Acts of Love

I picked up a copy of Acts of Love (Avon Books, 1995, published in the UK as Love Chooses) by Roberta Latow at a thrift store several years ago. It has been buried on a shelf since then, so I took a notion to pull it out (pun intended!) and read it.

A search on the internet reveals that author Muriel Roberta Latow, who published erotic novels under her middle name Roberta, was an art curator who for a while owned a gallery for avant-garde artists. Good friends with artist Andy Warhol, Latow advised Warhol to concentrate on pop art and paint something that everyone would recognize like a soup can.

Latow traveled through the Middle East as a collector for the Brooklyn Museum. Later, Latow lived in England where she worked as a decorator for the super-rich. Latow wrote 22 erotic novels. Her sexy writing earned her the nick name “The First Lady of Hanky Panky.” She died at age 71 in 2003.

Acts of Love is about the marriage of Arianne and Jason Honey. When the novel opens, Arianne, a beautiful young expatriate American, is living in a cheap studio apartment in London and working for the auction house Christie’s as an expert on rare books. Arianne has been living in poverty since the death of her husband Jason in the crash of an airplane over the Himalayas.

The story of Jason and Arianne’s marriage is revealed in snippets over the course of the novel. We are told that Jason, who was in the aviation business, had concealed the poor state of his financial affairs to his wife. After Jason’s death Arianne was forced to declare bankruptcy. Jason and Arianne had a steamy erotic relationship which involved an on-going menage a trois with Jason’s best friend, a wealthy Egyptian named Ahmad Salah Ali.

Ahmad buys Arianne an expensive house in the wealthy Mayfair section of London. We are told that Ahmad and Arianne have tried to rekindle their sexual passion for each other but it just doesn’t work without Jason. However, Arianne travels to Cairo during her Christmas holiday and joins Ahmad for a boat race down the Nile. We learn that Ahmad likes Arianne not to wear any underwear so that she is ready for him all the time. So Arianne has flown commando from London to Cairo underneath her designer clothes in order to please her lover. During the day they sail their felucca in the race, and at night they have wild kinky sex (which is minutely described) in the bedouin tent which is pitched at the stern of the ship.

After a Christmas Holiday of steamy erotic sex being Ahmad’s sex slave, Arianne flies back to London. Arianne’s mother, Artemis, divorced Arianne’s father during her childhood because she was no longer sexually excited by him. Artemis remarried an English Lord and is now a widow. Artemis has inherited her dead husband’s estate and in order to make ends meet has converted the large English country house into an exclusive condominium for retirees. We learn that Artemis has been fooling around with Sir Anson Bathurst Belleville, “one of England’s respected senior diplomats,” for about the last thirty years.

Arianne is introduced to Sir Anson’s nephew Ben Johnson. Ben is in the process of recovering from the suicide of his emotionally disturbed wife. Ben and Arianne hit it off and almost immediately pack off to a country inn to do the nasty. All is going well, with Ben and Arianne banging each other for all they're worth and having one fantastic orgasm after another, until Arianne starts thinking about Jason and becomes suddenly frigid. Ben leaves to give her space. Arianne puts herself back together and goes back to London where she is met by Ben. Now she is able to put her past behind her and screw Ben without reservations. Ben goes home and breaks up with his live in, a French beauty named Simone. Simone takes the news badly and throws a bottle of expensive French perfume at Ben shattering it against the wall. Ben now moves in with Arianne at her posh house which was given to her as a gift by Ahmad.

Now think about this for a minute. Arianne used to screw Ahmad in a three way with her husband. Arianne has just come back from Egypt where she has been rutting with Ahmad like a rabbit in heat. And now she is just going to move her new boyfriend into the house, kept by a full time housekeeper that Ahmad is paying for, and they don’t expect that Ahmad might just get a little bit pissed off? But this is a steamy erotic romance novel. Don’t expect to find too much logical behavior in it.

Jason and Arianne plan to move to the United States and get married and live happily ever after. Meanwhile, we learn that Ahmad has hired a private detective to find out what really happened to Jason. It turns out that Jason Honey is not dead but is dreadfully injured from his plane crash and living in some remote village in Tibet. Apparently, Ahmad had bet Jason one million dollars that he could not fly his antique supersonic jet fighter plane from the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas. If the cash strapped Jason wins the bet he gets a million dollars. If he loses the bet he is to give Arianne to Ahmad to be his sex slave forever. When Jason’s plane crashes, he loses the bet. This is why he is content to let the world think that he is dead. The injured Jason assumes that Arianne has now become Ahmad’s woman. Ahmad pays for Jason to be brought from the Orient to a hospice for the terminally ill at a monastery in Morocco.

Ahmad intends to make Arianne one of his possessions, like one his cars, his airplanes, houses or camels. Ahmad invites Arianne to lunch in London. Ben tags along. Trusting Ben just leaves Arianne alone with her former lover and jets off to Ireland on business. Ahmad takes Arianne back to his apartment. Wanting more privacy to tell Ahmad that she was through with him and intends to marry Jason, Arianne goes. (Did this chick ever think that a “Dear Ahmad” letter might have been a lot safer!) We learn that Arianne is still obeying Ahmad’s instructions to go commando. Arianne allows Ahmad to fondle her naked body but when he forcibly carries her to the bedroom to have sex, Arianne says NO. (And, of course, it’s perfectly logical that a woman who doesn’t want to have sex with her former lover would just go over to his apartment to be alone with him and let him feel her up!) So anyway, Ahmad tries to rape Arianne but she is able to get away with Ahmad telling her as she leaves that she will never be free to marry Ben Johnson.

Now Ahmad is really pissed. Ahmad looks up Ben’s old flame Simone, who is a worldly woman who is only interested in wealth and erotic pleasure. Ahmad and Simone have no real affection for each other, but enjoy having wild kinky sex. Ahmad tells Simone that she can get revenge on Ben and Arianne by giving Jason an envelope which contains proof that Jason Honey is still alive. Simone calls Ben up and gives him the envelope which contains the information that Jason Honey is still alive and is living in the monastery hospital in Morocco under an assumed name.

Ben breaks the news to Arianne who is devastated. Ben and Arianne then fly to Morocco and find Jason in the hospital. Jason is an invalid who cannot walk and is addicted to Heroin. Jason tells Arianne that she is a fool for coming to find him. Arianne decides to stay in Morocco because of her love for Jason. In despair, Ben flies back to England telling Arianne to stay away from him until she is coming to be his forever.

Through the conversation of Arianne and Jason in the hospital, we find out that Jason had been attracted to Arianne because of her beauty and innocence. Ahmad had bet Jason that he could not get his innocent new wife to engage in a menage a trois. Jason tells Arianne that before his accident he had already become sexually bored with her. We find out that just before he left on his fatal flight Jason had forced Arianne to engage in an orgy with five other men while Jason watched. Arianne only did it because she was insanely in love with Jason and she could refuse him nothing. Jason tells Arianne to come back the next day and he will have divorce papers prepared and that she will finally be free of him. Arianne returns the next day to find that Jason has committed suicide by intentionally taking an overdose of heroin.

Arianne then takes off on a year long trek around the world to “find herself.” Finally she shows back up at a polo match where Ben’s team has just won the trophy. Handing Ben the trophy, Arianne proposes that she and Ben drink champagne from the trophy cup in the hotel room that she has reserved for them. And they lived happily ever after. THE END.

Acts of Love is definitely a “chick novel.” There is a lot of hand holding, caressing, eye gazing, and stuff like that. As you would expect for a writer of Latow's background, art objects, designer clothing and expensive food are meticulously described. The descriptions of the sex act usually last for a couple of pages each.

Acts of Love, which is long out of print, was a lot of fun, but I thought that it was about a hundred pages too long. I began to loose interest long before the book ended at page 324. A nice short 200 pages would have been very sufficient for this piece of soap opera sleaze. The Bad Catholic gives it three garter belts out of five.