am no computer whiz, so all the processes of acquiring a review book had to be shown to me in detail. The first book on the list available for review was A Little Harmless Sex. What an intriguing title, I thought. When they asked me to choose a book for demonstration of the process, it was like having someone looking over my shoulder at a bookshelf. Sometimes, heck, many times, I want to choose a sexy book. I just don't want someone watching me choose it. I felt quite businesslike in choosing A Little Harmless Sex. After all, it was the first book on the list. Fortunately, the title did the book justice.

Max Chandler is being dumped by his fiancée and is curiously undisturbed by the fact. He reflects that their engagement was more a marriage of two companies than of two individuals, and he thinks of his best friend, Anna Dewinter, and her potential reaction to the breakup.

Anna, in the meantime, is breaking up with her current boyfriend, who, despite his statement only the week before that he did not want to get serious, is making the break difficult. Anna, after not dating at all in high school, has a history of many short relationships. She is comfortable with her sexuality, and is very attracted to her best friend Max. After they share the stories of their individual breakups, she points out to him that this is the first time in five years that both of them have been unattached at the same time. Max and Anna have been friends since childhood. While she is eager to experience him as a man, he is reluctant to experience her as a woman. She invites him to have dinner and margaritas, and he accepts, seemingly against his will. After dinner, they move on from margaritas to straight shots of tequila as they discuss Anna's string of boyfriends and the one kiss they shared. Anna manages to seduce Max, and everything in their relationship changes.

Melissa Schroeder writes in clear, spare words, and her characters are typical of erotic romance in that they are extraordinarily attractive, and in A Little Harmless Sex, extraordinarily well adjusted and successful. They are so extraordinary that they seem plastic. Schroeder skillfully draws the picture of the relationship that Max and Anna have had in the past, and the feelings that they currently have towards one another in the fast pace needed in novellas.

A Little Harmless Sex is a competently written book. It's fast, fun, and sexy, though it brings nothing new to the table. If you are a fan of light erotic romance, this is probably a good choice.

Reviewed by Catherine H.
© January 2005