There's a whole essay I'm itching to write about this book, but in the meantime here's a short review: this book is great and memorable and should have gotten a lot more press than it has. It's a romance with a porn star heroine and an albino multiracial rock god hero that is nevertheless one of the most grounded and relatable erotic romances I've read in years.

These characters are SO MUCH THEMSELVES; their reactions are real and the stakes are high and you are with them for every step of this emotional journey.

And the SEX. It's kinky and filthy and perfect for this couple.

Five full stars.

This book had me flushed and gasping. This book made me dizzy with gorgeous prose. This book, at one point, had me sobbing in recognition and sympathy -- knees tucked against chest, book on knees, hand over mouth, tears pouring down my face. It's a weird book that knows it's weird -- it's a literate, self-conscious story with only two characters, whose backstories are only hazily sketched in, but whose present life is more than vivid enough to carry me through the whole thing in a single sitting.

Five fucking stars, no question.

This book inspires me with a near-fanatical devotion. The prose is lovely, the characters rich and compelling -- and not just the protagonists, but the secondary characters as well. There's an air of fear and secrets and desperation to survive that is almost Gothic in intensity, even as our hero and heroine are making the smartest, realest choices they can at every moment. People screw up, and people are redeemed. Or not redeemed. Or they redeem themselves. Weeks later I still cannot stop thinking about it. And wanting to reread it. And wishing for the second book.

This book made me feel like the greediest reader ever.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author, because I am a lucky so-and-so.