I think my first foray into BDSM was Eden Bradley’s The Art of Desire, a novella I’ve raved about here and there. Now that I’ve been reading erotic romance for a few years, I’m more comfortable with BDSM elements. I once wrote a post on MySpace about how disturbing the darker stories can be, but have since read and enjoyed a Maya Banks novel about a master and his slave. I guess it depends on the author, the story, and the treatment, but hardcore kink is not something I look for in my romantic reading material.
The Art of Desire is about a tattoo artist hero and his female client. She comes to his New Orleans parlor to get her first tattoo. She’s very lovely and pale-skinned, a beautiful canvas to work with. The line between pain and pleasure is blurred as she becomes aroused in the chair. He notices her reaction and is turned on by it. They begin a sexual relationship after her second tattoo session.
I liked that the hero had a “higher purpose” for hurting the heroine (art). I also appreciated the fact that her arousal was independent of his intention, if that makes sense. He wasn’t telling her what she would like or trying to get her off. He was just doing his job, and surprise, they’re sexually combustible.
Recently I read Victoria Dahl’s The Wicked West, also a BDSM novella, and I thought it was really well done. The hero is a repressed sheriff, reluctant to give in to his “unnatural” desires, and the heroine a lonely widow who is quite desperate for him to dominate her. I appreciated Dahl’s take on the D/s relationship, which was very clearly consensual and not about strength vs. weakness (of character).
I also read skimmed and enjoyed Undercover by Lauren Dane. This is an erotic, unrealistic (?) futuristic fantasy about three beautiful people who have all kinds of dirty, kinky sex. I don’t read much m/m/f or BDSM, but Undercover had both and the relationship worked for me. I wish I could say the plot did, too.
I still don’t know if I’m a fan of BDSM, dark or light, but I like erotic romance, and I try to be open-minded. Have you read any of these stories, or found a favorite in this subgenre?
I never liked or was into BDSM. But there have been a few books that impressed me and made me think a lot differently.
My most favorite is One Breath at a Time by Gwen Masters. My review of it here:
http://madamebutterfly90.blogspot.com/2008/05/review-one-breath-at-time-by-gwen.html
That book was a spiritual experience for me and it’s hard core BDSM. But it’s written in a way that for the first time, I got what it’s really about. Not that faux crap that some authors write who don’t know what they are talking about.
I don’t really consider the lighter stuff to be BDSM, but more of a D/s play. BDSM is a way of life.
Portia Da Costa has written some nice BDSM.
Katrina Strauss does as well. I totally get into her BDSM themed books. Very easy to take in and accept.
One f/f/m book I read though, so totally pushed all my buttons that I got enraged. It came across as the typical domineering male who knows whats best for the weaker female and she goes along even though she doesn’t want to really. Just because he’s stronger and says so. I would have reviewed it but I couldn’t finish it.
My post about it, although I didn’t mention the name of it is here,
http://madamebutterfly90.blogspot.com/2009/02/bdsm-as-topic-and-lame-review-of-book.html
I don’t often choose to read BDSM but sometimes it’s there and sometimes I rather enjoy it.
by LVLMLeah
on November 22nd, 2010 at 6:08 pm
I too have read some erotica and BDSM I’ve very much liked – and some I’ve hated too. I think what I like is to read something where I feel I’m getting a sense of genuine characters who are exploring and getting to know themselves. The best examples I’ve read are Mathile Madden (femdom, exhibitionism, voyeurism), Kristina Lloyd (female submission)and James Lear (m/m erotica). Actually, reflecting on that, those authors all write characters who, whatever their particular preferences might be, are not ashamed of who they are or what they like. By contrast I hate ‘poseable figure’ characters.
I also prefer the sexual content of the story to be fluid and not entrenched in ‘official handbook’ language. My huge bugbears with erotica are being lectured to about rules and hardware. It always strikes me as ironic that given that erotic stories are often about freedom of expression and sexual identity, so many authors seem to want to prescribe what is and is not acceptable. Especially given that the really interesting stuff usually happens in the ambiguous margins.
by Tumperkin
on November 23rd, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hi Leah,
I think I can understand the “total domination” type of BDSM, if the woman wants to have no responsibility in her own arousal/desire/life/whatever and feels safer that way. And I have no idea what you mean by faux crap. I’d probably prefer faux crap. Thanks for the recs. I saw M. Madden mentioned in the linked post.
Tumperkin!
Dane’s Undercover might be a poseable figure sort of story, at least for me, and by that I mean superficial. But I think I prefer more of a pure fantasy in erotic romance and BDSM in particular. Reflecting on Hart’s Dirty, for example, I was moved by the characters but the realism was too much/uncomfortable. It took away from the sexiness for me. Maybe I don’t want to be “challenged” by erotic romance. Hmm.
I agree with you about authorial lectures, right way vs. wrong way etc. The couple should decide what is acceptable. Everyone is different, so why should the rules be the same?
As far as being ashamed, Dahl’s sheriff IS that way at the beginning and I loved it about him. My biggest stumbling block in BDSM is a basic belief that men shouldn’t hurt women so I appreciated the fact that the hero(at first) felt strongly that his needs shouldn’t be acted on.
Thanks also for the recs.
What I mean by faux crap is that dynamic that I talked about of the f/f/m that I hated. It’s like when an author takes the common misconceptions about BDSM for those who don’t practice it as a way of life or part of their sexual lives and write that.
They don’t get the whole essence of what it is for those characters but just throw in the accouterments and have some spanking or tying up and call it BDSM. And the dynamics are usually a domineering man with a weak willed woman.
I agree about Matilde Madden. Loved her books. But they are very dark and intense so I didn’t mention them. But I reviewed several of her books on Madam Butterfly.
by LVLMLeah
on November 24th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
LVLMLeah – I have to say I disagree that there is a need for authors to *nail* the “way of life” of particular sexually-oriented people in erotic books. I think this is the reader-based corollary to those author lectures I mentioned; the idea that there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to portray sexual desire. However, I do think there are good gripes to be made against books for having inauthentic characters whose supposed desires are inexplicable and unconvincing. I’ve come across that a lot.
by Tumperkin
on November 24th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Tumperkin — well, I totally agree with you. I’m no expert by a long shot and I’d never be the arbitor of the correctness of BDSM or any other sexual preference. I think what you said,
However, I do think there are good gripes to be made against books for having inauthentic characters whose supposed desires are inexplicable and unconvincing. I’ve come across that a lot.
Is what I was trying to articulate, but did so badly. heh.
by LVLMLeah
on November 24th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
