Review: Subtle and Emotionally Complex Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2012
Some reviewers have used the word 'brutal' to describe this story. I understand where that is coming from, I do. But if you are generally comfortable with a bit of edgy BDSM and you are willing to give the author some trust, you'll be rewarded with a subtle and emotionally complex romance.I've actually read this book twice this week: I started with Victorious Star; read Lost Star (the prequel), Fallen Star (the stand-alone next book), and Fortune's Star (a stand-alone novella); and then looped back to read this one again. The additional character context from Lost Star and the additional cultural context from the other two both added to my second reading immeasurably. That said, I'm not suggesting that you have to read this story twice to appreciate it - just that if you approach this as a throw-away tale of erotica you'll be missing most of the story.The emotional cues, especially at the beginning of the story, are fairly subtle. Our early view of Victoria is entirely from her point of view, and she's invested her life in believing that she's impervious to the need for affection and praise. We don't get an accurate picture of her psychology until she's interacting with the male characters more, and we don't get to that until they've broken her shell to some extent.That's the reason I gave it four stars instead of five, in fact - although this style works for the characters, it's bound to be difficult for some readers to digest. And that's a pity, because they are missing out on a gorgeous story.