Title: All Shook Up
Author: J.M. Snyder
Genre: Historical (1883), Interracial
Length: Novella (74pgs)
Publisher: jms books (re-released 25th September 2011 or 1st October 2011)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: The year is 1883. Eduard van De Lier is a Dutchman overseeing a spice plantation on the island of Java, in the South Pacific. His obsessive attraction to dark-skinned men is just one of his many secrets. His wife Marien knows of his indiscretions, but as she’s content with their Colonial lifestyle, she stays silent.
Until a former lover of Eduard’s shows up in their parlor with thoughts of blackmail.
Reza was a crewman on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java. During the passage, Eduard spent many a night in the younger man’s arms. Two years have passed, and the last person Eduard expects to find in his drawing room is Reza, a letter in hand that could destroy the life he and Marien lead.
Seeing him again ignites Eduard’s lust for his first dark lover. He hopes to retrieve the letter, either through seduction or subterfuge, and the longer Reza eludes him, the more his desire grows. But they’re on shaky ground, and before things can heat up between them, their world explodes — literally — when the unstable island of Krakatoa erupts.
Review: Eduard is a man of deep passion; a passion for the native men of Java. Reza is a sailor who Eduard seduced on the voyage to Java and has come to demand what is his.
I thought this was a brilliant historical novella and it really drew me in from the beginning… because really who doesn’t love a seduction on the first pages. Having Reza come back into his life really shakes Eduard’s world but that doesn’t stop him from being determined to seduce Reza again. Seeing the realization dawn on Eduard as he begins to understand that his lovers of the past two years have been pale imitations of Reza was nicely done and Reza’s determination to have Eduard all to himself and the way he manipulated the situation was brilliant.
I thought the setting was good and the descriptions of the earthquake’s and the volcanic eruptions and the subsequent tsunamis were detailed and scary, very well written. I know that the eruption of Krakatoa was a real event and I thought the author has done a good job of bringing it to life in a fiction story.
I recommend this to those who love historical, delicious and erotic, a male nymphomaniac and a man who knows what he wants. A definite good read.