This was trying to retcon the Regency era, and not in any way more palatable than A Lady Awakened.
Once again I had very basic problems with digestingThis was trying to retcon the Regency era, and not in any way more palatable than A Lady Awakened.
Once again I had very basic problems with digesting the prose. Apparently I am not the target audience, I do like sparse, but I want elegant instead of dry.
The other problem is how the author tried to milk Regency stereotypes to come up with a halfway "modern" narrative, with characters she apparently believes are more comprehensible to modern readers and sensitivities. Unfortunately that's not at all what I read HR for. I want the mores and habits of former times, and I need an author to be playing intelligently with what is possible.
There were women of the Regency era who rode sidesaddle, raced as jockeys in thoroughbred races, travelled to the far and near east, and became queens of their own empires. Others crucially supported their mates and husbands, who were fighting the good causes. Others yet travelled to war areas and worked as nurses under very atrocious conditions for women.
It is really not as if there weren't hundreds if not thousands of lifestories of women of these eras which would make worthwhile novelisations! Yet Grant again resorts to inflicting modern mores and morals on the reader, which--quite frankly--means that this was my last foray into her books.
Twice bitten...
Merged review:
This was trying to retcon the Regency era, and not in any way more palatable than A Lady Awakened.
Once again I had very basic problems with digesting the prose. Apparently I am not the target audience, I do like sparse, but I want elegant instead of dry.
The other problem is how the author tried to milk Regency stereotypes to come up with a halfway "modern" narrative, with characters she apparently believes are more comprehensible to modern readers and sensitivities. Unfortunately that's not at all what I read HR for. I want the mores and habits of former times, and I need an author to be playing intelligently with what is possible.
There were women of the Regency era who rode sidesaddle, raced as jockeys in thoroughbred races, travelled to the far and near east, and became queens of their own empires. Others crucially supported their mates and husbands, who were fighting the good causes. Others yet travelled to war areas and worked as nurses under very atrocious conditions for women.
It is really not as if there weren't hundreds if not thousands of lifestories of women of these eras which would make worthwhile novelisations! Yet Grant again resorts to inflicting modern mores and morals on the reader, which--quite frankly--means that this was my last foray into her books.
I'm afraid I can't anymore with books leaving me with the feeling they are m/m written exclusively for the delectation of het women, and kink w[image]
I'm afraid I can't anymore with books leaving me with the feeling they are m/m written exclusively for the delectation of het women, and kink written by non-kinksters for the sake of turning on non-kinksters. The bell of falsehoods this rings is a tad too large for my taste. I don't even get majorly exasperated anymore, I'm simply terribly bored....more
This was so puerile and facile, that most fanfiction written by teenagers is actually better. I mean it. I've never read anything like that bef [image]
This was so puerile and facile, that most fanfiction written by teenagers is actually better. I mean it. I've never read anything like that before, not as a professionally published book....more
I'm asked to like a horrifically vulgar, aggressive idiot of a woman who vomits snark and disrespect at everyone she meets. Within sight of Meh.
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I'm asked to like a horrifically vulgar, aggressive idiot of a woman who vomits snark and disrespect at everyone she meets. Within sight of the front-matter I was ready to nail her to a wall and forget her up there. Yuck.
Apart from that, the plot was rather boring, the entire thing US-centric, and containing the typical (for US-UF/PNR) menagerie of badly researched beasties pulled straight from some TV-series (be it Buffy or Supernatural or Charmed - I couldn't care less). Not an original thought or idea anywhere in sight.
What shocks me most is the huge amount of people rooting for this....more
My second attempt at reading an Addison Cain novel...
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Oookay, this was just as bad as the first one I tried. Horrid, stream of consciousness-sty
My second attempt at reading an Addison Cain novel...
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Oookay, this was just as bad as the first one I tried. Horrid, stream of consciousness-style prose without descriptions, settings, any sort of world-building, nothing. Just a haphazard recounting of action sequences with "explained" behaviour. Nothing is shown, no emotions anywhere, no lust, pain, fear, nothing. About as interesting as listening to the weather report of two weeks ago. Well, not even that, as that would be more structured.
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Yep. THAT is how erotic this BS was. I have to say, that I'm kinky enough to love knotting. But fuck me sideways, it would really be helpful, Ms Cain, if you knew a few facts about knotting in animals in the first place. Seriously.
I read until 24% and skimmed to roughly 70% when I gave up after being bored to distraction. The horrible meh prose never changed, by now I think I have to acknowledge that this is Ms Cain's writing style. What I do not understand are all these readers swooning over how "filthy" and "dark" this is. It didn't even tickle me, and I don't think I'm the harshest of all sadists out there.
I think I'll give it a while before I try strike #3. If ever....more
This book came highly recommended for being "realistic" and SSC BDSM.
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Ooookayyy...
If this is realistic, somewhere on this planet, then this area This book came highly recommended for being "realistic" and SSC BDSM.
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Ooookayyy...
If this is realistic, somewhere on this planet, then this area needs a whole lot more sex-ed in their schools. And SSC? Absolutely not! This was abuse and sexual harassment in disguise. Actually it was a lot like little Sallie imagines BDSM relationships work.
