Short Story Review: "Helping Hand" by Eden LaFont

A little bit of research and a lot more detail could have made this story so much better, but I applaud the author's willingness to go where so very, very few others have dared to go in romantic/erotic literature.  I would not recommend buying this short story, however, because it lacks some very important elements which are both basic and necessary for good erotic literature.

I really wanted to be turned on by this story.  Truly, I did, but there just wasn't enough detail in the story to build myself a mental picture of the male lead, and the sex in the story lacked the emotion and sensuality that draws female readers in and makes us really feel and connect with the eroticism of a story.  Female readers like a story that ignites our emotions and not just our sex drives.  We like details that help us to visualize the characters and the scene.  And we like there to be an actual reason for the connection between the two romantic leads.  We like characters in whom we can see ourselves, and we like characters who are complex.  This story had none of these elements, and it was thoroughly lacking in emotional connection and eroticism.

While it was great to find a story with a double arm amputee male sexual/romantic lead, which is extremely rare to find, more detail and realism regarding James's arms would have greatly improved the story. For example, we are told that James has lost his arms in an accident, but we have absolutely no idea of how much of his arms he lost or the appearance of what he has left. The narrator describes them as "nubs" and "nubby arms", but we don't know if he lost them above or below the elbows, and we don't really have an idea of what James looks like or how he moves as a result of his injuries. As a woman with personal experience with the story's subject matter, I can tell you that these details do make a difference, both to the ways the characters touch one another and to the way the male lead wears and uses his prostheses.  There is a whole world of possibilities for erotic touch between a woman and a double arm amputee and the author sadly ignored all of them. 

Additionally, a bit more proofreading would have been nice. "Scaring" only has one "r".

For the low price I paid for the story on Amazon Kindle ($0.99), it was alright, and it definitely wasn't the same old story we've all read a thousand times, but there is definitely room for improvement.  If you want a really superb story to read with a similar theme, I recommend "Support Our Troops" by Robyn Bradley.  It's so very much better than "Helping Hand".