Reviewed by Stacy Ahlgren
Publisher: Penquin
Rating: 4 stars

This is the story of three girlfriends, all married, who are each about to celebrate their 7-year wedding anniversary. Melanie, owner of a healthclub with her husband Thomas, brings the subject up, reminding her friends Cherisse and Debra that there’s a valid reason behind the concept of the seven year itch, and brings up the idea of a “free pass”, the opportunity for each person to have a sexual interlude with someone outside the marriage and not have it held against them. At first the other two women are skeptical as they are all happy in their marriages and see no reason to court trouble. But Melanie explains that a “free pass” would add an element of excitement and spice to their marriages, and prevent the possibility of their husbands being bored with them later on. And it’s not just for their men’s benefit; Melanie stresses that each of the women should indulge themselves as well.

After further discussion, each of the three women decides to discuss the idea with their spouses. Cherisse and her husband Wesley are taking a two-week vacation to Miami, and Cherisse tells him that if he agrees to her idea, this would be the perfect opportunity to live out a forbidden fantasy: sex with someone other than each other. Debra and Gordon are celebrating their anniversary in the sensual paradise of Greece, and both agree that the attitude and freeness of this beautiful country is the perfect setting to experiment. Meanwhile Melanie is tied to the healthclub while her manager is on maternity leave, and must settle for a close-to-home encounter.

All three couples have feelings of reluctance to participate in such adulterous behavior, mainly because they are all very happy in their marriages, and they seem rather determined to take their free pass and get the whole experience over with quickly. Yet also to their surprise the wickedness of what they were about to do was also very exciting, arousing, and because each person involved gave full disclosure of what their intentions were, it served to create an atmosphere of acceptance.

At first the way the concept was explained and carried out seemed rather distasteful, but as the pages turned, it became apparent that as each couple shared their misgivings and insecurities, it stopped being a story of three couples cheating on their spouses and became something a little more emotional than that. While naughty and sexual, it was really the connection between each pair that made the story interesting. Essentially they were engaging in adulterous behavior with the consent of their loving spouse, and none of the individuals involved had any regrets when it was all over. In fact it seemed to bring them closer together, almost as if this exercise served as a reminder of just how fortunate they are to have each other.

I found this book to be more enjoyable in an emotional sense than I was expecting, but less so in the whole “free pass” fantasy idea. I didn’t quite buy into the reasoning why they agreed to it in the first place, mainly because of the misgivings on each person’s part that didn’t completely go away. The whole experience came across as stilted and unconvincing because even though none of them wallowed in guilt or feelings of betrayal, their actions felt forced. Now I will say the sexual encounters were rather erotic and earthy at times, a bit disappointing and somewhat cold at others, though I didI find this to be very believable considering each person’s comfort level with what was actually happening. Overall though, I will also say that I found the outcome of the book to be very satisfying