O’Brien is a widely known lesbian erotica fiction writer with thousands of positive ratings and reviews on GoodReads. I came across her “The Sex Therapist Next Door” in a local book store, and, actually, wasn’t too enthusiastic about it since I knew nothing about the author back then. I was only attracted by the name of the novel, that was it.
To my great surprise, I read, no, binge-read it in a couple of evenings. I was intrigued by not the hot scenes alone, but by the storyline, mainly. Who knew regular erotica could be something more than just a bunch of sex scenes?
The main character, Diana, is a sex therapist with deep emotional trauma. She survived an abusive relationship and, expectedly, doesn’t seem to want any emotional intimacy in the foreseen future herself. Ironically, she needs to teach others the importance of healthy sexuality.
Her neighbor, Jude, has a crush on Diana. So no wonder when the sex therapist next door out of a sudden invites her to be an assistant at a sexual education workshop, Jude doesn’t need to think for long. A beautiful lesbian affair starts from now on, and who knows, maybe that’s what Diana was looking for to get rid of the ghosts of her past?
An unusually deep erotic story which is not only steamy as hell, but also romantic. O’Brien makes you actually care about her characters, their feelings, thoughts, fears, and desires. It’s not only an erotic novel, it’s a story of an emotional revolution of two women – the one that is scared to be loved and the one that wants to love and to be loved in return.