Harley Laroux

Ok, so you know I like me some dark romance, I love dubcon and girls who like it rough and the MEN who give it to them that way. This book has tags that intrigued me. Not going to list them here because I don't want to hunt around to find them, but the tags drew me in. It's not often that RACK (Risk Aware Consensual Kink) rules are in New Adult so I thought I would give this a try.

However, let me start this review with the following: I am an older adult woman, so most likely not in the demographic of the intended audience. Although, I have read and do enjoy many New Adult and Dark Romances. Look over my shelves and you will see. I still think like I'm in my mid-twenties (as any older person would attest to). However, I have the experience in reading and life to be unable to put aside my logic and suspend belief when pushed too far.

Spoiler It sat on my Kindle for ages. I started it and got a couple of pages in when I realized that I didn't really get a feel for it. I'm going to save the blurb because the blurb in the book details is correct. However, when it say's "A lot can change after high school" what it didn't say was that these people are still with the "high school mentality". The book doesn't specify their ages but it does say "it's been a couple of years since high school", so 21? Anyhow this made a big difference in how I perceived the main characters.

That was the first thing that threw me. I felt like these characters felt like they were playing "dress up" and nothing about the actions and activities portrayed felt like they could actually happen.

Sure, 21 year olds can be able to do kink, but the type of kink and the level depicted here just didn't match up. Plus it felt “messy”, not structured. I don’t know if this sounds right, but it really felt wrong. It just came off as kids trying to imitate adults. Like when kids smoke their parents cigarettes and think they look cool.

Another aspect that I didn’t get was how our "heroine" who is well-known for being particularly image concious, does this about face at a huge Halloween party among all the kids she knows and decides to just say "fuck it" and let her horny vagina lead the way into doing degredating activities (she is learning she has a humiliation fetish) with the guy she spent her high school years calling a loser. All this because he had some kind of post-graduation popularity, bad-boy glow-up, and she has some memories about a kiss she had with him back in the day because of a dare.

Also, she is learning as she’s playing beer pong/dare that she has a humiliation fetish. A brand new discovery – at the age of 21 (I’m guessing) she is learning that she’s getting wet because she is being dared to kiss a boot. This is something she is JUST NOW at that moment learning. She spends a lot of time worrying about how people are going to see how wet she is because of this. Actually, this was another aspect of the book that bugged me.

Jessica spends way too much time thinking about how wet she is because of these humiliating activities. She is worried she will be dripping down her leg, how she is embarassed to sit on the carpet for fear she will get it wet (like anyone is going to see this), she worries people are going to see a wet spot on her panties (that everyone can see because she’s wearing a thong under a barely there skirt and she’s being forced to her hands and knees). She worries that people will see her being wet after she has to take her panties off, she worries that they will see her being wet as she is crawling to the kitchen to get her “Master” a beer. She worries that she will get the leg of her “Master’s” pants wet when he has her sit on his lap….yeah. Someone is going a bit overboard with the wet pu$$y descriptions.

Manson is our “hero” and he spends the book saying “Oh Jess, poor little girl, poor Angel, you need to be punished”, “I’m going to punish you, don’t worry”. “Oh Jess, you can’t help being naughty can’t you.” Again, he comes off as someone playing “dress up”. I don’t know why, when other books I have read that actually HAVE high school kids feels more realistic than this. Maybe it’s the whole “instasubmissive/instadom feel”

Nothing about Mason seemed like he was a "Dom", nothing about what he did felt right. Nothing about Jess was sexy, nothing about how she reacted or how she behaved felt right. And when I say “felt right” I don’t mean crossing the lines, but they didn’t come off as believable characters.

I am thinking that this author just wanted to push boundaries and show BDSM in a much darker light than many readers are used to, so she could put the “warnings” and tags that would get more readers just for shock value, but it didn't work because her actors didn't sell their parts. They were too young, they were too inexperienced. I don't care if Manson had skills or knew how to handle a knife or how to spank Jess, he just wasn't experienced he just felt wrong. No one at this age is going to understand the nuances of kink that they were trying to achieve. Jess is NOT going to just now discover she has a humiliation fetish and go with being forced into very uncomfortable situations.

Then when I have to read her begging to be effed by this guy, begging multiple times if he would just eff her, it was too much. I was so turned off. All throughout this book she's begging to be effed by the guy who is treating her like crap and she is so turned on she's worried about leaving wet stains on the carpet shes sitting on.

Between worrying about how wet she is, wanting to be effed, and always fighting against being told what to do all the while her mind is saying “I don’t like this, I don’t have to be doing this…Or DO I?, “This is humiliating, I would hate people to see me doing this…OR wouldn’t I?” It’s all about her initially rejecting the commands, but internally learning how much she actually wants to do them.

Again, tonight is the first time she learns she is into this, and tonight is the night she shucks off her entire life of being one way and just going with the guy she called a loser throughout high school all at a Halloween party at the wealthiest house in the neighborhood among all the people she spent her life trying to maintain a perfect appearance.

I skimmed through all the sex which says a lot about how I was feeling towards these characters. I wasn’t interested in seeing them do the deed. I skimmed through so much that I can’t even say how many different people were in the room. Although, I do know that the guys who came to the party dressed as psycho clowns who scared the crap out of Jess because she has a clown phobia ended up tagging her with Manson. Whether or not they did the full deed or just oral I don't know because I totally skimmed it. I do believe that these are the guys who will make up her "harem" in the future books. I couldn't be bothered by it.

It was funny that I would read a line of dialogue, skim a page or two and realize that the next line I focused on what the next line of dialogue. Not only did I skim, I straight up didn't even look at anything, I was just fast forwarding to a line that let me know they weren't screwing. I might have stopped for a few sentences but really, I missed it. Which tells you something.

The majority of the readers of this book are not going to be into humiliation kink and because it’s such an emotionally charged kink, it isn’t going to be easy to write in a way that comes off as sexy to them. Because it is a prequel and an "introduction" to our future characters, it isn't meant to be long or involved. But, it IS supposed to make the reader want to follow up on these characters in the future books. In that it failed for me. I'm bummed. I don't know why this didn't work when I really liked the "HAVOC Boy" series by C.M. Stunich (although there were a lot of eyerolls in that). That series featured high schoolers doing very adult things. It could all be an "It's not you, it's me" thing.

Books I would recommend if this is your thing:

"Dirty Bad Wrong" by Jade West - her first book and a great jumping off point for her other books which all deal with a different kink mixed with complicated relationships. A great combination of a New Adult Romance with all angsty feels and snarky fun, but with the addition of some hardcore kink.

"Six" by James Crow or Mr. James Crow – I believe he is a friend to Jade West or was brought into writing by her. He is into more degradation and less “sexy” kink. Six was his first book. He’s not for everyone but he’s got talent and is able to force your perception into that of the characters. "Dare" (By James Crow) was one of the most twisted and disorienting reads I have come across.

"Wicked Ways" by Carrie Silverwood – First in a three or four book series about a woman who was caught up by men who have the ability to “mesmerize” women into doing shocking and degredating things, and he desperate need for help to escape them.

TL;DR - I didn't like this book because I felt that the characters were too young to get humiliation kink right, and that they weren't realistic in their actions. I felt it was not written authentically. I didn't find them sexy. Also the heroine got on my nerves with her abrupt 180 degree change in character and her unrealistic timing, plus the list of annoying traits and behaviors she exhibited. I felt that it was more shock than substance. Read the above authors instead. … (mais)