Grease Lightning. And Pap Smears.

Spin (Songs of Corruption #1) - C.D. Reiss
”Take me now, please. Fuck me scared.”


Okay before someone pitchforks me yet again for 1-starring a galley I requested, I actually read the first Songs of Submission book. And while my interest in that story tapered off by the second book, I found the writing decent and had a different pulse and form to the usual erotica out there. I also like books set in LA in any genre, for some reason. 

And the guy in the cover looks a little like Gabriel Macht who is tres adorbs.

Spin is Antonio Spinetti who smells like pines and has a perpetually rock-hard dick. He’s Italian (duh), not of the Jersey Shore persuasion, more of the Coppola and cannoli tradition. He may seem like a suave hardened criminal who feeds his enemies other people’s vomit but he actually likes long walks in the beach, chatting on Facebook and labradoodles…. okay not really, but I find that would’ve made his character more interesting.

Anyway Tonio-botz meets Theresa ‘Tee Drey’ Drazen in a bar where she’s treating her alcoholic sister to. Because that’s what sisters do. And hey it’s LA so it’s allowed. Ish. She’s a bored heiress working as an accountant, and she’s just been publicly shamed by her cheating husband who’s running for mayor… I mean, it’s perfectly rational for her to throw caution and sensibility to the wind and choose a mafia Capo to be her fuck buddy, right?

He was perfectly put together, with one hand in me the way it had just been inside a transmission.


That’s a Ducati’s transmission. With grease and Lord knows what.



Pap Smear. Get One.

I suppose all that violent and hygienically questionable sex is one way of contrasting the Theresa with a fiancee and the Theresa who got cheated on. But it was bad enough that her relationship with Spin gave off an unapologetically rapey vibe (I acknowledge everything was consensual, still it felt rapey to me), I really didn’t need all that ick to further whatever cause this story believes to have. I’m almost hesitant to shelf this as erotic because it failed to arouse anything from me other than revulsion. Maybe it was a stab at being edgy, an effort to think outside the box that was unfortunately weighed down by a weak plot and caricature characters. I am a huge fan of the Mafia lore, there’s a certain finesse in relaying their seediness and depravity that this book missed by a mile and ended up this side of yuck.

I never really liked Theresa. She was such a hazily sketched out character, any depth of which was hidden behind porcelain swans, silverware and plates. What the hell was that all about by the way? It came across bizarre and out of nowhere! There was very little moral conflict in her character which was central to the theme and would have been a more interesting study given the premise of this book. 

”I’ve danced enough. I’ve seen movies. I’ve been in every pool in Malibu. I’ve travelled. I’ve dated. Worked on a political campaign. Met stars. Had a job. I’ve done all that. What I’ve never done is love a man like you.”


Cheesy yes, but it offered some insight that would have intrigued me more than all that disgusting sex: what she’s admitting to have never done, is she talking about “love” or is she talking about “the man like Spin”? Is it just the relief from the mundane she seeks? The adrenaline talking? Or just her clitoris yapping about? 

This is going to be a series, because everything these days is, but I probably won’t be sticking around to know the results of Theresa’s pap among other things.

ARC provided by Fido Publishing thru Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.