Allreaders.com
Author Joanna Wylde booklist (click here)

Book Review By Debbie
The Price of Pleasure by Joanna Wylde

Calla is a slave on Discovery station. She has no family other than her crèche brother, Jess, who was born at the same time as her and raised in her age group. Jess has always protected Calla and is much more daring than she is - he is even planning their escape from Discovery station! But Calla is not quite ready to take the risk of being killed or sold and goes about her day to day duties keeping the hostel clean and helping prepare food, etc. Her mistress hates the Saurellians, who recently took Discovery station away from the Federation, but she doesn't dare speak out against them, especially with Seth, the Saurellian commander staying in the hostel. Calla just does her best to stay out of the warriors' way, but rouses Seth's suspicions when she goes into his room unannounced. She is just there to clean, but Seth is instantly aroused and they have a wild tumble on Seth's bed. Terrified that word will get back to her mistress, Calla lies and says that Jess is her husband. Disgusted that she would cheat on her husband, Seth throws her out and tries to forget how sweet she tasted...

The very next day, Calla discovers that Jess has been sold to a mining outfit and she knows that he has, at most, a year to live in such brutal conditions. Finally discovering a backbone, Calla goes to her only friend, Dani, a licensed pleasure worker, and begs for her help in finding Jess and rescuing him. Dani is limited in what she can do, but she is able to get Calla some fake documents that show her as an experienced pleasure worker - Dani's cousin, Devora. When Seth spots Devora, she instantly reminds him of Calla, but the women are able to persuade him otherwise and he buys Devora's contract for a time span to keep him satiated while he is spying in enemy Federation territory.

Seth doesn't know what it is about Devora, but he enjoys her company more than any other woman he has known and - for the first time in his life - he feels satisfied after he has sex with her. It is well known the Saurellians mate for life and only mate with other Saurellians. Due to the shortage of female Saurellians, most males die young, burned out from their insatiable passions. Seth has resigned himself to this fate, but Devora starts to change that and give him some hope. After his investigations are done, Seth fantasizes about taking Devora to his home planet and setting up a peaceful life there, but, due to some misunderstandings on both sides, Devora leaves Seth stranded on a remote planet and takes off with his ship to find Jess. Furious, Seth vows to hunt Devora down - no matter how long it takes or what he has to do to find her...


Plot & Themes
Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Romance Yes
Romance plotlets: - love slave!!!!
Repressive society story Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20 %
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20 %
Who's a slave/repressed? - humans are slaves of other humans

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human freighter/transport
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - humans in a futuristic society
Planet outside solar system? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - descript of touching personal anatomy - licking - actual description of sex - description of breasts - descript. of private male anat. - descript. of non-breast female anat.
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Back To Main Menu