Review: Humiliation Minus Love=a No-Go
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 3, 2012
I want to begin by saying that the book was extremely well-written. The language, the historical details, and the funny little narrator who broke the fourth wall with some asides I was dying to see more of, were well-done and appeared well researched. A bit more from the narrator, actually, would have made some of the headhopping tolerable, but that is a small thing. Having said all that, I couldn't get behind this book. Not at all.I read the product descriptions, so I came in to this as aware as I possibly could have. I probably should have read some of the reviews instead. I'm beginning to trust the product descriptions less and less.As a writer in the genre I struggle with non-consent all the time, but I also write what I like to see, and that is a loving relationship between h and H, even if he has to occasionally warm her posterior. While there may be no consent, or implied consent, there is also love, and an understanding. None of that existed in this book. The idea that his Lordship takes Lucy as his bride to save her from a life in the brothel due to some running around she did (keeping her virginity in tact, I might add) was pretty judgmental and, rather than trying to get to know her, or attempt some fairness, he instead puts this girl through abuse the likes of which I haven't seen in any D/s or BDSM story, non-consent notwithstanding. I disagree with another reviewer who said that Lucy came to like the abuse and domination. I didn't see it. He punishes for the slightest infraction, and it is brutal. He anally disciplines her in a most humiliating fashion, and that he did a lot of this in front of household staff was neither titillating nor believable. After he forces himself on her TWICE, via two of her three existing holes, I prayed that she would do something to keep a little power--shut down, kill him in his sleep--something. I finally stopped feeling sorry for her by the end. I need to see the love, I need to see some sort of mutual respect, even if it is HE who wins in the end (see Carolyn Faulkner for examples of somewhat brutal discipline scenes, but tamed with love and respect). There was zero connection between these people, and that left me cold. I'm not sure what to make of this book, actually. I have missed the point entirely, I'm afraid. This was simply not my cup of tea.But it was well-written, and as a writer myself, I respect that tremendously, given what is out there. Thank you for that, Alice.