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Let's Get It On: A Novel
“Sister Jill isn’t just a foot soldier in what passes for war between the sexes. She’s our commander-in-chief and follow we must.”
—Pearl Cleage, New York Times bestselling author of What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day Let’s Get it On is acclaimed author Jill Nelson’s spicy, raucously satiric follow-up to her sensational bestseller Sexual Healing . Fans of Zane and The Vow, as well as Nelson’s own Voluntary Slavery , are going to love this outrageously provocative story about an attempt to open a “full service spa” for women on Martha’s Vineyard. “Jill Nelson tells it like it is,” Essence magazine writes, and the New York Times Book Review calls Nelson, “Fearless. She also knows how to construct a compelling narrative.”
—Pearl Cleage, New York Times bestselling author of What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day Let’s Get it On is acclaimed author Jill Nelson’s spicy, raucously satiric follow-up to her sensational bestseller Sexual Healing . Fans of Zane and The Vow, as well as Nelson’s own Voluntary Slavery , are going to love this outrageously provocative story about an attempt to open a “full service spa” for women on Martha’s Vineyard. “Jill Nelson tells it like it is,” Essence magazine writes, and the New York Times Book Review calls Nelson, “Fearless. She also knows how to construct a compelling narrative.”
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
4 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Jill Nelson
27 books24 followersJill Nelson was born and raised in Harlem and has been a working journalist for over twenty years. She is a graduate of the City College of New York and the Columbia School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, The Washington Post, The Nation, Ms., The Chicago Tribune and the Village Voice. Jill was a staff writer for the Washington Post Magazine during its first years of existence, and was named Washington D.C. Journalist of the Year for her work there. She freelances and lectures widely, and writes a twice-monthly column, “On the Verge,” for NiaOnline.com and is a monthly contributor to the Op Ed page of USA Today. She was a professor of Journalism at the City College of New York from 1998 to 2003. Jill lectures widely on race, gender, politics, media, writing and other topics.
--from the author's website
--from the author's website
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 11, 2017
Sequel to Sexual Healing. Wanda, Acey and Lydia own and run A Sister’s Spa, a brothel and spa for African-American women outside of Reno. After Wanda wins $3 million in a lawsuit, they decide to open a franchise on a yacht three miles off Martha’s Vineyard, figuring the women on the Island could use their services. The book attempts to be erotica but the sex scenes are fairly humdrum. Storyline is kind of hokey but it was kind of a fun read in its own way.
November 4, 2009
From Lay RA: In which a nonlibrarian attempts to teach herself readers' advisory
http://lay-ra.blogspot.com/2009/11/ra...
I would call Jill Nelson's Let's Get It On women's fiction or chick lit. It's a sequel to Sexual Healing, in which three single Black women friends open a spa that also sells safe, women-focused sex from hot male sex workers.
Both books are quick reads, employing lots of dialog and first-person narrative chapters from various characters. Sexual Healing focuses on Lydia and Acey, and Let's Get It On pays more attention to Wanda and Odell (a partner hired to manage the sex workers). I thought the characters were better established in the first book, and I found Lydia and Acey more likable and relatable than the primary narrators in the second installment.
Story line themes in Let's Get It On include politics and parody (e.g., the President is trying to pass "No Child, No Behind," which would outlaw sex except for procreation to build an antiterrorist Christian army), the Black social elite, Martha's Vineyard high-class island lifestyle--golf, clam bakes, etc.--and the historical lineage of white supremacist groups.
Details of clothing and dialect are used to portray characters. There are also detailed sex scenes, and details of running a small business. The tone is generally light and humorous, righteous, proud. Language is not particularly distinctive, but it does help with characterization, as the narratives from Odell, Wanda, and Lydia are written in their manners of speaking and thinking (e.g., from one of Lydia's sections, while a stranger's loose dog is humping her leg: "Frankly, the spectacle of a Yorkie creaming on my leg, not to mention my cashmere sweats, takes me past disgust, fear, and anger to homicidal rage and self-preservation...I'll beat the little pooch's paws with my pocketbook until it lets go and topples into the ocean, hopefully to die an unnatural death being ground into shark chow by the rotors of the ferry.").
