OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Girlbank Trap" by Tracey Aberdare.]
The Girlbank Trap by Tracy Aberdare follows the story of Jenna, an innocent young woman that finds herself in a trick situation after becoming a member of the rather hush-hush organization called the Girlbank. Basically this place facilitates the exchange of services. On the one hand there are services of the mundane type, such as: car repairs, piano lessons and rent. On the other, these services are paid with sex. This arrangement that at the beginning seemed to be a win-win situation between the male and female counterparts, sooner rather than later turns sour as Jenna finds herself in unwanted debt, and things escalate rather quickly from that point.

This book contains lewd language and sexually explicit situations, and with each chapter you will find an increase in the complexity of the sexual activities and the violence. In my opinion this book went from not to sixty way too fast, but that is just my taste. I felt like there was little to none character development, or foreplay, and it went straight into to the spicy scenes, but I believe it was appropriate considering the scenario that Aberdare had set for the story.

The sexy parts of the book become an amalgam that try to cater for different tastes, but personally I wished that there had been a warning somewhere about what could have been excepted in the book, because (and this is just me) I do not go for that S&M sort of stuff. Therefore you can see how the escalation from typical spicy scenes to the more sort of niche stuff took me by surprise (and not the pleasant kind).

In regards to the story, there is no doubt in my mind that the sex is the central part of it, which left the verisimilitude of the situation, and some times the coherence of it all a bit lacking, after all, the main objective was to make way for the spicy scenes, the rest was filler. The resolution of the story also seems a bit rushed, too deus ex machina for my taste, as magically in the last two pages a truly tragic experience is resolved by the apparition of, literally, a knight in shinny armor.

Now, about the edition — which in my case was in PDF format — I thought that it was a bit so-so, which means that there is still space for improvement, but I wasn’t blown away by it. The size and font is legible and amiable. Nonetheless, the separation between one chapter and another is nonexistent, making it seem accidental and sloppy. Personally I think that this edition has initially started as a format other than PDF and then it was put through one of those programs that generates an ebook for other devices, which would account for its unbalanced look, seeming well crafted in some parts, and rushed in others.

All in all I give The Girlbank Trap 2 out of 4 stars.

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Buy "The Girlbank Trap" on Amazon

Declaration of interest: I have written genre fiction not for years but for decades. I am the author of 27 published (not self-published) novels, and The Girlbank Trap is the first to appear under the "Tracey Aberdare" name. I have also been employed in the past as a fiction editor by two major London publishers.

I am posting in the hope that readers deterred from sampling The Girlbank Trap by this site's "official review" will reconsider that decision in the light of the facts, which are somewhat different from the way reviewer roguexunited presents them. Different extracts from the book are available as samples at Amazon, Smashwords, and publisher Chimera Books' website.

I have no quarrel with a reviewer who has strong negative opinions based on personal taste, but several of roguexunited's contentions of what is actually in the book are as faulty as his or her spelling performance.

To begin at the beginning: Jenna is not an "innocent." At her story's very outset, it's plainly stated that she has been sharing a flat with a young man, and that this very full relationship is now over.

"Things escalate rather quickly," the reviewer says, and progress "way too fast." Well, no, they don't. The action of the 52,330-word novel takes place, in fact, over months rather than weeks. To slow down the pace by adding padding, and lengthening the book, would be to make it unsuitable for its intended market.

The reviewer wishes "that there had been a warning somewhere about what could have been excepted [sic] in the book." At the very top of the book's cover, centered, are the two words "Adult Fiction," which have been treated by the publishing industry for many years now as its equivalent of an R18 movie category. The book is categorized by Amazon as "erotica," it cannot be accessed at Smashwords without clicking the Adult Content box, and readers cannot enter the Chimera website without agreeing that they do not find sexually explicit material offensive. From roguexunited's comments, it's clear that he or she would find any BDSM story "unpleasant," although the category has been popular since the 1990s and has enjoyed a resurgence with the growth of the ebook.

The blurb alone should make the reader aware that The Girlbank Trap was not written as a "spicy romance" of the Harlequin, Mills & Boon type. It was written to fulfill the requirements of the Chimera guidelines. No writer of experience, or intelligence, would dream of submitting the book to an editor at Harlequin or a similar publishing house. The central premise would rule out its acceptance.

Roguexunited finds "the verisimilitude of the situation, and some times the coherence of it all a bit lacking...." Sorry, the book is designed as an escapist romp, not as an exercise in "verisimilitude." As for lack of "coherence," my editor and I find no incoherency whatsoever. The internal logic of the plot stacks up neatly and tidily.

Then roguexunited really goes over the top in describing the resolution of the story as deus ex machina, "as magically in the last two pages a truly tragic experience is resolved by the apparition of, literally, a knight in shinny [sic] armor."

I can assure prospective readers that the last chapter of The Girlbank Trap contains no magic, no apparitions, and no armor (just a metal face mask). Moreover, in my PDF printout, Jenna's escape and rescue covers eight pages, 148 to 156. The intervention of her savior should also come as no "deus ex machina" surprise to the astute and attentive reader. Ah yes, he or she will say, that fellow has already made several previous attempts to save Jenna from her plight, from page 102 onwards. He was also present, and much impressed, far, far earlier in the book, too! (I hope that's not a spoiler.)

And incidentally, PDF is not the ideal format for a book intended to be read on an e-reader.