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Find out moreIt could be said that we are in a Golden Age for Provocative fiction. With more and more authors releasing books that explore the various realms of sexuality while still offering social commentary and a concentrated examination of human feelings and attitudes throughout. Indulge your secretive sensual side, peek into the lives of others and explore a complex pleasure of human existence. Find out more in our adult fiction category.
John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure has been described as the first erotic novel in English and is perhaps the greatest example of the genre. From the outset it was mired in disrepute. Cleland penned the novel to liberate himself from debtors' prison, and the book's manifestly lewd content led to its legal suppression within a year of publication. Though versions of the novel, nearly always abridged in some form, continued to find a way into print, the Memoirs remained an underground text until the 1960s. Only as that decade ushered in a culture less socially deferential and more sexually permissive was the moment opportune for the obscenity ban to be successfully challenged. Cleland's novel is a triumph of literary style, resting on his invention of an entirely new, vividly metaphoric, terminology for describing sexual pleasure.
EVERY SHADE OF BLACK is the continuing, heart-stopping love story of Sebastian Black and Suzanne Perry-Jackson, both previously introduced in EVERY SHADE OF BLUE, published in 2016. However, the sequel is a stand-alone read. The erotic tale continues as Sebastian, the beautiful blue-eyed surgeon, falls head over heels in love and lust with Suzanne, the stunning blonde mother of teenage twins who is in the process of getting a divorce. Astonishingly handsome, charming and successful, Sebastian has no trouble in finding dates, but abandoned by a violent father as a child, he is haunted by his past. He has always controlled his emotions, had been too scared to commit, and yet in Suzanne he feels he's discovered the love of his life. But Sebastian believes that before he can truly embrace a future with his soulmate, he needs closure from the brutality that filled his early life. In EVERY SHADE OF BLACK, Sebastian makes the difficult decision to seek out his father which reveals a shocking truth that leads him on a path of self-discovery. Meanwhile, Suzanne has serious complications of her own. Tatiana, her ex-husband's gorgeous young lover seems determined to ruin Suzanne's perfect new life. And Angelo, a psychotic, one-night stand who Suzanne encountered briefly before meeting Sebastian, is out there lurking in the shadows ready to make his move. Set in London, Surrey, Vancouver, the snowy delights of Whistler, British Columbia and Dubai, EVERY SHADE OF BLACK is an explicit love story that will leave the reader breathless.
It's a beautiful day in Manchester and four friends are meeting for a birthday lunch. But then they witness a shocking accident just metres away which acts as a catalyst for each of them. For Laura, it's a wake-up call to heed the ticking of her biological clock. Sensible Jo finds herself throwing caution to the wind in a new relationship. Eve, who has been trying to ignore the worrying lump in her breast, feels helpless and out of control. And happy-go-lucky India is drawn to one of the victims of the accident, causing long-buried secrets to rise to the surface.
A bold, hugely original, multi-genre, cracking read. A private eye in a reimagined New York, where the internet and electronic data is as dead as a dodo, is asked to trace a woman. Within the first few words Maxim Jakubowski thoroughly set the scene, within a short time I felt a part of this world, could stand in the streets and take a gawking look around me. The clipped sentences of the investigator hark back to private eye novels, yet this is no caricature. The characters sing with intensity, sitting on the edge of larger than life, they feel as real as real can be. I smirked, raised my eyebrows, and flinched (oh how I flinched), as we cleaved through dystopian, slipped inside erotica, and smashed into supernatural. Right up my street, I absolutely adored this read. ‘The Louisiana Republic’ is a tale that refuses to be labelled, it is quite simply a raw, provocative, unique experience for lovers of the written word. ~ Liz Robinson
There are success stories - and there are true stories. How would you feel if everything in your life suddenly started to go . . . right? Six months ago, Alex Moore was stuck in a dead-end job, feeling her potential quietly slip away. Then, seemingly overnight, she launched her dream start-up and became one of London's fastest rising tech stars. At thirty-one, her life has just begun. But Alex's transformation isn't easy for those around her. Her friends are struggling to accept her rapid success, her parents worry she's burning out and her fiance is getting cold feet. Then weird things start to happen. Muggings, stalkers - even a wild claim that she murdered a stranger. But when Alex visits the Orkney Islands to recharge, weird turns into WTF. Because there she discovers the world's oldest secret - and it's a secret that Alex's stratospheric rise has royally messed up.
E L James revisits the world of Fifty Shades with a deeper and darker take on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the globe. Their scorching, sensual affair ended in heartbreak and recrimination, but Christian Grey cannot get Anastasia Steele out of his mind, or his blood. Determined to win her back, he tries to suppress his darkest desires and his need for complete control, and to love Ana on her own terms. But the horrors of his childhood still haunt him, and Ana's scheming boss, Jack Hyde, clearly wants her for himself. Can Christian's confidant and therapist, Dr. Flynn, help him face down his demons? Or will the possessiveness of Elena, his seducer, and the deranged devotion of Leila, his former submissive, drag Christian down into the past? And if Christian does win Ana back, can a man so dark and damaged ever hope to keep her?
