Philophobia, a fear of love, can negatively affect one’s ability to have meaningful relationships. A painful breakup or rejection during childhood may lead to philophobia and leave one afraid to fall in love. Nymphomania was formerly used as a term for excessive sexual desire in a woman, a paraphilia the result of a psychological inability to achieve sexual satisfaction.
Sundee Valenzueala is a 23-year-old college student with an excessive sexual desire but a fear of love or commitment. One lonely weekend, she teases a man, hoping for a date.
That man, Quinten Steele, is an ex-Coast Guard sailor rebounding from a relationship. After their initial date, he falls in love with Sundee, but her philophobia keeps her from falling in love with him.
Over the summer, Sundee changes her job at a grocery store to make it through college and becomes an exotic dancer. To pay her bills and sexual needs.
Quinn assists his private investigator friend being an undercover agent. As an agent, he joins a neo-Nazi white supremacist militia, trafficking teenage women.
Will Sundee fall in love with Quinn? Will they and their friends stop the militia and save the girls?
Philophobia, a fear of love, can negatively affect one’s ability to have meaningful relationships. A painful breakup or rejection during childhood may lead to philophobia and leave one afraid to fall in love. Nymphomania was formerly used as a term for excessive sexual desire in a woman, a paraphilia the result of a psychological inability to achieve sexual satisfaction.
Sundee Valenzueala is a 23-year-old college student with an excessive sexual desire but a fear of love or commitment. One lonely weekend, she teases a man, hoping for a date.
That man, Quinten Steele, is an ex-Coast Guard sailor rebounding from a relationship. After their initial date, he falls in love with Sundee, but her philophobia keeps her from falling in love with him.
Over the summer, Sundee changes her job at a grocery store to make it through college and becomes an exotic dancer. To pay her bills and sexual needs.
Quinn assists his private investigator friend being an undercover agent. As an agent, he joins a neo-Nazi white supremacist militia, trafficking teenage women.
Will Sundee fall in love with Quinn? Will they and their friends stop the militia and save the girls?
An extraordinary woman’s purgatory was evident that day.
“Clean-up in Aisle Four,” said a voice over the Sunrise Shoppe grocery store’s intercom.
“Sundee, get that,” said Gayle Perkins, one of the store’s supervisors.
Twenty-three-year-old Sundee Valenzuela (a.k.a. Dee) had worked there the last three summers. “Yeah, just got to get this yogurt put away.”
“No, now!”
Rolling her eyes with discouragement, Sundee returned the yogurt to the box. As she left the box and the cart in the aisle, she knew it was in the customers’ way.
“That’s not something Sunrise Shoppes wants its employees to do,” she said aloud to Gayle.
“The clean-up is the priority,” Gayle said back.
Biting her lip, Sundee knew if another supervisor saw the unattended cart, she would be the one to catch hell, not Gayle. But Gayle, a disheveled forty-year-old divorcée, hated Sundee’s looks and youth.
Sundee arrived in aisle four to see the remains of a 24-ounce jar of pickles. The jar had been knocked off a shelf. Glass, pickles, and vinegar created the mess. She returned to the warehouse to grab a mop and bucket to clean it up.
Dee was away from college for the third consecutive summer, working to get a degree and hoping to become a teacher for elementary students. Ms. Valenzuela had great humor and was known for her common witty remarks. Intelligent and attractive, her curly black hair fell below the shirt’s collar, covering her 5’ 7”, 130- pound body. Oversized glasses accented her brown eyes. The wardrobe made her desirable, even in her grocery store shirt. She was a person you had to invent a reason not to like.
Sundee had grown up poor, the only child of a single mother, Maria Guevara, whom she called Mami. Her mother spent most of Dee’s life as the cleaning lady for a wealthy Texas oil billionaire. Sundee’s father joined the Marine Corps and died in Iraq when she was four. She knew nothing about him, only knew him as “her father,” unsure of his given name, and Mami told her he had abandoned them. The only times she spent with Mami were Sunday mornings in church. They moved around relatives’ houses in San Antonio, and Dee never spent more than one year at the same school. After an uncle gave her a car, Sundee was at the Reagan Public High School for two years. A teacher there mentored her to become a teacher, and through a scholarship, college in Seattle became her path.
Randy, a warehouse coworker, saw her gathering the clean-up equipment. “What spilled?” he asked, trying to spark a conversation.
“A 24-ounce jar of pickles,” Sundee said, wheeling the bucket out of the warehouse. “One of you guys may want to bring a jar to replace it.” She asked, “You guys have ‘pickles,’ don’t you?” Not waiting for an answer, she wheeled out the door.
Though her manner would suggest otherwise, in her heart, Sundee was insecure.
Mami took her father’s death hard, as she was not ready to be a single mother. Sundee paid the price. Dee left for college just after graduating high school, and Mami remarried. Keeping in touch with her grew less and less.
Seattle was her home now.
Because of studying, she had no good friends in High School. Dee wanted to teach and was always working on her grades. Seattle had the best scholarship offer for her to gain a college degree. As her Mami knew only Spanish, teaching her was the closest they became.
Seattle was also her first time on her own. Back home in San Antonio, she grew up Catholic and thought sex was a sin. Then puberty hit, and Sundee discovered masturbation. Despite it being a sin, she liked it.
Sundee constantly questioned authority, wondering why it was a sin. Playing with those naughty parts, she enjoyed the consistent build-up until she finally escaped through orgasm. The only person she had to please was herself. She did not disappoint anyone else, and no one in her life would leave her behind.
