This week I'll be giving you my thoughts on The Blue Rose Court Part 2 by A.D. Wund. You can see my review of The Blue Rose Court Part 1 here.
Shaun's rating:
This continues the story, from The Blue Rose Court Part 1, of the four ladies of Blue Rose Court and their journey into female domination.
It is not a stand alone book, you will be lost if you haven't read Part 1. In a way I was glad that it took right off from where Part 1 ended, as I didn't want to have to go through all the detail of being introduced to the characters again; after all, that had taken up nearly half of the first book. At least the descriptions of the cars the characters drove were less elaborate in this piece than in Part 1; I was grateful for that. However, it would have been nice if the Author had, in a very condensed way, re-introduced the characters and story so that it would be a stand alone piece. That is just my personal preference though and I respect the authors choice to just continue from where Part 1 left off.
The story is really pretty good, there are all the elements a good story needs, however the Author's style just exhausts me. It is so wordy and repetitive that I found it very hard to read. The Author uses full titles for characters throughout the book; for example hot-wife Emily, or guy-sub Andrew. This is totally unnecessary, we've already been introduced to these characters, I know Andrew is a male and that he is in a submissive role; I don't need to see that every-time he is referred to in order to remember.
Some may find the erotic scenes in this book hot; if they were described with about half the number of words the Author used I would have found them hot, but the Author's overly wordy style might as well have thrown a bucket of ice-water on me.
There are some editing problems in this book, just as there were in Part 1. They were not common, but could be very confusing to the story when they cropped up. The Author used paragraphs in such a way, especially when one character was interrupting another, that it could be very confusing as to which character was speaking.
I'm giving The Blue Rose Court-Part 2 two and one half paddles. I was disappointed though I guess I shouldn't have been as really the problems with this story are just a continuation of those from Part 1. I had given Part 1 a higher rating, but to be honest these problems just wear on a reader over time, or at least they did me, until I was just happy that I was able to finally finish the story and move on to something else. Don't be looking for a review of Part 3 of the series anytime soon, if ever. I just couldn't face another of these books for a good long while.
There's a contest going on over at the BDSM group on Goodreads, they're going to be giving away lots of free books. If you aren't a member of Goodreads and the Goodreads BDSM group you should head over there and check it out. A couple of my titles will be offered as prizes as well as books by several other authors. If you're a member of Goodreads, or once you've joined, look me up and follow or friend me. You can find my Goodreads Author Page here.
I'm going to give you my thoughts on two gender transformation books by the same author, Jessie Ash, this week.
The first is:
The Devil Touched Me
Shaun's rating:
I was very pleasantly surprised by this short story. I was quite tentative when I picked it from Amazon, the only review of it was a single star complaining about poor writing and bad editing. It happened that the book was free, so dubious or not, I decided to add it to my kindle and give it a read.
First, I found the editing and story to be just fine. It is quite readable, and I thought the story was very original and even a bit clever.
I would not recommend this book if you are only interested in hot erotica. It is skimpy on that, with only a few rather condensed erotic scenes. Those scenes are okay, but not great.
What really sold me on this book was the story. It tells the story of a mob boss who has just ratted out his cronies in court after making a deal with the prosecutor. He is freed and arrives at his bank where he plans to get his passport and some other items from his safe deposit box before vacating the country. There is a wrench thrown into his plans when it turns out that the banker assisting him is the devil in disguise. The devil offers him a deal, which I know isn't very original, but the deal and the outcome are.
I liked this story enough to give it four paddles; but again be aware I am recommending it for the quality of the story, not the erotic hotness.
The second book is:
Dark Brew
Shaun's rating:
This is another clever story, with a dose of humor thrown in. I enjoy the authors style very much, the story is fast paced and flows smoothly.
In this book the protagonist, Zach, takes what he thinks is a love potion that is meant for the girl his roommate has a crush on, but whom Zach has secretly been having a tryst with. It turns out that the potion feminizes Zach when he is in the presence of certain men, and Zach finds that there is something about this he likes. There are several twists and turns as the story unfolds; I'm going to leave it for readers to discover these for themselves, but I will say that my interest never waned throughout this story.
