Jane Eyre Laid Bare: The Classic Novel with an Erotic Twist

by Eve Sinclair

Everyone is familiar with Charlotte Brontë's passionate, but restrained novel in which the plain, yet spirited governess Jane Eyre falls for the arrogant Mr. Rochester. It's a novel that simmers with sexual tension but never quite reaches the boiling point. Which is to be expected. After all, the original was written in 1847. That was then. This is now. And in JANE EYRE LAID BARE, author Eve Sinclair writes between the lines to chart the smoldering sexual chemistry between the long-suffering governess and her brooding employer. When an eager and curious Jane Eyre arrives at Thornfield Hall her sexual desires are awakened. Who is the enigmatic Rochester and why is she attracted to him? What are the strange, yet captivating noises coming from the attic, and why does the very air she breathes feel heavy with passion? Only one thing is certain. Jane Eyre may have arrived at Thornfield an unfulfilled and tentative woman, but she will leave a very different person…"An intriguing idea for a mashup." - Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Romance, Erotica, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Historical Romance, Historical

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 26, 2012

Reviews

[Johnny Hazelnut · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is a rewrite fanfic shameless cash grab by a person called Eve Sinclair who merged Charlotte Bronte's classic with some ropy erotica in order to get a piece of the current fad for erotic romances and make Bronte more accessible to a modern audience make scads of cash from people who don't know any better.

The prospect of this was so laden with derp and rage that I felt it was only my duty to take one for the team and read it. Whenever I passed one of the ubiquitous adverts for it on the Tube or bus I fell into a screaming rage and alarmed fellow commuters by screaming "NO! NO! KILL IT WITH FIRE!" at the advert.

Executive Summary

Reader, I bumraped an all time classic.

A bit more detail, if you wouldn't mind, please?

It's Jane Eyre with sexy bits inserted hither and yon. The author basically just downloaded a Word file of it from the Gutenberg Project and started typing, probably while having one off the wrist at the same time. The result of this literary war crime is to not only be unreadable, flickering as it does between the sublime and the ridiculous, but also to completely derail the actual novel as a whole. I shall explain. Those of you who have read Jane Eyre will know her childhood is not a happy one, up at Lowood and being shamed for breaking a slate and being bullied by the other girls and so forth. Yet the author, within a few pages of beginning, inserts an interlude where Jane proceeds to recount how she and the other girls whiled away the days wanking themselves (and each other) senseless. Which completely defeats the whole thrust (drum fill) of that part of the novel. Terribad prose abounds as well. What? You want to see for yourself? Right ho then. Behold!

"I felt my sex warm in the sunlight through the window, opening like a flower, and my memory pulled me back to Emma and how I had braced against the desk, terrified and yet delighted in the shimmering dart of pleasure that she had ignited in me. How she'd spread me with her fingertips, holding back my damp, coiled pubic hair and lapped at me, and hwo the sound of my juices against her mouth had excited me beyond all measure until I had implored her and, grabbing my hips, she'd pressed her mouth against me, sucking me harder, pulling me into her."

What. Pubic hair. Did they refer to it as that in the 1840s? Probably not. Now you see how the shifts between the original and the "Improvements" are so jarring. Not only this, but it completely trashes the whole point of Jane's character. She was supposed to be all innocent and suchlike. This is the point of the novel. It's about her growth as a person and winning over Mr Rochester and his mad woman in the attic. To have Jane reminisce about her previous schoolgirl lesbionics is not only a total character defilement, but also just comes over as cheap and trashy and gratuitous and, worst of all, arse-pulled. Because this little interlude had no consequence for the entire rest of the novel. It was just thrown in for fanservice.

