Author Archives: Sadie

Book Review: A Russian Bear, by C.B. Conway

Leave a reply

a russian bear coverAbout the book:

To Mischa, life is simple. Doms are Doms and subs are for fucking, flogging, and bossing around. Until he meets Tom, that is. Tom is deeply offended when the stranger in the bar takes him for some kind of slave boy. Well, offended and more than a little excited by the thought of surrendering to Mischa. Mischa being Mischa, their meeting results in Tom losing his virginity in a way that’s hotter than even his wildest fantasies. Mischa is drawn to Tom and makes another appointment. And then another, initiating Tom to every kink Mischa knows. They aren’t scenes, of course, because Mischa has a “one boy, one scene” rule. But then again, Tom isn’t exactly like his usual boys, and Mischa finds himself falling in love, though nowhere near ready to admit it. Luckily, Tom isn’t exactly your stereotypical slave. Life is good — until Tom gets attacked, and Mischa has to fight harder than ever to make Tom realize that he isn’t going anywhere.

Review:

I wish I hadn’t started this, then I wouldn’t have needed to finish it. I’m not really into instructional sex, so this was never going to be a big winner for me. (I didn’t know that was basically ALL it is when I chose to read it.) But I also got REALLY bored with the Ds/BSDM 101 and monotonous ‘playroom’ toy scenes. I lost track of how many times I read some version of ‘This is an X. It does Y’ or ‘This is a Y. I’m going to do X to you with it.’ Mischa and Tom were like kids in a freakin’ candy store. ‘I’ll try this and this and this and this and this and this and this…’

The book didn’t develop even a whiff of a plot until close to 50%, and it was almost nonexistent even then. By that time, I was only continuing the book out of a stubborn determination to see if it really could be a whole book of ‘This is how you do it and use this toy/tool/instrument.’ (Apparently, it could.) Plus, all of Tom’s earnest and honest answers about what he needs and wants and why came across as little more than dry lessons into the intent and proper uses of D/s and BDSM kink. I don’t mind reading about kink, but I’m not interested in reading an instruction manual, and that’s what this felt like.

After the halfway mark, when the relationship started to develop, and some of the sex could just be kinky sex and not feel like the ‘how to use’ pages from the Acme Erotic Toy catalog, some of the scenes were pretty hot, and Mischa & Tom were pretty sweet together. But for most of the book, I found myself gritting my teeth.

I did appreciate the occasionally sarcastic narrative, especially in regard to Mischa’s inner dialogue. I also liked the age difference between the men and the fact that no big deal was made of it. I was curious about names. There is the obviously Russian ‘Mischa’ and, without exception, every other character in the book has some bland American name, like Tom, Rob, John, Daniel, etc.

I thought that the writing was basically fine, and the editing was passable. I did notice the occasional overuse of names in dialogue, some sudden POV shifts, and it’s occasionally hard to tell who’s speaking. Plus, as a personal pet peeve, ‘Oh, ah, oh, uh, oh, ah, oh, oh, oh…’ has never struck me as sexy erotic dialogue. So, in terms of my own enjoyment, this is a one-star read. But I’ll grant it a second because, to be fair, the book is structurally sound.

Book Review: Queen’s Man, by K. D. Sarge

Leave a reply

queen's man cover

About the book:
Joss Ravid works security for a major tribe on Kari’s Star, but he’ll tell anyone that he doesn’t actually care if the ruling families kill each other off. He’s not interested in politics; he just likes getting paid to hit jerks, and also the many opportunities for hitting on straight men. The Galactic-imposed Interdiction may keep Kari citizens stuck on their war-torn world, but Joss has connections. If the situation gets too messy, he can leave whenever he wants.

Review:

I thought that this was cute. It had characters you really want to like, some variety in their appearance, and enough action to keep things interesting. However, I also thought that the characters, while entertaining, weren’t very deeply written. The HEA romance came out of nowhere and wasn’t well developed. The events were often over-the-top ridiculous, and while it was hinted that Joss had been a member of the Dream crew at some point, I couldn’t figure out where to place him. (For a long time, I thought that with all that beauty, red hair, fair skin, and anti-woman attitude, he might turn out to be Keen from His Faithful Squire, but apparently, he’s just another beautiful, fair-skinned redhead who hates/fears women and worked on the Dream. Who knew they could be so common.)

