Gothic Blue
by Portia Da Costa

Book Review by Ashley Lister

Love, sex and immortality. Who could ask for anything more? Well, throw in a spooky priory, an exotic oriental sorceress and a beautiful but diabolical villain and you’ve got me hooked. Then, if you add a handsome count (that wasn’t a typo—let’s not have any cheap gags here—he’s titled gentry) and the seductive writing style of Portia Da Costa, you’ve got me enthralled as I loose myself in a world of scintillating supernatural sexuality.

On some levels Gothic Blue could almost be viewed as a pastiche. Belinda and Jonathan are travelling along dark, unfamiliar roads; the car breaks down during a thunderstorm; and they take refuge in the grounds of a dilapidated old house. In anyone else’s hands the plot would bear too many similarities to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

But Portia Da Costa isn’t anyone else. Her characters respond to the situation with earthy credibility. Portia paints a veneer of supernatural overtones with a very skilful hand, constantly building the sense of unreality against a backdrop of pragmatism and scepticism. By the time she has revealed the count’s cursed blessing, Portia has layered the novel’s abstract concept with sufficient suggestions of veracity to make it wholly believable.

I don’t want to spoil the novel for anyone so I’m going try my best not to reveal too much about the plot’s clever twists and turns. It’s enough to say that Portia Da Costa has given immortality a very erotic kink. Of course, if any writer were able to give immortality a very erotic kink, it would have to be Portia Da Costa.

Brian May, with his lyrics for the Queen song of the same name, posed the question, "Who wants to live forever?" Admittedly, I’d always thought the answer was, "All of us want to live forever, Brian. Stop asking silly questions and get on with the song." But the romantic overtones of Gothic Blue have given me cause to rethink that response.

Woody Allen famously said, "I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." But that’s definitely not the attitude of the count in Portia Da Costa’s story.

Above all else, Gothic Blue is a romance. There are plenty of supernatural elements, and more than plenty erotic interludes. Portia Da Costa does many things very well: plot, characterisation and (in the case of this title) she injects a credible suggestion of the supernatural in a realistic world. She’s renowned for writing sex scenes that are so hot they sizzle and, in Gothic Blue, she does not disappoint.

Perhaps it’s the sexual alchemy surrounding the gothic priory? Perhaps it’s the influence of the libidinous count? Or perhaps it’s only natural for immortal love to sear with such intensity?

Emily Dickinson said, "For love is immortality." And when you season that sentiment with a liberal dash of Portia Da Costa’s inimitable sex scenes, you find yourself involved with a supernatural romance that is devilishly and deliciously deviant.

Ashley Lister
April 2007

Gothic Blue by Portia Da Costa
(Virgin Books; Reprinted edition; April 3, 2007; ISBN-10: 0352330759)
Available at Amazon.com / Amazon UK

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© 2007 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.

About the Author:  Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms. His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene (Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica.  Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto.  He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Website: www.ashleylister.co.uk

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