Review: A fun read overall, but it has several points that I wish had been improved upon
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 18, 2013
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 6/10PROS:- Most stories about societies that employ slavery are necessarily unpleasant, but this one manages to stay mostly light and frivolous in spite of Sev’s unfortunate social standing.- Black does a good job of establishing how sexually free the society of the story is, which makes Demetrie’s unusual desire for monogamy quite sweet.- The sex is frequent and detailed, and since sex is Sev’s one joy in the world, the story’s focus on it makes sense.CONS:- The politics of the story are obviously clear to the author, but she doesn’t explain them all that well to her reader. There’s a twist at the end for which I saw absolutely no point, and I’m sure that’s because I didn’t understand the political circumstances as well as I was meant to.- I can suspend disbelief in order to buy into the idea of an aristocrat willingly going into the ghetto and settling down with the untouchable man he finds there…but I need to be convinced as to WHY the aristocrat would do such a thing. The brief explanations of Demetrie’s rebellious behavior didn’t do the trick for me here.- The perspective of the story is heavily slanted in Sev’s direction, which means that we don’t see much from Demetrie other than his obvious lust for the young acrobat. Then at the end, Demetrie is suddenly in love, and we don’t get to see how the transition really happens.- The point of view switches sometimes mid-scene, whereas some scenes are solely from one man or the other’s perspective.Overall comments: This is a fun fantasy world with a mostly satisfying (if unoriginal) storyline. Demetrie’s sexual appetite does include some proclivities that deviate from the norm (humiliation, tears, some harsh treatment, etc.); this is not your typical modern BDSM story with pre-negotiation and safe words. It borders on melodrama at times, the characters’ feelings developing very quickly and running very deep, but I did enjoy it overall.