Three days in New York City by Robin Slick is a fun, quick romp into the land of chick lit and erotica. The story gyrates around Elizabeth, a 40-year old unhappily married mother of two. She decides to journey from her home in Philadelphia to meet her British cyberlover for the first — and last — time in New York City for three days of sexual role-playing.

We're introduced to Elizabeth while she is on the train traveling to New York City. She is wearing a "tight black button-up blouse. No bra. Short skirt. Thigh high stockings. Heels. No underpants" as requested by Richard, her cyberlover. The two had been slowly developing an online relationship for the past few months. Don't worry; Richard is a coworker located at her company's office in England. So she isn't really worried about getting murdered.

Despite being bold enough to meet her online lover, Elizabeth is nervous about whether or not she will have the nerve to go through with it, for all the cybertalk she was dishing out over the Internet. By the end of the book, she evolves from the insecure wife and mother of two almost grown kids into the sex goddess she pretended to be over the safety and anonymity of the Internet.

Richard, the Englishman, is an extremely interesting character. He is both a fantastic lover and a prissy man. As Elizabeth shops with Richard she watches as he models coats and cufflinks as if he was a girl shopping for a prom dress. Slick proves that it is possible to have a male lead lead who is both masculine, slightly feminine, and most importantly straight. The Englishman has an imagination that will make you want to break up with your boyfriend and search for a man with an imagination as good as this guy — or give your boyfriend a copy of the book for ideas.

Slick waits till the end of the novel to give the reader a concrete reason why Elizabeth would cheat on her husband. She chose to concentrate on the Elizabeth's nervousness and sexual romp instead. I think that was a mistake. I wasn't concerned with why she was cheating — it's erotica after all — but to the stick the reason on at the end seemed rushed and, well, tacked on. Slick is a good writer but the main characters' constant inner dialogue was more than a little bit distracting.

All in all, you have to like erotica (i.e., sex, lots of sex) to really enjoy this book. Toward the end, when Elizabeth became more confident I began to imagine what this book would have been like if it was more contemporary. But erotica lovers have to have their heroines too and Elizabeth turns out to be a pretty good one. Three days in New York City is a great chick lit/erotic story, perfect for hiding in your purse and reading at lunch or before bedtime.

I am seriously considering highlighting the good parts and sending a copy to my boyfriend. I doubt he'll read it, but closed mouths don't get fed, right?