Gratitude post

These are dark days.  For some of us they are tragic.  For all of us they are scary.  We are worried about our health and the health of our loved ones.  We are worried about our economic future and the future of the world.

And so we are especially thankful for everything that lifts our spirits.

I am thankful for two new reviews of Mindgames, my dark, dystopian, smutty romance novel.  The first review is on Puss'n'Books, a review site for "the darkest, most erotic and taboo novels." 

This book . . . OMG . . . this book!

I felt pretty much every emotion that my little black heart is capable of feeling while reading this amazing novel.

It was just . . . wow.

It's a dystopian fantasy novel with some of the most in-depth and perfectly-detailed world-building I have ever read.  

The second review is by Alex Markson, a writer of erotic fiction with an eclectic blog about all things erotica. 

The author describes this book as an erotic romance, but that is hardly adequate. It doesn’t do justice to the writer’s ambition. . . .

The compelling element of the book is the depiction of the world the author creates. From an early stage, the details of life in Riviera are rich, believable and convincing. The history which produced the world we see is gradually revealed and the cracks in society along with it.

Thank you to both reviewers.  You made my day. 

Fifty Shades of Consent

I've written a number of posts discussing classic smutty novels, knowing that eventually I would get to the elephant in the room:  E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels.

I'm not a snob about these books.  Sure, they were silly and badly written, but they kept the publishing industry alive and profitable in much the same way that the Harry Potter books did a decade earlier.  They also turned lots and lots of people on to kink, and many of those people have gone on to have happy, kinky lives.

The books did not have much direct influence on me personally.  By the time they were published I was well into writing Mindgames, my dirty book about naked sex slaves.

But critiques of Fifty Shades did influence me a great deal.  Mindgames was always going to be a  story about slavegirl Mariah's increasing ability to exercise power over her own life.  She accomplishes that through a combination of her strength of will and the influence of her love interest, Gabriel.

Although I began writing Mindgames for a self-proclaimed BDSM story website, I never pretended it was a true BDSM story.  BDSM requires consent.  For most of the book Mariah had no power to grant or deny consent.

Fifty Shades, on the other hand, does advertise itself as a BDSM love story.  But as many critics have pointed out, it is actually about a rich, powerful man who coerces a young, naive woman into a power exchange in which she has no interest.  (My favorite critique of the books is Fifty Shades of Why, which provides a hilarious and hilariously true line by line analysis of the books.)

Those criticisms of Fifty Shades led me to bring to the forefront of Mindgames the theme that there can be no love without consent.  Doing so made my book better.  I owe E.L James a debt of gratitude for the discussions she inadvertently started.



 

More reviews of Mindgames -- thank you!

The first comes from Roses and Thorns, a book review blog devoted to adult and kink fiction. 

The characters themselves are all excellent and exceptionally fun to read. The author did a fantastic job in bringing them all to life, all with very unique personalities and relatable motivations. The dialogue is all very good, and some of my favourite scenes are in some of the conversations that the characters have (especially a fantastic little sex ed scene where Gabriel has to teach someone that masturbation isn’t abnormal). There is a genuine playfulness to the character’s interactions at times that is truly engaging, and some very realistic emotional struggle as well as the characters come to grips with their feelings. On the note of that struggle, the gradual change in character’s perspectives is very beautifully written.  . . .

Mindgames was an incredibly fun read, in equal parts cheesy BDSM porn as well as truly compelling character driven angst and hurt/comfort.

The second comes from Chrissie's Romance Reviews, a romance book review blog.

Wow. This is one of those books that pulls you in and won’t let go until the final page has been turned – and that will stay on your mind long after you have finished reading it. . . .

Overall, I loved this book. I loved the detailed world-building and the displays of complex emotions within each character in a world that is so very different from our own.

 Thank you both for your reviews!

And readers, please consider reviewing books that you enjoy.  You can post reviews on Amazon or on Goodreads, or on social media.  It means a lot to authors, and it's one of the things that keeps us going.