Millie Camille’s Sweet is a novella that breaks many of the traditional rules of erotica and rises with the cream creating a delightful feast.
Too many—far too many—pieces of
erotica are little more than sketches of scenes that might take place in a
cheapie porn clip, brushing aside all of the critical components of good
writing like characters, motivation, and actual use of language. Sweet, luckily,
has all of these. Her characters are fleshed out and don’t come to the action
with fetishes in place and firmly fixed, they actually grow, develop, and
change. Each character—especially Derrick the hero who is acting out of
altruism and an indulgence in a fetish he didn’t fully realize he had—has
reasons behind why they move through the story. And it is a pleasure to read an
erotic novella where the author has some skill with language and isn’t just
looking to get her characters off in the kinkiest way possible. Camille isn’t
solely focused on throbbing organs and explosive orgasms; there are hurt
feelings and wonderful revelations. There are no long descriptions of a
character’s beauty or enormous sex organs; no one is constantly described as
‘hot’ or ‘slutty’—thank you for that. The purpose of erotica isn’t to
titillate, it’s to explore characters erotic imaginations and longings; Camille
does this effectively.
There are several downsides to Sweet,
however. The action takes a while to get going. The opening is a bit dull and
all set-up and exposition. It’s almost twenty pages in (of the 140 page
novella) before there is anything explicit or erotic. Camille does use the
romance writer’s cliché of a cleansing bath to wash the troubles of the world
away once the action starts up—though the character doing so is young and
perhaps could be forgiven in following this trap of trite female behavior.
But once the characters decide what
they want from each other, they take and give it in abundance. There is real
conflict here. Without giving away too much of the plot, the character’s
situations are enough to keep them apart, but if there were no obstacle to
happiness, what would be the point of the story.
Sex is presented realistically and
positively in every manner. There is no slut-shaming and nothing so fantastic
that it pulls the reader out of the action. This is lactation erotica so there
is milk in copious amounts, but never to the point where breasts have been
turned into firehoses or characters are drowning because of their
predilections.
Highly recommended for any fan of
erotica and especially for those of the lactation sub-genre.
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