Scan barcode
A review by buttontapper
Sugar & Salt by Pavarti K. Tyler
4.0
Pavarti K. Tyler’s latest novella, Sugar & Salt, introduces us to the hidden world of the Sugar House. Commanded by Janice Cane, aka Miss Necia, the Sugar House attends to the carnal pleasures of New York City’s elite with the utmost discretion. Whatever you desire, Miss Necia’s stable of attractive, exotic and sexually skilled women can provide. But make even one mistake and you’re banned for life.
Rules are rules, and they keep the clients from getting out of line with Miss Necia as well as her “brood.”
Of course, underneath her tough-gal mistress persona, Janice longs for love and even romance. She’s been speed-dating her way through the usual crowd of losers and leftovers when she meets Salt – a man who intrigues her with his insight into both her footwear and her professional power. Has Janice finally met her match?
Sugar & Salt sets up the world in which Janice lives and works as a full-time mistress in charge of about a dozen sex workers. What could come off as a never-ending lingerie party is much more about business than pleasure, with an in-house bodyguard lurking just below the stairs and watching clients’ every move. The girls themselves are kept at a remove from prying eyes, both in terms of the clients that seek them out and as far as readers who want a peek behind those velvet curtains. We only meet Portia, Janice’s assistant (and not a working girl herself), and Caitrin, a friend who runs the neighboring burlesque club, for a taste of what happens behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, Janice runs her business more like an executive in a bustier than the dominatrix I originally pictured, based on the book’s description. Everything is ledgers and scheduling, leafing through background info on potentially dangerous clients and arranging dates for the rest. Not quite the sexy underworld one imagines when thinking of prostitution – legal or otherwise.
On the personal side, however, Janice’s romantic streak runs wide, and her desire to connect with a man she considers her equal is natural. When you’ve already got it all, at least in the material realm, who doesn’t want to find someone with whom to share it? Her connection with Salt is both humorous and sexy; she is first drawn in by his admission that he refuses to recycle, nicknaming him “Greenpeace,” until she finally discovers his true moniker.
Without giving away too much of the plot, I really liked the fact that Janice, a woman living a decidedly off-the-books life, met her match in someone so completely her opposite. The element of personal and professional danger that Tyler sets up when Salt’s employer is revealed sets off quite the chain reaction of guilt, fear and the simple insistence that love cannot, in fact, conquer all. Salt, for all his commanding presence and high-minded ideals, is a bit naïve about the very thing he does for a living. And Janice, though a much more hard-nosed realist about the danger he presents, still can’t deny her emotions or her libido.
One element of Sugar & Salt that still had me puzzled by the novella’s end was the repeated reference to Janice’s failed personal life. Was this doomed relationship the motivation for her to open the Sugar House, or was it an unrelated affair? Who was this mystery man that broke her heart, and what exactly happened there? How long has Janice been running her underground business, anyway, and what prompted her to set it up in the first place? As this is just the first novella in a planned series, perhaps these questions will be addressed in future installments, though I did find them nagging at me with their shadowy insinuations – particularly in reference to Janice’s conservative Congressman father.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this short and sexy novella, and wanted more when I reached the end. Sugar and Salt are certainly not a perfect match, and their relationship does have that star-crossed, ill-fated lovers element that suggests it can’t possibly last, but perhaps this pair will surprise us in the end. After all, who knows what might happen between the bedroom and the bordello?
(Originally posted at Black Heart Magazine)
Rules are rules, and they keep the clients from getting out of line with Miss Necia as well as her “brood.”
Of course, underneath her tough-gal mistress persona, Janice longs for love and even romance. She’s been speed-dating her way through the usual crowd of losers and leftovers when she meets Salt – a man who intrigues her with his insight into both her footwear and her professional power. Has Janice finally met her match?
Sugar & Salt sets up the world in which Janice lives and works as a full-time mistress in charge of about a dozen sex workers. What could come off as a never-ending lingerie party is much more about business than pleasure, with an in-house bodyguard lurking just below the stairs and watching clients’ every move. The girls themselves are kept at a remove from prying eyes, both in terms of the clients that seek them out and as far as readers who want a peek behind those velvet curtains. We only meet Portia, Janice’s assistant (and not a working girl herself), and Caitrin, a friend who runs the neighboring burlesque club, for a taste of what happens behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, Janice runs her business more like an executive in a bustier than the dominatrix I originally pictured, based on the book’s description. Everything is ledgers and scheduling, leafing through background info on potentially dangerous clients and arranging dates for the rest. Not quite the sexy underworld one imagines when thinking of prostitution – legal or otherwise.
On the personal side, however, Janice’s romantic streak runs wide, and her desire to connect with a man she considers her equal is natural. When you’ve already got it all, at least in the material realm, who doesn’t want to find someone with whom to share it? Her connection with Salt is both humorous and sexy; she is first drawn in by his admission that he refuses to recycle, nicknaming him “Greenpeace,” until she finally discovers his true moniker.
Without giving away too much of the plot, I really liked the fact that Janice, a woman living a decidedly off-the-books life, met her match in someone so completely her opposite. The element of personal and professional danger that Tyler sets up when Salt’s employer is revealed sets off quite the chain reaction of guilt, fear and the simple insistence that love cannot, in fact, conquer all. Salt, for all his commanding presence and high-minded ideals, is a bit naïve about the very thing he does for a living. And Janice, though a much more hard-nosed realist about the danger he presents, still can’t deny her emotions or her libido.
One element of Sugar & Salt that still had me puzzled by the novella’s end was the repeated reference to Janice’s failed personal life. Was this doomed relationship the motivation for her to open the Sugar House, or was it an unrelated affair? Who was this mystery man that broke her heart, and what exactly happened there? How long has Janice been running her underground business, anyway, and what prompted her to set it up in the first place? As this is just the first novella in a planned series, perhaps these questions will be addressed in future installments, though I did find them nagging at me with their shadowy insinuations – particularly in reference to Janice’s conservative Congressman father.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this short and sexy novella, and wanted more when I reached the end. Sugar and Salt are certainly not a perfect match, and their relationship does have that star-crossed, ill-fated lovers element that suggests it can’t possibly last, but perhaps this pair will surprise us in the end. After all, who knows what might happen between the bedroom and the bordello?
(Originally posted at Black Heart Magazine)