Howdy! Good to see you back at the Vault! One of the unique things I’ve picked up on over the past 18 months has been the varied levels of passion in this sexy genre. Make no mistake, every author I’ve met is passionate about their work, but the way they can show it can be a real trip. Today’s author is one of the more passionate and detailed (about the business of writing) that I’ve come across, and I’m thinking you’ll see what I mean when we get to the review. It’s time for some applied lesson tutoring, but maybe not in the way you might think…
Cunning Tutor by Catherine Rahab with Jane Caleb-Wood is an introductory erotica short that was described to me as a “bit of a prequel.” Jill is a young woman working at an ice cream shop, but her good friend Megan can’t come to understand why. Clearly Jill is doing pretty well for herself financially, and just as she and Megan are going to have a nice chat, a curiously serious woman approaches Jill crying…with tears of joy. She feels indebted to Jill for helping to “teach” her husband something. What the hell is going on? Jill is about to take us on a trip down memory lane, and I don’t think we’re going to learn anything about the finer points of ice cream craftsmanship…
The bulk of the story is told in a flashback of Jill’s time as a naive ice cream shop newbie, palling around with her coworker at the time, Trish. The young Trish is one of those…forward thinking people. She’s a great reader of human movement, a skill well met by someone who people-watches for most of their work day. Trish eyeballs a couple she identifies as on the skids sexually, and prepares the first of many “science experiments.” Remember that word, science, we’re going to hear a lot of it. Anyway Trish was dead on about the couple being on the rocks, as the boy from the pair had later informed Trish and Jill of his lost relationship. Trish is a natural problem solver though, and has a mission to turn this loser into a lover with Jill’s previously unbeknownst assistance. A trip to the back room and some applied learning techniques at Trish’s direction, it’s time for Jill to teach the young man how to eat more than just an ice cream cone.
Overall, the story reads in a humorous and enjoyable manner. There’s sexual content of course, but it’s less important than setting up the scenery and plot. The comic relief, however, comes from the same place we conceive the sexual energy. Trish falls into that “sexually confident, so much so that she ends up practically bullying any friendly character the slightest bit more vanilla than she” trope that’s become fairly popular in all mediums of sex-positive content. Her constant evoking of the claim “it’s for SCIENCE” is her near carte blanche to whatever sexual barriers that need breaking, and that sure as shit didn’t work at all in my robotics club after-parties…but that’s a thought for another time. While not the most probable, the actual sexual experience is earnest and even a little heart warming. As the story wraps up however, the ideas get a bit fanciful, making promises to a wild series as the sequels roll in. Though the moment seems soon to pass, we can’t be too mad at realism and fantastic whimsy striving to work together in an erotica series, it’s always worth a shot.
Verdict: Cunning Tutor by Catherine Rahab is an ambitious way to start a series that has the word “billionaire” in its subtitle. Truly, the backstory of Jill is one full of bootstraps and the aforementioned cunning. For this first step, we’re shown the humble beginnings of her sexual tutelage, in an earnest and somewhat heart warming context. The sexual content is tasteful in an oddly unexpected way, which was a welcome change of pace. While the one-time-use-disposable-sex-fiend of a secondary character raises an eyebrow of true, the overall execution of the eroticism should be praised for its creativity. I’m not sure if I’m ready to learn everything about this story’s universe, but when I’m ready I know I’ll have the best tutor that money can buy.
Special thanks to Catherine Rahab for providing a review copy of Cunning Tutor to TehBen.com. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Author’s Twitter: @CaptainRahab
Purchase Link: Amazon
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