All in all, a perfectly acceptable piece of entertainment. Recommended for those who would like a clean m/m read (no sex).

Book Review: Sin & Seduction, by Allison Cassatta

Leave a reply

sin and seduction coverAbout the book:

Dorian Grant is king of the New Orleans underworld, but he isn’t mafia and doesn’t appreciate the assumption. He’s simply a crude businessman anyone in his right mind would think twice about screwing over. Life in the Big Easy is all about sin, and violent, short-tempered Dorian has committed them all.

But not all New Orleans sins leave a bad taste in the mouth, as Dorian discovers the night a man stage-named Sweet Heat dances into his life at a club called Sin and Seduction. Dorian was expecting a hot lay. He damn sure wasn’t looking for a relationship, and certainly not with someone like Jansen, who turns Dorian’s grimly organized world upside down.

Now Dorian finds himself pressuring Jansen to quit his job because he can’t stand the thought of other men touching what’s his. Of course, Jansen wants a little quid pro quo—after all, Dorian’s job is dangerous. Jansen just doesn’t realize how dangerous until it’s too late.

**ranty review … spoiler alert**

I will admit that since the writing and editing of this book is fine, it almost certainly deserves more than one star. But I just plain hated the thing so much I can’t bring myself to give it anymore. This book, no, not the book, the book is fine, this story is horrible. H.O.R.R.R.I.B.L.E! It’s basically porn with a very weak attempt at a plot, which can be fun sometimes. But this was not one of those times.

The plot is essentially that a violent, drug-addicted, murdering mafioso goes into a strip joint and hires a dancer to take home for a night of meaningless debauchery. First off, while erotic dancing and prostitution are admittedly both part of the sex trade, I’m fairly sure ‘pole dancer’ and ‘whore’ aren’t actually the same profession. But hey, apparently, I’m wrong.

Said mafioso treats said dancer just like a hooker. He does his deed and dismisses the dancer before the poor guys even peeled himself off the shower stall wall. It was literally, “I’m done, get out.” But for some inexplicable reason that isn’t explained he then suddenly starts having all these wants and feelings that he’s never had before. Suddenly the dancer isn’t just a whore. He’s something more. Wha…what? Why?

Meanwhile, the dancer is convinced he’s falling in love with the man who just used and discarded him—the man who he never spoke to, who made him wear a blindfold to his house, provided no foreplay, and was basically just a dick to him. The next night, the drugged-up man shows up and buys the dancer again. Treating him so badly that he injures him quite severely without noticing, throws money at him, and leaves. (‘Cause that’s the obvious thing to do to the man you’ve just spent 24 hours fantasising about.)

And you know what the dancer did then? You wanna know? He fell in love with the man and spent the next third of the book pining for him and obsessing over whether he was just a whore to that ‘mystery lover.’ WTF? Seriously? What in the previous occurrences would suggest he could expect to be anything else? I haven’t left anything out, either. The two of them had no actual conversation, didn’t exchange names, never showed any kindness toward one another. NOTHING. So, the whole ‘romance’ was completely baseless and made no sense at all.

I could really go on and on and on about how much I hated these two characters and their ridiculous ‘love.’ (I’m throwing out some mean air quotes on that word too.) But I won’t. I’ll just say that I hated everything about them, their relationship (or lack thereof), their unnatural progression from strangers to ‘most important person in my life,’ their weird attempts to change each other while simultaneously saying they accept them as they are, their hospitalisations, their ‘move in with me, you’ve met me two whole times and I only tore your rectum the once, you don’t even know my name and I obviously live the sort of life that sees me almost assassinated but I’ll treat you right’ buuuullllshiiiitttttt.

I generally like a good mob boss character. But the damaged millionaire being saved by the prostitute with the golden heart has been done so many times already, and I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the trope to start with. Then there was Dorian’s ridiculous speech patterns and Jansen’s wishy-washy ‘I’m submissive, now I’m accreting myself, now I’m submitting’ schtick…oh, and the history of rape (’cause Jansen apparently wasn’t filling enough heroine tropes already)…ugh. Just no. I have nothing good to say about this book other than that the writing is perfectly readable, so a different reader might not hate it as much as me.