A Novel by Jamila Deyn Reyes

What the Body Holds

Some secrets live beneath the skin

Discover the Story
What the Body Holds - Book Cover

What the Body Holds

Psychological Erotic Fiction

Dianne Chen has learned how to disappear inside her own life. A senior executive at a prestigious consulting firm, married into one of Taiwan's most powerful families, she has mastered containment. Her past is sealed away. Her desires unnamed. Her body compliant, even when her mind is not.

Before her marriage, there was James. The only man who ever made her feel fully seen. Loving him would have meant telling the truth about who she had been, so she left, choosing reinvention over exposure. She built a life that was successful, respectable, and safe.

When the strain of that erasure begins to surface, Dianne turns to Dr. Laurent, a hypnotherapist known for his work with memory, intimacy, and attachment. His sessions are precise, controlled, and disarmingly attentive. Under hypnosis, recollection returns as sensation rather than narrative. Boundaries soften. The past becomes vivid again.

As memories deepen, so does Laurent's presence. His guidance lingers. His questions press closer. Dianne finds herself opening doors she once fought to keep locked, even as she senses that not everything being uncovered belongs to her alone.

When James re-enters her life, the fragile architecture of her control begins to fail. Desire resurfaces. So does the realisation that vulnerability, once exposed, is not always met with care.

Some doors are opened in search of truth.
Others are opened by those waiting on the other side.

"The two of them could not nor could ever be while the two of them always were and always would be."
Content Note: This novel contains explicit sexual content, themes of professional misconduct, and depictions of trauma. Intended for adult readers.
ISBN Paperback: 978-981-94-5241-5 ISBN eBook: 978-981-94-5242-2

What Readers Are Saying

"Erotic literary fiction at its finest. Intelligent, unsettling, impossible to put down."

— ARC reader

"The therapy scenes made my skin crawl in the best way. I kept telling myself nothing was wrong while knowing something absolutely was."

— early reviewer

"Dianne is the kind of protagonist I rarely encounter: controlled, observant, genuinely smart. Watching her crack was mesmerising."

— beta reader

"Every scene with James made my chest ache. Every session with Laurent made my skin crawl."

— ARC reader

"This is literary fiction that happens to be erotic, not erotica pretending to be literary."

— early reviewer

"Dr Laurent is one of the most chilling antagonists I've encountered precisely because he seems so reasonable on the surface."

— beta reader

"The sex is hot. But what elevates it is that every intimate scene reveals character, advances plot, or shifts the emotional landscape."

— ARC reader

"Marcus broke my heart. A good man who simply isn't enough. Devastating in its quietness."

— early reviewer

"Slow burn done right. If you want to sink into a character's consciousness, this delivers."

— beta reader

"The body remembers what the mind forgets, and this book proves it."

— ARC reader

"Disturbing, sexy, and emotionally devastating."

— early reviewer

"Smart, sensual, and surprisingly suspenseful. I kept second-guessing myself, which is exactly how it would feel in real life."

— beta reader
JR

Jamila Deyn Reyes

Jamila Deyn Reyes writes stories about desire, identity, and the secrets we keep from ourselves. Her work explores the landscape where passion meets psychology, where the body holds truths the mind refuses to acknowledge.

Drawing from a deep fascination with the complexities of human connection, she crafts narratives that are as emotionally intricate as they are sensually charged. Her characters inhabit the spaces between who they appear to be and who they truly are.

What the Body Holds is her debut novel, the first in a planned series following Dianne Chen's journey from silence to agency.

She writes from somewhere in Asia, surrounded by too many books and not enough sleep.

— Jamila

What the Body Knows

What do you do when your body remembers something your mind has spent decades forgetting?

Dianne Chen is writing her past into existence. But a news report triggers something she can't control. Fragments surfacing. Nightmares blurring. A phrase that echoes across decades. The memoir she's writing may save her. It may also destroy the only story that's kept her whole.

A novel about memory, desire, and the terrifying act of believing yourself when no one else can.

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