My Sex Teacher | 5.12.23
Get it? Like that octopus movie?
While the male rake/ female virgin trope can certainly get tiring after a while, I am a BIG fan of books where for one reason or another the less experienced heroine enlists a rake to help her explore her own rakish needs in a safe space, because she knows he’s liberated enough not to judge her (a concern that exists in historicals AND contemporaries). Even better? When at first the rake resists, not wanting to debauch an innocent because even bad men have a line, and then the “innocent” is like “well fine, I’ll find someone else” and he full on freaks out. But for platonic reasons, obviously. Yeah. We’ll go with that.
One Good Earl Deserves A Lover by Sarah MacLean. Lady Philippa Marbury is engaged to be married via an arrangement everyone agrees is solid. She doesn’t feel any particular way about her fiance, but she’s going along with it because she knows she’s a bit of an odd duck and it’s what’s expected of her. She knows her fiance will be nice to her, and she’ll have a boring solitary existence, and that’s fine. But before she’s officially his property, she wants to have an adventure of her own, and she picks a man known only as Cross- one of the owners of London’s most exclusive gaming hell (which he co-owns with her sister’s new husband). As a woman of learning and science, Philippa is looking to catalog pleasure she knows won’t be waiting for her in marriage without emotions that might cause her to stray from her path, and the wicked, legendary Cross is perfect for this.
Of course, he says no, and then as soon as she’s like “fine, I’ll go get someone else to be my sex tutor” he crumbles, because he likes the strange bespectacled beauty against his will, and despite hating himself a little for “ruining” her (in more ways than one), he can’t stay away. And she’s more than game for ruination. She insists on it, in fact!
Listen. It’s a Sarah MacLean book. Of course it’s good, and there are little details that make you lose your damn mind (a masquerade mask made to fit over her glasses! MY HEART!). I would say perhaps more than any other historical author, you should read the MacLean-averse books in order because the former characters factor heavily into future series, but it’s worth it to get to Philippa and Cross’s HEA with all the knowledge you need to make it truly satisfying.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
The Duke's Stolen Bride by Sophie Jordan. Marian Langley is a former lady’s companion/maid who had to move back to her tiny hometown after her father’s death to take care of her younger siblings, and the financial situation is dire. So she decides the best way to protect her family and keep them from losing their home and lives is to become a rich man’s mistress (inspired by a woman who lives in the town who has retired from her own successful life as a high-priced sex worker). Not just any mistress, but a really really good one. So her new mentor (the aforementioned woman from town) suggests that Marian, a virgin, get someone to teach her all about pleasure but without popping her cherry, because her virginity is something she can charge a lot of money for (gross). And who better than the reclusive yet handsome Duke of Warrington (Nate) who just moved back to town as well, known by the town for his depraved urges?
Nate is bored as hell in his largely-self-imposed exile, and is intrigued by how Marian’s ambitions to be the best mistress ever include him teaching her how to please a man of his stature. He’ll never marry, so the scandalous deal appeals to him for more reasons than one. Things are going well until Marian is blackmailed into an engagement with a nasty little man from town and Nate steals her for himself, marrying her despite his assertion he can’t and won’t be a husband. To protect her, of course. And she was only getting into mistress-ing for the money, right? Now she’s a duchess, even better! But she wants more if she’s to be a wife, and it turns out that Nate maybe isn’t as averse to love and a shared life as he previously asserted.
To be honest, I think I would have liked this book better if the stolen bride bit had happened later in the book than it did, or hadn’t happened at all. Because the idea of a duke training a young woman to be a mistress so she can have freedom and independence on her own terms is so exciting and I wanted to live more in that world. I also wanted more of the relationship between the retired (I think) sex worker mentor and Marian. Women supporting women!! Usually when a historical novel pairs a man with a title and a lower class woman, when he tries to make her a mistress since obviously it would be crazy to marry her, she takes it as an insult, and I thought it was cool that this book had a more progressive approach to sex work as a means of independence and power. And the book loses some of that spice and exploration once they’re married, inherently. Still, a great book, I love Marian especially, and a Sophie Jordan book is always a safe choice for a good time.
Rating: 4.25/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren. Book 3 of Christina Lauren’s first ever series pairs up the legendary player Will with his best friend’s little sister (who, of course, has had a crush on him forever) Hanna. Hanna’s about to finish grad school (she does something sciencey, it ultimately does not matter) and her brother is worried that she’s a nerd recluse with no friends. So he asks her to try harder to have a social life, and he asks his friend Will, who also lives in NYC, to check in on her, maybe take her for a beer to make sure she’s doing ok. They start running together and agree to do a half-marathon together to give them a goal. What Will, who remembers Hanna as a precocious preteen mostly, isn’t accounting for when he initially agrees to get her out of the house and lab more, is that Hanna is all grown up, and she doesn’t need Will’s help making friends. She needs his help to teach her to be as successful at dating and sex as he is.
What begins as barely innocent “lessons” on flirting and then… more… in order to help Hanna date a classmate quickly becomes a relationship that consumes and excites both of them. In fact, Will probably learns more from these “lessons” that he’s ostensibly teaching than Hanna is.
I honestly think Will and Hanna are my favorite pair from this entire series. I love how they challenge each other without being toxic (looking at you, my beloved problematic faves Chloe and Bennett) and how the power dynamic of “older brothers best friend” is almost never in Will’s favor. Hanna somehow manages to toe the line between wide-eyed innocent (she’s not a virgin at the start of this book, but she’s definitely inexperienced) and ambitious bulldozer. I’ve returned to this book a few times since I first read it, obsessed with their chemistry and their story.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books with a taboo romance, dynamic, kink, or character! Books that push the boundaries! Until then… have a good weekend :)
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!