Setting is relatively important. Martha's Vineyard as an elite vacation town helps define the character cast. The new spa franchise they open in Let's Get It On is on a boat just off the coast, and nautical themes play a role. Also, good food, drink, and company (which is easily associated with a place like the Vineyard) helps forward the book's themes of relaxation, pampering, and sexual satisfaction.
As far as readsalike go, nothing in my personal library jumped out at me, and I'm having little luck searching around online. Brenda Jackson's Solid Soul is on my TBR list, so I'll get back to you on that one.
http://lay-ra.blogspot.com/2009/11/ra...
I would call Jill Nelson's Let's Get It On women's fiction or chick lit. It's a sequel to Sexual Healing, in which three single Black women friends open a spa that also sells safe, women-focused sex from hot male sex workers.
Both books are quick reads, employing lots of dialog and first-person narrative chapters from various characters. Sexual Healing focuses on Lydia and Acey, and Let's Get It On pays more attention to Wanda and Odell (a partner hired to manage the sex workers). I thought the characters were better established in the first book, and I found Lydia and Acey more likable and relatable than the primary narrators in the second installment.
Story line themes in Let's Get It On include politics and parody (e.g., the President is trying to pass "No Child, No Behind," which would outlaw sex except for procreation to build an antiterrorist Christian army), the Black social elite, Martha's Vineyard high-class island lifestyle--golf, clam bakes, etc.--and the historical lineage of white supremacist groups.
Details of clothing and dialect are used to portray characters. There are also detailed sex scenes, and details of running a small business. The tone is generally light and humorous, righteous, proud. Language is not particularly distinctive, but it does help with characterization, as the narratives from Odell, Wanda, and Lydia are written in their manners of speaking and thinking (e.g., from one of Lydia's sections, while a stranger's loose dog is humping her leg: "Frankly, the spectacle of a Yorkie creaming on my leg, not to mention my cashmere sweats, takes me past disgust, fear, and anger to homicidal rage and self-preservation...I'll beat the little pooch's paws with my pocketbook until it lets go and topples into the ocean, hopefully to die an unnatural death being ground into shark chow by the rotors of the ferry.").
Setting is relatively important. Martha's Vineyard as an elite vacation town helps define the character cast. The new spa franchise they open in Let's Get It On is on a boat just off the coast, and nautical themes play a role. Also, good food, drink, and company (which is easily associated with a place like the Vineyard) helps forward the book's themes of relaxation, pampering, and sexual satisfaction.
As far as readsalike go, nothing in my personal library jumped out at me, and I'm having little luck searching around online. Brenda Jackson's Solid Soul is on my TBR list, so I'll get back to you on that one.
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July 11, 2011Every once in a while I like to stretch a little and try a genre unknown to me...otherwise, why would I EVER read a female black erotica novel?
Now that I've finished it, I'm still asking that question.
Granted, this was written for a specific audience and I fall well outside the parameters. That said, catering to that audience means writing monochromatically. Granted, the author threw in one token white male eventually, but I'm guessing that kind of tokenism when applied the other way around would have infuriated her.
Second objection: lots of description of clothes, and several by name brands.
Third objection: Apparently, black women want to become images of greedy, self-indulgent and snobby white women of high social standing. Personally I would hope for better, less derivative things for them.
I would also hope that they could find something more worthwhile to do with themselves than visit a brothel that services black women in either Reno or Martha's Vineyard. (It seems unlikely that such an institution could realistically exist.)
Fourth objection: The mockery of Bush and his vile politics was carried past the point of ridicule and on beyond stupidity.
Fifth objection: The sleaziness of the characters and of the book in general does not seem fitting for a woman whose work has appeared in respectable publications. This, and her habit of smearing spiritual practices with sexual sleaze...
In other words, this book doesn't deserve to be read. I don't even have a category of books low enough to include it.
Now that I've finished it, I'm still asking that question.
Granted, this was written for a specific audience and I fall well outside the parameters. That said, catering to that audience means writing monochromatically. Granted, the author threw in one token white male eventually, but I'm guessing that kind of tokenism when applied the other way around would have infuriated her.
