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Generous Fire
Olivia Waite's original debut novella, now with a brand-new cover and bonus story for returning readers!
Everyone at the academy knows Latin instructress Carolin Tisdale for her plain gowns and severe demeanor. Her headmaster, however, is about to unravel a bit of her mystery. Mr. Topper has always been able to balance passion and propriety--but once a student prank brings Miss Tisdale to his attention, his desire begins to chip away at his resolve.
Miss Tisdale has spent years keeping her wayward tendencies firmly in check, despite the temptations posed by the dark-haired headmaster. She clings to her control even as the thought of submitting to him makes her pulse race and her imagination run rampant. But when she agrees to help Mr. Topper test a mysterious new medical device--a machine whose effects are more pleasurable than pharmaceutical--she comes to realize that self-control and sexual satisfaction are not mutually exclusive after all.
Everyone at the academy knows Latin instructress Carolin Tisdale for her plain gowns and severe demeanor. Her headmaster, however, is about to unravel a bit of her mystery. Mr. Topper has always been able to balance passion and propriety--but once a student prank brings Miss Tisdale to his attention, his desire begins to chip away at his resolve.
Miss Tisdale has spent years keeping her wayward tendencies firmly in check, despite the temptations posed by the dark-haired headmaster. She clings to her control even as the thought of submitting to him makes her pulse race and her imagination run rampant. But when she agrees to help Mr. Topper test a mysterious new medical device--a machine whose effects are more pleasurable than pharmaceutical--she comes to realize that self-control and sexual satisfaction are not mutually exclusive after all.
48 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2011
About the author
Olivia Waite
20 books1,309 followersOlivia Waite writes queer historical romance, science fiction, and fantasy. She is the romance fiction columnist for the New York Times Book Review.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 21, 2013
“Precisely what kind of device has Mr. Wilkins been working on?" Miss Caroline Tisdale, Latin Instructress at an academy for the making of extraordinary gentleman, wondered.
Headmaster, Mr. Topper approaches Miss Tisdale to test an invention that when applied to a certain intimate area of a woman’s anatomy cures hysterics in women. A woman of both intellect and passion is needed as a test subject, so in the name of science, Miss Tisdale volunteers. Headmaster Mr. Topper, conducts the test and soon he and Miss Tisdale are engulfed in the pleasures of the Wilkins Modulator.
The writing is smooth with a Victorian voice which adds a charming feel. It is also a steamy erotica romance quickie. The love scenes are incredibly seductive and fiery hot. I loved it and I highly recommend it.
Headmaster, Mr. Topper approaches Miss Tisdale to test an invention that when applied to a certain intimate area of a woman’s anatomy cures hysterics in women. A woman of both intellect and passion is needed as a test subject, so in the name of science, Miss Tisdale volunteers. Headmaster Mr. Topper, conducts the test and soon he and Miss Tisdale are engulfed in the pleasures of the Wilkins Modulator.
The writing is smooth with a Victorian voice which adds a charming feel. It is also a steamy erotica romance quickie. The love scenes are incredibly seductive and fiery hot. I loved it and I highly recommend it.
May 17, 2011
I didn't like this historical..it starts off very cute with a very prim and proper professor, Ms. Tisdale who has a very mild flirtation with the headmaster Mr. Topper. For example, he sees her ankle, and there is blushing.
But then another instructor has come up with a machine he intends to help hysteria and other nervous conditions in women and he needs someone to test it on.
The machine ends up being a steam-powered vibrator.
And Ms. Tisdale, after admitting to Mr. Tipton that she likes pleasure but has been denying herself all these years, agrees to test this machine. So she then sits on a table and tests out this vibrator - even Mr. Tipton gets in on the action at the end.
Just not for me.
But then another instructor has come up with a machine he intends to help hysteria and other nervous conditions in women and he needs someone to test it on.
The machine ends up being a steam-powered vibrator.
And Ms. Tisdale, after admitting to Mr. Tipton that she likes pleasure but has been denying herself all these years, agrees to test this machine. So she then sits on a table and tests out this vibrator - even Mr. Tipton gets in on the action at the end.
Just not for me.
February 14, 2012
One of the things I love about Olivia Waite is how she manages to fit a cohesive and compelling love story into such a small space. The sharp, deep way she sets up these characters just in the first few pages, with practically nothing but some physical description, was amazing: the headmaster and Latin mistress of a Victorian boarding school, two carefully controlled people who long to break free of that control. And then they do when all the students are home for Christmas! Plus, it was REALLY hot. I highly recommend.