Once in Seattle, she discovered her insatiable sexual appetite. As her world opened, many came to her bed.
While she loved sex, Sunday had no room for relationships. Too much loss in her life left her afraid to lose again. Dee would have sex once or twice with a guy and then push him away. A potential relationship left him on the roadside after the foray. She was a quick and easy screw and a tease at college.
For Sundee, sex was not limited to men. Sundee even rolled around with other ladies. A double sin. Sex with someone of the same gender!
Underconfident with their sexuality, women sought relationships more than men did. The men could blame sex on their hormones. Women wanted more. Even though society was opening, being a lesbian was a scarlet letter. Women needed to explain their new “friend” to family members. Sundee wanted none of that.
Dee liked a cock in her. She loved the power and the feeling that a man had no control but to empty himself. The conquest overwhelmed her when he fell onto her chest, physically spent.
Back at the store, a coworker shouted after Dee left the warehouse. “I have a 12-inch pickle to give Sundee.”
“Me too,” Randy laughed back.
This summer, her classmates left town; it had been months since Sundee had sex with anyone. Even the guys in the warehouse were growing desirable to Dee.
As she rolled the bucket out to the spill, Sundee squatted down. Carefully, she picked up the broken glass and the pickles. She gathered a broom to sweep up any remaining glass. Then, she rolled the bucket back to the warehouse.
Upon her return, Randy commented to her. “Many guys here say they have 10 inches of a pickle for you.”
Sundee stopped and put her hands on her hips, addressing Randy like the elementary school teacher she was studying to become.
Everyone in the warehouse could hear.
“Well, you all know I prefer whole juicy dill pickles that spill juice in your mouth with every bite.”
She turned away and left the warehouse. “I have no use for miniature sweet pickles.”
“Not yet, anyway,” she mumbled to herself. When was the last time she had sex with someone?
“Let’s see. The school was out in early May, and none since then. There were those roommates at that frat party celebrating the end of finals. But that was almost six weeks ago! I need to find someone.”
As she returned to the sales floor, the store’s manager approached. That was Mr. Henke, a skinny, balding man with a belly leaning out over his belt. He approached and spoke sternly at her. “Sundee, you shouldn’t have left that cart full of yogurt to sit in the aisle.”
“Gayle told me to get to the clean-up first. I was following her instructions.”
Mr. Henke stomped off. “Just get that yogurt put away ASAP!” “Yes, sir. I’ll get right to it!”
Looking up at the clock, she saw her shift would end in ten minutes. Today was a payday. “Hooray . . . Just enough money to add to the last bimonthly paycheck to make my rent payment, car payment, insurance, and buy something to drink at home.”
As she returned to put the yogurt away, she passed Gayle again. “Aisle four is clean. Mr. Henke never received your message about sending me out to do the clean-up.”
“What message?” Gayle sneered.
“Loser,” Sundee thought. She returned to the yogurt, and the box was empty in minutes. She carefully arranged each package, fronted it on the shelf, and ensured the correct price marker. Sundee wheeled the cart back to the warehouse.
She removed the badge from her work shirt, put it in her purse, tossed the shirt into the bin marked “To Wash,” and headed out the door.
Entrepreneur: Are you going too far is not for the faint of heart. It pushed the boundaries on what a woman's POV on sex should be and embellished the freedoms of sexual exploration. If you are looking for a conventional romance or doe-eyes female leads this is most certainly not the book for you.
The main character, Sundee Valenzuela, is a free spirit who loves sex and exhibitionism. This led to her giving a free show to a hunky stranger in a neighboring building. The hunky stranger turns out to be Quintin Steel, retired Marine turned garbage man and lead love interest. So I kind of like the unconventional job specs, not the usual conventional billionaire romance as our Sundee is anything but conventional.
Sundee has emotional attachment issues and is allergic to love where Quintin can't seem to get over his ex. Their story had so much potential but the execution and plotline were a bit dodgy. I think the premise of this story is fire hell hot but there are some things I think could take it to the next level:
- There needs to be consistency with the main character's name. At first, she was Sundee Valenzuela, then Dee, then Sundee, then Ms. Valenzuela. While this may seem trivial, the reader has to stop and align themselves instead of seamlessly gliding along with the novel
- The opening scene could have been way more impactful. If the author decided to use the first scene between Sundee and the mystery apartment guy instead of the grocery scene that would have been dynamite! It could have gone along the lines of …… the only thing Sundee Valenzuel aka Dee craved more than escape from her job was an orgasm. Sundee had a healthy appetite for sexual acts and craved a release to stave off her never-ending thirst for sexual thrills…..she reached inside her…….she felt eyes on her which only turned her on more……..this would hook the readers more than clean up on aisle pickle (just saying)
- If you're gonna write a naughty novel you have to commit to it. This means you have to set aside the nice flowery lines and get crude. Take this line for example, “Sitting on the couch, the young woman pulled her T-shirt over her head” … young woman???? What about the temptress, the siren, the femme fatale? Get dirty and descriptive honey.
- Coming down to the end it was blatantly obvious that some of the dialogue was recycled and entire paragraphs were repeated (editing mistake ?)
- The ending?? I am not sure if I did not get the full pages but what was that? No closure for any characters at all??
I reiterate the story has the potential to be a great piece but the plotline seeds to be visited, the dialogue seems a bit forced and the characters need to hit the peeks they're meant to.
Many thanks and appreciation to the Reedsy Discovery team and the author for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.