nelson has managed to take on the same issues, such as gender and race, that her readers will remember her for from her non-fiction works. However, this time, these topics are set against such a stimulating backdrop that even your most non-socially conscious person will be eagerly turning each page. Up until the end, you will find yourself, laughing, sighing, fantasizing, and wondering, while all along thinking, whether you are aware of it or not. Watch out fellas, the ladies are taking a turn.

I loved this book. Sex and shopping, what could be better (except perhaps Odell, the UPS man who looks good in his brown shorts). Jill Nelson's novel about two friends who start a "full service" spa is hilarious. It is a smart and funny account of friendship, sex, and the politics surrounding them. The Loehmann's shopping scene in the beginning had me laughing out loud, the sex is steamy, and the plot turns and twists in ways that kept me up late into the night to finish. When I was done, I was left wanting more. Read this book, you'll love it too.

... but it's relegated to the pile of early 2000s pop fiction with its constant brand name-dropping.

Jill Nelson makes some interesting and insightful points about the expectations of black women and black men with regards to sexuality and morality. But in another writer's hands, I think this would have been a more literary, more lasting work.