Scan barcode
ellelainey's review
1.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Saved by Grace, by Sita Bethel
★☆☆☆☆
207 Pages
POV: 3rd person
Content Warning: violence, attempted rape
DNF'd at 3%
Nope. Sorry. Not for me.
First off, the first two paragraphs put me off immediately. A long list of bullet-point descriptions, an info-dump of a description of Alel, the demon, and how he looked. Then the constant repetition that Alel was a liar. Got it, thanks.
Then, jump straight into a threesome with a virgin. Repetitions about how cliched demons were. A demon sort-of raping another demon.
All within the first 3%.
Nope. Thanks, but no thanks.
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Saved by Grace, by Sita Bethel
★☆☆☆☆
207 Pages
POV: 3rd person
Content Warning: violence, attempted rape
DNF'd at 3%
Nope. Sorry. Not for me.
First off, the first two paragraphs put me off immediately. A long list of bullet-point descriptions, an info-dump of a description of Alel, the demon, and how he looked. Then the constant repetition that Alel was a liar. Got it, thanks.
Then, jump straight into a threesome with a virgin. Repetitions about how cliched demons were. A demon sort-of raping another demon.
All within the first 3%.
Nope. Thanks, but no thanks.
smartie_chan's review
4.0
3.5 / 5 Stars
Martina: ~ reads 'Die A-Karte', a book about an ace gay Dude and an allo Incubus who fall in love even though they shouldn't be able to work on paper ~
Die A-Karte: ~ becomes Martinas favourit book of all time ~
This book : ~ excists ~
Martina: I need to read Saved by Grace OR I WILL DIE!!!!!!!!
So now I have read Saved by Grace and I'm not sure if my love for A-Karte made my reading experience better or worse. I'm sorry if you're not german and don't know about A-Karte, but let me tell you, you're missing out. I'll not spoil anything but I can't not compare the two, especially since A-Karte made me very emotional for reasons I can't put into words, while Saved by Grace was good, sure, but it was also absolutly not written for me.
So there are a few things that Die A-Karte & Saved by Grace have in common.
1. The asexual human falls in love with a sex-demon who was supposed to have sex with him for reasons.
2. The sex-demon is very understanding and supportive.
3. They don't have penetrative sex.
4. The relationship gets exposed and one of them gets punished for it.
A-Karte features a sex-repulsed/sex-averse Asexual, meaning that they don't have ANY amount of sex and the ace is very very VERY clear about that. They are not masturbating together, the ace is not watching the other get off, they don't sexualize massages, they don't have weird scenes of wing play, they are just in love and it's beautiful.
Safed by Grace goes another route. At first I thought that the Ace was also repulsed/averse, but from the way it was written, I couldn't help but think that no, this dude is not averse. I AM averse/repulsed. Benedikt - the Ace of A-Karte - is averse/repulsed. But Jackson - the Ace of Saved by Grace? He is NOT averse/repulsed. He's not favourable. But he's also not averse. I'd label him indifferent, but I've also seen other people give him all kinds of other ace-spec orientations.
And see, this leads to one other thing that bothered me:
Why not spell it out?
The setting is NOT some Fantasy world or Sci-fi Utopia. You could have easily used the term asexual or Ace-Spec. I don't see why that decision was not made. Especially since it's VERY unclear wheater Alel is ace-spec too or not. There is evidence to support both. I've also seen people claim both are gray-ace, which I don't think, but see, this is what you get when you don't spell it out.
Even as an ace reader, I can't say with certainty which of them is which level of ace. And that's sad.
Which is kinda important if you want to make remarks about the rep. Because, if this dude was supposed to be averse/repulsed, I'd go and say: Wow, no, I feel this rep was horrible.
BUT if he were not averse, but indifferent, it would be a completly differnt story.
Because if Jackson was supposed to be indifferent, I'd go and say: Wow, this rep is great.
Same goes for Alel, but since I couldn't for the life of me decide on wheather or not he was ace-spec or not, I'll just focus on Jackson who's very confirmed ace-something.
I will just pretend, that Jackson was indifferent, because if he weren't I'd be raging. So anyways:
I LOVED what the book was going for. First of all, consent is sexy. And I'm very glad the book thinks so too. There are multible scenes where we discuss consent and I was very pleased about that. Like, say what you want, but if you claim this book is not doing the best it could to make consent look super sexy than you've not read the same book I have. Get out.