WARNING (and SPOILER): While everything in the story is completely consensual, there are references to the nonconsensual use of mechanical vibrators on female psychiatry patients, in the context of consensual use of such a device.
WARNING (and SPOILER): While everything in the story is completely consensual, there are references to the nonconsensual use of mechanical vibrators on female psychiatry patients, in the context of consensual use of such a device.
March 17, 2020
Remarkably steamy short story about "curing hysteria" (ahem, yes, meaning that). It's followed by a super-short story about a pair of ghosts who can't be with their still-living son anymore, which is really jarring after the romance/erotica first part, yikes!
June 27, 2019
Very steamy .... I need to not listen to books like this while commuting... or waiting in the dentists office ... on the plus side I totally forgot to be nervous about my upcoming filling ...
January 17, 2023
Short, but good! So steamy. I wish we had gotten more from the characters and their relationship but for what it was, I loved it!
November 22, 2023
🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
A very hot Christmas erot!c short story. Victorian era. With a steam powered s3x toy.
A very hot Christmas erot!c short story. Victorian era. With a steam powered s3x toy.
July 31, 2011
Originally posted at: http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/201...
Victorian nerds in love get freaky with sex toys. This story appears to be a Victorian but the time period is not made clear. Its central hook focuses on “hysteria” and other mysterious female maladies being treated with vibrators by medical professionals in that time period.
The heroine is presented as a repressed, slightly neurotic woman who is resigned to a life of work and scholarship. She’s got a tendré for the hero who is headmaster at the school where she works.
The first sex happens late for an erotic short story. The conversation that leads to the sex is very improper and with little of the subtext or subtlety one might expect for the times, especially for a very proper teacher and a headmaster. Once the sex happens things heat up a lot and the heroine immediately drops her sexual repression and shyness completely as if it had never been there. They conduct sexual experiments in the name of higher learning.
They use some sexual terms that might seem like anachronisms but they fit since these are two scholarly people who would have read and known those terms. Once the hero breaks through the heroine’s shell of sexual denial, she’s eager for anything he wants. He knows exactly what she wants and gives it to her. They do not have any sexual or emotional conflicts past this point.
This is a light, cute and sweet story with just the right touch of spice, even if it does come rather late in the story.
Victorian nerds in love get freaky with sex toys. This story appears to be a Victorian but the time period is not made clear. Its central hook focuses on “hysteria” and other mysterious female maladies being treated with vibrators by medical professionals in that time period.
The heroine is presented as a repressed, slightly neurotic woman who is resigned to a life of work and scholarship. She’s got a tendré for the hero who is headmaster at the school where she works.
The first sex happens late for an erotic short story. The conversation that leads to the sex is very improper and with little of the subtext or subtlety one might expect for the times, especially for a very proper teacher and a headmaster. Once the sex happens things heat up a lot and the heroine immediately drops her sexual repression and shyness completely as if it had never been there. They conduct sexual experiments in the name of higher learning.
They use some sexual terms that might seem like anachronisms but they fit since these are two scholarly people who would have read and known those terms. Once the hero breaks through the heroine’s shell of sexual denial, she’s eager for anything he wants. He knows exactly what she wants and gives it to her. They do not have any sexual or emotional conflicts past this point.
This is a light, cute and sweet story with just the right touch of spice, even if it does come rather late in the story.
August 21, 2011
A well-written and well-paced erotic novella, marred by a few too many WTF? plot holes.
A strict and staid teacher of a private boarding school is encouraged by her friendly but prurient headmaster to try out a steam-powered sex machine invented by one of the younger teachers at the same school. The female teacher throws modesty aside and gleefully takes her pleasure on the machine while the headmaster observes -- for scientific purposes only, of course.
The ambiguity over the historical setting of the story was a major distraction. Vocabulary, clothing and other hints suggested mid- or late-Victorian, but the reliance on steam and apparent absence of electricity suggested some alternative steam-punk universe. This ambiguity obfuscated the motivation and technical skills of the machine's inventor, who appears briefly, expresses a shared interest in relieving ladies of debilitating frustrations, reveals that the dildo on the machine was, of necessity (what, no back story?) modelled on his own appendage, and then disappears from the story when ordered out of the room in which the 'experiment' takes place, leaving the female subject and her male observer to get down and dirty together.
The story seems to have a 'that's all, folks' ending, but perhaps Ms Waite intends to fill the plot holes with future stories in a series. Or maybe not...
A strict and staid teacher of a private boarding school is encouraged by her friendly but prurient headmaster to try out a steam-powered sex machine invented by one of the younger teachers at the same school. The female teacher throws modesty aside and gleefully takes her pleasure on the machine while the headmaster observes -- for scientific purposes only, of course.
