French Trysts: Secrets of a Courtesan

It doesn't take long for Alexandra Ward, a Chicago girl and heroine of Lobe's dirty and annoying second novel, to go from Sorbonne student to orgy participant. The ""plot"" involves Alexandra's string of affairs with rich and powerful Frenchmen. There's Jean-Albert, the ""zillionaire""; Frederic de Fallois, ""France's minister of something""; the Marquis Louis-Philippe de Tassin, who throws an aristocratic orgy at his family chateau; and her true love, Laurent, who proposes marriage and then abandons her. The tone of the narrative is that of a no-holds-barred chatty confession, and readers who can get past the haltingly air-headed banter (to wit: ""I galloped. (Okay kill the horseshit. Oh, but it's so fun. I may corral a few more jokes out of it, bare with me!)"") are treated to 300 pages of erotic exploits that could just as easily be letters to Penthouse. In the end, she discovers the meaning of life. Alexandra is perpetually hot and bothered, but readers will just be bothered.