Tabs’ review of The Red by Tiffany Reisz
Contemporary Erotica published by Eighth Circle Press 11 Jul 17
I have read a few of Tiffany Reisz’ erotic novellas, but she writes what I would consider heavy BSDM and I have never been able to get into her longer works. This new stand-alone novella is more erotica than erotic romance and it’s also straight up bananas. I won’t lie, I picked it up for review after seeing multiple readers commenting on Twitter that the sex scenes were off the charts crazy. It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I cannot resist. I have to know what I am missing.
The premise is that a young woman in need of half a million dollars to save her late mother’s failing art gallery is propositioned by a very sexy and enigmatic man. They’ll meet in the back of her art gallery every one to two months for a year for intense sex and nothing is off the table. Enigmatic stranger Malcolm doesn’t hide that he has a secret agenda and he doesn’t shy away from warning Mona that things are going to get crazy and she’s not going to like it. Mona does need the money, but it’s clear from the get-go that she’s actually more interested in the sex than the payout. It’s not the most unusual starting premise, but things quickly start to veer from the usual tropes.
The sex scenes are incredibly elaborate. They’re based on role play of erotic paintings that Malcolm leaves out for Mona before an assignation. They get more elaborate and more kinky as they go on. They quickly got more extreme than I was personally comfortable with, but I couldn’t stop reading at that point. I had to know what the fuck was going on.
I usually hate “twist” books as I almost always end up feeling like the twists were convoluted and the payoffs not sufficient enough. That didn’t happen here for me. There are hints at what is really going on laid piecemeal throughout the story and the big reveal felt like an “aha” moment for me. This is a superbly strange, deeply erotic, and unsettling book and it had me riveted. I don’t think Reisz is an author that I can regularly read, but this book definitely ensnared me.
Grade: B+
Summary:
Mona Lisa St. James made a deathbed promise that she would do anything to save her mother’s art gallery. Unfortunately, not only is The Red painted red, but it’s in the red.
Just as she realizes she has no choice but to sell it, a mysterious man comes in after closing time and makes her an offer: He will save The Red if she agrees to submit to him for the period of one year.
The man is handsome, English, and terribly tempting…but surely her mother didn’t mean for Mona to sell herself to a stranger. Then again, she did promise to do anything to save The Red…
The Red is a standalone novel of erotic fantasy from Tiffany Reisz, international bestselling author of The Bourbon Thief and the Original Sinners series.
