Customer Reviews

Tea and Spices

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is Nina Roy's third novel. Earlier she's published two with Black Lace. She is a brilliant writer. Witness her story in "Desires," the anthology I edited with Adrienne Benedicks. Nina Roy is sintellectual (ie., intellectual with a laconic sense of sin), who defies norms with passion, blows rings around hollow hypocrisy.

She is also multicultural - in the best sense of the word, because she brings people together from far corners of the world, joins them, and entwines them breathlessly. And in its midst, we forget the colors of our skin, our class distinctions, we forget ruler and the ruled.

Her first novel was about a sensual, intelligent beauty, member of the Tzarist royal family, maneuvering her way through the Bolshevik revolution. "Tea and Spices," is about Devora Hawthorne, an English wife in India during the British Raj, who, bored with her bureaucratic husband, desires her servant, the dusky and handsome Rohan, as her lover. Nina Roy gives us India with its heat and dust, its cities of bitter joy, mosques and temples, corpulent maharajas - and through all of these, sensual spine tingling, toe-curling sex.

In a strange way, "Tea and Spices," invites dangerous comparisons with that famous novel by E. M. Foster, "A Passage to India," and actually manages to get away without injury. Those of us who live in the west, harbor a secret yearning for the mystiques of India. Reading Foster, we were enchanted with the personality of Dr. Aziz. Reading Nina Roy's "Tea and Spices," we are reminded of our anticipations in that novel: would - could-anything happen between Aziz and Adela Quested? It doesn't happen there, but here? On a dark, silent night, when Devora cannot sleep, and Rohan lies awake in the verandah. She comes out to get a breath of air and sees him one with the dark. He is quiet, vibrating; she, trembling with an unknown awakening.

Is "Tea and Spices" Nina Roy's answer to "A Passage to India?" There we remember that Dr. Aziz and Fielding want to be friends but India's colonized and inferior position comes in the way. Here...? Will Devora and Rohan conquer what their more famous antecedents couldn't? How poignant was that scene between them, that brilliant conclusion of the novel! Their horses almost kissing but retrained by the riders, violently drawn back? How will "Tea and Spices" end?

Read it!

Since I have been waiting and waiting for the next Natasha Rostova Black Lace book (I hate it when authors don't produce as quickly as I would like them to), I decided to read this book to tide me over. I wasn't sure what to expect since I am such an avid fan of Rostova's Black Lace series, but this book delivered as fantastically as her others. It is a historical novel of the British in India, telling the story of a British woman who experiences a number of....well, experiences!

One of the main reasons i like Rostova's novels is that she creates fully 3-dimensional characters, both male and female. The men are not reduced to dogs, the women not to vapid airheads. Admittedly, I didn't find the male character Gerald (Devora's husband) as interesting as the male characters in the Black Lace books, but he holds his own. The excellent writing and the story are vintage Rostova. Now if she would only hurry up and write another.

I guess I need to reconsider my view of erotica, which I thought was always just a fancy name for porn -- and it is, in some cases, but this book isn't one of them. Make no mistake, the book Tea and Spices is definitely explicit, but it's not like the stuff you'd read in most porn publications. It's hot and raw, but with actual characters and emotions -- not barbie doll replicas or men with only gargantuan schlongs.

I've read some of the Black Lace books and have not been very impressed -- although after reading this book I am going to read some of Natasha Rostova's other books and see if she carries the same mix of sexuality and a great story through in her other novels. The publishing world could use more of this EROTICA and less porn. Good job to the authors!

I read this book when it was first published, and I remember the vividly even today. I especially liked the relationship between the British woman and Rohan, a theme that has been explored previously by many authors and filmmakers, but not with *this* particular twist (the erotic love scenes).

My favorite book by Ms. Roy is The Captivation, a book that is now out of print. I have a feeling that as time goes on, more and more books by Ms. Roy will be equally valued.

Bravo, Ms. Roy! I can't wait to read (and buy) your next book!

