I would like to share a new novel called Eve’s Apple by Peter Benton I received a PDF Copy of from Voracious Readers in exchange for this review. Inside this post are my affiliate links if you click on the links and make a purchase I will make a small percentage off the items you purchase.
A couple’s cave exploration turns disastrous when they are thrown into a world that is under the spell of a fruit conferring extreme power. to women. The couple is repulsed by these women who they do not perceive as feminine, and by their self-indulgence which includes an astounding degree of promiscuity.
Julia, frustrated by having drawn the short stick in the lottery of life, eventually gives into the temptation of the fruit. Her boyfriend Howard, a strapping entrepreneur proud of his role as a generous provider reacts adversely to the Julia’s betrayal, putting the relationship in crisis.
Desperately seeking to prove that he still has some form of standing in the relationship he fails repeatedly. Julia gradually begins to lose patience with his inability to adapt, leading to a moment of catharsis.
For me I would like to say this is a romance novel but someone else may think differently. Eve’s Apple explores a grossly inverted power dynamic but unlike many fempower plots, if your like me this may be a romantic bend.
I would like to let you know this is the first book in the Drysau Ceudodol Trilogy. I do plan on reading all of the books. David read the book once I finished and he said Peter Benton created a science fiction tale with characters who are believable and that at times he would want to be friends with.
About the book:
Calm down, he told himself. You’re a modern man. Mature, evolved. You can handle this. Your relationship was always built on mutual respect, even when you were in the driver’s seat. There’s no reason it can’t still…. OH MY GOD.
A band of medieval castaways is stranded in an Otherworld they first believe is paradise. However, they come to believe that a toxic tree fruit enhancing the beauty and power of their women is an offering by the devil. ‘Eve’s Apple’ eventually upsets the established patriarchic order.
Over a millennium later, Howard and Julia tumble into this alien world as a couple settled comfortably into a relationship based on her supremely self-confident boyfriend’s need to take care of his insecure girlfriend. Civilization is now thriving there with absurdly powerful women due to an uncontrollable addiction to the refined extract of the tree fruit. Their relationships with the weaker male sex are generally based on some form of explicit or implicit domination.
Men are mainly objects of their outsized erotic appetites or perform menial service. After a period of disorientation where the couple unsuccessfully attempts to extract themselves quickly from this upsetting situation to return to their previous comfortable lives, Julia is relentlessly tempted by her host to become like the women of this new world and eventually succumbs in an act of betrayal of Howard who reacts adversely to the breach of trust and begins to reject his girlfriend on account of jealousy and fear.
Julia doesn’t understand his problems as she considers the change to be a purely practical matter to protect themselves while they figure out how to leave this world. As Howard realizes the enormous magnitude of Julia’s new abilities he withdraws ever more to the ongoing disappointment of Julia. In the wake of a relationship in crisis, Julia warms up to what the new world has to offer to women and begins to indulge.
In the process, Julia realizes that something new inside her makes her prone to act and feel in ways that she would never have condoned before, and is deeply conflicted about that. Gradually she begins to see fault in Howard for this state of their affairs and prods him to adapt which he refuses to do despite several cathartic experiences he is subjected to. Eventually, she loses patience and lets her new nature break free after giving her boyfriend a debilitating taste of her power.
About the Book: Peter Benton
“If you dive into these pages, make sure you find your way back out again.”
DRYSAU CEUDODOL (Welsh)
transl. Heavenly Gates or
Cavernous Doors, whichever you prefer.
The author did not heed that advice when he unsuspectingly lost himself in the chapters of The Laporte Caves posted a few years back by an anonymous writer in an online forum. Little did he know that he would find a gem in the rough in a genre he had never paid any attention to or even known that he could be interested in.
In the following two years, the author cut, honed, and set this diamond to sparkle in the colors he wanted to see, to expand the story into what he would have liked to have read even more.
Perhaps you have enjoyed The Power by Naomi Alderman. If you did, this one might provide a more intimate perspective on the theme.
The author known here as Peter Benton had left his mark mainly in a walk of life other than writing sexy novels and determined that the twain shall never cross.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