Then there's the bit where Mr Rochester's wife Bertha Mason is a dominatrix. No, really. This exists. And the bit where a former lover from Brazil is mentioned. Now you know how I mentioned the bit about the pubic hair? And this person from Brazil? Yep, you were right. Reader, he tries to convince her to denude her sex. Let's stop and think about that again. As far as I know, but I stand to be corrected, the idea of groinal topiary is comparatively recent and only dates back to when swimwear which left the entirety of the legs bare came in, so that one's bush wouldn't poke out the sides. So that's about the 1940s I'd guess. The idea of a Full Brazilian dates back to the development of the thong which was a lot after the 1840s because it wasn't until around the 1970s that materials technology had improved to make dental floss in your crevice anything other than deeply unpleasant. And the totally bald quim didn't really come into vogue until the late 1990s and the spread (drum fill) of easily accessible pr0n across the internets. (This is of course from a European perspective - in the Islamic world pube-shaving has been going on for longer as certain schools of thought over there require it. It's in one of the hadith collections.) More to the point, though, a full bush was, in the 19th century, considered deeply erotic. The reason Gustave Courbet's painting "L'origine du monde" was so shocking was because it showed her genitalia poking out from between big, thick thatch of fur. A totally bald genital was clinical and functional and unnatural, like a medical textbook.

You can see why I find this book so objectionable, now, surely.

Then there's the climax (drum fill) in which Jane and Edward do it on the back of a horse.

Now at this point, gentle readers, some of you may be saying that I'm only jealous because I didn't think to improve a classic novel like Jane Eyre with sexy bits and so forth. Well, you're wrong. The reason nobody has tried to do this before the abysmal hack that is responsible for this is because it's a fucking moronic idea. What's next? An erotic rewrite of "Far From the Madding Crowd" where, following the bit where Gabriel Oak punctures the bloat-suffering sheep with his special tool, he punctures Bathsheba Everdene with his blue-veined custard chucker? Or maybe "Fifty Shades of the Colour Purple"? Or perhaps there's someone out there who's written a raunchy prologue to "Midnight's Children" in which the spirit of Indian independence conceives them all in purple prose? Or a rewrite of "1984" in which Big Brother likes to watch?

(Note: do not do the above. Those are all equally stupid ideas and if you carry them out I will personally find out and attack you to death with a mechanical keyboard.)

In short, this is a fucking mess. Everyone responsible should be ashamed. It is the literary equivalent of pissing on the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial.

(originally written on Everything2.com)

[Simay Yildiz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let’s just not talk about this.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I used to think that any free book a friend gave to me was worth reading. I no longer feel this way. This book is absolute trash.

[Maritina Mela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanna be bored out of your mind?
Then this book is for you.

Here, we still follow Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte 's famous book but, as the title suggests, there's a bunch of sex scenes that will supposedly make the reader horny.

Wanna hear some things that made this book laughably bad? - besides the horrible writing of course -

Well, here's a quick list:
- Jane masturbates every night.
- She fantasizes about having a threesome with Rochester and Adele's mother's boyfriend.
- She spies on a couple of servants having sex.
- She and Rochester go all the way the moment he proposes and oh my god, how many synonyms to the phrase "I'm being fulfilled" can you squish in author?
Rochester likes using sex toys.
- Apparently, shaving one's genitals, is sexy. Plus, that's what the title refers to. Ew.
- Horse sex.
- And finally, guess what, Bertha is not the mentally ill woman Rochester has been keeping away. She is a dominatrix who has grown tired of her old lover, Grace Poole, and has made a deal with Rochester, to have him seduce Jane, and then pass her off to her. She found out about their upcoming wedding and felt cheated out of a sub, and that's why she made Mason (another sub) tell the truth.

I have to say tho, that besides adding a bunch of cringy stuff, the author did keep big parts of the original in. She at least, seemed to kind of understand that many plot points from the original, wouldn't change the story even if they were removed (for example, pages upon pages about how Rochester and his guests spend their time) and at tines, she seemed to understand the dark undertones of his character. Unfortunately tho, she isn't competed enough to make something of this. Besides the ending, where Jane does leave Thorn field, and you know what, I wasn't mad about that. But you know what, who cares. Half of the book was cringy, with badly written sex scenes and laughable dialogue and the other half consisted by parts of a book I didn't care for and didn't want to read again (sorry Jane Eyre fans.)

To its credit tho, I did manage to push through this because it wasn't as bad as an other erotica based on a Brontë book.
Last year, I tried to read Wuthering Nights and oh my god, that was pure shit, I don't get how that has a higher rating. I DNFed it at page 41.

But that still doesn't say much about this one and I still stand by my negative review.

