The Blonde Samurai [Paperback]

Set in the late 1800's, The Blonde Samurai traces the story of Lady Katie Carlton from the beginnings of her marriage in London to the end of it in Japan.

In what I suppose would be called historical erotica, the book begins with the marriage of Katie O'Roarke to the dark Lord James Carlton. Left to her own devices in the weeks leading up to the wedding at the home of one of Carlton's friends, Katie is enchanted by the treasure trove of erotica she discovers in the absent man's library. Unfortunately, Katie finds out her husband is a debauched BDSM addict and blackmails him into leaving her alone - and a virgin. Various social connections end up leading to a position opening up for Katie as a sort of liason in Japan, just as Katie's father is looking to expand his railway interests, with James as his envoy (and Katie keeping an eye on James).

Katie grows increasingly fearful of a violent James, even as she grows increasingly lonely. She has friendships with various Americans as well as the Japanese workers she's assigned; she has a particularly nice relationship with the Empress. During her initial visit to the Imperial Palace, she runs into (literally) a samurai who intrigues her, whom she later tracks down in what translates to the Japanese sex district, where she loses her virginity to him.

What follows seems more a tale of obsession rather than the warrior-like all-consuming love the author would have you think. Told in the first-person narrative, while there are trips in and out of Katie and James' story, this is mainly a book about Katie's sexuality and her experiences with Shintaro, the head of a Samurai clan. From the beginning, she is the one obsessed with him; she searches for him after their initial encounter and only ends up finding him after her husband practically kills her. Even then, Shintaro tries to send her back and ends up keeping her in the Samurai village because - well, I don't know. What follows is just.. a lot of sex. It's kinky, and I suppose, if you want to put it into a cultural context, it has some interesting references, although nothing that I think you have to have specific knowledge of Japanese sexual customs to write.

A couple hundred pages in, the story takes a couple of head-tilting, unexpected detours involving Shintaro's relationships with both a female Samurai and the male Samurai that initially rescued Katie, which is indicative of some odd and unwelcome tendencies the author has to yank the reader out of the story. There are some strange asides Katie keeps having with the reader that are uncomfortable, generally about masturbation, insertions of household items into places they're not supposed to go and bodily fluids. Also disturbing is that the whole time she's screaming at her husband to leave her alone, she's aroused by the thought of him whipping her; this continues off an on not just at the beginning of the book, but at various points throughout, even after he actually hurts her.

The story culminates with dramatic battles, personal and literal, as simmering tensions between opposing political factions boil over and the estrangement between Katie and her husband finally needs to be addressed. Despite the ridiculously overwrought sexual passages that came before it, the author manages to crank it up a notch and toss in a few cliches for an eye-rollingly improbable end.

The beginning was too convoluted, the middle was not at all sexy or intriguing and the ending was trite. I've read my fair share of erotica, contemporary and historical, and know that there's definitely a distinction in terms used and a general feel and tone. This just missed the mark for historical, and yes, "Victorian" erotica, not because of the way the acts were technically expressed or because I didn't like the way the narrator addressed the "dear reader," but because without the ability to write affection between the lead characters, you're left with nothing more than thinly veiled soft porn. Katie wasn't very likeable, Shintaro was cold and truthfully, sort of icky, the situation wasn't believable and the narration was poor.

The cover was gorgeous; I only wish what was inside lived up to its promise.

For anyone sensitive to it, there are MM, MMF and MFF scenes.

It's too bad this book doesn't live up to its intriguing and beautiful cover. The truth is, it's pretty bad. I love historical novels set in exotic locations and I enjoy well-written erotica. Unfortunately, this book fails at both. Other reviewers have summarized the plot (what plot there is), so I'm not going to do that. My purpose in reviewing the book is to provide a heads up to potential readers.

If you like a slow book that takes over half its pages to get to the samurai village, which is ostensibly the point, this might be the book for you.

If you like erotica-by-the-numbers, introducing every conceivable variety of kink for kink's sake, this might be the book for you.

If you like being addressed as Dear Lady Reader, taking you out of what little story there is, this might be the book for you.

If you enjoy spending money on trade paperbacks and consider a) throwing the book against the wall or b) cheerfully shredding it when you're done, this might be the book for you.

Jina Bacarr should study Emma Holly's erotica and learn a few things about how it's accomplished by a master. In the meantime, I am chagrined at being reminded once again that you can't judge a book by its cover. In the case of The Blonde Samurai, the cover is one giant tease promising a story that doesn't deliver.

The Blonde Samurai is an "erotic" novel about an irish american woman named Katie O'Rourke who is married off to a "cold and cruel" man. Katie is a virgin, of course, which sets up the reader initially to think that this novel might be full of sexual experiances in the point of view from an innocent naive young woman, a promise of sorts to have descriptions of slight pain, and wonderment and eventually non virginal ecstasy.

Katie talks to you as a reader, as if she is Ferris Bueller on her day off, but less witty and not even as interesting and original. It was annoying from the get go. Having been wed to a callous and cruel man, she hides in a armoire or closet and spies on him having scandalous sex with other women and what she witnesses shocks her, the reader on the other hand isnt so shocked, I was bored to tears. When her hubby finds her spying, he wants to take her then and there but not our Katie! she is defiant and head strong and he will not have her ever~!!!! Frankly, I dont think the dude cared, he just wanted to scare her, and then continue on with his sex fest.

Katie then gets kidnapped by a Samurai, which is complete BS. If anyone knows anything about history, Samurai were rumored to kidnap women and ravish them, but in reality they had a strict code of honor and most married women from a samurai family. They were aloud mistresses BUT these womens backrounds were checked by higher ranked samurai, and kidnapping was considered a shameful act, even a crime in that society. I understand that this is a work of fiction, but it was very hard for me to imagine a white westerner woman being a Samurais love interest, and the way it was all written was super cheesy and not the slightest bit sexy.

I wouldnt recommend this book to any woman looking for good erotica. It was just too far fetched, the writing was lazy and trite, and the characters were over the top and unbelievable.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 26 reviews  2.5 out of 5 stars