James Gault reviews A Spring Break at L'Abeille Nue (Rags to Riches Book 8) by Ted Bun
Ted Bun is a prolific author of short novels set in naturist surroundings, and this is one of his latest offerings. Two young female members of an up and coming pop group, looking for a safe place to holiday away from the cameras and prying eyes of the press, are taken by their manager to a naturist resort. Having just come from reading some very dark novels, I found this book to be a refreshing dose of pure optimism.
What attracted me in this story was the psychological aspect. The two ladies who run the resort are also amateur psychological counsellors. Visitors come, divest themselves of their clothes and then their problems. When they leave, they put their clothes back on but their problems have disappeared. In the three or four cases we see in the novel, the combined therapy of overcoming the emotional challenge of being naked in front of others and the cognitive behavioural therapy suggested is infallible.
There is an evangelical tone to the book. Old ‘believers’ bring newcomers. We see the ritual aspect of getting unclothed for the first time – a kind of baptism- , past sins are forgiven and personal troubles are made to disappear. For non-naturists like me, it is a valuable insight into why this way of life might be popular.
Naturist fiction is a very niche genre, but there are aspects to this novel with wider appeal. I have already mentioned the psychological aspect, but lovers of the pop music scene will also find much to interest them. And it is a true ‘feel-good’ story So if you need something to cheer you up on a bad day, this could be it.