Curlever on Brawna

Curl4ever is going to contribute some reviews for the blog, to my great excitement. He said I shouldn't write a glowing intro for him, as I've done for other illuminati of the erotica world who have kindly contributed posts on here. So I shall write an entirely truthful review. I can't write about his Literotica stories, although they are Hot to Trot. (I will link to them when he writes a review with a warning note.) Instead I'll write about a couple of his contributions on Brawna. 

I am grateful to him even just for introducing me to Brawna, which is a site I didn't know about. Brawna is full of fun stories about strong women. I mean strong as in can bench-press significant weights, who have legs bulging with muscle and who may even spend their weekends role-playing as orc maidens, wrestling adoring men to the ground as well as other orc maidens. Any little lady out there who is constantly putting herself on diets because she thinks all men prefer the slender willowy look should rush over and read a few of the paeans on Brawna to muscular women. 

(I will just take this opportunity to remind you that research shows, if you go on a diet, you will put back on more than you lost shortly afterwards as your body hurries to make up for what it realises is going to be a starve/feast way of living. Exercise is a great deal better at getting the extra poundage off - I find cycling especially good although I try not to lose too much weight in case I also lose my dimple. The one in my cheek. My facial cheek! Anyway, just click on BBW if you don't yet realise a lot of men adore big women.) 

Back to Curl4ever, or Curlever as he is known on Brawna. 

He posted the first of the two stories I'm going to talk about 4 years ago, and the second 2 years ago. In that time he significantly improved his writing. I want to talk about this progression, as I would also like to encourage anyone using the internet for exploring sexuality to do so through writing as well as reading. It's not that hard to set up a pseudonymous profile and if you do it carefully, you are very unlikely to get stalkers and molestors tracking you down. (Here's my blogpost about how to set up an online pseudonymous writing profile.)

Reunion Workout is a sweet story about high school students who meet up later in life, and finally admit to the crushes they had on each other. In the meantime, Cindy has suffered a bad relationship, which at least left her the owner of a set of weights she began to use herself. Mark and she can begin a fresh romance on an equal basis and with the shared enjoyment of weight lifting. 

Reunion Workout is sweet, however Hotel Fitness Reversal is a much more accomplished story. It begins with dialogue which immediately sets you up for a fun story ahead. This is a better start than Reunion Workout, in which we get a lot of stuff about the weather and Cindy's flight. That is important background info, and good characterisation is immediately established: "Cindy walked ... with a spring in her step", but it's kinda boring compared to "I've made reservations for a getaway." The assertive tone of this announcement makes it clear from the get-go that Diane is not likely to take any nonsense, although she is no bitch, she offers choice immediately by saying: "If you're up for it."

The back story in Hotel Fitness Reversal is slipped in more discreetly, however there is also more of it, and it is more credible. I'm not saying people don't have ex-boyfriends as lousy as Cindy's, but they don't usually move so smoothly to dating a nice guy. 

All of Curlever's stories that I've read so far feature sensually detailed descriptions of people using gym machines and weights. This brings an extra dimension to the story. It's not just that it provides well-written backdrop to the sexy fun, it reminds us that a lot of eroticism and sensuality in our lives is experienced outside of simplistic fucking. Since we left the Stone Age, many of us have slumped into sedentary jobs. We find it hard to realise that to stay perky - in more ways than one - we need to plan regular exercise into our routines. Any exercise increases endorphins, makes you smile more, and that alone will make you more attractive.

The stories are also about women who take up weights and feel encouraged to step up and be a man's equal. Even for an ex-rugby player like me, it's liberating reading stories by a man who wants women to be equals, about characters happy to 'spot' for female partners without feeling threatened if they lift better weights. 

Having said that, Hotel Fitness Reversal has great trajectory in that Jim finds it quite difficult when he realises Diane has turned into someone fitter than, superior to him. This is a more sensitive and more complex character portrayal. Jim is more interesting than the straightforward nice guy Mark. Diane has got balls and Jim must show he's not a pussy! Paradoxically, this means having the balls to show some humility.

If I were to make one little gripe, it's that the depiction of the problems in their marriage doesn't seem quite coherent enough. It stays as principally back story - which is probably just as well when this is a lightly muscled Amazon story rather than a heavy duty marriage guidance booklet.


(If you too are considering doing reviews, please get in touch! Would love to welcome more guest posters on here ♥)