Earlier this year (because I’m on Jeremy Bearimy time and can’t tell two weeks from two months these days), I read an eARC of Entanglements by Canadian romance author Christina Robins. This is her first published work.

Entanglements is a novella that pays tribute to the style of Jackie Collins but with a distinctly Canadian feel. When I interviewed Christina Robins for my podcast, she talked about how Collins was the author who inspired her to become a writer. Robins’ love for this particular style is obvious, and it took me back to how much I enjoyed Collins’ works.

This story features Serena, a sex worker who is no victim and doesn’t need rescuing. I found this aspect alone refreshing, as we’re often subjected to the trope of “Save me, Rich Man, and make my life better!” Serena is in control of her life and where she wants it to go, but she’s also protective of young sex workers who are subject to abuse by traffickers.

When she has a meet-cute with über-famous actor Simon, she doesn’t even know who he is. I loved how that throws off his game since he’s used to practically being worshipped by women.

The backstories of both Serena and Simon really hooked me in, showing that these two are not so different as one would presume.

With lived experience, Robins crafts a work of fiction that gives us a glimpse of the good, the bad, and the ugly about sex work, underscoring the contrasting worlds of someone working in a safe environment and someone prey to sex-traffickers.

But woven through this all is a romance that left me with a warm fuzzy feeling, and a strong desire to add future works of Christina Robins to my “curl up and dive in” reads.

Entanglements is now available on Amazon. You can also follow Christina Robins on Twitter and her website, christinarobins.com.

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Cait Gordon is a disability advocate for the written word who is trying to tackle her TBR pile during a pandemic!

Cait is also the author of humorous space opera novels Life in the ’Cosm and The Stealth Lovers, and she is the co-editor of the Prix Aurora Award nominated anthology Nothing Without Us. When Cait’s not writing, she’s editing manuscripts and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors manage disabilities and/or chronic conditions. Her latest new adventure is hosting the In the ’Cosm podcast, which is really an excuse to gush over creative humans she admires.