The ambiguity over the historical setting of the story was a major distraction. Vocabulary, clothing and other hints suggested mid- or late-Victorian, but the reliance on steam and apparent absence of electricity suggested some alternative steam-punk universe. This ambiguity obfuscated the motivation and technical skills of the machine's inventor, who appears briefly, expresses a shared interest in relieving ladies of debilitating frustrations, reveals that the dildo on the machine was, of necessity (what, no back story?) modelled on his own appendage, and then disappears from the story when ordered out of the room in which the 'experiment' takes place, leaving the female subject and her male observer to get down and dirty together.
The story seems to have a 'that's all, folks' ending, but perhaps Ms Waite intends to fill the plot holes with future stories in a series. Or maybe not...
June 8, 2012
This is a very naughty, very short story that plays on a real-life fact – that to cure *female hysteria*, doctors in the late 1800's created what is now known as the vibrator.
The hero and heroine are a Headmaster and schoolmarm respectively, and they use this new invention purely for scientific study. Well, except that once it starts being used, scientific study goes out the window.
The book opens with a homage to Charles Dickens that made me sit up and go, “Cool!” The writing style channels the spirit of Jane Austen – if she wrote a lot spicier, that is.
It was charming, it was sex-ay… and it was way too short. The story is billed as a romance, but with the very short length it was impossible to give any depth to the characters, let alone believe in these characters falling in love. While I enjoyed what was there, the lack in this area made it impossible to give it a higher grade.
Bottom Line – Clever writing with a wink and a nod to Dicken’s A Christmas Carol elevate this naughty Victorian short story. However, it’s too short, reading like the final chapters of this couple’s courtship than a complete story of its own. Because of this, it’s impossible to get fully invested into the story.
My final rating? B+
The hero and heroine are a Headmaster and schoolmarm respectively, and they use this new invention purely for scientific study. Well, except that once it starts being used, scientific study goes out the window.
The book opens with a homage to Charles Dickens that made me sit up and go, “Cool!” The writing style channels the spirit of Jane Austen – if she wrote a lot spicier, that is.
It was charming, it was sex-ay… and it was way too short. The story is billed as a romance, but with the very short length it was impossible to give any depth to the characters, let alone believe in these characters falling in love. While I enjoyed what was there, the lack in this area made it impossible to give it a higher grade.
Bottom Line – Clever writing with a wink and a nod to Dicken’s A Christmas Carol elevate this naughty Victorian short story. However, it’s too short, reading like the final chapters of this couple’s courtship than a complete story of its own. Because of this, it’s impossible to get fully invested into the story.
My final rating? B+
January 7, 2019
Miss Caroline Tisdale, Latin instructress at Fitzscrooge’s Select Academy for the Making of Extraordinary Gentlemen, is the picture of propriety. Only the school’s headmaster, Mr. Topper, senses the passion simmering beneath her calm façade. That’s why he takes the risk of asking Miss Tisdale to be the test subject for a new medical invention that’s more pleasurable than therapeutic. Will Mr. Topper’s gamble pay off?
Generous Fire is erotic good fun. There’s a certain charm in watching the absolutely proper masks of Miss Tisdale and Mr. Topper slip away in the face of desire. Olivia Waite’s prose is spot-on in this historical romance in terms of giving it the proper feel of the era; that’s what makes the sensual scenes feel extra naughty. The plot of Generous Fire zips along at a rapid pace, making the story a fast and fun read. I really enjoyed Generous Fire and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Waite’s work.
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed.
Generous Fire is erotic good fun. There’s a certain charm in watching the absolutely proper masks of Miss Tisdale and Mr. Topper slip away in the face of desire. Olivia Waite’s prose is spot-on in this historical romance in terms of giving it the proper feel of the era; that’s what makes the sensual scenes feel extra naughty. The plot of Generous Fire zips along at a rapid pace, making the story a fast and fun read. I really enjoyed Generous Fire and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Waite’s work.
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed.
March 23, 2011
What a sexy, hot historical! Loved the steam-powered vibrator invented to treat hysteria but used for a much more passionate endeavor :)
February 4, 2015
Wonderful, sweet, HEA
Bought from kobo.
Bought from kobo.
April 11, 2016
"The school was dead, to begin with."
Charming, evocative, and such a cool idea. (But I wished they would have let Mr. Wilkins stay in the room! Eeh, for science.)
Charming, evocative, and such a cool idea. (But I wished they would have let Mr. Wilkins stay in the room! Eeh, for science.)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews