Review of A Bit of Rough by Lucy Felthouse

I bought this from Kindle UK, but you can get it from a whole bunch of other places, and you can find more information about Lucy Felthouse at her website.

I don't really want to start on a bum note, but since it's at the beginning I guess I have to: I don't like this title. I put off buying and reading this story because I think that the title “A Bit of Rough” sounds... well, naff, honestly. I'm aware what it means, and that it can be aptly applied to the situation at hand, but it somehow comes off as cheesy and forced, in my opinion. Which is a shame really, because once I got past that it's really a great piece of writing.

Premise: girl meets guy, they have really great sex.

There is a certain level of skill required to make a vanilla sex story – particularly one in a setting as innocuous as a bedroom – really memorable, and I've read a good number that fail. I think A Bit of Rough is helped by the fact there is no pretence about what Alison and Andrew intend to get up to. The motives are clear – you know there is going to be wild, passionate sex, and then there is. Perfect. It's skilfully written and brilliantly erotic, and I was right along with Alison and Andrew during their encounter.

Coming back to my point about cheesy though, I feel the story comes off as cliché. I don't wish to spoil too much so I won't list stuff, but it's all very... expected. I think this is a personal gripe rather than a dig at the quality of the story – I appreciate it can be quite difficult to get a feel for characters in a short story but Andrew especially could have been plucked from any number of generic erotic stories. Together with the combination of common fantasies explored, I felt A Bit of Rough lacked ideas of its own to make it really stand out – which it should, because it's really very well written.

However – whilst not mind-blowing in it's originality, A Bit of Rough is a sexy tale which got me hot under the collar and gripped me right to the end. If you're look for something fast, fun, and to the point, it certainly ticks all the right boxes.

My verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Go read!

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