Uprising is a fantasy story that drops you right into the action. I was intrigued at the start of Osei’s quest and was eager to know what happened. There are a number of questions raised in the plot, Osei’s heritage, Kai’s past to name just two, and so I was encouraged to read on and find out more. As more is discovered about Osei and her new Samurai friends, the tension builds towards a dramatic conclusion and a darker web of enemies that will need to be defeated. There are a few clunky areas that could do with some more editing and there are some sections that brought me out of the story slightly. Moments that made me think that’s not something a person would say (or perhaps I’ve just not met the person that would) and maybe there’s an opportunity to rephrase and make some of the narrative sound more natural. Saying that, neither point really stopped me from enjoying the story. In all, I liked Uprising. I found the characterisation good and each character's voice was distinct. I would have liked to learn more about Osei’s past with Ryu earlier on in the book but I think that there is plenty of story to come in future books and lots of time to learn more about this world and the rest of the Samurais' quest. I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy with lots of twists and turns.
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. Jane and Bill, a London couple whose relationship is enduring the pressures of time but harbours some element of dissatisfaction, come across Lilah in a pub. She is sex incarnate, a creature of a thousand temptations, and her allure instantly attracts both of them. They invite her back to their home and we are introduced to a veritable bacchanal of an odyssey of sex, taboo-breaking and the most devious of psychological manipulations as seductions follow in quick succession and a point of no return is soon reached. For Lilah is a supernatural sprite and predator intent on dominating both men and women in a runaround dance of emotions, lust and extremes which sees the married couple suffer all the possible permutations from desire to hate as they regress to their primal nature. A curious erotic novel from a prize-winning established novelist hitherto working in different areas of the novel and none the worse for it. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. It's Romeo and Juliet modern grunge style when Elise Perez, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and colour meets Jamey Hyde, the scion of a rich family studying at Yale. The attraction is raunchy and immediate and they soon move to Manhattan. What develops is raw, a clash of worlds and sensibilities, mental health frailties and exacerbated emotions. When Jamey's family vengefully attack their relationship, the couple embark on an odyssey of lust, drug taking and despair that can only lead to a dark conclusion at the end of the twisted road. Despite the basic set up, this is not a book for young adults, but rather a tale of young adults abandoned by hope and hanging on to the anchor of their love, inarticulate, drowning and on a slippery road to nowhere. Libaire (and Elise) has a distinct voice, sardonic, sad and picturesque, with a wonderful touch for the telling details (such as Elise's coat, which gives the book its title). A familiar but fascinating tale. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
I'm Maxon Reed-real estate mogul, shark, asshole. If a deal isn't high-profile and big-money, I pass. Now that I've found the property of a lifetime, I'm jumping. But one tenacious bastard stands between me and success-my brother. I'll need one hell of a devious ploy to distract cynical Griff. Then fate drops a luscious redhead in my lap who's just his type. Sassy college senior Keeley Kent accepts my challenge to learn how to become Griff's perfect girlfriend. But somewhere between the makeover and the witty conversation, I'm having trouble resisting her. The quirky dreamer is everything I usually don't tolerate. But she's beyond charming. I more than want her; I'm desperate to own her. I'm not even sure how drastic I'm willing to get to make her mine-but I'm about to find out. Contains mature themes.
What Grey and Ana did next... Soon she is learning more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades than she ever thought possible. But while Grey wrestles with his inner demons, Ana must make the most important decision of her life. And it's a decision she can only make on her own...
Acclaimed author Mitzi Szereto explores the many complexities of desire, love and lust in this rich and varied “best of” collection of erotically charged short stories. In these 17 provocative and often witty offerings, Mitzi Szereto travels expertly between genres with tales that explore both the light and the dark sides of sexuality. Oysters and Pearls gives the reader a glimpse into worlds that are as ordinary as they are fantastical and mysterious. Like a skilled lover, this sensuous and imaginative compilation will leave you wanting more.
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Literature has addressed sex throughout history. The joys and complexities are shown in 'The Song of Solomon' in the Bible. Byron, Chacer and Donne are famous for their compemplations on sex and desire.
Provocative prose is not simply pornographic, and product created simply to excite and arouse. Provocative prose stands apart as it is able to offer excitement while also deliviering social commentary and an examination of human feelings and behaviour. This genre can help you to think more deeply about sex, desire and how are attitudes to this topic are formed and what impact they have.
One of the most famous literary erotica would be Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, which manages to combine titilation and provocation while also offering character development, and an examination of the theme.
While some will still find these books shocking and a step too far. However there are marvelous modern authors such as Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and Annie Rice with her 'Sleeping Beauty' series which was published under the name Anne Roquelaure. With the development and exploration of this genre, there is a wide and varied selection of books for those interested in indulging.