BDSM Reviews

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Love, Honor and Obey by Cynthia Rayne


Reviewed by Elise Logan
Title: Love, Honor and Obey
Author: Cynthia Rayne
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 9781419911088
Genre: BDSM erotic fiction, e-book
Publication Date: 2007
Rating: 3 of 5

Carrie is in a bind. The terms of her father’s will dictate that she needs to marry her father’s protégé, Justin, if she wants her inheritance any time soon. Carrie finds Justin attractive, sure, but she doesn’t know anything about him, so how can she marry him? Especially when one of the first pieces of personal information Justin shares with Carrie is that he requires complete control in the bedroom.

This story starts out very strong. Carrie’s inner dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, and you quickly become invested in Carrie’s character. In fact, her character is one of the best things about this book. Her inner dialogue is excellent, and there are several points at which I found myself grinning or laughing at her thoughts. Another point in this story’s favor is that there are hints that Justin’s character can be just as engaging. The problem, though, is that in a story this short, you really only get hints. I really wanted this story to be a little longer to allow their characters a fuller development, because they were interesting.

I had a few fairly major problems with this piece. The first problem is that Justin is an inconsistent Dominant. He knows she doesn’t know the rules, but he doesn’t explain things to her or help her figure out what her role is supposed to be. He alternately expects too much and too little from a new submissive – especially a complete neophyte. This dovetails with the major problem I have with this story, which is the sex scenes. I just didn’t feel these scenes at all. They came across as mechanical, with repetitive phrasing and lack of emotional or sensory information. He takes her through some fairly involved situations with little or no preparation. It seemed as if the author was trying to fit as many different types of sexual activity as possible into a very short space – and this goes back to my wish that this story was just a little longer. I think a little more story would have made a vast improvement in the intensity of the sex.

The story development is good, the characters – especially Carrie – are very good, and the sex is ho-hum. Overall, the story fell short of what it could have been, but was a fun read nonetheless.


Posted by Elise Logan :: 12:40 PM :: 0 Comments:

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