Watched is a VERY explicit short story about alfresco intimacy and voyeurism by Lexi Lovelock.

When writing erotic stories it can be tricky to create a scene that has broad appeal, because everyone’s tastes vary across such a broad spectrum of possibilities. What turns one listener on will just as quickly turn another off. Perhaps Audible need to implement different categories for their saucier stories, (such as is seen in Mills and Boon books, with different ranges catering to different audiences and desires), so that there’s more information available to potential listeners prior to purchase. Keywords regarding the themes and kinds of play that can be expected in the audiobook would achieve this but might hamper the listings, which is - I think - why reviews cannot go into too much detail either.

For me, this audiobook gave none of the pleasure it set out to provide. I prefer such stories to feel erotic, but this had none of the sensuality or finesse that would have made it so much sexier. The biggest turn off was the writing itself. So many phrases were repetitive ("the blonde woman"), word choices were often jarring, cliched, or unimaginative ("sloshing juices"), and every syllable of the dialogue from the woman could have been lifted from an amateur adult film.

As a woman, I didn’t find the female character's personality or dialogue realistic, and as a reader none of the action was compelling. How the voyeuristic security guard could determine the intimate grooming regimen of "the blonde woman’s boyfriend" from such a distance away I’ve no idea, but it was just one of the unfortunate moments that really jerked me out of the story. 

It felt like a bawdy fantasy written by a man, and not just because the ‘male gaze’ in the story has a masculine POV. It was the kind of scene you might find on a tacky website, with very little engaging characterisation. A paltry attempt was made to portray the couple as being lovingly infatuated with each other, but their interactions did nothing to strengthen this assertion.

When writing a short story the author really has to take care to ensure it is exquisitely crafted because there’s so little to judge it upon that everything has to work and the writing must not be clumsy. I was hoping this short story would be a ‘sinfully erotic’, brief-but-wild ride, but its most redeeming feature was its brevity; which is not the impression one hopes a sensual encounter will leave.

The only saving grace was the narrator, whose deep, rich voice was perfect for this genre of story. I would definitely listen to other books narrated by Jack Calihan.

I’d recommend this book if you are looking for a quick, cheap, gritty thrill and aren’t fussed about the writing. It could be useful for someone with a visual impairment, for example, who is looking for something equivalent to audio-described porn. It is very blunt and rather coarse in style which may not be as satisfying an experience for many people as more literary erotica, but everyone’s tastes are different and perhaps this just wasn’t to mine.