The Tutor

by Portia Da Costa

An arousing tale of erotic initiation written by a pioneer of erotica...When Rosalind Howard becomes Julian Hadey's private librarian she soon finds herself attracted by his persuasive charms and distinguished appearance. He is an unashamed sensualist who, together with his wife, Celeste, has hatched an intriguing challenge for their new employee. As well as cataloguing their collection of erotica, Rosie is expected to educate Celeste's young and beautiful cousin David in the arts of erotic love. Having led a sheltered life, the young man is simmering with youthful passion. In luxurious surroundings Rosie finds herself drawn into increasingly decadent scenarios where experimental sex is on the menu and like-minded libertines read the rewards of unbridled desire.

Genres: Erotica, Romance, Contemporary

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1994

About the author

I'm a Sunday Times, New York Times and USA Today bestselling British author of romance, erotic romance and romantic fiction. My novels have been published by a variety of different houses, both in the US and the UK, and translated into many languages including German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian and Japanese. I'm best known for my many novels for the pioneering British erotica publisher Black Lace and I writing books with contemporary, paranormal and occasionally futuristic settings. I'm now venturing into historical erotic romance too, with a new novel for Harlequin Spice set in London in the year 1890.

I also write as Dorothy Starr and Megan Paul

I've been writing for publication since 1990, and have had over twenty novels published and around 100 short stories. I've contributed to many different short story anthologies and women’s magazines. I've also written a number Spice Briefs for Harlequin.

I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, the Passionate Ink RWA Chapter, the Romantic Novelists Association [UK] and the Society of Authors [UK].

I live in the heart of West Yorkshire, UK, with my husband and my cats. When I'm not writing I enjoy reading, watching TV and movies, hanging out on Twitter and Facebook, and online life in general. I was formerly a librarian and have also worked in local government.

Reviews

[carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosalinde, a librarian, splits from selfish, thoughtless boyfriend, and is offered a job working for Julian, rich guy with his own library needing cataloguing. Julian, and Celeste, his beautiful wife seem to have an emancipated open sex life...how open, and with differing partners becomes apparent as the story progresses. Seduction of Rosalinde by Julian is quite erotic, and leads him to explain not only does he want his private erotica catalogued...he also wants Rosalinde to tutor his nephew, David, a virgin.

Lots of erotic scenarios, one wonders if such positions occur in real life, oh, that they had when I was younger and single...I'd have jumped at the chance!

Enjoyable read, slightly dated, reminds me of late eighties, early nineties, doubt a young man like David would still be a virgin at that age, but enjoyed the voyeurism of his masturbation scenes. Negatives, a few typos, suggests the publishing house needs better editors.

Just borderline four stars from me.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in contemporary times this is an unlikely fantasy about a reclusive millionaire who hires a young woman to catalog his library of books and his prized possession of erotic literature. Anna? Needing to get a fresh start after recently suffering a bad breakup with her insensitive boyfriend accepts the job even though she senses that something is not on the level after an odd interview with her handsome employer. She soon discovers that her real purpose for being in his house is to tutor his virginal nephew in the arts of love-making. Being an open-minded woman she eagerly accepts her new position and surrenders to her passion and learns several interesting things herself.

I enjoyed this book very much and found the two main characters to be extremely likable people. Admittedly, the plot was very thin but who the heck cares when the sex scenes are this exciting! Some were tender and some were very kinky. There were several f/m scenes along with several m/m, some mild S&M, f/f and 3-way sex so if those things offend you be warned

[Bookread2day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portia Da Costa is back with another kinky novel. In The Tutor right from the time of Rosalind Howard getting her degree, she had always taken safe jobs. Now Rosalind at twenty-eight wanted something new. An advert took Rosalind to a job with a small amount of secretarial work in addition to library duties, and should be prepared to live in. It seems Mister Julian Hadey has plans for Rosalind, she is to be a tutor for his wife's cousin. David is extremely sheltered and uninitiated in the arts of erotic love. The pleasure of The Tutor is a kinky, erotic romance with lesson in seduction. I highly recommend The Tutor it is one of Portia Da Costa best novels to date.

