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A review by aimiller
Secrets and Spies by Ellie Barker
2.0
I should start this by saying I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
Now I will also say here that I am not a regular reader of published erotica of any form, much less transgender erotica, but I felt, as a transgender person (albeit cafab and transmasculine,) it was important for me to read and review this. I'll also be upfront about the fact that sometimes I read erotic fanfiction, and my recommendation for you is to uh read that fanfiction instead. It's hotter (in my experience) and you aren't just like "oh, welp, here's another sex scene" which is how I was by the end of the book.
Re: the trans stuff... it was okay? There were at least 2 moments where I was like "fuckin really???" where characters, upon first meeting the trans woman character, were like "that's a man" and then flipped around pretty fast after she says that no, she's a WOMAN, but like.... wholly unnecessary, imo. And then there was a whole sequence where someone was extremely transphobic and it was mostly constructed as a way that the cis male character could be like "I felt extremely protective of the trans woman." Also I called the trans character's dark secret at the very beginning because I understand how trans storytelling works.
I will admit to mostly being disappointed with the book because I was hopeful that we would get some of that sex from the trans character's point of view, which would be really cool. But no, the entire book was from the cis man's perspective. I get why that is, within the context, but it just made me feel kind of unsure about how I was supposed to approach the book and the sex scenes in particular. As a reader, I'm way more interested in how transgender people experience and navigate sex than I am in hearing a cis man go on and on about it. Also: the man does at one point have penis-in-vagina sex with a cis woman, and says "It had been a long time since I'd had sex with a woman" like bud you've spent the last 80% of the book fucking a woman? Just a weird slip of language that to me establishes how the author thinks about this whole thing? Or maybe just the character, but it's not corrected within the text so.
And maybe this is just the fault of the genre and the genre not being what I want it to be, and so that's on me and not the book! But it was kind of disappointing to read, and not that hot to me overall.
Now I will also say here that I am not a regular reader of published erotica of any form, much less transgender erotica, but I felt, as a transgender person (albeit cafab and transmasculine,) it was important for me to read and review this. I'll also be upfront about the fact that sometimes I read erotic fanfiction, and my recommendation for you is to uh read that fanfiction instead. It's hotter (in my experience) and you aren't just like "oh, welp, here's another sex scene" which is how I was by the end of the book.
Re: the trans stuff... it was okay? There were at least 2 moments where I was like "fuckin really???" where characters, upon first meeting the trans woman character, were like "that's a man" and then flipped around pretty fast after she says that no, she's a WOMAN, but like.... wholly unnecessary, imo. And then there was a whole sequence where someone was extremely transphobic and it was mostly constructed as a way that the cis male character could be like "I felt extremely protective of the trans woman." Also I called the trans character's dark secret at the very beginning because I understand how trans storytelling works.
I will admit to mostly being disappointed with the book because I was hopeful that we would get some of that sex from the trans character's point of view, which would be really cool. But no, the entire book was from the cis man's perspective. I get why that is, within the context, but it just made me feel kind of unsure about how I was supposed to approach the book and the sex scenes in particular. As a reader, I'm way more interested in how transgender people experience and navigate sex than I am in hearing a cis man go on and on about it. Also: the man does at one point have penis-in-vagina sex with a cis woman, and says "It had been a long time since I'd had sex with a woman" like bud you've spent the last 80% of the book fucking a woman? Just a weird slip of language that to me establishes how the author thinks about this whole thing? Or maybe just the character, but it's not corrected within the text so.
And maybe this is just the fault of the genre and the genre not being what I want it to be, and so that's on me and not the book! But it was kind of disappointing to read, and not that hot to me overall.