This
book rather made us think of the movie Her where the MC falls
in love with an AI non-corporeal personality (voiced brilliantly by Scarlett Johansson).
Autumn
gets a new cell phone number and receives a call from a stranger whose number
is displayed as 'Unknown Caller' whose first sentence is boldly sexual. Autumn
thinks it's a wrong number but somehow engages in a very brief exchange with
attractive female voice at the other end before rushing out for a blind date.
The Unknown Caller just happens to call when Autumn is desperately hoping for
an out from her interminably boring companion and thus starts an engagement
between two strangers.
Autumn
is actively looking for 'love' and going on dates with guys as often as she can
but parallely a new, albeit weird connection is building between her and the
Unknown Caller, Jessica. They are conversing, sharing themselves (and drinking
the same flavoured vodka while talking), building an unmistakable bond,
flirting and getting into decidedly raunchy zones.
The
whole relationship is rather fantastical but so very hot and surprisingly so
very sweet. There is genuine interest from both the ladies about the other and
the whole birthday scene is straight out of OTT romantic movies.
And
the heat! This is romantic erotica (though at the start it seemed erotic
romance – either ways, it is still firmly in the erotica zone. Romantic
erotica is when most of the book is erotica but the erotica is driven by
romance. Jump Then Fall, Tease Me and
Begin Again by Sarah Sanders and Slow Burn in Tuscany by Giselle Fox are excellent examples of romantic
erotica. On the other hand erotic romances are where (again) most of the book
is erotica but the romance is driven by erotica. The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair, Never Knew Until You by L. E. Royal and At Her Feet and The Fling by Rebekah Weatherspoon are good examples of
an erotic romance.) Mostly, in both forms, there is a story but it is rather
thin. Usually romantic erotica also has truckloads of sweetness and these are
mostly angst-free/low angst books in which relationships develop depth and
breadth pretty fast.).
What
distinguishes this one from many others is that while there is a lot (in all
caps, bold and large font) of sex and a lot of orgasms, Autumn and Jessica
actually do it in person, physically with each other only once. Yeah, that’s
right – the two are physically together just once. The rest of the time they
are getting off to each other’s voice or words and are not even in each other's
sight line.a
Since
the book is narrated from Autumn’s PoV, we know she gets off to thoughts about
Jessica (even when she thought she was straight and plenty often as the
relationship grows). We never imagined that a whole book essentially about
masturbation could read this good or be this engaging – just shows that even in
such a scenario, enough emotion can be added to make it awesome. You just know that
the two women are together in every steamy scene and in every sensual thought
and the whole book just reads effing hot.
The
conversations – flirty, fun, sex talk, truth or dare – all of them build the
relationship beautifully. That the ladies are just voices to each other and
only really meet right at the end doesn’t register or in any way reduce the
depth of their relationship. We also kind of love that Autumn is highly, highly
sexed.
This
one is definitely NSFW (or anywhere in public) and definitely recommended.
⭐⭐⭐☆★
