Tease and Dare: Angie and Ella's Summer of Delirium

By Robert Scott Leyse

The second edition of Liaisons for Laughs: Angie & Ella's Summer of Delirium]

Angie & Ella are bright, beautiful, spirited, and fearless associates at a Manhattan corporate law firm. Equally concerned with furthering their careers and indulging their penchant for pleasure and pranking, they are fond of reliving their escapades, as well as concocting new ones, via email. Entirely epistolary, Tease and Dare chronicles their frolics during a New York summer. With the frequent participation of their shared boyfriend Steven, as well as Manhattan itself, they hungrily fling themselves into a flurry of vamping, masquerading, and fantasy roles--never neglecting to meet work deadlines and keep the partners and clients happy. Angie & Ella's adventures include: "Trailer Trollop Romp & Martin's Comeuppance," "Circumstances of Spying," and "Romance Novel Hell."

REVIEWS:

"Fun, steamy, and intelligent."--LA Weekly

"Some friendships are bonds that can't be broken. Tease and Dare: Angie & Ella's Summer of Delirium tells the story of two best friends in a frank and entertaining method. A hilarious and endlessly entertaining collection of stories about the little things of life, Tease and Dare never stops its assault on the funny bone. A fine and entertaining novel, Tease and Dare is a choice pick for fiction readers."--Midwest Book Review

"Licentious. Salacious. Those rich, naughty, mannered words from another era are given a cunning and contemporary twist in Leyse's reinvigoration of a classic literary form-the epistolary. At a time when so many 'real life' intimacies are overlooked because we're too tired to be seduced or to instigate some imaginative new direction in our mortgage anxious relationships, it's refreshing to be reminded of the pleasures, prurient and also just plain human and often very funny, of overhearing other people's intimacies. Fun and eroticism don't go together nearly often enough. They do in Leyse tit for tat. This is clever, humane, word-sensual writing."--Kris Saknussemm, author of Zanesville and Private Midnight

"Told completely in epistolary form, Angie & Ella captures a summer of lusty adventures experienced by the two leads. As the women frolic and romp, so the reader gets to experience New York City and its various areas through their eyes and ears and skin. It's a novel that remembers to capture the sensuality of its settings and successfully translates the inherent eroticism of not just sexual acts, but also vibrant sensations like thunderstorms. Fans of erotica won't be disappointed, as there's a little something for nearly all tastes in here, just as fans of poetic prose will appreciate the fun and flirty language."--Susan DiPlacido, author of 24/7 and House Money

"Re-enlivens a venerable literary tradition, the epistolary novel, but now in an arousingly contemporary form. The erotic e-mails of these two libidinous heroines recount their escapades with wicked charm and droll humor. Their tales memorialize the lusty landscape of the New York corporate world, and the bratty sophistication of their narrative voices makes their sensual adventures all the more appealing. Angie and Ella are trollops for our time, and Robert Scott Leyse is a Trollope for our time."--William T. Hathaway, author of A World of Hurt and Summer Snow

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FR5Y5DLV
• ISBN13: 9798998509315
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Shattercolors Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

High Comedy, Wit, AND "Avoiding the Poison of a Media-Manufactured Personality."

"Liaisons for Laughs" is an appropriately named book. There are liaisons all right, and they are funny. They are funny in a whip-smart and perceptive wit way. Angie and Ella not only obviously enjoy telling their adventures in emails but enjoy playing with the method of the telling, language. They use alliteration with obvious gusto and there is sassiness to burn and the sassiness matches the SOUND of the words. There is a tone of laughing defiance that runs through "Liaisons for Laughs": Angie and Ella are going to enjoy themselves no matter what else is going on, even put their jobs (they love their jobs, BTW) on the line. But below the surface of lightheartedness and masquerades (they even dress up in costumes: Marie Antoinette, nun, conservative beige suits (when they crash a biker bar, no less) there are two hidden agendas. The first hidden agenda (Maybe it's not such a hidden agenda after all: other reviewers have seen it) is the theme of friendship. It could be phrased like: "What is most important in life are deep and abiding friendships; friendship holds people together; friendship is what makes being alive a true pleasure." Angie & Ella live under each other's skin. If one of them is elated because of an adventure or a prestige assignment or bonus (they work at a corporate law firm), the other is elated. If one of them is down, the other is down and does everything to change matters back to the better. They ride high on each other's happiness, suffer with each other's down points. The friendship between Angie and Ella runs unbroken through the book and is really the glue that holds the fun together. Nothing can make them doubt one another. The second hidden agenda is harder to explain. It could be termed the theme of (as Angie says) "avoiding the poison of a media-manufactured personality." However you call it: staying true to oneself, not letting trendy stuff shape your opinions and life, not forgetting you're a creature of nature. Angie and Ella are at war with "debilitating shallowness." They take frequent swipes at "the self-dividedness the civilized world imposes." Another example: "Do you really think you can go through life that pampered and taste one one-hundredth of the range of emotions you need to be tasting in order to be an authentic girl, as opposed to a pseudo girl--a fabricated girl--a victim-of-society girl?" These laughing playacting smart aleck women are dead serious when it comes to being emotionally honest. To conclude: this book of liaisons has many layers (relationships, sex, wit, acting, practical jokes, put-ons, friendship, attacks on pop culture, diatribes against conformity, gleefulness, mockery, fun, on and on) and I recommend it without reservation! It's a book that clings afterwards, and I'll be reading it again.

