A Year of Sex: Tales from New York City's Erotic Underground

by Mia Martina

A Year of Sex is the debut memoir from writer Mia Martina. After years of recording her sexcapades for her popular podcast "I Want Your Sex," Mia is excited to release her first book chronicling a year of her erotic adventures.

Mia Martina wasn't going to sit around waiting for love to find her when her relationship ended. Instead, she went after it - in New York City's erotic underground. Mia dove headfirst into the sex-party scene, swinging, spanking, and screwing her way out of heartbreak.

Follow her on an arousing and amusing journey as she tours the sex dens, women-only parties, and S & M dungeons that make up the city's sexual landscape. By spending a year as a self-identified slut, she learns more about herself - and love - than she could have imagined.

Her wild tale is utterly relatable to even the sexually uninitiated. While at times sultry and steamy, her adventures will have you thinking twice about what role love, sex, commitment, monogamy, kink, and sexual fulfillment play in our modern lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Erotica

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2011

Reviews

[Greta Spaghetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A get-over-a-man memoir that involves a year of kinky sex parties? Yes, please! I’ll take it any day over a bestseller about a lonely girl traveling the world to find herself and appropriate as many cultures as possible (barf). I read and write a lot of erotic fiction and A Year of Sex reminded me why I love memoirs. I appreciated the author’s boldness, courage, and the dignity with which she describes her partners. Most of all, I appreciated her honesty. This book comes with a healthy dose of realism - sometimes sex parties are gross and hilarious and depressing. But they’re also hot sometimes, and oh, was there plenty of hotness…

I’ve wanted to venture into the sex party scene as a single gal, and Mia has me feeling like I could actually do it. This book is not only interesting, but it’s practical for anyone curious about trying out sex parties. I give Mia mad props for the playlist and “tips for sex partying with success” included at the end.

I thought about giving it 4 stars because the ending seemed a little rushed with the changes to her relationships. I wanted to tell her to back up and tell me more. And I wanted more description of Mia herself. I didn’t know about her blog before I read A Year of Sex so I kept wondering what she looked like. I wanted to know more about what she was wearing and how it looked on her. It is a book, after all, and we only have the words and our imaginations.

In the end, I gave it 5 stars for reasons that surprised me – I was touched by her descriptions of how non-monogamy functioned (or didn’t function) in her real life. I don’t think that there are enough people writing about that and it’s precious information for those of us who negotiate relationships outside of the status-quo. Several of the stories stayed with me and I find myself thinking about them again and again. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in reading real stories, living the sex life they’ve imagined, making non-monogamy work, or just reading something steamy.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of Mia Martina since I first found her on the internet. I started following her podcast series and fell in love with her voice, her stories, her honesty about the ins and outs (no pun intended) of the sex party world. She has this amazing ability to paint a realistic but also tempting picture that places you right alongside her as she figures out the nooks and crannies, the highs and lows, the challenges and rewards of living life on, if not the edge, then certainly farther out than many of us get.
It was with delight that I found out she was committing the stories to paper. Her work in print is even more delightful. She's a talent and observant writer, her voice shines through clearly, translating perfectly from podcast to page.
For anyone curious about the world of sex, sexuality, sex ed, gender and how folks move from fantasy to reality, this a great book.
Read it, learn, and start enjoying what's out there!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun for curiosity's sake, but the narrative gets monotonous quickly.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun read for curiousity's sake ...