Review: **UPDATED with links to blog posts** I'm REALLY disturbed by the basic plot elements (misogyny, lack of informed consent, abuse)
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2012
[UPDATE 3/29/2012] Read these two blog posts to really follow what I'm talking about in my review, re. misogyny, lack of informed consent and abuse.*****************************************[TRIGGER WARNING]******************************[...][...]*************************************[END TRIGGER WARNING]******************************If I could give this zero stars, I would.I know this was supposedly written to explore D/s situations in the domestic realm, but that consistent thread of lack of informed consent, in-your-face misogyny, abusive and humiliating situations, and the awful writing with the very flat, very stereotyped characters didn't help in the least.Flat characters:First off, the "older man, great lover, handsome, fit, dominant" male paired off with "naive, spoilt-brat, young, self-absorbed, shallow, brainless gold-digger" female: could you possibly get more stereotyped? WHY in the world would this supposedly mature man even get married to this declared shallow brainless gold-digger, barely-legal girl-woman, as indicated in the book, for LOVE? If he's all the stud that he's made out to be (super-rich, super-fit, super-good looking, super-smart, super-mature-for-his-age), why would he fall for this immature brat?Misogyny:Why would ALL of the women in this story either be dommes themselves (implied ball-busters), or immature brats (implied and actually characterized as brainless gold-diggers), or domestic servants?  The only way for a young woman to be happy is to be controlled by a man in every aspect of her life - REALLY?  OK, so this is a D/s story, and the main female character is the submissive. But every single one of her friends is also a gold-digger and submissive willing to withstand extreme pain, married to the main male dominant character's friends who are similarly fond of inflicting said extreme pain? Really? So not a single one of them has a wife over the age of 20, and the males are implied to be in their late-30s and upwards, more than old enough to be their fathers?  I found that incestuous theme to be very, very disturbing.  The whole storyline is disturbingly similar to abusive situations, with a severe power imbalance between the doms and subs, and given how the subs all react to the inflicted pain with very typical behavior patterns.Lack of informed consent:Throughout, the main female character is kept ignorant of what is being planned, what will be inflicted on her, and what the effects of that are known to be.  Sure yes, she signs a contract, but she signs it effectively blind, because she is not informed - or apparently mature enough to think through and be aware - of the consequences (inflicting of pain, both physical, through the spanking and caning, and mental and emotional, through the humiliation), and that in itself negates any notional consent. Without consent, this is a tale of abuse, of abuser with power and abused reacting to their lack of power in the only way they can. Explicit consent requires the maturity on BOTH sides of the equation, which is clearly lacking in this book.It disturbs me that I bought this book, because it goes against all my principles, and I have inadvertently participated in, and implied my approval of, the societal mistreatment of women. I read it, and I hated it. Now I know to avoid any more books by the author. There's D/s and sado-masochism, but this entire book is plain and simple misogyny and abuse. Since the author is a woman, I'd say "internalized misogyny". And I certainly do not want to encourage or imply approval of this kind of misogyny by buying such books, and encouraging the author to write any more such crap.