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Carried Away: An SM Romance by David Stein

hpstrangelove's review against another edition

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4.0

I read this book as an exercise in comparing bdsm books written by men, targeting a male audience, vs books written by men or women targeting a female audience (I can't say I know of any women authors who write bdsm books targeting male readers - not to say there aren't any, but I don't know who they are).

I've read a few other books written by men for men and they all have similar characteristics as far as what appeals erotically. There's much more boot-licking/kissing/worshiping, uniform kink and piss-drinking/playing than what appears in books that women write. This book is long and some of the scenes were boring to me, but I don't think I'm a fair judge of the writing since I'm a woman.

And the men are definitely men. Many times in stories written by women, it's as if the story is a romance between a man and a woman, just with the woman's gender changed to be male. I don't mean that stories written by men for men are lacking romance or that the characters don't care about each other, it's just in a different way. The story is written from the POV of the submissive and I have to say I did thoroughly enjoy getting insight into his thought process and feelings as the story progressed. The end was satisfying and I found myself wanting to read more about how Terry and Matt's relationship works out.
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