I don’t think I’ve ever truly blushed because of a book. But in the name of trying new things in 2024, I found a book that floored me with how smutty it was. And the best part is that the smut was artistic. As in we should study this smut in literature classes. Elodie Hart is my new erotica/romance novel idol– she hit it out of the park with this read.

I mean, The things I read on my Kindle for this post… oh. My. God. My lady parts were doing a little song and dance. If you gain one thing from this article, it’s download Unfurl if you crave happiness or want to watch a badass woman grow from her Catholic guilt. Or if you like reading about sex. That’s a good reason to read Unfurl, too. 

Before we get into the steamy plot, we have another book cover that we need to discuss. And yes, before you ask, this man was staring at me from my Kindle screen and no, that didn’t stop me.

Here Rafe is, in all of his… diva glory? In my mind, Rafe, the main male protagonist was a little more… straight? And as a lesbian, my gaydar is pretty on point. All I’m saying is we had Magnus Falke in Lessons in Sin (see article 9, My Mom Found My Blog…) and now we have Rafe from Unfurl. Maybe it’s a good omen when a well-groomed, possibly gay man is on the cover of my romance novels. 

Now, let’s get back to the plot.

Belle (Belina, for her roleplay scenes. Yes. Roleplay.) is a virgin, but not by choice. Rather, because her Catholic guilt has ruled both her teenage and adult years. While she wants to explore herself sexually, her domineering father has controlled her outlook on dating, intimacy, and love. And it’s not for lack of trying– she got close to having sex with her college boyfriend, Henry, but she didn’t feel connected with him. 

Belle’s ultimate foil is her sexually liberated best friend Maddy. Maddy finds pleasure in her body and unapologetically enjoys consensual intimacy with other people. And Belle is floored by this.

As Belle says herself:

“The most unbelievable thing, to be honest, was that, for Maddy, having sex was normal. Not forbidden. Not sinful. Not a sign of wicked weakness. No. It was an expression of a perfectly natural physical urge between two consenting adults.”

I really related to Belle. A little personal storytime (so you can get to know your favorite blogger), I grew up going to church every Sunday. My family used to be very religious before the pandemic. I was an avid follower of Christianity and attended Bible study every week. I truly believed in what my pastors taught me: that my virginity was a chocolate bar and every time I had sex, someone would take a bite out of it. And who wanted to eat an already-bitten chocolate bar? Plus, I was terrified of going to Hell. I carried this fearful thinking into my deconstruction of religion, even internally slut-shaming myself when I found myself attracted to another girl.

Belle takes a little more of a… drastic approach to ridding her mind of religious guilt. When she finds out that her sexy upstairs neighbor, Rafe, runs a luxury sex club and they have a program for virgins, she signs up. And what do you know, she ends up kissing her sexy upstairs neighbor in her first session. This leads to her second session where she practically begs Rafe to take the reins… and their relationship develops from there.

This book is less of a romance novel and more of an erotica novel, which I didn’t know until I saw the GoodReads tags under my review. It makes sense, though, because this book was hot. I mean, smoking, firey, sweaty, sunburnt skin hot. It will light you on fire and you won’t want to put it out.

However, for all my romantics out there (I’m looking at my roommate, Leah), Rafe and Belle do have a sweet, if very unconventional, love story that wraps up this novel. While the main plot is focused on Belle’s sexual journey and healing, there is enough plausible romance to fit this very erotic read into our romance blog.

On the “Enemies to Readers” Sex-O-Meter, this gets a five out of five. Our first five-star rating! And if that doesn’t tell you what the next year of this blog is going to bring, I don’t know what will.

Until next read,

Charlotte

Photograph: Pinterest