Second objection: lots of description of clothes, and several by name brands.
Third objection: Apparently, black women want to become images of greedy, self-indulgent and snobby white women of high social standing. Personally I would hope for better, less derivative things for them.
I would also hope that they could find something more worthwhile to do with themselves than visit a brothel that services black women in either Reno or Martha's Vineyard. (It seems unlikely that such an institution could realistically exist.)
Fourth objection: The mockery of Bush and his vile politics was carried past the point of ridicule and on beyond stupidity.
Fifth objection: The sleaziness of the characters and of the book in general does not seem fitting for a woman whose work has appeared in respectable publications. This, and her habit of smearing spiritual practices with sexual sleaze...
In other words, this book doesn't deserve to be read. I don't even have a category of books low enough to include it.
September 16, 2013
In this spicy,raucously satiric novel,by Jill Nelson,it exclaims the technicality adults face in the future when trying to run a business. This book is split up into categories opposing to each main character telling their own side of story. However, each of their stories wraps around them coming together to set up another spa business that is only for females, as a way to "get away from their husbands and seek another male's attention".
This book will catch your attention the minute you open it, you will not want to put the book down. Nelson makes everything in the story very descriptive, as if you were inside the book yourself.
The novel has humor and realistic information as if it was taking place here in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
My favourite characters of the book are Wanda and Lydia, they are full of humour and they seem to be a little too experience in the new world. If you want to know what I am talking about, you will have to read the book yourself and get a feel of why this book is called LET"S GET IT ON!
This book will catch your attention the minute you open it, you will not want to put the book down. Nelson makes everything in the story very descriptive, as if you were inside the book yourself.
The novel has humor and realistic information as if it was taking place here in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
My favourite characters of the book are Wanda and Lydia, they are full of humour and they seem to be a little too experience in the new world. If you want to know what I am talking about, you will have to read the book yourself and get a feel of why this book is called LET"S GET IT ON!
April 28, 2019
Note to self: This was a boring book.
I read this book within a few hours, it was a fast read. I didn't realize that it is part of a series since this is the only book the library had by this author.
Since I found this book extremely boring I will not be reading the first book. The library had this book listed as erotica. The book was boring not very many sex scenes described in book. Storyline was about 3 women having a full service spa with men to take care of womens needs as well. Was expecting a lot of hot erotic scenes and was bored with what was given to me in the book. I was so glad when I finally got to the end of the book. Also very disappointed with how the chapters are listed by different people that are in the book.
Could only give it one star and was debating on that.
I read this book within a few hours, it was a fast read. I didn't realize that it is part of a series since this is the only book the library had by this author.
Since I found this book extremely boring I will not be reading the first book. The library had this book listed as erotica. The book was boring not very many sex scenes described in book. Storyline was about 3 women having a full service spa with men to take care of womens needs as well. Was expecting a lot of hot erotic scenes and was bored with what was given to me in the book. I was so glad when I finally got to the end of the book. Also very disappointed with how the chapters are listed by different people that are in the book.
Could only give it one star and was debating on that.
January 14, 2011
Well, you need to read the first book, to really get into it, I think. It probably has more sex too. So, I didn't read past the first 20 pages. But I think I would like it OK if I was already into the charactars I'd be glad to read of their continued adventures. But since I'm not, I found it only OK. I don't read may books written for "sistahs", so it's a mental switch I have to make, and Ih ave to be in the mood for that too. Will look for the first book and see how I like that.
February 17, 2014
The book was good. I liked the first book better but this book was well written. I enjoyed how the author weaves the details of the characters' lives into the story line without harsh interruptions (which sometimes makes you forget the storyline).
July 3, 2014
If I could add like 20000000+ stars I would this book is excellent and opens up the often ignored (surprise, surprise) world of black women, sexuality and satisfaction...future readers prepare to read this book with mouth open from shock.
September 7, 2010
A bit raunchy, but the feminist in me loves the concept of women taking ownership of their bodies. Plus, it is downright hilarious!
May 28, 2012
The first book was a whole lot better. This one was boring.
October 7, 2011
Very disappointing... Did not finish this .. Felt like I outgrew this story .. Style etc
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews