The Blonde Geisha »

In addition to being the author of the award-winning book The Japanese Art of Sex, Jina Bacarr has also worked as the Japanese consultant on KCBS-TV, MSNBC, Tech TV's Wired for Sex and British Sky Broadcasting's Saucy TV. Enamored with all facets of Japanese culture, Jina's ability to speak the language helped her find jobs acting in Japanese television commercials and working as a companion girl for visiting Japanese businessmen in California. Jina is also a successful playwright and has written over forty scripts for daytime television (including thirty animation scripts). This is her first novel.

Jina can be reached at her website: www.JinaBacarr.com or by email at jinabacarr@jinabacarr.com.

The early summer of 1892 brought a heavy rainy season that year in Japan. Plum Rain, the Japanese called it, because it comes when the fruit bulges with ripeness and promise. Like a young girl reaching womanhood.

A girl like me.

In the ancient Japanese tradition of beauty and grace, sex and erotic fantasies are hidden secrets that only a select few may learn, and which are forbidden to foreigners. But when a threat to her father's life puts her own in jeopardy, young Kathlene Mallory is sent to live in safety at the Tea House of the Look-Back Tree, where she is allowed to glimpse inside the sensual world of the geisha.

During the years of her training in the art of pleasuring men, Kathlene's desires are awakened by the promise of unending physical delights, and she eagerly prepares for the final ritual that will fulfill her dream of becoming a geisha — the selling of her virginity. The man willing to pay for such an honor, Baron Tonda, is not the man for whom Kathlene carries a secret longing, but he is the man who will bring ruin to the teahouse, and danger to Kathlene, if he is disappointed….

Publishers Weekly

Set in Japan in the 1890s, this first novel from Bacarr (The Japanese Art of Sex) reflects the author's affection for Japanese culture, even as she plays to the Western misconception of the geisha as prostitute. As a gaijin (foreigner) in Kyoto, Kathlene Mallory-a 15-year-old green-eyed blonde-implausibly dreams of becoming a sexy geisha. When Kathlene's imperiled father must leave Japan, he persuades his mistress, the owner of the Teahouse of the Look-Back Tree, to take Kathlene on as a maiko (apprentice geisha). Three years later, the nasty Baron Tonda wants to buy Kathlene's virginity before he kills her. After Kathlene falls in love with Reed Cantrell, a handsome young American, the thought of surrendering to the baron becomes even more odious. But if Kathlene doesn't comply, the baron will destroy the reputation-and livelihood-of the teahouse and all its inhabitants. Erotic romance fans should be prepared for lots of teasing and terms like "Buddha-seed," "pleasure bean" and "deepest core of your moon grotto." (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.