“Lovers and Beloveds” Erotic Ebook Review

Book cover image from meilinmiranda.com

“Lovers and Beloveds” is an erotic novel written by MeiLin Miranda. The subtitle is “An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom”. It’s available in so many formats that you really have no excuse not to read it: paperback, PDF, kindle book, epub, and so many others. I read the Kindle edition on both an Android and laptop with no formatting issues at all – it read really smoothly and was a pleasure to read. This book is a novel – there aren’t smaller erotic stories just put into one collection. It’s a full-length novel. As such, this book is pretty darned long, and it took me seven hours to read. Oh, but what an enjoyable seven hours it was.

Those boring details having been said, GO BUY THIS. Seriously. This is easily my most favorite erotic novel out there. I always have a hard time finding erotic novels that are sexy but aren’t crass. I want my novel to have a great balance of plot with some good sex sprinkled in. I’ve only had success a couple times – but this, this is amazing. The entire novel is set in a land where sex is an important part of culture – and my, will this book completely drag you in. I’ve been stuck in this book ever since I picked it up. Homework? Nah, rather read. Sleep? Reading sounds better. Seriously, this book is addicting.

The storyline, while described little dry on the Amazon page, isn’t dry at all. I honestly thought about not accepting this review assignment, but I’m glad I did now. Shows that you can find some of the best things when you aren’t expecting them.

Basically, this book takes place in the time of Kingdoms. The main character is an Heir to the throne who just turned 18 and starts on his training to become a King. Since he’s been sheltered to avoid being assassinated, he’s still a virgin as well. The land has multiple religions and one includes the religion of sex. (Basically. It has an official name, though.) In this religion, there are two (male/female) “Embodiments of God” who are some of the most beautiful people in the land. (The two black-haired people on the cover.) These two are extremely important to the religion, and as such, they bed important figures in the land.

The Prince discovers these two beauties at a ball. Since he is a virgin, he is not allowed to have sex with either of them until pledging into the religion. For this reason, he wants to pledge. Unfortunately for the Heir, his father believes that religion will only harm his knowledge of ruling the kingdom, so he “forbids” it and does everything in his power to stop him from successfully ruling.

That doesn’t sound like a seven hour book, but I promise, there are so many substorylines that I didn’t touch on. There’s a Teacher who is teaching the Heir with a magical book. This magical book allows him to see into the past of his ancestors and learn the “unwritten” history. (Of course, this includes the sex of his ancestors and lots of erections for the poor Heir.) He makes friends with some of the servants. He throws tantrums. He makes visits to the Embodiments of God to play (everything but intercourse is allowed.) There are so many tangents off of this book that I can’t even begin to accurately describe them all.

What I love so much about this book is the realism in a fantasy land. The main character isn’t perfect. In fact, in the beginning, he’s downright annoying with his entitlement problem. But he matures as the book goes on. The bulter? He has secrets. What about the lonely servant whose one discussion happened to get enough rumors going that her boyfriend became suspicious? What abut the king and queen’s marriage? Is it a sham? The entire plot is amazing on its own, but with the realism of the characters, it’s just downright addicting.

Another plus-size was the sex. Instead of just the male/female sex that a lot of books tend to put forth, this book was high on the general open sexuality factor. A lot of the sexual encounters were threesomes. Some of the encounters were male/male, some female/female. While there wasn’t any sort of kinky sex included, the sex itself makes up for it. It’s described with enough detail to understand what’s going on without being vague or crass. It’s just described sexily. In fact, even when there isn’t sex scenes going on, we hear about the poor Heir’s frustration over the highly-sexualized atmosphere around him. Since all of the characters are a part of this society that values sexuality, almost everyone is bisexual to a degree – including the main character.

I will say that there’s a slight mention of incest (it’s not described, but it is part of the storyline) as well as an offshoot of forced sex as well. The forced sex part is really iffy – it has something to do with a magic spell (I won’t spoil it.) but because of that, it isn’t “written” as forced, but by the terminology I know, it’d be considered rape.

Some of the culture of this story is amazing. For example, there’s the magic I was talking about. The Teacher also has magic as well that interacts with the Heir. One of the main festivals is a celebration of the Embodiments of God which includes a chase then public sex which is considered a “blessing” to all that watch and “spread the joy”. The temple itself houses rooms where people are “blessed” through sex. It’s just a highly sexual culture, and it’s really subtle, but it’s there.

I will mention that this is the first book in a series. I’m dying for the second book. Sincerely. DYING. I want it so bad. (MeiLin says it’s tentatively due out around October 2011.) The story of the first book was wrapped up in a good place, but it still left the plot open for the second book which I’m so excited for. Something else that’s neat to know? The paperback was actually a group-funded project. The author wanted to get the book in print, and random strangers on the internet loved the book so much that they donated their own money to get the book into print. If you can get people to do that, the book HAS to be great.

So what do you have to lose? Nothing. Download the sample of “Lovers and Beloveds“. Really. I think it’s the first chapter and then some. It’ll take you awhile to read on its own. You have absolutely nothing to lose but possibly a new love to gain. If the first chapter doesn’t hook you, then you know you are probably not interested, but honestly, I wanted the full book while only half-way through the first chapter. Thanks so much to MeiLin Miranda for sending me the book to review, and you can get your own copy off of Amazon or Smashwords. (Smashwords offers every e-book format imaginable while Amazon sells the Kindle and paperback format.) Otherwise, if you are the patient type, MeiLin posts a section of a chapter every week for your reading pleasure on her website. (I’m so not that patient.) For less than a cup of coffee for over seven hours of captivation? Totally worth it (and more). Even after being offered the ebook for review for free and reading it through, I still went and purchased the print edition – I know I’m going to want to reread it or share it with friends.