I bought this book so that my wife and I could add some fun in our personal life. We usually enjoy reading "improper" stories off the Web when we find the ones written by good authors. So I figured this book should give us more of the same.

After we got it, we read it in 2 days. We had a lot of fun reading this one. We're still re-reading it once in a while, and it never fails to excite us again... There's no violence, rape, or any unordinary perversions. Just a good story with good adult people having fun. :) All mixed in a decent and sensuous historical setting.

We love the characters, especially Deborah. Her husband is sketched out a little too harshly, in my male opinion. Oh well, what else is new. I don't take it personally. I can only wish someone would make it into a movie.

I usually don't write reviews because I'm not much of a writer but I had to add my words of praise about this book. It truly is so much more then just an erotic novel. Nina described the colonial British in India with such detail that I was transported to that time and place. She describes the art and scenery with such detail that you can feel the hot India sun and dust covering you as you read through the story. You discover the magic and beauty of India as Devora discovers it. I think I loved the world that Devora discovered more then she did! Devora and Rohan are beautifully written characters with incredible passion. Rohan was incredibly passionate and wise. He is the perfect lover for Devora. I loved this book so much I've written the author to ask for a sequel.

Devora Hawthorne, a proper British woman, goes to India to live with her husband who works for the ruling British government in a province of India. While there, she encounters the social mores of both the British and Indian, in relationships that are conflictual and intricate. In a complete breakage of standards, she begins a relationship with her husband's Indian servant, which creates a reverberations throughout the colonial community. The book contains the political drama between the British and a local mahajraja, as well as Devora's personal drama and that of other servants and friends. The sensuality of the country seeps through both arenas and the author's writing.

This is a great book!!! I love reading erotica, but haven't read much in the way of historical erotica or historical fiction. This is a fantastic combination of both. I learned something about the whole British/Indian/colonial situation and was treated to a great story in the mix. One of the things I liked the most about this book is that the heroine, Devora, isn't always likeable, but she is always strong and passionate. A much better character than some of these insipid romance heroines that are all over the place. She makes a great match for the strong-and-silent Rohan, atlhough I would've like to know more about their eventual future together. The sex scenes are especially enjoyable. ;-) Overall, I'd definitely recommend it with a five star review.

This bk was recommended to me by a friend who has read all of N. Rostova's works in the Black Lace series and thinks she is too good a writer for smut fiction. I agree with him to an extent, but think that erotica (and smut for that matter) needs great writers. Thankfully Rostova is one of them, and TEA AND SPICES is evidence. The writing is far above what you usually find on erotica shelves, and she makes full use of the drama and possibilities in HERstoricial settings. The love affair of the two women is very well drawn with various sensual and emotional nuances. The diversity of the female characters is one of the best things about this book, from Devora Hawthorne's strength in breaking with convention to the uptight British women and the devoted lesbian lovers. Some of the sex scenes are edgier than others, which makes for an excellent balance of sensuality as well as storylines. This is definitely the kind of work that erotica shelves need right now, and I will be eagerly awaiting future Rostova works!

This is the story of Devora Hawthorne, a British woman who goes to join her husband at a settlement in colonial India (c. 1920's?). There she confronts the rigid social formalities of colonial life and is torn between her loyalty to her husband and her lust for their Indian servant, Rohan. Devora's husband Gerald is no angel himself, having taken a mistress for himself. The divided loyalites of the couple between both each other and their situations makes this a truly interesting and engaging novel. The author has given us a vivid sense of both atmosphere and characterization.

The story includes a subplot involving a lesbian relationship which is extremely well written. In fact, the two characters of Lota and Kalindi deserve their own novel since a lesbian relationship in colonial India brings up many other issues. Also, the female characters are both strong and vulnerable, which is a rare find in erotica. The sex scenes are woven fluidly into the storyline and are smooth and sensual. This book is definitely one of the better historical novels on the market and I wholeheartedly give it my recommendation.