It shows in every interaction between every character. And not just in sexual situations. There are scenes were consent was not giving - the hug scene - and the other is like "Shit, fuck, sorry. It won't happen again."
People have boundaries for a reason. You can't just go and assume. Communication is important. And this book is doing a great job in that area. They talk a lot about what makes the other happy & about what they want in general and from each other. About the expectations and boundaries and it's doing a really great job to showcase that "Action & Attraction are not the same".
Reading about Alel & Jackson was really nice, because they have a really amazing and healthy relationship. They get together semi-fast, because the book is not very long, but I didn't feel like they rushed anything. In fact, the book confirms that they were actually dating for a long while, which honestly, I totally believed. The pacing just worked for me. I was really believing that those two were growing closer and getting to know each other better the more time we spend with them. What helps is that they don't go and announce their love for each other the second they meat. They DATE like normal people, they talk about what they are and if they wanna call each other 'Boyfriend' yet or nah.
There is a little bit of conflict about the sex thing but ... that was to be expected???? Like, if you did not see that coming after reading the blurb of this thing, that's on you.
You're getting exactly what you're promised.
I also loved the other two characters, or rather, I loved Sariel in particular. Even though it's a semi-spoiler, I'll go and use she/her pronouns for Sariel, because she deserves respect.
You see, her sub-plot was also interesting. Not my personal cup of tea, but good for her. Good for her. She as a character was really cool though and while I wasn't sure about her at the start, she grew on me very quickly. Her relationship arc was too rushed though. I just ... I just think she deserved better. I don't know. Maybe I would have ended up rooting for them if the book were longer, but I don't think so. I just wasn't sold on the ship. Especially since it gave us one of the weirdest sex-scenes I've read in a long while.
Not even that ultra weird sex-scene I read in a fanfic a long while ago would have been able to top the wing play thing that this book had going on. My reaction to it was a combination of 'wtf have I just read' and 'looooool, dying of laughter'. But since sex isn't my kind of thing anyway, someone that's not me might find it really cool or something.
So, let's some up what I loved real quick:
+ Amazing characters
+ Amazing ace representation
+ Fantastic Dialoge
+ Consent & Communication done just *chefs kiss*
+ Healthy, beautiful main ship
+ Self-Exploration & Self-Acceptance
So why is this losing stars? Well... it's ... ehm, ... : very erotic & sexualized.
Remember how I was talking about all the things Die A-Karte isn't doing? Well, this book does them. They kiss and it's the most erotic kissing ever, like, yeah, one's a sex-demon but did you have to make it so erotic???? At one point he even has to flee to the bathroom because his banana was this close to exploding.
Or another thing: They massage each other and they are both turned on so much they almost come in their pants, like ??? Have you ever gotten a massage???? It's nothing sexual! Can we please stop sexualizing massages? Please?I'm so tiered of it.
They don't have penetrative sex, but everything they do is still so extremly steamy & sexual it made me kinda uncomfortable at times. And no I'm not talking about the sex-jokes. They can make those as much as they want. They cann tell me about all the orgies they had. That's fine. But when it comes to the main couple, I would have prefered less. Less of what? Just less. It kinda felt like a lot of the stuff they did was a substitute for sex/anal penetration. Because you see, they kinda do have sex at one point. I hate that we only label penetration as 'real sex' because it's kinda stupid and disrepectful. And that's coming from me.
But anyways, while the demons banana has not entered the humans asshole, they have masturbated together, they have taken pictures of the masturbation, they have touched each other (& their bananas), and they have had - just like Sariel - sexual interactions through demon related parts. As in, of course the tail - the tail, not the banana - of a demon is a pleasure organ. Why wouldn't it be.
I was clearly not the target audience for this book and while there was a lot I appreciated and a lot that I loved the book for, I also couldn't help but feel really weird at times.
If anyone cares, I didn't mind the attempted corrective rape scene because it made absolut sense for the context. WHY is the corrective rape attempt happening? Because Lust is sure that he's got the best banana in the universe and his banana will make Alel realise that sex is better than love. And lust is more powerful than god. He's also trying to punish Alel for disobeying the rules and him - mostly him.
