The Virgin Sex Queen by Angela Verdenius

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Once again trying to finish out my first bingo board for the Summer of Swoon, I went looking for some standalones. I didn't have too many in my recent want to reads that sounds good since I tend to gravitate to series. I feel like a lot of contemporaries are more standalones, but as I've mentioned before I'm not too into those and don't keep up on releases as much for those. After scrolling for a bit, I decided to look in my kindle and find any authors I only had one or two books for and then check if it was a standalone. The first book I came across that was less than 400 pages (I wasn't in the mood to pick up a longer book) was The Virgin Sex Queen by Angela Verdenius. She is another new author for me and is Australian.

Sophie is a romance author, but particular known for her erotic romance. She is going to stay with her cousin Sam for a couple weeks and do some book signings. His childhood friend Alan is his housemate and also there. Alan used to tease "Shy Sophie" a lot growing up and continues to do so. He is now a police office and actually pulls her over for speeding on the way to their house. Sophie doesn't realize who he is, so by the time she gets to her cousins house and Alan answers the door she's surprised. There's a lot of teasing between them, a lot of it with Sophie putting on her "game face." Eventually Alan finds out that the popular erotic romance author is actually a virgin and wants to be the one to finally show her what it's really like.

I am very torn on this book. It was okay. There were moments were I really loved Alan and how he really noticed when Sophie had her "game face" on and could read her really well. As it got later in the book and he realized that some of his teasing was hurtful, he would immediately apoligize and emphasize that he was teasing and force Sophie to talk about it. I also liked that he repeatedly reassured Sophie that he liked her for her and also kind of took her to task a little when she would be down on herself. Although a couple of times he took it a bit to far. A big sticking point for me is the way that romance and erotic romance was discussed. Sophie did kind of fight a couple times that it wasn't girly porn, but it bothered me that the guys kept referring to it as such. I wish that Sophie stood up for what she wrote a little bit more.

As a romance reader, there is a difference between erotic romance and erotica. I feel like the way she and other discussed her books, it was more erotica and not erotic romance. I also didn't understand the whole "you have to experience everything you write about" bit. Yes it would've been odd I guess to find out she was virgin, but at the same time it doesn't matter. I feel like it was made out to be a bigger thing than it was. She also off-handedly mentions writing mass market romance as well, but that isn't mentioned later. Everything just focuses on the more erotic stuff she writes. I just wish that with how long this book felt that there was more done about the stereotypes of her writing. It also took a lot longer than I expected for Sophie and Alan to actually get together. The pacing just felt a little off and the ending a little rushed. I also didn't need Alan proposing. I get that they knew each other when younger, but I feel like them just moving in together and starting to seriously date would've felt more believable. Also, I do want to mention there's a lot of Australian slang. Thankfully there was a glossary!

I will try another Angela Verdenius book, but it's not at the top of my list. It was pretty easy reading and the writing style worked for me. I just had issues with the pacing of the plot and how the writing aspect of Sophie was handled. Also there was a scene at a backyard dinner party that I completely got second-hand embarrassment from. I'm a little intrigued by her Lawson Boys series, but I think I'd want to check the tropes first before jumping in.

Have you read The Virgin Sex Queen?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Virgin Sex Queen, Angela Verdenius, 3-stars, 2 days, eBook, 214 pages, published in 2013