Joan Elizabeth Lloyd is at it again with more descriptively erotic tales centered on prostitution and extreme ranges of sexual encounters to make for her version of the ultimately fulfilling lifestyle in her fantasy characters’ worlds. Made for Sex is actually the combination of two novels in a short series Lloyd wrote years earlier under the titles Black Satin and The Love Flower. Both of these novels precluded The Madam of Maple Court series, though the glaringly obvious connections and foundations for the later series are seen throughout the Made for Sex novels.

Black Satin brings a widowed mother of three preteen boys into the world of paid sex, working nights, and embracing the art of finding pleasure in just about anything, be it naughty, dirty, dangerous, or nice. Carla is the main protagonist brought into the fold of the high-priced callgirl lifestyle, and the reader follows her budding career pursuits in the posh brownstone her friend Ronnie owns. Together, the two of them are an ideal team, as Ronnie is more of a dominatrix and Carla is fond of being the submissive.

But, as is usual in Lloyd’s books, their services are about delivering fantasies, not just the usual run-of-the-mill stuff. Readers are run through an extreme range of erotic fantasies and tales of experiences as Ronnie often details her business life for Carla as a means of teaching her the ropes.

The Black Satin side of Ronnie really craves the dominatrix aspect, and her continued varied work encounters leave the experiences she has with her husband less than fulfilling. On the other end of the spectrum, Carla has met a man who is wealthy, handsome, emotionally connected, and willing to give her his hand in marriage if she quits the business and becomes his. The two women have to decide what their lifestyle of prostitution means to them and if they can give it up.

Frankly, this novel is even less interesting than any of the others Lloyd has produced and even more graphic. The “fantasies” her characters act out border on perversion, particularly when one exchange is a tall thin man with a five-year-old girl. Obviously, to each his own when it comes to what does and does not “reach them”, but there should be more discretion and attention when writing such things. Sadly, the obscene and rather smut-like nature of the book is the norm for this author. Even worse is the redundancy which makes turning each page a battle of wills.

The Love Flower continues where Black Satin leaves off plus a few years. Carla is the only prostitute plying her trade in this novel as Ronnie is off on holiday with a client. However, that does not mean the sexual encounters are limited to just one woman…

Enter Fran Caputo – small-town Midwestern girl whose racy novels under the pseudonym Nichole St. Michelle are beginning to finding their way up the charts. When The Love Flower is nominated for an award in New York City, Fran agrees to come to the city for three weeks and literally become Nichole (an impossible feat in her mind’s eye).

With the help of her publisher Carla, a makeover, and the radical introduction to a life very much like a prostitute’s, Fran’s amazing transformation into Nichole is a personal revolution that leaves her wanting and needing more than her life has been giving her until now.

The sexual revolution Fran aspires to forge through is simply a recreation of any of Lloyd’s many other normal-person-turned-prostitute transformations. The whole point of Fran’s revolution is to become the woman her inner fantasy screams for her to be. Pity there always has to be such a “lifestyle” associated with all of Lloyd’s characters' metamorphoses.

With the success of the transformation and the looming award ceremony bringing the reality of Fran’s situation to the fore, she must decide where her life is to go now. After all she has been through in this short time, can she return to the life she was living, or is there a new and brighter one waiting for her in New York?

Lloyd has changed the characters and events a bit, but overall there is nothing in this novel that hasn't been seen in any of the others. Although the plot is slightly more interesting than usual, the whole story could have been read in two chapters without all the repetitive erotic additions thrown in to spice things up.

Lloyd is a staunch supporter of all erotic activities and fantasies for the 21-and-up crowd and does her best to include it all. Erotic intrigue is great in many forms and makes many novels the better for it. If the plot, characters, and ultimate message are seriously without substance, though, then the whole novel is. “Less is more” is not an applicable mottohere and unfortunately should have been.