Ooh! How'd you do that?

A friend of mine made it available. I swear I will pre-order the legit version!

And I am not a big crier, no. I'm more likely to get choked up by sports stories for some reason: I cried when watching a story during the Olympics years ago when a Nigerian swimmer who had never competed in a full-size pool was cheered on by the crowd so loudly that he thought he was winning his race. I got choked up by the story of the softball player who broke her ankle as she hit a home-run and the opposing team carried her around the bases. Oh, and stories about animals.

But mostly fiction doesn't' make me weepy, but Cooper really nails the emotional impact in FitzOsbornes at War, and I was pretty sniffly for several minutes. It's a worthy finale to the series, I have to say.

(I've had it at Flora, which has an enormous print of the novel's cover on the wall.)

It's also in Barney's apartment!

I went through my Goodreads, and I think this is the best book I've read since The Shadow of the Wind, September 2010. I've read a lot of great books since then, but nothing of this caliber. And I think the two books do share a few similarities that illuminate my tastes. I like sprawling narratives with evocative details of time and place, filled with Dickensian coincidences and narrative ironies, with different characters' plotlines intersecting.

Hmm. I will have to check it out. I suppose I should get a Goodreads account.

(And yes, the Shadow of the Wind was also awesome, and I really like that.)

I sometimes get choked up reading Where the Wild Things Are, so that's my measuring stick.

Right there with you Amy.

So a friend of mine is looking for recommendations for things sort of like 50 Shades of Gray but better-written and without the fic element.

Basically, mom-friendly porn erotica porn. Het, BDSM-ish.

Any ideas?

I'll post some tomorrow -- I have to look up a few names.

Emma Holly had some good stuff (her older stuff--some erotica, and including the historical romances, but I haven't read her paranormals), but I didn't enjoy some of the more recent erotica as much (some of the sex scenes were still good, but the "plots" got more than a little ridiculous, and I like my erotica to be character-or-plot driven, and not just "hey, there's hot people! And they have sex! A lot! In different combos and different positions! Hello new person! Let's have SEXXORING!")

BDSM-ish.

Huh. I'm not so good on the "ish." (Everything I think of is less "ish" and more...intense.) Maybe Anais Nin? Although she's not BDSM-y.

Basically my friend heard a professional colleague going on about 50 Shades and, as a long-time ficreader (and occasional writer), made the mistake of saying, "Oh, there's much better-written stuff than that out there!"

--and the colleague said, "Titles and authors, please!"

So, as my friend cannot reveal herself as a ficreader, she needs to come up with something to tell the woman.

I'd second the Emma Holly recommendation - some of her earlier stuff. um ... Menage, Cooking Up a Storm, Velvet Fist (? not sure of that last title).