--- There be spoilers below this line ---
Laura visits a laundromat late at night during a storm. She is reading a BDSM romance written by Cherise Sinclair (unfortunately the author of this here book has taken Sinclair for reality!) and gets observed by yours truly, the domly dom James, who - like obviously a typically rabid and sex-craving dom - comes on to her. He orders her around, and when she refuses to do as he says, he threatens her with a spanking. Not just that - again like all these superdomly doms - he also devines just going by the book she reads, that she has to be a submissive.
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Boy, could that go wrong! I've read Sinclair, and I'm a card-carrying female sadist, who'd probably crack his nuts for such a come-on! And most real doms actually know that such assumptions are no good idea at all.
And when she pushes back, the threatens her with a spanking, then declares that they will be having a BDSM session while in the laundromat. Nope. Giving her a safeword isn't changing this into consensual BDSM. He still is harassing and abusing her. Nope. That she comes or experiences lust or has an orgasm isn't turning this into consensual anything. Women can have orgasms from rape. It's a physical reaction, and oftentimes also a psychological reaction to abusive sex.
So. Welp. Just a few pages in I was shaking my head so fast and grumbling so loudly that my poor doggie thought I was angry at her. The entire initial meet-cute read like a very skeevy sexual harassment and actual physical abuse. So much so that it wasn't even funny and I gave up on this.
And no, I'm not going to explain how it really should have played out. Let me just say that he should have smiled and invited her to a munch. And the author really needs to up her game. This is plain old bodice ripping, and not of the good kind, either, because people will believe what she describes is okay....more
This is the first book I read because the cover was so pukeworthily off-putting that I thought, the book can't be that bad.
I mean, look at that cover This is the first book I read because the cover was so pukeworthily off-putting that I thought, the book can't be that bad.
I mean, look at that cover model! He is HIDEOUS. Not just ugly, but he embodies every negative facet I hate in men irl. And the cover designer and the author seem to think, that this guy is better than sliced bread, or whatever. What the fuck?
Alas, my hope was mistaken. Actually the cover model is an excellent representation of the H, who is just apeshit batty alpha and that beyond even the slightest chance of repair. Come on, Hannibal Lecter (the Anthony Hopkins version) is 1,000% sexier than this unshaven, childish, self-centered army clod. And the h apparently loves being kicked around by that arsehole. I can't even.
Unfortunately, as with all these FSOG-derivates, this isn't really dark at all. It's just a very average rape fantasy with lots of sex and alleged BDSUnfortunately, as with all these FSOG-derivates, this isn't really dark at all. It's just a very average rape fantasy with lots of sex and alleged BDSM which wouldn't happen like this in a really captive situation....more
Unfortunately, as with all these FSOG-derivates, this isn't really dark at all. It's just a very average rape fantasy with lots of sex and alleged BDSUnfortunately, as with all these FSOG-derivates, this isn't really dark at all. It's just a very average rape fantasy with lots of sex and alleged BDSM which wouldn't happen like this in a really captive situation....more
This is unmitigated shice wank-off material for the needy BDSMer. Or people who think they are BDSMers. I'm afraid the newsflash here is, tha [image]
This is unmitigated shice wank-off material for the needy BDSMer. Or people who think they are BDSMers. I'm afraid the newsflash here is, that this is not how BDSM takes place, it's abuse instead, and no, this isn't either how poly takes place, it's instead a form of rape by proxy. Indeed, it is a sort of de-fanged rape-fiction, which fails to deliver the full quid.
Mind, I'm not against rape-fiction, nor against tortureporn, I love to wank off as much as the next woman. What I cannot abide is rape-fiction being sold to an unsuspecting public as BDSM.
What I also hate is that this kind of book has killed erudite BDSM stories for good in the past decade or so. Which means I lack reading matter. And that's not something I forgive easily.
And gosh am I tired of these silly tropes here... ...more
This was one convoluted, miserable, badly written, incomprehensible load of crap. A stream of cIck.
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But probably not for the reason you think...
This was one convoluted, miserable, badly written, incomprehensible load of crap. A stream of consciousness without consciousness, just a stream of shit. Literally.
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I'm sorry, I managed to skim through 50% of this and then gave up. I was completely unable to make head or tails of it. There was absolutely no plot or story in this book, at least none which moved anywhere, was understandable, had at least some logic, or - whatever. Nope. Just a huge amount of word-vomit which achieved nothing and was quite meaningless.
Once again, this was recommended to me as some sort of ultra-dark, super-racy and extremely well-written dark erotica/erotic romance. Well, as I already said, I would have liked a story. Maybe a description here and there. Possibly an explanation or two about the people populating it, people who randomly vomited large amounts of dialogue and/or mental monologue, but otherwise did little. I mean - really - there was practically no action for at least 48 of these 50%.
There also was precious little sex for anything purporting to be erotic romance in there, an instance of rape watched on a video, and else nothing that I noticed. Cocks were constantly referred to, as were cunts, but neither was described, not in a winning, and neither in any other manner. The impression I got was one of a very curious and highly unhealthy opinion on sexuality. Again, this has no root in any action or story, it's just the choice of words.
I won't be reading this author again. I do like more action, plot and story in my books. I wish for a slightly more acceptable POV regarding sex per se (yes, this is possible even when you write about rape and slavery). I absolutely need more, MUCH more eroticism in anything romantic or erotic.
But most importantly: I prefer books which make sense....more
Steelwhisper
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