When She Was Bad [Paperback]

Penny Birch (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: VIRGIN BOOKS (November 6, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0795201958
• ISBN-13: 978-0795201950
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little disappointed, December 27, 2003

By 

Rich B. (Northern Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When She Was Bad (Nexus) (Mass Market Paperback)

Penny Birch is absolutely my favorite erotic author. She is close to being my favorite author period. But "When She Was Bad" almost changed that.

The character Chuck Hammes had me so angry I almost threw the book in the fire. He is an arrogant, pompous, boorish lout with more money than sense, and more misplaced piety than knowledge.

I think Penny was trying to illustrate how wrong it is for a dominant to ignore boundaries and rules and what happens when a submissive gives power to the wrong person.

Hammes attitude towards punishment is 'divinely inspired' and he sees no connection with spanking and sexuality. He thinks that it is his God given duty to "discipline" any and every woman he sees fit for their inherent "sins".

Unfortunately his discipline borders on torture, and at points in the book, I was actually appalled that anyone would allow themselves into a situation like that.

It took me several days of thought before I hit on the real reason I was so disappointed with the book.

(I gave it three stars, not two, because it's still very sexy. Especially the scene when Natasha seduces Louise into spanking her, telling her exactly what to do and say while still being sub.)

Hammes never gets his comeuppance.

Yes, Natasha and friends take him for a hundred grand because he's a pompous boob, but we never get to see Hammes "see" that his attitude is wrong.

He catches her at the end of the book, ties her to a tree and then beats her almost into unconciousness. He ingores her stop words and tortures her. It was very un-sexy.

Then Natasha's friends come to the rescue and cut her down.

At that point I was expecting the men to beat the snot out of Hammes. At least restrain him until the police arrived. But Natasha just offered herself to the group as Hammes slowly backed out of sight!

I wanted to scream!

But that aside, there are still plenty of parts that are worth reading as they are very sexy and very fun.

As is all of the rest of Penny Birch's work.

Her's is the rare erotica that reads like literature.

And it's all worth reading, even if "When She Was Bad" might have missed the mark.

In short, Penny Birch rocks!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When He Was Too Bad, December 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: When She Was Bad (Nexus) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book highlights an on-going Penny Birch character, Natasha Linnet, and has a lot of the usual PB characteristics; the deviation is with the lead male character, who is rigid, unhumourous, and a prig. He's a little more like the whip-them-till-they-drop characters in other publications, which is quite unlike Penny's normal males, so will appeal to those looking for a little more sternness in a PB book. I would normally rate her books as 4s and 5s, and I highly recommend this author, and if you have read her and would like a stronger dose of discipline from a male than usual, you will enjoy this. Quite often in Penny's books, the toughest discipline is handed out by other females. Her story lines are well-thought-out, and this book is no exception, so if you are a regular PB reader, don't pass on this book, but it's not up there in her top pantheon.