Seduce Me

by Megan Clark

Book Review by Lisabet Sarai

Fantasy lies at the heart of eroticism. A sensual scenario, imagined, may be more intense and involving that one actually experienced. On the other hand, imagination at times cannot compass the richness and complexity of living the dream. If you don’t try it, you’ll never know. And even if you are disappointed, knowing the truth may serve you well in the future.

Seduce Me, by Megan Clark, is about fantasies pursued and savored, about satisfaction and disappointment, masquerades and unveilings. Organized, focused, sensible and hard-working, Carissa seems the perfect match for Oscar, her serious, stable fiancé. Yet when they move in together, she feels increasingly stifled and oppressed. Jogging along a windswept beach on Puget Sound, she encounters the glamorous Charlotte and her elegant lover Benedikte, drinking wine, dressed like movie stars from the 1920s.

Carissa is strongly attracted by Charlotte, and the reverse seems true. Charlotte’s life of  sensual indulgence and impulsive self-gratification are a sharp contrast to Carissa’s well-ordered existence. Carissa yearns to experience Charlotte’s world of pleasured leisure – in some sense, she wants to become Charlotte. The other woman assumes the role of Carissa’s mentor, tutoring her in the arts of seduction and self-indulgence, even giving her a breath-stopping lesson in masturbation. Gradually, Carissa changes her way of dressing, walking, thinking. She becomes Charlotte’s sister in spirit, rebelling against her old life and pushing Oscar away. Finally, she abandons her fiancé and travels to meet Charlotte and Benedikte.  Her road trip across the country finally leads to the French Quarter of New Orleans where the threesome take up residence, living a bohemian life of decadence and lust.

But all is not well. As Carissa becomes bolder and more extreme, Charlotte retreats into herself, overshadowed by the woman she helped create. Eventually, exhausted by her excesses, Charlotte returns to their home town, leaving Carissa and Benedikte to discover their true selves.

Seduce Me offers a classic example of literary erotica. Like many such works, it chronicles the characters’ quest to understand their own sexual natures, a quest that leads, as one would expect, through a variety of encounters with strangers, lovers and friends. The style is graceful and a bit distanced from the action. The use of the third person present does not, surprisingly, convey the sense of immediacy that I would expect.

Soon after, they have a ménage a trois. It is something neither woman has ever done before, and that Benedikte claims to have experienced several times.
...
After Benedikte’s fingers enter Carissa, she begins to breath harder. Her breathing turns Charlotte on, especially with the unthreatening, soft hand between her legs. Charlotte begins to moan, edging towards her climax. And then, sensing his presence is not necessary at this moment, Benedikte stands and leaves the room. He knows now that his time with Carissa will come—and soon. He can wait. Waiting will only make it more delicious when it finally happens. But the girls continue to complete what has been started. What had been started some time ago.

Charlotte takes hold of Carissa’s body, crawling on top of her and using her mouth and tongue to find Carissa’s sex, as moist as it had been before. She uses her fingers this time as well, touching Carissa’s sex the way she likes to be touched, the way she wishes she could be touched, the way she touches herself when she gets off, and her touch is working witchcraft. Only now there is no pretense of a lesson, or of being asleep.

The reader is omniscient, turned on not by empathizing with the characters, but by observing their beauty and their obvious arousal. One feels as though one is watching a silent movie, sepia-toned, the twining limbs elegant, remote but nevertheless evoking desire.

After a while I found myself tiring of the languid, even tone of the writing. And yet, as both Carissa and Charlotte become weary with their quest, the style somehow captures their exhaustion.

The most engaging aspect of Seduce Me is the relationship between the two women. I strongly identified with Carissa’s initial attraction to Charlotte’s beauty, decadence and freedom. I’ve had the same experience with one or two of my woman friends.  Actually, the ties between the two women in this book echo the core relationship in Ms. Clark’s first novel, Rescue Me, which also dealt with two women’s quest for independence, personal satisfaction, and sexual self-knowledge. This book is far more tightly written, and succeeds far better in exploring and resolving the relationship. The conclusion, which in some sense involves the women assuming each other’s identities, is a bit contrived but satisfying nevertheless.

Lisabet Sarai
February 2009

Seduce Me by Megan Clark
(Kensington, 2008; ISBN 0758209819)
Available at Amazon.com  / Amazon UK

About the Author: Lisabet Sarai has been writing ever since she learned how to hold a pencil. She is the author of three erotic novels, Raw Silk, Incognito, and Ruby's Rules; co-editor, with S.F. Mayfair, of the anthology Sacred Exchange (Blue Moon); and editor of Cream, the Best of the Erotica Readers & Writers Association.
Visit her website, Lisabet Sarai's Fantasy Factory for more information and samples of her writing.
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