If you made it this far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)

P.S. Because some may say that I am kinkshaming... I do not. If you are a consenting adult doing these stuff with other consenting adults, then you do you. However, that doesn't mean that I won't be calling out bad writing when I see it, and as you can tell, that was the case here.

[Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I was totally vibing on this and enjoying myself riiiiight up until the ending. The end was SUCH shit, I can't even deal. But other than that, the rest of the book was just your regular average new adult book, nothing more, nothing less. If you're just in it for the smut, carry on my wayward son. If you can't handle shitty, unsatisfying endings, DON'T read this.

[R.K. Ryde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fascinating. Even though I don't normally like historical romances, I loved the way erotica was blended into the Jane Eyre tale. And the language! I loved the use of the English language in this novel. It was a real treat and I enjoyed listening to it. The narrator did a fabulous job and really enhanced my experience. The only downer for me was the ending

[Anissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars (better than ok but i wouldn't say I much liked it either.)This is a tough book for me to review. I'm an Austen person & must admit that I've never found Bronte heros inflamed a thing in my heart close to adoration. So I went into reading this book as one who respects the classic work but does not hold it as so sacred a thing. Because of that, I can say that for what it is, it's a decent enough effort. It's a lurid, smut romp. No one reading this is going for the literary value or as a comparison piece to the original. I didn't find it sexy or erotic but as I've said, I've no deep affinity for the original characters. I've also read much better scenes in other books. I saw this Jane as a different iteration from the original work & once I took it all as far less serious, I zipped right through it. The very last for the ending was a nice twist. While I didn't see that coming, it was again a departure from the original & I didn't dislike that. I daresay that the ending makes up a bit for the rest. As the Jane in this story ends in a different place than the original, I wonder if there will be a series of the further adventures of Jane & will she again cross paths with Rochester.

If there are people out there who have not read Jane Eyre (I have to imagine they do walk the earth & may well read on occasion), they may adore it from beginning to end. I wouldn't recommend this for those who have deep devotion to the original but then I expect that should they pick this up to read it, they know it's not a serious re-telling & should be prepared for it to be exactly what it is. This is not the worst thing I've ever read but it is hardly a sign of the downfall of literature or erotica. This is a mediocre attempt, mostly forgettable & probably will satisfy large swathes of readers who are just looking for something quick & titillating. Again, there are worse things in print.

I won a paperback copy of this book from the publisher.

[Courtney Jimmie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. I LOVE Jane Eyre and you just know that Mr. Rochester was up to some kinky stuff. I was hoping that this would be a reworking that took the original and just expanded upon it in ways that made sense. This novel turned out to be Jane Eyre falling down the rabbit hole and ending up in some sort of porno Wonderland. It was batshit crazy.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awkward to read. Not because of the erotic scenes, but because the writing was a disaster. It was surprisingly less erotic than I anticipated, but there were sexy charades, Mr. Rochester was a Sub, and Bertha Mason was a dominatrix. The one star goes to Jane for being a strong independent lady in the end.

[Bailey]

Not giving this a star rating. I DNF'd this around the scene where Rochester's bed catches on fire.
Spoiled the (god-awful) ending and decided to spare myself the frustration of reading through the rest.

As a massive Jane Eyre fan, I'm disappointed that I don't get some sweet Jane/Rochester moments. Had such high hopes for this..
Oh well.

[Johanna Lehto · Rating 1 out of 5]

0.5 stars

Here I thought John Cleland's 'Fanny Hill' to be the worst erotica I ever come across
I wish there was something positive to say, as I always wish for every book to have something good. But 'Jane Eyre Laid Bare' was cringy and an uncomfortable read. I feel sorry for Charlotte Brontë that someone took her novel as a base for an erotica. It was very illogical where all the smut came. Also, one could clearly see where Brontë's words ended and where this writers began. I'm sure Brontë is turning in her grave for this.

[Farrah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't. Just don't.

[Luiza Ferreira · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel robbed.

[Ashley Schuster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even knowing that I wasn't in for a tasteful spin on my favorite book, I tried. Sinclair took on a big job and did it very poorly; it's almost like a weekend novel or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (another cringer). It's incongruous, passages are poorly integrated, and the characters are defiled in so many ways!

