A novel by Lily Ryder
Millie loves Malaga is a honest, not vulgar and funny story. The main character, Millie, is a 22 years old girl from the outskirts of Birmingham, who runs away from it after a close encounter with the wife of her last conquest. Which, let’s put that in writing, she had no idea was married.
In the heat of the moment, she heads to the airport and books a flight for… “Surprise me!” is the destination she provides to the airline employee on the other side of the desk. The only thing she asks for is sun and a weather hot enough to wear a bikini. That’s how she ends up in Malaga, where she comes across the most disparate ensemble of people.
Being the book in the Erotica category, it’s full, as predictable of sex and sex scenes. Of any types. We have threesomes, we have foursomes, role play, girls only, one night stands. But none of them falls into a vulgar, trite list of actions (he did this whit his…, she did that to his…, he did that to her…). All the contrary!
There is action, as much action as a 22 years old girl can get from a holiday break abroad, fuelled by young age and gin&tonic, but Millie does things: she goes to parties in private houses, where she hooks up with the host, she goes shopping, where she has a brush with the police when the shop assistant accuses her of theft, she goes out for dinner with a Spanish guy she met along the way and she spends more than one night with a cute and free girl from Essex.
Like every holiday, even Millie’s one comes to and end, but not without the promise of another encounter in London that already promises to be as hot as the first one.
Erotica is not my main genre, and still there is something about this book that made me stick to it until the end. The narrative is brilliant, Lily has a strong and powerful voice that leads the reader through the whole story with no problem, she is able to keep the story light enough to be enjoyable but convey it in a brilliant way even without detailed descriptions of characters and surroundings and most of all she is honest. The thing I appreciated the most about was her skill to present the main character – a GIRL – as strong and in control. So many times stories, especially stories involving sex, are male-driven, while women are either an accessory or sluts willing to open their legs on request. Wrong! Girls can go on a sex-spree with no-strings-attached too, not just boys, and they have all the right to not be considered whores just because of that! If a girl wants to have sex with another girl it doesn’t have to be a striking moment in her life, nor it has to be a coming out moment. It might come as a revelation for her or it might be what it is: fun. One of the most feminists and girl-empowering books I’ve read in a long time.