Official Review: Sizzle by Sheridan Kesselman
Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 14:46
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sizzle" by Sheridan Kesselman.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Sizzle, written by Sheridan Kesselman, is an erotic novel that center’s around the life of Mackenzie Stark. When Mackenzie is first introduced, she is a middle-aged psychologist who is looking to continue her exciting, adventurous sexual life by devouring a German man who is half her age. Though this is where the novel begins, Kesselman takes the audience through every stage in Mackenzie’s life. Mackenzie is a sexually free being who is not afraid to sleep with who she wants, whenever she wants no matter if they are married or even if she is in a relationship.
In this novel Mackenzie is writing her life story of her sexual conquests in a journal. Though it is written in a journal like style, the story does not follow any chronological order. The reader gets pieces of Mackenzie’s life whenever the author wants to give them to you. Though I found this style of writing interesting, it was also confusing at times.
What I liked about this novel is that it began with a bang. The opening sentence is, “I AM A SOCIOPATH, AND … dancing, music and f****** are my three favorite things” (Sizzle p8). This story pushes all of its chips to the center of the table for an all in bet as soon as it begins. The beginning of this book really caught my attention and caused me to instantly make a connection with Mackenzie. Though she is a complete immoral human being, within the first few chapters I found myself embarrassed and simply worried for her as a character.
What I didn’t like about this novel is that it could not hold my attention past the first third of the book. This truly disappointed me because the novel began strong, but slowly and surely the excitement dwindled away. This is mainly because the entire story is very repetitive. We are taken through one sexual conquest after the other. No matter what the next fantasy Kesselman decided to tackle, I could guess what was going to happen next. The story simply lacks substance. I also found that this novel was unnecessarily long simply because the story was repetitive, I rarely felt as if I was learning something new.
The only story line that kept me reading this novel was Mackenzie’s three days with the German man who is half her age. This is the story line that the summary of the novel advertises. Though these three days are suppose to be what this novel is centered on, I found that there just was not that much written about it. This story line was maybe 10% of the entire novel, which is very disappointing because it is the most interesting.
I also did not like that this novel ends on a cliffhanger. I understand that the author wants to keep the excitement going for her next installment, but this cliffhanger simply left me feeling as if this novel was not complete. This is the case because the cliffhanger was introduced right in the middle of this story’s resolution, which in turn made me feel like the story didn’t resolve.
I am giving this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars because though the beginning was intriguing, it quickly lost its appeal. Because of its constant repetition, this novel became less of a story and more of journal of sexual experiences. In addition, the summary of the novel is very misleading. If I was not constantly searching for the story line that was advertised, I may not have grown bored reading the actual novel as quickly as I did.
Though I rated this novel as two stars, I believe that some will like this book if they know what they are actually going to be reading. I think middle-aged women would like this novel because it is written from the perspective of a middle-aged woman who is reminiscing on her sexually adventurous life. I also think that those who like an abundance of tasteful erotic scenes would like this novel. On the contrary, this story is not for you if you are looking for a quick read or if you are a person who wants to see a story evolve.
******
Sizzle
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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2 out of 4 stars
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Sizzle, written by Sheridan Kesselman, is an erotic novel that center’s around the life of Mackenzie Stark. When Mackenzie is first introduced, she is a middle-aged psychologist who is looking to continue her exciting, adventurous sexual life by devouring a German man who is half her age. Though this is where the novel begins, Kesselman takes the audience through every stage in Mackenzie’s life. Mackenzie is a sexually free being who is not afraid to sleep with who she wants, whenever she wants no matter if they are married or even if she is in a relationship.
In this novel Mackenzie is writing her life story of her sexual conquests in a journal. Though it is written in a journal like style, the story does not follow any chronological order. The reader gets pieces of Mackenzie’s life whenever the author wants to give them to you. Though I found this style of writing interesting, it was also confusing at times.
What I liked about this novel is that it began with a bang. The opening sentence is, “I AM A SOCIOPATH, AND … dancing, music and f****** are my three favorite things” (Sizzle p8). This story pushes all of its chips to the center of the table for an all in bet as soon as it begins. The beginning of this book really caught my attention and caused me to instantly make a connection with Mackenzie. Though she is a complete immoral human being, within the first few chapters I found myself embarrassed and simply worried for her as a character.
What I didn’t like about this novel is that it could not hold my attention past the first third of the book. This truly disappointed me because the novel began strong, but slowly and surely the excitement dwindled away. This is mainly because the entire story is very repetitive. We are taken through one sexual conquest after the other. No matter what the next fantasy Kesselman decided to tackle, I could guess what was going to happen next. The story simply lacks substance. I also found that this novel was unnecessarily long simply because the story was repetitive, I rarely felt as if I was learning something new.
The only story line that kept me reading this novel was Mackenzie’s three days with the German man who is half her age. This is the story line that the summary of the novel advertises. Though these three days are suppose to be what this novel is centered on, I found that there just was not that much written about it. This story line was maybe 10% of the entire novel, which is very disappointing because it is the most interesting.
I also did not like that this novel ends on a cliffhanger. I understand that the author wants to keep the excitement going for her next installment, but this cliffhanger simply left me feeling as if this novel was not complete. This is the case because the cliffhanger was introduced right in the middle of this story’s resolution, which in turn made me feel like the story didn’t resolve.
I am giving this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars because though the beginning was intriguing, it quickly lost its appeal. Because of its constant repetition, this novel became less of a story and more of journal of sexual experiences. In addition, the summary of the novel is very misleading. If I was not constantly searching for the story line that was advertised, I may not have grown bored reading the actual novel as quickly as I did.
Though I rated this novel as two stars, I believe that some will like this book if they know what they are actually going to be reading. I think middle-aged women would like this novel because it is written from the perspective of a middle-aged woman who is reminiscing on her sexually adventurous life. I also think that those who like an abundance of tasteful erotic scenes would like this novel. On the contrary, this story is not for you if you are looking for a quick read or if you are a person who wants to see a story evolve.
******
Sizzle
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like BColeman's review? Post a comment saying so!