Lip Service

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: MJ Rose has successfully created an intriguing psychological story that also contains some hot sex scenes. Julia Sterling is an uptown Manhattanite with a seemingly picture perfect life but underneath the pristing layer of her "sterling" existence lie relationships so richly layered and dysfunctional they ring almost too true.Through a journalistic assignment Julia is introduced to the world of phone sex where she litterally discovers her voice. Her sexual awakening also brings about an awakening of her entire life. MJ Rose has given us one of the most convincing women characters in erotic fiction. Every facet of Julia's personality is so well rounded you'll swear you know her, or at least have met her. Sex industry labels merge with roles such as mother, wife and friend in ways that are not only belivable but definitely needed.Riddled with erotica and woven full of intense drama, Lip Service is not only hard to put down but stays with you long after you're done. this is a great first novel and a definite must read!

Rating:
Summary: A Five Star Review
Review: "Goes farther and Deeper than VOX" M.J. Rose's LIP SERVICE probably won't be a best seller, but only because it's self- published and falls into the netherworld of the erotic novel genre. That's unfortunate, because this book is more than one-handed reading-- it's just plain good reading with some super hot spots. The author has managed to incorporate details of the phone sex life into a literary novel with intricate plot, fully developed characters and dramatic tension. Woven into a normal story of a normal woman and her somewhat normal, troubled marriage, is the story spend her time and earn her livelihood making strange men come over the phone.

I highly recommend Lip Service as a work of fiction that deals honestly with phone sex while maintaining a fairly high literary standard. For those who thought Nicholson Baker made the ultimate and deeper by focusing on the real world of the real call girl.

Reviewed By Marcy Sheiner, editor of Herotica 4 and 5 (Plume) and the Write Erotica, due out in Spring 1999 (Cleis), and is writing Sex for the Clueless, to be published by Citadel in the fall of 1999. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good!
Review: Lip Service is a very interesting book. The author draws you into the world of phone sex in a concept that I didn't expect. The conclusion of the story seems abrupt and could have used a bit more detail. However, it's an interesting story and is very enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: This novel offers a fascinating view into the world of phone sex. The believable heroine does not anticipate how becoming a telephone sex therapist will force her to confront some of her own sexual issues, blowing apart her carefully constructed world. The book is fun to read and hard to put down.

Rating:
Summary: Read this author again and again
Review: Lip Service sizzles. Everyone has wondered what the phone sex world must be like. This erotic taste of that world is exciting and suspenseful, like M.J. Rose's other books. Pick it up for a super summer read. It's hotter than the beach.

Rating:
Summary: NOTE from the author - I've not written any reviews:
Review: The reviews that you see with my name on them were sent to me by honest to God real readers who asked me to post for them. This was done becuase these folk were not very savvy with the net and I have all their origninal notes and emails to me.

I wasn't aware that the posts would appear with my name on them as well as the readers. I'm sorry if it is misleading. And the only reason I've given the book four starts is that I couldn't submit this note without stars.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!!
Review: This is an incredible book. I believe we find what we need when we need it. Reading about Julia made me feel like I wasn't alone. I'm glad I read it before I read these reviews. Some of them are way off base. Then there are all the reviews from the author. I guess they are to counteract the bad reviews. but they just aren't necessary. I am recommending Lip Service to all the women i know.

Rating:
Summary: question about the ending
Review: i read the book lip service i loved it but at the end i was confused is there a second half of the book that talks about her getting together with the guy jack she fell in love with cause to me the ending was not really saying to much about her getting together with jack or whatever else is going on...thanks

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: What an interesting concept for a book. I picked this book up at a bargain price thinking it might be an interesting read and I'd get around to it when I had nothing else to read. I'm glad that I finally picked it up! It was such an intriguing tale of sex, lust, love, and maybe even crime. I could feel Julia's pain as she struggled to find the truth in her seemingly loveless marriage and her confusion of feelings with her best friend.

I found the book to be very erotic, until the story got embroiled in a possible crime. It was a very strange feeling going from erotic to disgusting and/or criminal. Total paradox. I enjoyed the book and the plot was one that I had not previously encountered. I definitely found this book intriguing and was glad that I finally picked it up to read!

Rating:
Summary: Dial 1-900-NOT-SO-HOT
Review: I was really disappointed in this self-published novel by M. J. Rose. Although it's regarded as an erotic novel, I found the use of sex in the story quite unimaginative. The sexuality itself pretty stereotypical, almost in caricature, and it really is not used in a creative way to advance the plot.

The characters in this story are drawn one-dimensional. This is quite ironic given that psychiatry/psychology plays a heavy role in the story (the protagonist (Julia) works in the sex clinic run by a psychiatrist). The characters are rendered no more complex than cartoon characters, rather than the richly complicated beings that psychiatry/psychology shows us all to be. The real drama in life is that within ourselves, and how our own complexity interacts with others' - not the simplistic relationships of narrow characters that Rose has written.

My guess is that the author tried to do too much in this novel and ended up short-circuiting her purposes. There are too many subplots for a short novel: Julia's journalistic project to write about the sex clinic, her concern about her loveless marriage, something fishy going on with her husband's business, Julia's ambiguous relationship with an old flame, and her stepson's relationship with his girlfriend. With all these subplots going on, it's no wonder the author couldn't sustain erotic tension as well.

My own personal beef: I was severely disturbed by the ethical transgressions by proprietors of the sex clinic and the suggestion that Julia really could become a clinical paraprofessional with only a few hours training. Perhaps I should have suspended disbelief, but as a licensed counselor, I am quite bothered when the profession is portrayed as simplistic or unethical.

Rose lost a great chance at showing how Julia might discover her own sexuality while being caught up in the intrigue in the sex clinic...and show how her own sexuality played out in the various relationships in her life. She might also have tackled the thorny issue of whether "phone sex" really is sex...but no, in the end we are left with a rather thin story with neither substantial dramatic or erotic tension. Pity.