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lady_smith's review
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Describing this book in a few paragraphs is impossible, so I really recommend checking out the Fated Mates podcast episode.
Basically… it’s bonkers. Like crying with laughter yet somehow strangely turned on as you go through pages and pages and pages of Mark hammering his monstrously humongous man-part on the normally impenetrable opening between Passion’s vagina and cervix with some fantastical physiological results that are somehow puzzling, sexy, and distressing all at once?
It’s ridiculous and over the top, but really… sex in romance novels often is, and —right or wrong— I take this to be a somewhat satirical approach to sex. Because while the magical-cervix-door might be an uncommon (though not unique) feature, the impossibly huge man-parts are a familiar trope to anyone who reads paranormal and/or alphaverse erotica.
There IS a plot to this story, but the first third of the book is just very hardcore explicit sex scenes between the hero/heroine. It’s important though because without all that sex, they don’t have much reason to be together. (Mark is obsessed with his giant, weepy penis that just won’t fit into 99% of vaginas while Passion is sexually repressed because her first husband was a jerk , and they fill each other’s {emotional} holes . If it works for them then who am I to judge?)
If that sounds like not-your-thing, the story part of the book probably won’t make up for the first third and you’re better off reading any other plot-focused historical romance.
Some of us like it though; five stars to Ms. Valdez for writing such audacious intimacies!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, and Gaslighting
unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I have never been more grossed out by descriptions of sex and yet less able to look away. If Lisa Valdez is not the pen name of a cis het man, I hope she has had therapy since 2005, because the misogyny in this goes deeper than Mark’s [redacted]. I never want to read the words boiling, gaping, torrent, moisture or roiling in relation to sex again and suggest some basic human anatomy lessons as a sidecar to this book given the current state of sex education.
On the other hand I have never laughed harder at dirty talk, so there’s that.
The female characters in this book were completely one dimensional and the men were gross. This is not a book you read for the romance, which oddly happens in the last half. The first fifty percent is absolutely bananas, squelchy, bad-idea sex, and it was really fun to read.
On the other hand I have never laughed harder at dirty talk, so there’s that.
The female characters in this book were completely one dimensional and the men were gross. This is not a book you read for the romance, which oddly happens in the last half. The first fifty percent is absolutely bananas, squelchy, bad-idea sex, and it was really fun to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
tnance92's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
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