[Beautiful_Jade · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why do the lead female characters in this type of erotica always have to be so naive, pathetic and a little bit thick?

[Savannalee Hodgkinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

So of course I enjoy a book with some great schmut scenes. However, usually the book consists of 10% schmut and 90% actual plot. Not this one though, we are lucky if there is even 5% actual plot in this book. I thrifted this from a friend who thought I would really love this, I know have to reflect on what kind of person she thinks I am.

I can firmly say, I will not be keeping this for my own collection and will not be reading another Portia Da Costa book.

If you want schmut that covers almost everything sexual without the distraction of a good story, here you go, you will eat this right up.

[Olia Braguța · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me around a year to come back to this book. If you “survive” the first 10 pages- then it gets interesting.

a very erotic book. quite explanatory in many scenes. no wonder it has its name. the ending is not what you would expect in a typical boulevard novel and it leaves you imagining what is next...? i gave 4 ⭐️ because it gets quite deep in sexual terminology and some words and expressions have to be looked up.

[Katelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros- involves multiple instances of LGBT coupling, diverse(ish) body types, open relationships

Cons-
the writing isn't all that great, them main character frequently lacks agency and I have mixed feelings about the way non-monogamy is portrayed here. The only plot is the little that is required to move from one sex scene to another... and even then the MC is CONSTANTLY thinking about sex

[Josie]

I keep seeing this on the shelf at the local library so I thought I'd give it a chance. Unfortunately, the writing needs a lot of work. It is too heavy on exposition/telling rather than showing making it a slog to get through. The pacing was also too slow. This was a DNF for me.

[Sophia Aouichaoui · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the world of domination/submission....without being too graphic.

Da Costa captures the innocence of a virgin and the hesitance of a potential dominator in a pleasant,yet page turning read.

[SueS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book

This has been the most erotic book I have read in quite a while. I loved it. I wish there was a sequel

[David Howarth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously written tale, which personnallyI would have loved to have gone on to tell of more sexploits of all of the characters but perhaps that is for another day another novel or novels....happy days.....

[Di whorwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book

Once I started to read this book in brilliant love everything about it . Can't wait to start on book two

[Reading is my happy place · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it. Love the library aspect.

[Lenny Nero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buxom Rosie Howard takes a job as the private librarian of Julian Hadey. Hadey, a rich libertine with a beautiful wife named Celeste, not only wants Rosie to catalog his erotica collection, but he also wants her to school his wife's 19 year old cousin, David, in the sensuous arts. Hesitant as first, she soon finds herself deep in the decadence.

Da Costa is probably Black Lace's most popular author and one of the most popular current writers of female sex fiction. In this one, she pulls off some incredibly hot scenes without having to resort to too much kink, all the while using subtle prose to get her point across. I also like how the protagonist overcame certain insecurities about herself throughout the story. This one first came out in '94 and was reprinted in '03 by Black Lace. Highly recommended.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Tutor was published by Black Lace publishing which is known for is erotic books written by women for women. After reading numerous books claiming to be erotica I was looking for something that really put the erotic in erotica. The Tutor does just that. Rosalind is an average librarian with those pesky self image issues. After a breakup with a man she is hired by a wealthy man to manage his in-house library. What a library it is! Rosalind is able to fully explore all of her sexual desires and learns to truly love herself. There is not a lot of story line but a lot of sex. I mean a lot and all kinds of it!

[Yalda CM · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG!!! 5 beautiful stars for The Tutor!!!!!! I so loved it!!! David was a great sight in my crazy imagination!!! Rosie's self discovery was amazing and all that insane sex-life se was surrounded by was too much for my poor soul xD
Loved every bit of this book...So awesome!!! It is a must!!!!!!

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious and fun! Light on emotion, but high on sexual discovery/adventure.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Librarian becomes libertine. Fun read and more sensual than I was expecting.

[Hanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

hard to get into but get a bit better near the end