Suite Seventeen
by Portia Da Costa

Book Review by Ashley Lister

It goes without saying that hotels are probably the sexiest places on earth. Brothels, bordellos and boudoirs have nothing to compare with your average hotel when you’re looking for a haven of realised raunchiness or full-on fantasy fulfilment.

I’m speaking from experience here. I’ve worked in hotels.

One of the advantages of being a writer is that you get to do lots of other jobs so you can earn money. In my time I’ve worked as a bingo caller, an undertaker and a civil servant. I even worked for while in a nasty little construction company’s office listening to the sad whining of a woman with terminal halitosis and the ramblings of the pathetic MD who spent a suspiciously long time in the office lavatory. Not that I harbour any resentment or bitterness against those bastards.

But, as I was saying, I’ve also worked in hotels.

Why are hotels sexy? It could be for lots of reasons. Occupying a strange bed is often associated with erotic experiences. And finding a chocolate on your pillow is a lovely way to retire for the night. (Of course, finding the chocolate when you wake up, and thinking your face looks like some sort of "dirty protest," is a different matter. But it’s still not wholly unerotic).

The fact that you’ve usually got a stern-faced woman behind the reception counter, pretending to be pleasant and constantly looking like she wants to spank, bite or punish, certainly scores lots of plus points on my personal scale. Uniformed maids. CCTV cameras. Masseurs. Room service. Mini-bars, with all those wonderful little miniature bottles that let you pretend to be a drunken giant.

The list could go on for days.

We shouldn’t ask why hotels are sexy. We should just accept it as a fact: hotels are sexy.

And, having read Suite Seventeen, it’s apparent that Portia Da Costa shares my opinion.

Suite Seventeen begins with Annie Conroy alighting from a taxi outside the luxurious Waverley Grange Hotel. Annie is a widow: mature, attractive and financially comfortable. In the prologue of this book, she enters suite seventeen.

The prologue is reminiscent of Pauline Réage’s Story of O. A lone woman alighting from a taxi ride. An impressive and imposing building. A heavy suggestion of kink and carnality imbued into the narrative. But, where Pauline Réage’s text distances the reader from her protagonist, Portia Da Costa immediately brings the reader into the thoughts of her Annie Conroy and effortlessly introduces us to another exciting and compelling creation.

Of course it should come as no surprise that Annie Conroy is three-dimensional, fun and interesting. Annie inhabits the same diegesis where we met Maria Lewis and Robert Stone of Entertaining Mr Stone. Maria and Robert are part of the strong supporting cast of characters in Suite Seventeen although their presence here does not mean a reading of Entertaining Mr Stone is mandatory. Suite Seventeen isn’t a sequel. It’s a pleasant visit to another locale of the storyworld Portia first showed us in Entertaining Mr Stone.

And this really is a pleasant visit. Annie Conroy is on a journey of discovery. We accompany her as she encounters spanked maids, commanding transvestites, bisexual experiences, and all the shameless shenanigans one would expect in a Portia Da Costa story. Suite Seventeen contains all Portia’s trademark treats from the arousing narrative, a wicked blend of deviant episodes, and an undercurrent of pragmatic and poignant romance.

Putting the hot in hotels, and making the suite even sweeter, Portia Da Costa has scored another resounding success with this excellent title. Those familiar with her work will be delighted. Those who aren’t should get acquainted.

Ashley Lister
August 2007

Suite Seventeen by Portia Da Costa
(Virgin Black Lace; August 7, 2007; ISBN-10: 0352341092)
Available at Amazon.com / Amazon UK

______
© 2007 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.

About the Author:  Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms. His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene (Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica.  Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto.  He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Websites: www.ashleylister.co.uk  /  http://ashleylister.blogspot.com/

  E-mail this page

Copyright © 1996 and on, Erotica Readers Association, Inc.
All Rights Reserved World Wide. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or
medium without express written permission is prohibited.