Title:
The Completeness
of Celia Flynn:
Tarot--The Hanged
Man

Author:
Vivian Hart

Published By:
eXtasy Books

ISBN #:
1-55410-117-4

Release Date:
Available Now

Format:
Electronic

This story takes place at the end of World War I (1917). Celia Flynn is a young Irish woman who, like many women of the time, has suffered the loss of many men close to her. Her father died unexpectedly before the War, and her two brothers and fiancé were killed in the trenches. Now she can only dream of her three friends from childhood, Robert, Patrick, and Frederick, and hope that they will come back to her. When they were young, they were as close as any friends could be. Celia knew that she loved each of them dearly, and could not make a choice among them, so she sent them all away.

Now, the Flynn home has been commissioned by the government as a hospital for returning soldiers with minor wounds. Celia knows that Robert, Patrick, and Freddie will come back from the War, damaged in body and spirit. Will they still love her? Will she still love them?

This is a longish short story from a time period that is not often used in romances. Celia is a woman who, true to her up-bringing, fears doing something of which society (in the persona of her mother) does not approve. So, although she truly loves these three men, and longs to be the lover of all three, she refuses them out of shame or fear of shame. Then “The Great War” intervenes, and Celia learns that one should take hold of happiness when it is offered, because who knows what the future might bring. I thought that this premise was very interesting, although somewhat awkwardly executed. However, I did enjoy the story because of its finely written eroticism. The love scenes are quite explicit, and contain masturbation, man/woman, ménage à trois, and oral sex.

Reviewed by: Jean