Review: Serious and Sensual erotica
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2011
Laurel doesn't know what to expect when she asks out the big, muscle man she bumps into on the street one day. It's certainly not a warning that he's not her type of guy. Or an invitation to an underground event that's reminiscent of `Fight Club'. And Laurel certainly didn't expect the level of the big man's kink. Because Flynn likes to dominate - not just tie me up, tie me down either - Flynn likes to simulate rape and aggression on his willing bed mates.Laurel is at once horrified, intrigued and turned on. She's also got a burning desire to get to the heart of Flynn's kink, and maybe make the big man fall in love with her.I read `Willing Victim' because I adored Cara McKenn's stand-alone novel, `The Reluctant Nude' (written under her pseudonym, Meg Maguire).I went into `Willing Victim' a little hesitant. Because at the beginning of the novel there is a warning that had me a wee bit spooked; Reader Advisory: Although all sex acts are 100-percent consensual, Willing Victim contains role-playing scenarios that may upset some readers who are sensitive about rape, even in a simulated capacity.'I went into this novel suitably prepared to be disgusted and have my feminism insulted. But surprisingly (or not so surprisingly, since `The Reluctant Nude' was spectacular) this novel looks at extreme-BDSM and general fetish in a very earnest and revealing way, with utter sensitivity and intelligence.I will say that the simulated rape isn't as in-your-face as I expected. It's mostly to do with the fact that Flynn is aware of how strange (and potentially criminal) the whole situation could be. So he's very explicit and open with his lovers, about what's allowed and where to draw the line. He asks Laurel, repeatedly, to say she wants this and there is a safe-word involved. Having read EXTREME kink in the form of Kitty Thomas's `Comfort Food' - I have to say that `Willing Victim' is at the tamer end of the spectrum. That's not to say the sex scenes are boring or lacking in any way - they are incredibly sensual, and brutishly hot. I think it's more the fact that the book is about simulated rape and simulated violence, whereas `Comfort Food' was the real-deal and all the more disturbing for it (while still equally brilliant).I think the simulation was also somewhat less grotesque for Flynn and Laurel's genuine heat and connection. These two were great - I loved that outside of the bedroom they played with one another, laughed and joked and were quite at ease. But when the clothes came off, the heat turned up. These two genuinely clicked and that attraction came across and made the whole `fake-rape' thing just another aspect of their bedroom antics.McKenna also stayed true to her intelligent sensuality, which I encountered in `The Reluctant Nude'. McKenna (/Mguire) doesn't just write sex or kink for the sake of shock. There's actually back-story and explanation. It makes her erotica intelligent and all the more fulfilling. I was particularly impressed when Flynn accused Laurel of thinking him and his 'fetish' to be a disability, of sorts. Not dissimilar to a dialysis machine, something he has to drag around with him and be embarrassed by. Flynn articulated what Laurel (and I) was secretly thinking.Cara McKenna writes sensual and serious erotica for the thinking woman. Her characters are intelligent, complex and compelling. Her kinky situations never favour shock over story and it makes her erotica all the more fascinating and sexy.