He is not trying to cure his aceness or anything. It's still fucked up, but it makes sense. What kind of punishment did you expect an EVIL DEMON OVERLORD and THE EMBODYMENT OF LUST to go for? Did you think he was gonna tickle him to death? Of course not.
There is also a lot of religous symbolism & disscusion of what's good and what's bad and honestly, it's got a lot going for it.
It was just not what I had wanted. But that's on me. Mostly.
I decided to give this 4 goodreads stars, because I think that if I weren't averse/repulsed, I would have loved the shit out of this. It's still not a perfect book. But it's also not as proplematic as some people claim.
Which is why I can reccomand this book to allos & aces who are either gray-ace, indifferent or favourable.
I don't think my fellow repulsed/averse people will have the best of times with this one.
Martina: ~ reads 'Die A-Karte', a book about an ace gay Dude and an allo Incubus who fall in love even though they shouldn't be able to work on paper ~
Die A-Karte: ~ becomes Martinas favourit book of all time ~
This book : ~ excists ~
Martina: I need to read Saved by Grace OR I WILL DIE!!!!!!!!
So now I have read Saved by Grace and I'm not sure if my love for A-Karte made my reading experience better or worse. I'm sorry if you're not german and don't know about A-Karte, but let me tell you, you're missing out. I'll not spoil anything but I can't not compare the two, especially since A-Karte made me very emotional for reasons I can't put into words, while Saved by Grace was good, sure, but it was also absolutly not written for me.
So there are a few things that Die A-Karte & Saved by Grace have in common.
1. The asexual human falls in love with a sex-demon who was supposed to have sex with him for reasons.
2. The sex-demon is very understanding and supportive.
3. They don't have penetrative sex.
4. The relationship gets exposed and one of them gets punished for it.
A-Karte features a sex-repulsed/sex-averse Asexual, meaning that they don't have ANY amount of sex and the ace is very very VERY clear about that. They are not masturbating together, the ace is not watching the other get off, they don't sexualize massages, they don't have weird scenes of wing play, they are just in love and it's beautiful.
Safed by Grace goes another route. At first I thought that the Ace was also repulsed/averse, but from the way it was written, I couldn't help but think that no, this dude is not averse. I AM averse/repulsed. Benedikt - the Ace of A-Karte - is averse/repulsed. But Jackson - the Ace of Saved by Grace? He is NOT averse/repulsed. He's not favourable. But he's also not averse. I'd label him indifferent, but I've also seen other people give him all kinds of other ace-spec orientations.
And see, this leads to one other thing that bothered me:
Why not spell it out?
The setting is NOT some Fantasy world or Sci-fi Utopia. You could have easily used the term asexual or Ace-Spec. I don't see why that decision was not made. Especially since it's VERY unclear wheater Alel is ace-spec too or not. There is evidence to support both. I've also seen people claim both are gray-ace, which I don't think, but see, this is what you get when you don't spell it out.
Even as an ace reader, I can't say with certainty which of them is which level of ace. And that's sad.
Which is kinda important if you want to make remarks about the rep. Because, if this dude was supposed to be averse/repulsed, I'd go and say: Wow, no, I feel this rep was horrible.
BUT if he were not averse, but indifferent, it would be a completly differnt story.
Because if Jackson was supposed to be indifferent, I'd go and say: Wow, this rep is great.
Same goes for Alel, but since I couldn't for the life of me decide on wheather or not he was ace-spec or not, I'll just focus on Jackson who's very confirmed ace-something.
I will just pretend, that Jackson was indifferent, because if he weren't I'd be raging. So anyways:
I LOVED what the book was going for. First of all, consent is sexy. And I'm very glad the book thinks so too. There are multible scenes where we discuss consent and I was very pleased about that. Like, say what you want, but if you claim this book is not doing the best it could to make consent look super sexy than you've not read the same book I have. Get out.
It shows in every interaction between every character. And not just in sexual situations. There are scenes were consent was not giving - the hug scene - and the other is like "Shit, fuck, sorry. It won't happen again."
People have boundaries for a reason. You can't just go and assume. Communication is important. And this book is doing a great job in that area. They talk a lot about what makes the other happy & about what they want in general and from each other. About the expectations and boundaries and it's doing a really great job to showcase that "Action & Attraction are not the same".