The erotic scenes in this book are short, and not outstanding, but they are decent. I'd say for hotness factor, this book is middle of the road; it titillated, but did not leave me hot and bothered by any means.
There were a few editing problems in this book, but not so many I was pulled from the story. The book is formatted a bit strangely, I thought, with very short chapters. I am not sure if I liked this formatting or not to be honest, I kind of think the story might flow even better if it was not broken into so many chapters, but it's not a big deal.
I'm giving Dark Brew four out of five paddles, again not so much for the erotic scenes as for the story itself.
I had the pleasure of reading The Lady's Gift (The Lady's Will book 2) by Raquel Rivers this past week and will be reviewing it in this post.
Shaun's Rating:
The Lady's Gift tells the story of Adelle, formerly a librarian from Baltimore, who has inherited a Ladyship, house, and servants from her aunt. It just so happens that the servants she has inherited are submissive men. Adelle also has inherited a place among her aunt's friends and in their femdom lifestyle. We watch Adelle as she grows into her role, her relationship with these other women, and her relationship with her servants; most importantly her relationship with Bryce, the gardener, for whom she has a strong romantic pull.
I liked this book quite a lot. The author manages to tell a captivating story in a way that flows very nicely and keeps the reader engaged. It is not exactly loaded with erotic scenes, but there are enough to give it a definite hotness factor, and the authors descriptions of the bdsm scenes are very well done.
There were some editing glitches in this book, enough that I was pulled out of the moment a few times, but overall they are not a huge problem. I would certainly have given this book another half paddle had it been better edited though.
I'm giving The Lady's Gift four paddles, I recommend it for those interested in femdom erotica especially if you are just dipping your toes into the femdom waters as this book is not overly graphic or extreme.
This week I'm going to be reviewing a novel length Femdom story,
The Blue Rose Court (Part 1) by A.D. Wund.
Shaun's Rating:
This is a long novel, 514 pages as estimated by Amazon, it has to be as the Author is telling a big story. We are introduced to four women who live on a cul-de-sac on a street called Blue Rose Court in Orange County, California. The author introduces us to all four of these women as well as several secondary characters and begins sharing their individual stories with us.
The first part of this book was a bit slow and dry in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the author does an incredible job of developing all these characters and setting the scene for their stories. However, four major introductions, plus introducing all the secondary characters, plus describing to tiny details the scene; began to get a bit tiring in my opinion. I really didn't feel an overwhelming need to know all the details of the cars they drove, etc. I wanted to get to the action. Oh, there was a some action scattered through all this initial description and introduction but I still found myself struggling to get through the first 1/3 to 1/2 of this book.
I'm glad I stuck with it though. The second half of the book was very good, and very hot. The second half is where the Femdom scenes really get going and things get steamy.
I must say that I'm a bit tentative regarding the portrayal of the dominant women in this book, they don't seem to be very nice, in fact one of them is downright criminal. However, I'm willing to read the next book in the series and see if things change, or if evil gets its comeuppance.
I'm giving The Blue Rose Court (Part 1) three and one half paddles. I recommend it with reservations.
This week I'm going to be reviewing another gender swapping book, Slipping In by Allyson Belle. This is book one of Ms Belle's The Virtnet Chronicles.
Shaun's Rating:
This is the well written and fast paced story of Mike, a young man who never really fits in or is comfortable with himself, who manages to sneak on to his sister's Virtnet account. Virtnet is a virtual reality space and there Mike is discovered, and subsequently feminized, by his sister's girlfriend. The story gets hotter from there, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
I enjoyed this story very much. The characters are very well developed, and I love the premise of a virtual reality space in which Mike is able to explore being Mikala. Things get even better when Mikala enters the real world.
There are some very hot scenes in this book, the writer does an excellent job of drawing the reader into some very descriptive and steamy erotic scenarios.
The book was well edited and moved smoothly and quickly through the story. It was a pleasure to read.
I'm giving Slipping in four out of five paddles. If gender swapping stories appeal to you I recommend this one.
