Vaginal Fantasy Book Club discussion

Thread Note: Please try to keep this discussion limited to chapters 16-18. Later chapters can be discussed in their own thread, but if you have to mention something about a later chapter please be sure to mark it as a spoiler!

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The Story Thus Far: Sully probes into Chaz' mind twice, he also speaks into her mind once. We find out that Chaz was married to Philip Guthrie. Chaz lashes out at Sully about intruding in her mind and busies herself with work to drown out the questions - she discovers that reports of the shipments were being sent to her brother Thaddeus. Sully has stopped reading Chaz, he leaves her a note confessing his love and they kiss and make up. The finally meet up with the Karn and we get introduced to some of the crew - including Gregor who is 100% distrustful of Chaz.

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So, let's talk about Sully. He's a telepath, just like the Rakgiril and he totally abused it! He is really starting to remind me of The Iron Duke. We have this complete intrusion by the hero our heroine (Rhys physically and Sully telepathically), the heroine getting crazy mad at him, the hero stopping something that caused the situation (Rhys drinking and Sully reading Chaz), and an apology that makes everything completely better. What are these women thinking?

I can totally see why Sully wanted to know what was going through her mind - she made such a big stink about potentially giving herself over to Philip and he doesn't want to lose her. But I thought it was pretty hypocritical (not to mention immoral) that he goes into her mind to get answers to questions he has, but he won't let her ask him about himself.

I think there is still something Sully is hiding - Ren says on P.105 "...he [Sully] learned long ago what it's like to be hurt." I'm curious what this is. Was he disowned from his family because of his abilities?

Isn't it supremely annoying that he calls her 'Chazzy girl' all the freaking time? Makes me cringe.

YES. I also hate how he's always calling her "angel." Then again, I'm not much for pet names. Same thing bothered me in Slave to Sensation.

I was just pissed when he probed her that way when she was talking to Phillip, it felt like such an invasion, and she just keeps forgiving him, trying to understand him and he just keeps hiding things about himself.

I mean, she could have told him her motives, but it was a painful period of her life and since he wasn't sharing, why should she. Mostly I was just unhappy that he kept keeping important parts of himself hidden then attacking her for not sharing. Felt a bit hypocritical.

Sarah wrote: " he just keeps hiding things...Mostly I was just unhappy that he kept keeping important parts of himself hidden then attacking her for not sharing. Felt a bit hypocritical. "

It really bothered me that he pretty much said don't ask questions or go away to her and does not afford her the same privacy. He knows she's a curious and intelligent person but won't let her be herself. Either he loves her for who she is or he wants her to conform to his ideals... at this point it seems that he wants her to conform to ideals that he himself will not adhere to.

Although perhaps this is almost too real of a relationship for fiction? How many times have women complained that they know (without being telepathic) that their man is withholding, worried and won' talk about it etc... and men continue to do it despite the errosion of trust that is causes? Because frankly it causes them to behave poorly. Or husbands that have different expectations of their wives than themselves?

Are we expecting this ficitious relationship to be better than what happens in real life or does the realism suit not only the genre, but the storyline?

And again I am struck by the fact that am far more interested in Ren than Sully.

Jes wrote: "Are we expecting this ficitious relationship to be better than what happens in real life or does the realism suit not only the genre, but the storyline?"

I think we often want to read about the relationships that we want, that could happen, instead of realistic ones. We live realistic relationships and want to read about people and stories that we can fantasize about (romantically and otherwise). How many of us prefer happy conclusions to books and movies?

I dislike how forgiving Chaz was. She said pretty blantantly that what Sully did to her mind was essentially rape. And while she yells at him once--not even a good yell really--she then feels bad for yelling at him.

I think he deserved a slap and a lot more than what Chaz gave him if it was really like rape.

This would have been a much better book if all of this had happened in the past & she'd fled from him. Several years later, with these incidences as their shared history (instead of long distance flirting and one - one!- drunken make-out session) they come across each other again. We'd be waiting to find out if Sully had learnt how not to be a mind-raping, patronising dick and if Chaz had learnt the difference between being forgiving and being a doormat.

I was ecstatic when Chaz gave Sully a piece of her mind, but why was she incapable of being mad at him for more than a day? What he did was unacceptable and the day after they are just going at it again like nothing happened.

Jes wrote: "Are we expecting this ficitious relationship to be better than what happens in real life or does the realism suit not only the genre, but the storyline?"

Definitely an interesting thought. I like a good sweeps-her-off-her-feet-HEA, but I'm perfectly happy with a more realistic romance as well. I think my biggest issue with the romance in this book was that it felt so contrived to me. It seemed more like a bad relationship episode of Jerry Springer where one person is always abused/cheated on/etc yet keeps coming back because they're "in love" than a reflection of a realistic relationship.