Telling Tales by Charlotte Stein

Telling Tales
by Charlotte Stein
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

My Review:
This story was so engrossing. It's told first person and it's so full and intriguing. There's a lot of things happening inside the heroine's mind, she's so complex and confused. Although the romance is technically between two people, there are four individuals working through this single relationship. That makes for a lot of creative sexual exploration.

Allie was in love with Wade all through college, but hasn't seen him in five years. When their old college professor leaves his mansion to both of them, along with two other people from their old writing group, they all meet at the house to get things sorted out. Cameron, Kitty, Allie and Wade have to live at the house for a month. Allie has some work to do in her relationship with each of these people. Kitty and Allie were best friends but haven't been that close lately. Cameron could be harboring secrets that he's never shared. Wade is losing a bit of his luster to Allie even as she still finds him attractive.

They all used to write and share stories when they were in college. As they try to get comfortable staying in the mansion, they revisit those times and share some recent stories that just happen to be a lot filthier than the ones from college. I loved seeing the stories within this story. They describe so much about each character's personality and inner life and they give an extra layer of fantasy to the intense emotions.

Through her stories, Allie was able to be whoever she wanted and give herself the control she felt like she was lacking from her real life. In her stories she was powerful, in control and always in demand. For a long time, I was hoping that Allie would grow a little more backbone and take control for herself outside the stories. Not that she never did, but it seemed like most of the time she did whatever anyone else wanted. Even when she was directing things, she let herself be led around. I wanted her to be completely aggressive on her own sometimes, without someone telling her what to do, but I also realized that in writing her stories, she could live the lives of all of her characters, not just the one that she felt was her. She was finding a way to live out and integrate every part of her personality, divided out in the story into all different characters. I appreciated the complexity of that and I felt by the end of the book she had a good grasp of who she was.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to like a book where the main relationship has sex with other people too, but the story was so well written it all seemed perfectly natural. These characters jump out of the page with their awkwardness, confusion and attempts to sort things out. I ended up completely in love with all of them. I'm hopeful that one day Kitty and Wade find their own emotional connections. They felt like such rich characters, I'd hate to never know what happens to them.

This story is really, really erotica, but still so fully a romance novel. I think it's probably the filthiest Charlotte Stein book I've read, which is saying a lot. I suspected some things at the start of the book, but was still shocked when they actually happened. And even more shocking that Charlotte Stein was able to take something that seems so outside the bound of romance and still make you care specifically about two of the people in the story so much more than the others.

There's angry sex and four-way action and all kinds of kinky stuff, but all positive and completely consensual. There is no pain, cruelty, or emotionally manipulative power plays involved in this kind of filthy sex. With all of the limbs, there were definitely times I stopped to figure out who's body was where. I'd have a certain picture in my head and then an arm would pop up in a place I didn't expect, but I know that's more the limits of my imagination vs a problem with the writing. On top of that, Charlotte Stein has the magical ability to take kinky stuff that would generally be more emotionally detached for me and make every situation about the characters inner lives. Every single kinky situation is backed up by reasons and emotions and a striving toward wholeness.

I loved how, while each of the characters had their issues, they didn't try to push their own emotions onto someone else. Everyone was in charge of their own feelings. Happy or sad, they never blamed someone else for the way they were feeling, or when things didn't work out the way they wanted. They were sweet and awkward and filthy, but lovely and so loveable I think I want one of each of them for my own. This book goes onto the re-read shelf for awesomeness, dirty sex, and emotional satisfaction.

I received a complementary ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.