Reading about Alel & Jackson was really nice, because they have a really amazing and healthy relationship. They get together semi-fast, because the book is not very long, but I didn't feel like they rushed anything. In fact, the book confirms that they were actually dating for a long while, which honestly, I totally believed. The pacing just worked for me. I was really believing that those two were growing closer and getting to know each other better the more time we spend with them. What helps is that they don't go and announce their love for each other the second they meat. They DATE like normal people, they talk about what they are and if they wanna call each other 'Boyfriend' yet or nah.
There is a little bit of conflict about the sex thing but ... that was to be expected???? Like, if you did not see that coming after reading the blurb of this thing, that's on you.
You're getting exactly what you're promised.
I also loved the other two characters, or rather, I loved Sariel in particular. Even though it's a semi-spoiler, I'll go and use she/her pronouns for Sariel, because she deserves respect.
You see, her sub-plot was also interesting. Not my personal cup of tea, but good for her. Good for her. She as a character was really cool though and while I wasn't sure about her at the start, she grew on me very quickly. Her relationship arc was too rushed though. I just ... I just think she deserved better. I don't know. Maybe I would have ended up rooting for them if the book were longer, but I don't think so. I just wasn't sold on the ship. Especially since it gave us one of the weirdest sex-scenes I've read in a long while.
Not even that ultra weird sex-scene I read in a fanfic a long while ago would have been able to top the wing play thing that this book had going on. My reaction to it was a combination of 'wtf have I just read' and 'looooool, dying of laughter'. But since sex isn't my kind of thing anyway, someone that's not me might find it really cool or something.
So, let's some up what I loved real quick:
+ Amazing characters
+ Amazing ace representation
+ Fantastic Dialoge
+ Consent & Communication done just *chefs kiss*
+ Healthy, beautiful main ship
+ Self-Exploration & Self-Acceptance
So why is this losing stars? Well... it's ... ehm, ... : very erotic & sexualized.
Remember how I was talking about all the things Die A-Karte isn't doing? Well, this book does them. They kiss and it's the most erotic kissing ever, like, yeah, one's a sex-demon but did you have to make it so erotic???? At one point he even has to flee to the bathroom because his banana was this close to exploding.
Or another thing: They massage each other and they are both turned on so much they almost come in their pants, like ??? Have you ever gotten a massage???? It's nothing sexual! Can we please stop sexualizing massages? Please?I'm so tiered of it.
They don't have penetrative sex, but everything they do is still so extremly steamy & sexual it made me kinda uncomfortable at times. And no I'm not talking about the sex-jokes. They can make those as much as they want. They cann tell me about all the orgies they had. That's fine. But when it comes to the main couple, I would have prefered less. Less of what? Just less. It kinda felt like a lot of the stuff they did was a substitute for sex/anal penetration. Because you see, they kinda do have sex at one point. I hate that we only label penetration as 'real sex' because it's kinda stupid and disrepectful. And that's coming from me.
But anyways, while the demons banana has not entered the humans asshole, they have masturbated together, they have taken pictures of the masturbation, they have touched each other (& their bananas), and they have had - just like Sariel - sexual interactions through demon related parts. As in, of course the tail - the tail, not the banana - of a demon is a pleasure organ. Why wouldn't it be.
I was clearly not the target audience for this book and while there was a lot I appreciated and a lot that I loved the book for, I also couldn't help but feel really weird at times.
If anyone cares, I didn't mind the attempted corrective rape scene because it made absolut sense for the context. WHY is the corrective rape attempt happening? Because Lust is sure that he's got the best banana in the universe and his banana will make Alel realise that sex is better than love. And lust is more powerful than god. He's also trying to punish Alel for disobeying the rules and him - mostly him.
He is not trying to cure his aceness or anything. It's still fucked up, but it makes sense. What kind of punishment did you expect an EVIL DEMON OVERLORD and THE EMBODYMENT OF LUST to go for? Did you think he was gonna tickle him to death? Of course not.
There is also a lot of religous symbolism & disscusion of what's good and what's bad and honestly, it's got a lot going for it.
It was just not what I had wanted. But that's on me. Mostly.
I decided to give this 4 goodreads stars, because I think that if I weren't averse/repulsed, I would have loved the shit out of this. It's still not a perfect book. But it's also not as proplematic as some people claim.
Which is why I can reccomand this book to allos & aces who are either gray-ace, indifferent or favourable.
I don't think my fellow repulsed/averse people will have the best of times with this one.
More...