_Come Monday_, Mari Carr
Apr. 11th, 2010 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutA while back, I bought several books that were only published electronically, in an effort to find out whether the kind of fiction that I like was really available in e-only books, a subset of the larger question about how much of a lock on the market do the Big 6/print publishers in general really have. This was one of them. I don't think it was an award winner, altho IIRC, the sequel to it may have been (the third book in the series was recently released).
The publisher is Ellora's Cave. (Clue #1 that if you are squeamish about The Sex you should stop reading now.) This particular entry has a D/S (Clue #2 that if you are squeamish about The Kink you should stop reading now.) theme with a lifestyle component, but neither the sexual acts, the language between the two participants, nor the equipment used would be considered even remotely edgy. Nothing about this struck me as being aimed at anyone active in a community; this felt like it was aimed at a pretty vanilla audience looking for some juicy fantasy. That said, it was _way_ more realistic than the D/S themes that makes it into Lori Foster and similar authors in the print world. There's still too much of the oh, really, someone that inexperienced is doing what? But I felt happy that issues of contraception, lubrication, knees hurting, loss of circulation, afterplay, etc. were handled believably. There's no pain play to speak of (no way can you convince me that the spankings described are painful. No. Way.). Everything is scrupulously consensual.
The shtick is a big family owns/works in a bar/restaurant. Lots of siblings and one remaining parent. Since the offspring are all growed up but none of them married, it is plausible to conclude that each book in the series will have a sibling hooking up. In this case, the eldest, Keira, at age 27 has been taking college classes after mothering her siblings for years after their mother died. She has a huge crush on her English teacher and after the class is over for the summer and he's on sabbatical to write a textbook, he comes by the restaurant to let her know he's interested. And here is the McGuffin of the story: she's _not_ kinky in her own sexual history, but she reads his mind that that's what he's into, so the relationship takes off quite rapidly. There's lots of thinking about why that's not a great idea, so the author recognizes the problem which is nice. There's some discussion about why Keira is subby, and that's sort of a plus, as well. There's even a little backstory to give some flavor for why William is dommy. I could be all, bleah, because the world so does not need another hot, white subby chick and her ripped alpha male with the language skills. In fact, I am sort of tempted to be all bleah over that. That's about the worst I can say about this book. It's well done.
Once William and Keira start dating, the story is entirely about the developing sexual and emotional bond between the two. The four days he's out of town are skipped over in a sentence or two. The climactic separation when Keira relapses out of her newly rediscovered self to the I Am Replacement Mother of the last several years is handled very quickly as well. There's a dinner out to meet friends in the community -- there's action in the booth. There's a shopping trip to replenish her boring wardrobe -- there's action in the fitting room. He meets her at the pub when it's crazy busy -- there is toy deployment in the supply closet followed by him eying her trying to do her job with that level of distraction -- followed by action in the empty bar. There's even some action in a bed.
The second book in the series is waiting for me to turn the wireless back on on my kindle.
The publisher is Ellora's Cave. (Clue #1 that if you are squeamish about The Sex you should stop reading now.) This particular entry has a D/S (Clue #2 that if you are squeamish about The Kink you should stop reading now.) theme with a lifestyle component, but neither the sexual acts, the language between the two participants, nor the equipment used would be considered even remotely edgy. Nothing about this struck me as being aimed at anyone active in a community; this felt like it was aimed at a pretty vanilla audience looking for some juicy fantasy. That said, it was _way_ more realistic than the D/S themes that makes it into Lori Foster and similar authors in the print world. There's still too much of the oh, really, someone that inexperienced is doing what? But I felt happy that issues of contraception, lubrication, knees hurting, loss of circulation, afterplay, etc. were handled believably. There's no pain play to speak of (no way can you convince me that the spankings described are painful. No. Way.). Everything is scrupulously consensual.
The shtick is a big family owns/works in a bar/restaurant. Lots of siblings and one remaining parent. Since the offspring are all growed up but none of them married, it is plausible to conclude that each book in the series will have a sibling hooking up. In this case, the eldest, Keira, at age 27 has been taking college classes after mothering her siblings for years after their mother died. She has a huge crush on her English teacher and after the class is over for the summer and he's on sabbatical to write a textbook, he comes by the restaurant to let her know he's interested. And here is the McGuffin of the story: she's _not_ kinky in her own sexual history, but she reads his mind that that's what he's into, so the relationship takes off quite rapidly. There's lots of thinking about why that's not a great idea, so the author recognizes the problem which is nice. There's some discussion about why Keira is subby, and that's sort of a plus, as well. There's even a little backstory to give some flavor for why William is dommy. I could be all, bleah, because the world so does not need another hot, white subby chick and her ripped alpha male with the language skills. In fact, I am sort of tempted to be all bleah over that. That's about the worst I can say about this book. It's well done.
Once William and Keira start dating, the story is entirely about the developing sexual and emotional bond between the two. The four days he's out of town are skipped over in a sentence or two. The climactic separation when Keira relapses out of her newly rediscovered self to the I Am Replacement Mother of the last several years is handled very quickly as well. There's a dinner out to meet friends in the community -- there's action in the booth. There's a shopping trip to replenish her boring wardrobe -- there's action in the fitting room. He meets her at the pub when it's crazy busy -- there is toy deployment in the supply closet followed by him eying her trying to do her job with that level of distraction -- followed by action in the empty bar. There's even some action in a bed.
The second book in the series is waiting for me to turn the wireless back on on my kindle.