Review: Bipolar erotic fantasy
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2013
I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of Laurann Dohner and have been looking for something to fill in the space between her books.  This came up as an Amazon recommended read and although expensive for a short story, I thought I'd give it a try.  To be honest, I'm not even sure how to review it.  There were so many aspects from the start that I really liked, but those pieces that grabbed me, no pun intended, ended up falling by the wayside and it started taking really bizarre turns.Hallie is a woman from earth who was relocated in a subservient planet where she's no more than a house slave.  All the while she looked after her father and siblings, she's done underground political work to save enough money to get off the planet.  When her sister gets in trouble, Hallie uses her funds to save her sister instead and Hallie ends up in something called The Grab.  Negotiated with another larger stronger race, Hallie is entered into a contest for her freedom.  If she can run through the forest into the safe zone, she essentially wins her freedom and off the planet.  If she's grabbed, then she becomes the wife and slave of one of those brutish warriors.  Needless to say, I think we know how it ends up and the rest is spent on compromise from two very different cultures.I liked that Hallie started out as a strong independent character and continued to show those signs throughout the book.  I didn't like that in between, she was completely submissive.  It was like bipolar disorder and completely inconsistent.  Overall, the story was compelling, but the more than dozen sex scenes that were exactly the same got boring and I found myself skipping over half of them to get back to the story.  The attempts at BDSM were simply awkward and I can't tell if some of those scenes were supposed to be empowering or derogatory.  My vote is definitely for the latter and one party in particular made me rather queasy.  Apparently the culture calls for bondage, whips, butt plugs and all that stuff, but they pick out innocent virgins to debauch and that turns into trust and love.  It really was rather confusing since Hallie clearly wasn't into it but does her best to support her husband... the one she tried her hardest to escape... two days later.  Completely bipolar.  I could have enjoyed it but the accepted culture, ie all the women wear collars like pets, whether they want to or not, was not my cup of tea.  I don't mind BDSM, but it starts with a choice, not force that is thinly veiled as choice.