"Too episodic, predictable, and repetitive to recommend"

A pretty insightful review of Letters to Penthouse XVIII :

I realize that in a book series you should start with the first one and work your way through in order. However, I found this on the floor of a public restroom and figured, "Hey, free book!" so I took it home and gave it a glance. Overall, this is a pretty mediocre novel, especially since the title might lead one to think it's some post-modern construction. First of all, the title is misleading. This book does not comprise letters, but a series of first-person narratives where the narrators end up having some kind of sex by the end of each chapter. After the first two chapters, I realized there was a pattern and then easily predicted what would happen at the end of each subsequent chapter. It wasn't a terrible novel, meaning it wasn't boring, but I can't really recommend it, because the characters aren't fully developed and it's way too predictable. The entire book is just about people having sex and describing it graphically. I'm not a prude, mind you, but unlike Henry Miller or John Updike, there seemed to be no political / cultural subtext. It seems like the only real point to the book was to sexually arouse the person reading it.

*sigh* . . .