I guess I have to take a break for a while, though I might get back to it.
Good point: The author writes good banter.
Turn off: I just can't take too many Penthouse-Forum-style sex scenes. I was going to cut the book some slack at first since they seemed less corny than others I've run into in other books, seeming mainly matter-of-fact. I wanted to be able to say, This isn't so much erotica as just dealing bluntly with a dramatic part of these characters' lives. But no. With the great preponderance of such scenes, and with the recognition that the characters have little-to-no concern for anything other than their sex-lives... damn, I felt something is being squandered here that could be used to greater effect with a different focus.
I guess I've stumbled into a genre that I rarely go into, though I'm starting to suspect that romance/erotica, in one form or another, constitutes a significant majority of published fiction today. It's literally all around me.
I think this author shows the potential to transcend the genre expectations if she wants to... but whether she wants to is unclear.
The point of interest to me--besides the dialog--is the world-view. Because counter to my expectations, by which I thought this would be a cynical kind of book, it actually seems to function on the premise that all of the characters are essentially good, but they all share the same problem: They're very sensitive with regards to their own feelings and needs, and very insensitive to the feelings and needs of others--which means they're bound to hurt one another and get hurt in turn, and so it revolves, around and around. So, this could point the way to an investigation into the human psyche that's more interesting than a who's-zooming-who drama in which men are functionally walking penises (large and well-performing ones, of course.)
Well, I don't know, I can't draw conclusions, not having gone to the end of it. And I'm sure apologists would tell me that I dare not criticize a genre book for following genre conventions. But as a reader who wants to give a fair shake to works outside of his usual comfort zone, I'm going to read this, that, and any other thing without necessarily conceding anything to expectations. In any case, I wish the author success.