The Night Off by Meghan O'Brien

The Night Off
by Meghan O'Brien
Pages: 264
Date: July 1 2012
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 5.5
Read: September 15 to 21 2016

This is the fourth book that I’ve completed written by Meghan O’Brien. Only took me roughly 3 years to read those four books (December 2013 to September 2016). And this is the first I’ve read in nearly 2 years. Must hate or only mildly like these books, eh? Or, possibly, these are the only 4 books by O’Brien?

Well no. There are apparently ’17 distinct works’ by this author. And I’ve given all 4 books I’ve read by O’Brien 5 stars (including this one here). Actually I gave this one a rating of 5.5; not sure it is actually worth the extra .5, but I do know I enjoyed it more than a similar book I’d read, (similar in terms of dommes and submissives – though . . hmm, I think I need to use a different word for Emily), and I do think Girl Trouble is worth 5.25 stars, so this book here, by default, lands at 5.5.

This book is both abnormal and normal. Abnormal in that it is about 264 pages (okay, maybe 259?) of erotic play (which includes more than just sex). Normal in that there are certain lesbian fiction pet topics that pop up in this book.

Emily Parker has, more or less since the birth of her sister, though officially only since she was 18 and her sister was 11, has raised her sister as a ‘sister-mother’ (that’s one of those pet topics that pop up; almost always a sister instead of a brother (not sure I’ve actually ever seen a ‘sister-brother’ except in one vague recollection of that occurring in a book when the siblings were all adults so the brother wasn’t around; and for every main character with a daughter (and/or son) I see, I see about 5 times more single parents who are acting in the capacity of a parent, while raising a sibling – a lot of death in lesbian fiction; heck, the last book I read had someone casually toss out that their entire family burned to death when she was 10, and she was kind of confused for a moment when the other person acted surprised/startled by this information – lots of death).

Distracted myself.

Okay then. Emily Parker has raised her sister, since her parents died on them, for roughly 7 years (officially). She’s ‘sacrificed’ herself for her sister’s well-being. Everything is for her sister. Which includes sacrificing college (well going away to college, she did get a night-school degree) and the partying/fun inherent in her fantasies of such a thing. And relationships, friends and lovers.

None of this is exactly known, for the most part, until deepish into the book. For the simple reason that Emily has decided to take a smallish break from ‘all that’ and give herself a bit of fun for the first time in her life.

The book opens with Emily being abducted by an attractive butch type character with either a shaved head or very short crew-cut length hair (vaguely confused which it was). That would be Nat Swayne. And no, this isn’t some kind of Dark Erotica type situation – the abduction was planned for by Emily herself after she went to an escort service. And asked for something like this.

Let me see, looking at my status updates. The ‘abduction sex scene’ plus ‘extended fun’ lasted for something like half the book (I have down at 43% ‘the long scene continues’ and at 56% ‘well, we finally moved past the really long extended several day sex scene. Course now I’m in the middle of another one that is occurring three days later.’) I was serious when I mentioned that there’s something like 259 pages of erotica in this 264 page book.

Right, so. I rather liked both of the main characters, and the few secondary characters were interesting as well. I enjoyed the sexual dynamic on display here – both how important and stressed that ‘unicorn’ was (safeword; oh and that it was both used and its use was respected), and into it everyone seemed to be.

There were certain ‘traps’ laid out, but only one sprung (Emily and Nat ‘have fun’; loud BDSM fun, in Emily’s bedroom. With the door open (or unlocked, unsure if open or not). While sister is ‘away’. The obvious thing occurred. The thing that was kind of blinking loudly at me while the events unfolded; and only one occasion when I skimmed more than read (Nat is a high priced escort. Emily actually kind of gets off on the idea that Nat is off ‘on appointments’. And lets Nat know this. So there’s one graphic scene involving Nat and another woman that I kind of skimmed. Because I didn’t really want to read Nat with someone else. Course, I learned, Nat didn’t really want to be with that other woman either. And the scene was actually important to the progression of the story, since it laid the foundation for career expansion (well, career change). ).

Right, so I guess I’m ready to close off. Enjoyed the story. It was filled with erotic moments. Involving a bit of BDSM like activity (spanking, power exchange, orgasm control, public bits of eroticism) between two consenting adults in their twenties.

.

Tags/shelves: ‘financial services’ – Emily is an accountant, technically that doesn’t really work, but I didn’t want to create a new shelf; ‘there is a kid’, kid, though, is 18.

Reading – those who’ve seen my reading in the past, the speed of my reading, might be confused by that ‘September 15-21’ read dates. Is full length erotica book. Takes longer to read.

September 21 2016