I’ve read another of Patient’s books before, that one being Blowjob from Your Stalker, which I really liked, but rated low-ish because it was so short (and has STILL left me wondering what kind of stalker that chick was? Did she collect his hair clippings? Cut his eyes out of pictures? Follow him around like a puppy dog? WHAT?!), and when Patient put Wicked Cold up for a freebie, I snatched it in a hurry. Any author who can make me think about a story–especially a short story–for so long after I read it is one I need to follow.
Wicked Cold didn’t disappoint me. Unlike Blowjob from Your Stalker, Wicked Cold was long enough and had some massive characterization. I won’t say I was hooked from the first word because it did take a little while to get going, but when it did, I got really into the characters. This woman can fucking WRITE. I think if she wrote fantasy or monster erotica I’d be in love, for reals.
The story goes that Amy and Kevin are up in Canada for Kevin’s uncle’s wedding, which is at one of those weird ice palace hotels where everything is made of ice. Amy is woman-handled as they exit the bus, which causes her to freak out. Suddenly, there are lesbians everywhere! And they are all having sex around her. As much as Amy hates to admit it, it turns her on.
Kevin and Amy’s relationship is already established, so it’s nice to see a couple who joke around, are sexy, and just… be normal in a book. The X factor in the book is Amy’s more than slightly homophobic feelings about lesbians, which for a bit made it uncomfortable to read until I realize she was covering up her arousal by hot lesbian sex with homophobia. It was still a bit uncomfortable… realistic, but uncomfortable. That, coupled with the repeated use of ‘wicked cold’ throughout the book knocked it down to a four, but overall, I was really satisfied with it.
The heat level is two, bordering on a 2.5. There are a couple of scenes between our protagonists, and some implied lesbian loving where our protagonists can’t see. The main thrust of the story is Amy’s fear of her own desires, and while it’s never explicitly stated the book’s about that, it’s a nice touch of realism in a story which I really enjoyed. Patient Lee’s erotica is not just wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. Her erotica is about the real, every day sexy situations people can find themselves in, and how they react to them. I personally think her writing style would be better suited towards erotic romances than erotica, but either way… she’s a helluva writer. The prose is tight and well-edited, the characters act and sound real, the plot… well, it’s erotica, heh. I can only imagine what she’d do with a novel. I rate this novella 8 icy cold lesbians out of 10.