Even the erotic sections (pasted between verbatim passages from the original) were disturbing and half-assed. Not to mention that they don't fit with how Jane Eyre in portrayed in other passages not to mention the original (Sinclair writes that Jane believes she may have been responsible for Rochester's accident but retains Brontë's assertion that Jane is unfazed by Rochester's changeable moods as they surely have to so with something outside herself). Not to mention the perversion of Bessie, Helen, Emma, the despicable Brocklehurst... Jane would not be such a feckless creature as to not have control over herself as Sinclair is trying to portray! Perverted is a great word for how she did these characters and especially Jane and Edward themselves!

I doubt Eve Sinclair's claim that she worked with literature in any capacity; her writing is so different from Brontë's that its horribly comical in the least funny way imaginable. It says she has been a fan of Charlotte Brontë's novels for a long time, but the way she butchered the syntax and disrespected the characters is distasteful and trashy. I wouldn't get this book if you haven't already. The low rating (should be lower IMHO) is well deserved.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok hear me out.
Charlotte Brontë would turn in her grave for having her name on that book, even if she wouldn't scandalise sex in books. The smut was not even good. Excuse me??? The added scenes were sometimes just so illogical and the "Jane Eyre fan" "Eve" (you cannot convince me that this isn't a case of women written by men) was just not regarding Jane as the original character, her backstory etc so it was really forced. It somewhat killed something of the original novel for me and that makes me sad. The ending was unexpeced, it was a fast read and it was entertaining at times (so thats why I gave it 2 stars and not one) but overall it's a hate crime.

[GONZA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. I'm sorry Miss Bronte, you didn't deserve that!

Orrendo. Mi dispiace Miss Bronte, non te lo meritavi!

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ST.MARTIN'S PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW

[Lyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disliked this so much that I returned it to Audible and got my credit back - no, I didn't know you could do that either, awesome! It really didn't work at all.

[ElphaReads · Rating 1 out of 5]

(originally reviewed on elphareads.tumblr.com )

(Note: My rating would actually be 1.5 as opposed to 1, but I'm not going to round up.)

The concept was so promising. Having just finished JANE EYRE, I was reminded of a book that my mother had seen advertised in England when she and my Dad were there a couple years ago. That book was JANE EYRE LAID BARE by Eve Sinclair, and it had advertisements all over the Tube. Knowing that it was basically just JANE EYRE with added scenes of smut and erotica, I decided that since I was so enthralled with Jane and Rochester’s romance that it needed to be sexied up a bit. So I requested it from the library, and settled in for something I knew wouldn’t be too difficult or challenging, and perhaps a little sexy.

It is my sad duty to report that this did not live up to any of my not even that high expectations.

Look, the story of JANE EYRE is pretty simple. Orphan girl leaves her abusive ward to get and education, is hired as a governess by a secretive but dashing and passionate man for his own ward, they fall in love, but it turns out he has a crazy woman in the attic and she leaves heartbroken. Then she finds some long lost relatives, is pursued by her pious and obnoxious cousin, but then returns to her former fiance to find that his wife killed herself and blinded him, so they can now be together. I greatly like JANE EYRE. This book cuts out a good majority of that, and only focuses on Jane’s first bit of time at Thornfield Hall. Only this time she is taught about the joys of sex by Rochester, only to find out that he was grooming her for his crazed dominatrix wife but fell in love with her accidentally. Spoilers.

I mean, WHAT???

The whole damn point I read this book was to get some hot sex between Jane and Rochester, and that would IN THEORY include hot and super romantic reunion sex when she finds him all blind and stuff. But nope. The book ends when Jane leaves Thornfield the first time. Why would you end there? I understand not starting the book until Thornfield, just as I even understand cutting out her visit to Mrs. Reed. But why on EARTH would you just stop there? I’ll admit, I was also kind of looking forward to the idea of sexual exploits with St. John of all people (probably because my sister came up with some pretty good scenarios about that). I think that what else bothered me was that the majority of this book was just JANE EYRE, with sex scenes sprinkled in. I know that added on book is kind of popular, or at least was, because of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, but it has never been too satisfying to me and it was extra disappointing in this if only because the story was incomplete.

I could also rant forever about Rochester wanting to please Bertha with a sex slave. I don’t understand it.

I want to make perfectly clear that I am not offended by the sex scenes being put in this book. So many reviews on Goodreads were ranting about this, but that kind of criticism just seems so odd to me. What exactly were you guys expecting? It’s literally called an erotic tale, of COURSE there is going to be dirty, smutty sex. I enjoy a good smutty book every once in awhile, so long as the writing is good and the plot engaging. This one just didn’t fit that bill. Sure, some of the sex scenes were pretty well done, but mostly they felt tacked on and emotionless, when Jane and Rochester are supposed to be smoldering.

I say skip it, y’all (though if you do stumble upon it on a shelf somewhere, find the scene after he proposes. That was admittedly hot).

[Monique Mulligan · Rating 1 out of 5]

With 50 Shades of Grey (E.L. James) raking it in moneywise, it’s fair enough that other publishing houses want to ride the fan fiction meets erotic bandwagon. Likewise, it’s fair that any move to spice up the classics would also arouse debate, even criticism from readers. I’m in the “leave them alone” camp, but I decided to give Jane Eyre Laid Bare a fair crack of the whip. It took three pages to put me in a state of frenzy. Of indignation, dear Reader, not panting breathlessness. No! I cried silently. That’s not Jane!

Author Eve Sinclair begins her retelling with Jane’s flushed-with-excitement arrival at Thornfield Hall. Before long, her senses are “all astir”, but she can’t shake the feeling that a “deeper satisfaction” eludes her. When she meets Mr Rochester (a strange horseman) her imagination is quick to take hold. Before long, she finds herself drawn into a sensual world far beyond her inexperienced imaginings, with Mr Rochester thrust right into the spotlight. Gone is the restraint of Charlotte Bronte’s novel. Here are restraints. And more, more, more...

For the full review, see www.writenotereviews.com

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jane Eyre is my favourite novel. In trips to the bookstores lately, I had noticed that a number of classic novels were being given the erotic treatment. Now I like a good literary romp as much as the next woman; this was a sad disappointment. Yes, Bronte's work is present; and yes, it provides ample opportunity for eroticism. Sinclair puts it in like a bad cut and paste job. Not only that, but the story ends abruptly without resolution. Kinda like this review...

[Siobhan Leahy · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I just read?

A strange 'blend' of classic and erotica, poor writing and on a, dare I say it, a boring classic base. (sorry Jane Eyre fans, but the original isn't good either)

The ending was terrible, doing the complete opposite would have increased my rating by 0.5 stars.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did what it said on the tin

[Spenelli Speaks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yuck. Don't get me wrong. I like sex. However... I don't think adding a couple of sex scenes within Bronte's beloved Jane Eyre constitutes a reasonable erotic romance. This was super lame. 2 stars for a few good sex scenes, but this was not good. Not inventive or at all new... I wish this author would have just written a retelling as opposed to "writing between the lines" - literally. Poor Bronte would be rolling in her grave... and not from pleasure.

[HattieB · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. At least she grew a backbone by the end of it and luckily it was quite a quick read....

[The Romance Evangelist · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review at SeductiveMusings.blogspot.com.

This book was everything I thought it might be...more or less. It is indeed the original and beloved story of the titular heroine and her seemingly unrequited high regard for the mysteriously compelling Rochester, her new employer and guardian of Adele, the young girl for whom Jane has been engaged to instruct as governess. And yet it is so much more...and less.

It is more, because as the title implies, there is a “twist”, wherein all that takes place in Thornfield Hall during Jane’s tenure there has been reimagined to include not only an overall sexual undertone throughout the story but also several new scenes interspersed among the existing ones to alter the plot in more ways than one. Some of the changes are so subtle and well done that you could almost swear they had been in the book originally. Others are more outrageous, yet they still earned my admiration at the audacity of Eve Sinclair to boldly go where I couldn’t have even imagined myself.

But it is also less, not only because of the elimination of whole swaths of text not having anything to do with Jane and Rochester, but also because my estimation of them both was substantially diminished by their newly interpreted actions and how those actions have since somewhat altered my enjoyment of the original story.

