Skinemax

by Brad Jones

Shannon Stevens only wanted to spice up her marriage, but one night of public passion sends her spiraling into a wild, no holds barred journey that careens from the bedroom to the boardroom and all the way to the farthest reaches of space.

Sentenced to coach a rowdy roller derby team, Shannon's lust for victory lands her a role as a glamourous Cable TV CEO and embroiled in a passionate affair with a handsome homicide detective. Her blossoming career comes to a halt as she juggles romance, being the prime suspect in a murder, and a conspiracy which could involve the fate of the entire galaxy.

Part bikini clad comedy, part erotic courtroom thriller, and part cosmic showdown, SKINEMAX is a deliciously funny homage to the late-night softcore programming of the 1990s, overflowing with seduction, scandal, and sci-fi spectacle.

247 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2025

Reviews

[Mike Lombard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad Jones's Skinemax perfectly captures the mood and vibe of the 1990s era of late night cable TV programming. It's clear he knows this style well and blends together different subgenres of Cinemax as he satirizes sex comedies, erotic legal thrillers, women in prison films and science fiction Bmovies. Think "Bikini Car Wash Company" meets "Body Chemistry" with a dose of "Star Slammer" and you've got Skinemax.

The balance between these plot points transitions well as there's hints dropped early on about where the story will take us, instead of randomly going from one setting to the other. Even with the foreshadowing, he still keeps his story unpredictable as a scene can go from funny or erotic to violent at the drop of a hat. If you grew up on Cinemax you'll even recognize some real people who are brought into the story, like softcore queen Shannon Tweed.

While he gets the theme down very well, he's also great at giving us a deeply flawed yet funny lead character in Shannon Stevens. Shannon is narcissistic, selfish and cut throat, but by giving her a wicked sense of humor, Jones created an anti-hero who is briefly the antagonist, but lets us root for her when she's our only hope in saving the universe. The book is also a love letter to 90s pop culture itself with action sequences set to Quad City DJs, and the sex scenes themselves are surprisingly steamy.

It's possible you'll need to know a bit about Cinemax in order to get the homage, but if you do, this is an entertaining, fast paced throwback with funny characters and real eroticism.

[Joey · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I have watched Brad's YouTube for about 5 years, I had never read one of his books. I was hoping it might be a nonfiction account of the Cinemax channel. But it wasn't. They're writing level was barely above fanfiction. Premise could have been grossing but I could not get over how it was written, with lines like "she stated matter of factly", or "he asked, questioningly"

[Eric Juneau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brad Jones’s third effort. It’s a mish-mash of 1992 stuff that lacks plot. Was he aiming for a meandering farce like Vonnegut or Confederacy of Dunces? Where there’s no plot, no main character, just droll humor? At least it moves fast. A thirdish of the book is like a sexy Mighty Ducks where the main character is sentenced to coach a roller derby team, but aims for eyeballs instead of wins. Then she becomes the CEO of Cinemax, although there isn’t much about the theme around that section. Then she’s accused of a crime and sent to a space prison? It’s like some drug-induced hallucination. I think I’m done reading Brad Jones books. He may be a great critic, but that’s a different skill from creating a story.