Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Sexile (Teresa Knight, Book 3) by Lisa Lawrence
Erotic thriller released by Delta 27 Jan 09

I fell in love with erotica for one reason, and no, it’s not that. I fell in love with erotica because of the heroines. Good erotica heroines are everything that women are told they “can’t” be. Smart, sexy, confident, in charge and in control. These aren’t women who idly sit by and wait for a man to rescue them, marry them, and knock them up with triplets by the time the epilogue rolls around. These are women determined to chart their own course through destiny, and damn if they aren’t going to have a little fun along the way. Which is ultimately why I adore Lisa Lawrence’s Teresa Knight books. It’s all about the heroine.

Teresa Knight is a nice African British girl who has led an extraordinary life. She’s a bit of a nomad who loves travel, is best friend’s with a high-class madam who deals in male escorts, and takes on the occasional private detective job to help out a friend. However Teresa isn’t quite herself these days. She’s still reeling from the fall-out from her last adventure (Book 2 in the series, Beg Me) and she’s treading water in a relationship that is doomed to failure. Teresa is bisexual and is currently dating a lesbian who resents that Teresa claims to be bi. You’re either one or the other, not both. The girl is also prone to dramatics, which Teresa is quickly becoming disenchanted with. So when MI6 comes calling, Teresa takes them up on their offer even though the whole mess sounds really fishy.

They want Teresa to infiltrate Silky Pictures, whose owner they suspect is dabbling in sex slaves on the side. Since Silky has ties to Brazil, and many of these girls are plucked out of Brazilian slums, it seems logical. Only once Teresa starts working at Silky, she’s not so sure MI6 has the right guy. She’s just about got the whole mess unraveled when a dead body turns up and she’s the prime suspect. This is not good. MI6 hangs her out to dry, her flat is on the evening news, and the case gets a whole lot more complicated. So our girl goes into exile to find some answers.

Enjoyment of this series hinges on a couple of factors. One, the reader has to realize that erotic does not equal romance; the Teresa Knight books are billed as “erotic thrillers” and that’s a very apt description. Also, the reader has to be willing to let go and ride out the fantasy. There is some realism in these books, but essentially what we have here is a female James Bond. Teresa knows how to throw a punch, escapes a lot of tight situations, has charm and attitude to spare, and has more sexual escapades than a group of sailors at a brothel. As Teresa’s madam-friend Helena might say, “It’s fantasy darling. Don’t think. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!”

Besides Teresa, who rocks my world, the other enjoyable part of this series is that the author infuses timely issues into her suspense threads. Whether it’s western civilization meddling in Africa, greedy oil conglomerates, or the war on terror, there’s enough plausibility here to really make a reader think about global politics and our own country’s foreign policies. That said, it also makes things more than a little convoluted, and it takes time to really wrap your mind around it all. Even after just finishing the book, I know I’ll be pondering the intricacies of the suspense plot for a few days after the fact.

With Sexile being Book three, it’s starting to show it’s series roots. Most notably in the fact that Lawrence seems to have settled on her personal fictional bogeyman, who has now turned up in all three installments. Sexile does stand alone, but certainly readers who have traveled with Teresa over the entire series are going to get a fuller picture.

An intricately woven suspense thread, naughty sexual shenanigans, and a heroine who is quickly developing into a feminist icon are what make Lawrence’s books so compulsively readable. They won’t work for everybody, but for readers who can sort through the layers, and are hungry for a heroine who takes charge and refuses to sit on the sidelines, Teresa earns the highest marks.

Grade: B-

Summary:

Somebody’s shadowing Teresa Knight, watching the part-time investigator’s every move. And she’s about to find out why: tapped for an undercover assignment that takes her into the steamy world of erotic films, Teresa lands a job at Silky Pictures—and within weeks she’s directing the action, conjuring her own wildest fantasies onto film. But her employer is dabbling in something far beyond hard-core porn. And when the case culminates in murder, Teresa is at the center of the storm.

Framed for a crime she didn’t commit, Teresa’s on the run from Paris to Rio…and soon she’s playing hardball with the boys from Brazil while tangling with crime lords, terrorists, and one sexually adventurous clandestine agent. As she moves closer to the truth—and deeper into the erotic throes of her own unbridled sensuality—she’s following a trail that leads to the highest reaches of international government. Unable to trust anyone, caught in a tangled web of obsession and eroticism, suddenly she’s both hunter and prey in a deadly conspiracy that’s taking sex and power to a whole new level.…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: