So Hermes Online has been out since mid-March of this year. It’s been so long since it had a review, I figured that moment had passed. Recall a much earlier post where I mentioned some review sites have hundreds of books waiting for review each month. Picture this as you’d see it in the old days when books only came to reviewers as paper manuscripts. That’s some stack sitting on the desk! To my surprise and delight this morning, I found that Hermes Online, oldie that it is at 5 1/2 months, has a brand new review. This came from Sheila over at TwoLips Reviews:
I am a reviewer for Two Lips Reviews. I recently uploaded a review of Hermes Online. You can read it at http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content, under the Contemporary category. I also chose it as a Recommended Read. I really enjoyed Hermes Online. It’s very erotic. Fantastic! Thank you for the opportunity to review it.
Sheila
I went there and had a devil of a time finding it. I thought it was this new version of Mozilla Firefox messing with my searches again, so I tried going through Google Chrome. (Internet Explorer, with its assorted vulnerabilities for spies and viruses, is something I avoid.) Nope, I just couldn’t find it in the lists. I’ve determined it was a lack of caffeine. Tanked up, I typed in the title and after the second try, I found this ~
I’ve seen these little badges of honor on other authors’ websites and now my website will wear one too. :)
Here’s the rest:
Vivienne, after a break-up, goes to an erotica website suggested by a friend. As she reads the offerings, she realizes she could do better in Hermes Online by Rose Anderson. After posting a story, she is surprised that she receives comments on it. One comment is from a man known only as S. Leaving the story forum to begin an on-line erotic adventure, each pushes the other further than they ever had gone before. How far can they push each other without scaring the other off? How long will this adventure remain on-line? Can it come out into the real world or will it die if exposed to reality?
I loved Hermes Online. The first person point-of-view is perfect for this tale. I felt/believed/wanted to be Vivienne. As the e-mails go back and forth, they were very erotic and arousing. Each message provoked images in my mind and made me go back for more. I could not wait for the responses by both Vivienne and S.
Vivienne had low self-esteem from her break-up with Dan (I spit at his name). She also was in a self-imposed period of celibacy. Thinking of happier times, she remembers studying in Greece and her affair while she was there. When S starts e-mailing her, questioning her, and pushing her to the edge of her sexuality, Vivienne begins to remember how she felt in Greece and starts to put Dan behind her. She feels sexy and confident with S. S is hesitant to push her too far, too fast, but he is as aroused as she from their messages and wants more.
As their e-mails get hotter, one stood out for me. As she describes herself to S, the description is beautiful, erotic, and arousing. I liked that nothing was off limits to them. It took courage for Vivienne to do what S asks, but when she does, she is rewarded with an increased confidence in her sexuality and her ability to make a man desire her. S is wonderful. I only want to know where I can get my own S!
Ms. Anderson has created fantastic characters. She shows the build-up of the relationship of Vivienne and S. The sexual tension grows with each e-mail and new level of sexuality achieved. I look forward to reading more by her.
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:) That’s a very nice review. I love the 5 pink lips and those two little peppers that say my book is a warm enjoyable read. And I especially I love the “(I spit at his name)” part!
I’ve been told my bad guys are really bad, and I must give a nod here to my all-time favorite author, Diana Gabaldon. Before I read her Outlander book, bad guys in literature were just creeps to me. They were Robert Louis Stevenson’s Long John Silver or Jame’s Agee’s serial killer/Preacher in the extremely creepy Night of the Hunter (played by Robert Mitchum in the nightmare-inducing movie). Diana Gabaldon wrote of Black Jack Randall and each scene with the man was both repellant and fascinating. No matter what that character inflicted on the other characters, I couldn’t look away. But I saw the point. The truly good characters need the truly bad characters. In other words, there is no light if the dark doesn’t exist to make a distinction. Thanks Diana. Your example has done me well. I understand.
While we never see Dan in Hermes Online, you know how he came to hurt Vivienne by her recollections. As far as bad guys go — he’s not evil as James Agee’s preacher, or unbalanced as Black Jack Randall, or good/bad nebulous as Long John Silver. He’s just a selfish jerk. I suppose anyone who’s had their heart stomped on by a Dan-type, or know a Dan-type who’s stomped on someone they care about, would want to spit. I think this is why first person point of view has such power when we read it. The reader could see how Vivienne was hurt. They could see, through the character’s own thoughts, how deeply that wound went and they could empathize (and want to spit). First person POV allows the reader to fill the character’s shoes for a time. True, it’s a different form of escapism. I like first person point of view because I’m already in my character’s heads.
On my end of things, I can only say writers love eliciting readers’ emotional response. It means the story was believable and that’s what you want your fiction to be. I think my next post will be on the suspension of disbelief.
