Review: Good book, sexy hero, but not all that edgy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2014
Ann Mayburn definitely has writing skills. She obviously knows about real life BDSM, and I like her emphasis on how the practice of it doesn't make one int a bad person. I liked the characters and the sex scenes were definitely spicy.I do have a couple of (small) issues, though. I realize this book is for a wide audience, and many people might consider the practices in it to be extreme. However, as a practitioner myself, I kept waiting to see what made the hero so scary and edgy.  Single tail whips aren't that out of the park for most people doing SM, although I could definitely see how a tabloid would blow such a thing way out of proportion. The knife scene was nice but not terribly scary. While the hero is a sadist, he's fairly on the light side as far as edge play/ heavy duty sadism goes; why anybody at Club Wicked would see him as a wild man is beyond me.This isn't a criticism of the author, the writing, or her characters, by the way. It's just that I would hate for a novice to read this book, think that Sir Bryan is as scary as it gets, and then go out looking for a 'sadist' while thinking she could handle it. For instance, I had to laugh when one of the characters says a dominant man is horribly abusive because, other than being totally rude and physically abusive, he likes to 'pee' on his submissives. While that isn't standard, it happens more often than outsiders might think. No one who was a member of a high-end SM club would be shocked that someone was into that, even if it wasn't to their personal tastes. In fact, most real-life SMers would be shocked that sex is allowed to happen on-site at Club Wicked. For most people in the SM scene, that's strictly a no-no. I can't think of a single club where I've seen public sex as the norm, even between women (although oddly enough, fisting isn't considered to be 'sex' in the SM world, and has been known to happen at clubs.I know quite a few real-life sadists/dominants. Most of them are as sweet as pie, which is true here, too. But the 'scary' ones have been known to 'threaten' submissives with talk of possible mutilation (usually while holding knives that could barely cut butter), lock submissives in cages while refusing them the use of a bathroom, make submissives wear humiliating outfits out of doors or to a restaurant, or even whip submissives until bruises appear and skin is slightly broken. There are people who are even more extreme than that, and who are still considered to be very safe, very sane, and fully into consent.Would I recommend the book? Yes. It was a pleasure to read, the characters were nice, and it was generally a pleasant enough fantasy. It was as realistic as any number of other romances are, which means it was essentially fantasy. Plus, it made me all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm still hoping for the day though, when someone will write a romance novel with a hardcore sadist in it, without making the activities non-con or dub-con, or writing the sadist as being sociopathic or just plain selfish/jerky. It would also be nice to see a sadist who has a family that knows he's one and might not be crazy about it, but accept it as a lifestyle choice without it being a big deal, the way some families accept one child being a musician or a mixed martial arts fighter when the rest of the family is made up of doctors and lawyers.