Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Portia Da Costa & the fun of anonymous dirty letters

I love books about librarians. I love books with letters in them, and I love excellently smutty books. Needless to say, I was super excited to get In Too Deep, Portia Da Costa's latest, which manages to be all three.

From the back: Librarian Gwendolyne Price begins to find indecent proposals and sexy stories in her suggestion box. [..etc.]

So, I'm only just past the first letter, but it occurred to me that Portia Da Costa really sort of set herself a hard task. (Well, maybe not hard for her, but it seemed so to me). And that is, how do you make anonymous dirty letters not stalkerly or creepy?

Portia Da Costa pulls it off by making them well written, even slyly literary, like you can sense a mind behind them that's intelligent and observant and thoughtful (in addition to being face-reddeningly indecent).  I'm finding it all highly enjoyable.

I'll be interested in how she cranks the letters concept up through the book. I have an idea already of who wrote them. Yay!

Look at the cover - isn't it great? With all the books?

Reading in general, not to mention writing longhand letters, are both sort of bookish, buttoned-up things to do, old-fashioned activities with a slower pace, but then you look at the content and it's another thing altogether. 

This whole thing appeals to me greatly, I don't know why. Maybe it appeals to my own inner prim-on-the-outside librarian.

16 comments:

Portia Da Costa said...

I'm scared now... eek!

Carolyn Crane said...

Oh, don't be! I'm totally enjoying this book.

Sarai said...

Oh God sign me up everything I want and you made me chuckle with the stalker comment. I must get this book.
Thanks for the heads up.

Tracy said...

I've wanted to read this forever and still haven't! Why is that? I have no idea! lol I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Jenre said...

I've not heard of this book before. Why not, I wonder? Thanks for bringing it to my attention, CJ. It sounds just up my street.

orannia said...

And that is, how do you make anonymous dirty letters not stalkerly or creepy?

Talent? Question - is the book consist entirely of letters or are the letters interspersed within the text?

Carolyn Crane said...

Sarai: Try it!

Tracy: I'll let you know!!

Jenre: What street is that?

Orianna: No, there's text, too. In fact, much more text than letter.

Renee said...

I've seen this one, and that very "stalker-ish" concern is why I've hesitated. Looking forward to how it all turns out! :-)

Christine said...

I'm completely intrigued by this book as well now. Seriously... it sounds very smart, romantic, and extremely sexy! Keep reading and tell us more, CJ! Although, I'm pretty much sold already.

Jenre said...

What street is that?

Oops, don't you use that phrase in the US?

Tried to buy this book, but it's not available as an ebook :(. Never mind, I'll stick it on my Amazon wish list for the next time I put in an order from them.

Carolyn Crane said...

Renee: I will give my full report!

Christine! Hiya! Well, so far so good, and I always so love Da Costa's work.

Jenre: I was kidding. Sort of a dumb joke.

Ladytink_534 said...

Oh books about librarians, especially romances are the best! I believe that's why I picked up Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden series even if it wasn't a paranormal. I'll have to see about trying this, thanks!

Portia Da Costa said...

Hi Jenre

Sorry about there being no ebook of ITD... it *was* available at Books on Board at one time, but it's disappeared now. :(

No idea how that happened... how can you 'run out' of an ebook?

Notice you're from West Yorkshire... so am I!

Kwana said...

This sounds like lots of sexy scary fun.

Jenre said...

Hi Portia.

Ah, a fellow Yorkshirewoman! *waves*

I always assume that everyone I meet on the blogs comes from the US or Canada.

Carolyn Crane said...

Kwana: Reading further, it's not all that scary. Though who knows what's in store!

Jenre: Neighbors!