VIRTUAL LOVE Short Story in CAPTURED

Author: Elizabeth Batten-Carew ISBN: TBA 4/2004 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: New Concepts Publishing

Control is what Jerette seeks when she enters virtual reality until she is pursued by a mysterious stranger who infiltrates her sessions, turning her deepest desires into reality.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Virtual Love is a short story that you can comfortably read on your lunch hour, or maybe while soaking in a good, long, bubble bath. This novella was first presented to me as erotica, but rest assured, this short story is no more exotic than a good Johanna Lindsay book, for example.

Our story starts out with a young woman named Jerette, and the setting must be slightly futuristic, because most of the story revolves around being in VR, or Virtual Reality, about 90% of the time.

Upon entering her latest program, Jerette finds herself face to face with a man known only as Phantom. This takes Jerette back, because she has specifically written her programs so that no one besides her can introduce any variables, and no one can enter her programs at all, for that matter. She has gone out of her way to make sure of that with good program encryption! In her first VR setting, she meets Phantom on the upper deck of her pirate ship. Phantom both exhilarates Jerette, and scares the pants off of her, too. There is no denying that she is highly attracted to Phantom, as he is to her. Before things can get even a little out of hand, Jerette utters the words, "end program". But those ice blue eyes continue to haunt her for weeks.

In her next VR game, Jerette is the Marshal of a small typical western town. Jerette is sure that this time, there will be no way that anyone can get into her program—but, once again, Phantom manages to appear. Jerette tries to outrun Phantom on her fastest horse, the much celebrated Major Blue. It’s ironic that the town that she is marshall of is named "Hell", to be sure.

In the course of trying to get away from Phantom, she still feels relatively safe, because she knows that at any time she can utter those words, "end program", at any time, and she will safely be back in the "Real World". But this time, she rides so far out of Hell that she doesn’t recognize the surroundings, and when Phantom accosts her once again, the "end program" doesn’t work, and this is where the story starts to get spicy.

I enjoyed this short story. I read it in one sitting while I was waiting at the dentist’s office. I’m not sure why this story was labeled erotica, because in my opinion, there are many, many books out there (A PIRATE'S LOVE springs to mind) that are far and away more racy than this novella. If you do decide to spend your lunch hour with this story, I don’t think that you will be disappointed. The ending is very original, and a well thought-out twist here and there made this read worthwhile. Go ahead and pick it up.....here’s to one lunch hour that you won’t be bored!

Geni