A hilarious and endlessly entertaining collection of stories about the little things of life

Some friendships are bonds that can't be broken. "Liaisons for Laughs: Angie & Ella's Summer of Delirium" tells the story of two best friends in a frank and entertaining method. A hilarious and endlessly entertaining collection of stories about the little things of life, "Liaisons for Laughs" never stops its assault on the funny bone. A fine and entertaining novel, "Liaisons for Laughs" is a choice pick for fiction readers.

Now that Leyse has got me hooked, I need another fix!

"Liaisons for Laughs: Angie and Ella's Summer of Delirium" by Robert Scott Leyse is full of fun and frolic, recounting through their email correspondences the naughty and licentious encounters, one summer, of two Manhattan vixens and voluptuaries who also happen to be associates in a Manhattan law firm. Leyse has mastered the epistolary writing style and has created two of the most memorable, frolicking and lascivious hedonists in contemporary literature. Angie and Ella are not the only ones enjoying themselves in the novel; Leyse obviously had fun writing it (which rubs off on the reader as well), from his competent, playful use of words and concupiscent language. I couldn't put the book down, and I had many good belly laughs in the process. I must confess that I have worked in a New York law firm and am sorry not to have encountered anyone there like Angie and Ella! As the French say, "quel dommage!" Robert Scott Leyse is obviously a very talented and promising new author. Now that he has me hooked, I am going to need another Angie and Ella fix, or something equally good from him, hopefully, soon!

excellent debut

Told completely in epistolary form, Angie & Ella captures a summer of lusty adventures experienced by the two leads. Though it's erotica, not romance, it is still a love story, albeit a different kind. As the women frolic and romp, so the reader gets to experience New York City and its various areas through their eyes and ears and skin. It's a novel that remembers to capture the sensuality of its settings and successfully translates the inherent eroticism of not just sexual acts, but also vibrant sensations like thunderstorms. Fitting for its urbane leads, the language of the novel is both playful and polished. Alliteration and rhyming are common, as is lilty, stylized sentence structure. These women don't just take care and delight in their activities, but through the author's bold language, they revel in the fun of describing them to each other. Fans of erotica won't be disappointed, as there's a little something for nearly all tastes in here, just as fans of poetic prose will appreciate the fun and flirty language. But there's also another love going on here. Angie and Ella are playmates who adore each other. While Leyse successfully touches upon -- and satirizes -- the superficial office dynamics and politics that go on, he leaves behind all that cattiness between these two genuine friends. They refreshingly operate and flourish in their adventures and relationship with each other by enjoying each other and each other's pleasure instead of engaging in prickly jealousies and one-upmanship -- unless that one-upmanship also comes from a place of jovial play. And they do like to play, which is what makes this a great summer read. You can feel the humidity in your own backyard as Angie and Ella soak up the summer in New York with various paramours with their super sexy, sex-positive attitudes. Summer is the season for sluts. And this is one of those books that, finally, puts sluts in their rightful places. They aren't shameful or shamed. They're proud of it, and having the time of their lives, and the reader will, too.

Folks, this is a wild ride!

If you like crazy adventures, sexual and otherwise, with your humor, then this book is as good as it gets. As the blurb says, Angie and Ella are attorneys at a NY firm. They describe their adventures with a lot of witty commentary and asides, and it works because they describe their adventures by means of emails. Leyse has captured the rhythm and feel of real correspondence. The email narrative form invests all of Angie and Ella's activities with an immediacy that pulls the reader in and sweeps the action along. Parts of this novel read like eavesdropping, so immediate is the tone and believable are the feelings of the characters. The 2 authors, Hathaway and Saknussemm, are right in their reviews (above in the description) of this novel: it is a lot more than "erotica." To cite an example: the chapter "Circumstances of Spying" begins with Angie reported for illicit behavior. As she and Ella fire emails back and forth about the situation the chapter becomes incisive, and very funny, commentary on the inner workings of an office: the politics, rumor mill, gossip and ignorance of management types. At one point Angie writes: "...what an oxymoron "Private and Confidential" is in this place! You want a secret to remain a secret? Then keep it to yourself or only tell a TRUSTED confidant (You're my one and only within these walls!); otherwise, the whole place will know about it within an hour! I'd lay a bet the contents of every file in Human Resources has made it to the gossip pipeline and been bandied about at one time or another! "Private and Confidential"? What a joke!" Sex is involved, but the chapter is more about staying sane in a corporate firm. A word about the plot. There are 14 chapters in Liaisons for Laughs and most of them would stand alone as stories. This is not to say that some of the chapters are not a result of events that have gone before or that they do not often refer to one another, but I'd say 11 of them would work as short stories, and the longest one, #14, as a novella. But this is NOT to be taken as a shortcoming plotwise, in my mind. What holds this book together from beginning to end are the personalities of the 2 main characters, Angie and Ella. Their quips and sassiness remain constant, without any low points, and the comedic timing is spot on. This is a book that is written from the inside out, with emotion and attitude for the most part creating the action, not the other way around. And every stand alone chapter is tightly structured within itself. The adventures (I am not going to spoil anything with any more details) are crazy throughout AND totally plausible. Chapter 14, the novella sized one and the last one, is definitely a fitting crescendo for the book but, again, I do not want to spoil anything by describing it. All told, Liaisons for Laughs is a page turner from page one, and a heap of laughing. There is also a hilarious Afterword, where Angie and Ella confront the author and raise some issues about