It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian
This book is generously provided by NetGalley. Thank you!!
Oh my…wow!
This book might be my new manifesto for life. It is infrequent that a work of fiction inspires me to really look at the way I live my life. Noni’s journey to find her pleasure absolutely and constantly reminded me to look inward and honestly assess where I am in mine.
I want to be Noni, the pleasure Noni, the one that radiates joy. I want to be Beau, open and honest, who loves with his whole heart. I want to be Lindell, who is there for his best friend, ALWAYS. I want to be Lil, who uplifts people in their journey to learn to love themselves. I want to be Zep! I want to be that communicative and vulnerable at 16.
I loved this book. The people, the places, the journey, and the sex. I loved the good sex, but I also loved the bad sex. Romance novels are infrequently filled with funny, bad, awkward, unsatisfactory sex, that tends to show up in real life. It added so much to see the good sex for the wrong reason and bad sex for the right ones and finding you pleasure.
There is so much in this book, that I am not even sure how to properly start gushing. I need Edinburgh travel stat, I need a chocolate croissant and a new haircut and a really good… I’ll be right back.
As I was saying, this book is a mantra. Find your pleasure, lean into it, shine with it. You don’t have to earn it, it is already yours for the taking.
Now go read this book!
CW: Miscarriage.
-Sky
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Sky is right. This book is fantastic.
Everything negative within this book is directed from Noni to Noni until she starts treating herself better. It’s sex-positive, people-positive, travel-positive, pleasure-positive, and Viking-positive. Noni does all the things you would expect from a pleasure trip of self-discovery: buys lingerie, has one-night stands, buys a vibrator, goes to a spa/health retreat, falls in love, and drinks so much your kidneys will hurt in solidarity.
I think I’m still turned on from all of Beau’s old-fashioned tattoos and from the descriptions of these sex scenes. So steamy! This was a perfect storyline for an erotica/romance hybrid.
This is a must-read for me! -Ford
