Am\u00e9lie comes from a noble family that has fallen on hard times, which is how she came to be in a miserable marriage to simple merchant Hans. While her frugal and pragmatic husband spends most of his time in his library or at his raucous merchant\u2019s guild, Am\u00e9lie grudgingly tends to the domestic chores expected of her\u2014including the servicing of Hans\u2019 carnal needs. Privately, she indulges her obsession with the mechanics of flight by studying the skeletons of flying creatures (an interest Hans equates to witchcraft). Am\u00e9lie longs to escape the world of men, and she gets a taste when Hans sails for Lisbon on business. Am\u00e9lie spends months unmolested and creates a simple flying machine. But both the machine and her freedom crash back to earth when Hans eventually returns\u2014with a mistress in tow. \u201cSahara\u201d is an enslaved Asian woman Hans claims to have saved from a fate as a \u201cmere harlot,\u201d though the reality proves more selfish and savage. As everything the devout and reserved Am\u00e9lie is not\u2014passionate, hedonistic, self-assured, and satisfied\u2014Sahara initially receives Am\u00e9lie\u2019s resentment. But Am\u00e9lie finds her thoughts drifting to Sahara\u2019s voluptuous body and unguarded manner. The two gradually learn from each other and achieve a breakthrough in Am\u00e9lie\u2019s quest for flight. But the increasingly destitute Hans co-opts their flying machine for his business interests, and the hubris of men threatens to finally suffocate Am\u00e9lie. Yudori\u2019s tale is as captivating as it is titillating, with her illustrations elegantly depicting everything from complex emotions to the erotic contours of the female form. The plot and characters are engagingly complex, and the pacing deliciously brisk.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Am\u00e9lie comes from a noble family that has fallen on hard times, which is how she came to be in a miserable marriage to simple merchant Hans. While her frugal and pragmatic husband spends most of his time in his library or at his raucous merchant\u2019s guild, Am\u00e9lie grudgingly tends to the domestic chores expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}