Ultimately, although I have great appreciation for the effort, I can’t say this reinterpretation of Jane Eyre was a complete success for me. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be curious to read what might be done to a story for which I had more familiarity and affection.

Ratings:

Overall: 2.5
Sensuality level: 5

[Marybeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I just want to start out by saying that I am not a pervert, yet reviewing all this erotica is certainly making me look like one! And I also want to say that Jane Eyre is my favorite classic novel, and I don't read many of those!

I was a little nervous picking this up because Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, but I decided, "What the hell," and from the beginning the differences are more than obvious. The story does an awkward modern/classic type of writing style that instantly confused me. I found myself glazing right over the classic writing and trying to find my foot on the new style. Maybe it was because I could understand it better or maybe it was just because it actually moved the story along, I'm not sure.

And obviously the characters aren't the same but I wish that Sinclair had done a little more justice to them than what I saw. Maybe I'm just being extra picky, but there is a lot of work that should have been done to make it believable, in my opinion.

There are a lot of sexual tension, which is what mostly this novel is made out of. Its this never ending tension between the two characters. At some points I thought the novel was going places but at other times I was just really confused, wondering what I was reading.

Overall, it was interesting. Sinclair made a bold move reworking this novel and releasing it. I think, for the most part, she did a good job, but not what could have been done.

I say that if you are a fan, read at your own risk! And if you have never read Jane Eyre, then you have nothing to lose but time.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book for free through GoodReads First Reads in the exchange for a review.

It's been many years since I read Bronte's original Jane Eyre. However I look back on the novel as a favorite. I was hoping that this re-telling would feature a more romantic updated version of the classic story. However I was very wrong.

Eve Sinclair seemed to keep some of the original text and stylized older writing but then added in some erotic scenes that many times I found distasteful rather than sexy. I realize that erotica is taking the market by storm and that's what selling but it ruined this book for me. Even the romance, attraction and tension between Jane and Mr. Rochester was spoiled by lesbian undertones with Jane and past romantic encounters. Thus the romance was less in my eyes.

I get that the author is not writing Bronte but she used enough of the original to make this novel into a completely new, but in my opinion, not worthy to read. I don't believe I will be reading any more novels by Eve Sinclair.

[Emily]

Dear reader, when a book cannot even decide how the author's name is spelled (Sinclair, and on the back cover, Sinclaire . . . I know it's an ARC, but still), this is not to me a good sign.
I may still push through and try to read more of this, as it is a first reads copy, but so far, it's just really not good. It is far more scandal for the sake of scandal than it is racy or interesting, somehow managing to be both gratuitous in its scenarios without being descriptive of actual action. It's unoriginal in two ways, blatantly attempting to cash in on books like Fifty Shades of Grey while not adding anything substantial toJane Eyre. To be fair, where I've stopped Jane's only just started working for Rochester, but I don't see this book improving quickly enough to be worthwhile reading right now. Pass.

[Dawn-Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of classic literature. I am also a fan of good erotica. Combining them in this way was an interesting experiment that almost worked. I think Eve Sinclair did a good job of reflecting the writing style of Bronte when she incorporated erotic elements. And a few of the added scenes were hot. But overall the book lost the feel of the original. It didn't fit the character of Jane Eyre for her to be getting herself off on a carriage ride within the first few pages, for example. Obviously, the title attracts attention, but I think it would have been better if Sinclair had taken a few standard Bronte elements and written an entirely new story. And I agree with many of the reviews I've read when it comes to the ending. It felt forced and thrown in as a "oh we need some D/s in here" sort of thing. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who loves the original, but those who haven't read the classic may find something worthwhile.
(Originally posted on Amazon.)

[Cyndy Aleo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Claiming co-writing credit with Jane Eyre's author, Charlotte Bronte, implies a certain idea: this erotic retelling will be close to the sexual undertones of the original. Sinclair, however seems determined to shoehorn in as much erotica as possible, often at the expense of both story and character, just for the sake of titillation. The "shocking" ending manages to encompass three lessons: sex is bad; BDSM is bad; and women who want sex and own their sexual power are bad. Unless you like your erotica with a heaping side of guilt -- and this reviewer does not -- pass this one up.

Originally reviewed for RT Book Reviews December 2012 issue, 1 STAR