Alicia

The Fairer Sex Collection, Book 3

By: Michelle Miller

Narrated by: Samara Naeymi

Length: 36 mins

Publisher's summary

An aspiring artist gets a seven-figure offer that could change her life forever in this provocative and surprising short story of a woman torn between saying yes and saying no.

Alicia could do a lot with a million dollars. But what’s she willing to do for it? Her top client, a billionaire hedge fund manager, has made a very intimate business proposal. In the world of finance, it’s just another transaction, right? An efficient supply-demand exchange. At least that’s what Alicia tries to tell herself. But as the deadline for her decision closes in, it becomes clear that things are a lot more complicated than that.

Alicia is part of The Fairer Sex, a collection of sexy, satirical, and sometimes harrowing short stories that explore the question: “What do women want?” The answer is different for every woman, but each can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

©2019 Michelle Miller (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Weird

Good narration, but the story was too strange. It's not what I was expecting with the summary.

Short, Entertaining, & Occupied my Thoughts

This was one of the better audiobooks in the Fairer Sex Collection. For the most part, they all were entertaining mindless stories I was able to enjoy to while doing various household chores. This was one of the more enjoyable reads. It was short, had an interesting storyline, and occupied my thoughts. Listened for free through prime reads, so cant complain about the price, lol. The narrator definitely gets 5/5 stars, she was great!

Unique short

Borrowed for free via Amazon Prime membership. At 37 minutes long (including intro & credits) it’s a very short story. Alicia is an aspiring artist working at a fund management company. She’s propositioned by her supervisor, David, to a night of sex for $1 Million.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this as well as how unique the ending was.

I can’t imagine spending money on this or ever listening to it again. Though it was well written, an intriguing concept & perspective, and the narrator was great.

4 stars

Overall, the collection of short stories in The Fairer Sex by Michelle Miller are either amazing or not worth the time. I like that the cover has each woman's name in a different font. As for reading a novel by Michelle, I think I'd pass as she has some toxic blind spots that I don't want to endure.

Candace: A strong start to the series. If I wasn't married and dating, I'd create my own list. 5 stars

Meredith: I was initially laughing, imagining myself in the Whole Foods with Meredith. Then it took a turn that I couldn't decide if it was real or fantasy, which took me out of the story as it was so unrealistic. 2 stars.

Alicia: I hate-listened to this story and enjoyed it. The whole time I kept thinking, "Karma...". The end was really good, I just personally don't think it's fair, for a multitude of reasons. 4 stars.

Heidi: The beginning is hilarious. However, I found it boring (this coming from someone with a degree in accounting; different from finance, but not by much.) I did like when Heidi stopped writing her story and it became about her and Paul. 2 stars.

Clara: I really enjoyed this book. Clara's relationship with Michael, Lawrence, the intimacy, the twist...a lot was packed into this story. 5 stars.

Lauren: I was immediately put off by Lauren, describing her growing up in wealth and in the next breath taking about living in a cutting-edge place that was "far enough from Chinatown that [visitors] weren't put off by the stench." So unnecessarily offensive and filled with privilege, making it hard for me to have any sympathy for her.

I was intensely physically triggered with the description of her bulimia episode, which I hated. If you've never had an ED, then it will definitely give readers/listeners insight as to what it's like. However, I lived it and didn't need to live it again in such detail. 1 star.

Eleanor: this was as good as Clara. I loved how Eleanor dealt with her husband, except for the "we just did" line. 5 stars.

Keridee: I didn't see the point of this book and couldn't get into it. I understand she's pretty, but having other characters in the book who are only described as fat and their occupation is ridiculous. 1 star.

Samara Naeymi was a good narrator, embodying each woman and her story.

Strong Shirley Jackson Vibes!!!

While I agree that the story was not as promised in the summary.
I think that had I not read "The Daemon Lover" by Shirley Jackson this book would have been less impactful, maybe.
I love Shirley Jackson’s short stories because they have a …a vibe. There’s something indescribably good about this story as well.
I agree with the readers who found it a bit tedious.
If you read Shirley Jackson’s "The Daemon Lover" then listen to this again, it could just…I can’t give spoilers.
If the author happens to read this, I’d love to discuss.

Total CRINGE the whole story!

I've enjoyed the rest of these slice-of-life tales about young women in the big city and how they react to the entitled assholery of the men they run into. This story, however, was Cringe throughout. A wealthy client of Alicia's bank makes an offer to Alicia with no discernable motivation. Alicia then spends the rest of the first-person narrative on mental hysteria, moral contortions, frantic internal dialogue, and a total lack of judgment, spine, self-esteem, and ownership of her own actions and desires. "Yes, No, I Changed My Mind." Own it, girl!

Lame story that makes women look ridiculous

What a terrible, thin, flat story. Makes women seem like ridiculous, selfish creatures who don’t actually know how to stand for what they believe in, overcome by passivity in the end. Not worth the loss of half an hour.

This series is allegedly about "what women want"…

...but is written by one woman, and a few stories in, it shows. So far I'm not really seeing different perspectives. They all, so far, seem to boil down to "women secretly want to be dominated or controlled by men." Hopefully the rest aren't like this, but I'm not sure I'll stick around to find out. And yes, of course I ‘get’ satire and social commentary and I see what the author is attempting, but I don't think she pulls it off. A collection exploring this by different authors with diverse backgrounds could be very interesting. As it is, this collection would be better presented as one volume of stories.

MINOR SPOILER and peripheral complaint: The ending line kind of wrecked it. I had to listen again because I thought I'd missed something, because I was distracted by bad basic math. The deal was for a million dollars, right? Not $1,000,001.10? Because $51.88 from $1M is $999,948.12, not $999,949.22. Alicia is a banker. An accountant. An ending line like, "He can't even do basic math," or, "Thanks for the dollar-ten tip," might have saved it.

Slow build up to nothing

Mind numbingly tedious and dull listening to the sad meaningless musing of a priveldged woman distressed by the unfairness of the fact her life isn’t mired in if a fairy tale.

Failed to capture my attention

I am not even sure what happened. I keep falling asleep. But it seems predictable. I just didn't enjoy it at all