Learning to Behave: My Puerto Rican Student was graciously furnished to TehBen.com by its author, K.C. Bloom. This veteran of smut has crafted dozens of lesbian erotica works, and employs a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to making her readers feel all *tingly* with each turn of the page, or with each post she makes on Twitter. Something that I appreciate about Ms. Bloom, is how she’s made lesbian fiction her “thing.” It’s great when erotica authors spread their writings around to various sub-genres, but it is just as refreshing to see a writer explore a particular subject with a level of exclusivity.

Learning to Behave starts with the day-to-day accounts of an overly efficient and high strung professor, Mrs. Carter, at an all girls college (naturally). After some recent unpleasantness in her love life, Mrs. Carter is starting to experience a bit of a mid-life crisis. Rather than buying a shiny red Corvette or a sailboat, the professor instead takes a shining into the personal lives of her students. One student in particular that’s catching the eye of our main character is Sofia: a short, curvy, and totally breathtaking Puerto Rican girl that has become a bit distracted in recent weeks. While Mrs. Carter’s intentions seem to be academic (at first), there’s just no way to get this Latina goddess out of her head. After stepping a little too close for comfort inside Sofia’s personal life, it soon becomes time for Mrs. Carter to have the tables turned, to learn a lesson of her own…

For this Smut Vault installment, I think it’s necessary to discuss the story’s details with a bit more of a raunchy angle than usual. Lesbian erotica tends to be more sexually charged than other sub-genres, and this intensity is even more apparent here. For starters, Learning to Behave is written from a first person perspective, as we read everything from the point of view of Mrs. Carter. With any erotica, this angle makes the sexual encounter feel more intense, and I mean that in both the good and bad ways. Reading Mrs. Carter’s unplanned sexual submission to her young student feels like reading the captain’s journal of a damned voyage, rather than being a sideline spectator for a supremely sexy moment. Mrs. Carter enters this experience confused, heartbroken, and an altogether disheveled mess. Sofia on the other hand, seems all too eager to sexually punish her professor for tracking her down…like the white pretentious establishment figure she is.

Yeah, that’s another underlying subject that this touches on. This story should also be considered in the context of an interracial dom/sub. Mrs. Carter isn’t merely submitting as a reversal of her role as professor, she’s submitting as a reversal of her role as a wealthy member of the academically elite. Quite frankly, I’m only disappointed that this issue wasn’t expanded on a little more to add tension. Naturally, this short story spent the lion’s share of its time describing the sexual acts in detail, while sacrificing some of the backstory. There was clearly something here, deep down, that could have been a more challenging experience for both of the characters as well as the readers. We’re teased with snippets of Sofia’s studies of Puerto Rican history, and if you’ve got a quick eye you can make the connections to the parallels between the historic content and the eventual relationship of the characters themselves. Far be it from me to demand more, however when we’re given such a brief taste of what could have been, the hardcore lesbian fucking serves as a meal that was one or two courses short of complete satisfaction.

Rating: Learning to Behave: My Puerto Rican Student is a straightforward, raunchy lesbian erotica that will keep cheeks red and flustered throughout the entire ride. Unashamed to cast aside societal norms to encourage its characters to reach the peaks and valleys of dominant/submissive interracial relations, the author makes a brave attempt to mix contemporary themes with an engaging sexual twist. But much like the main character herself, I feel slightly teased…and needing just a bit more.