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bonnieg 's review for:
American Prince
by Sierra Simone
This is all about the psychology of the Ash/Embry relationship touched on in American Princess, and a furtherance of this modern rendering of Morte d'Arthur begun in that book. There is sex. There is, once again, super smutty sex. What there is not, is hot sex. This is fraught sex. It is sex that is happening for REASONS.
The fraught nature of the sex creates a weird paradox. The underlying story in this book is wildly absurd. Really. And also absurd is the concept that there are one or two people in the universe you are irretrievably drawn to and you are powerless to deny the "love." But then there is an undeniable verisimilitude in the motivations of these characters, all of them, to act the way they act (until the end, which is ridiculous even if you are trying to create a modern Lancelot) and to beg people to hurt them, to scar them, to cause them real pain. The first Embry/Greer sex scene is freaking sick and horrifying, and triggering, but it also makes sense. I have seen a lot of pat answers in BDSM romances about why people need, or at least crave debasement and physical harm (giving or receiving) and some of them are so ridiculously Psych 101 (50 Shades comes immediately to mind, but there are many others) that all one can do is roll their eyes and move on. This series, and especially this book, comes closer to Tiffany Reisz than EL James. It is fascinating climbing inside the skin of these people.
Another plus for me - the author is smart, has a nuanced knowledge and understanding of English lit and mythology. (I enjoyed the lit exposition a good deal more than the clit exposition in these books.) Petroclus rarely makes appearances in books with good 3-ways. Its too bad really. He is an intriguing character, as are most characters damned to hell.
All in all worth a read, but not nearly so fun as American Princess, nor as sexy -- IMHO not much hot happens in this book despite the frequent pulsing, pushing, gripping, dripping, shooting and clenching. Yes, I did check out the final book in this trilogy and its next on the playlist so let's see where we end up.
**** Note that I got these on audio through Hoopla, and the male reader of this book is really bad. He is supposed to be Embry, and there are two major issues. The first, his "Ash voice" is laughable, its so affected, like a child imitating a teacher -- a not very smart teacher. The second, Embry is supposed to be cultured and old-money. The reader does not properly enunciate, which would not be typical in Embry's circles. Servants would be expected to speak more precisely, and certainly favored sons would not get away with such sloppy articulation. The biggest issue is all the dropped "t" sounds. So "little" is "liddle" "important" is "impordand" "persistent" is "persisdand." Its not a few times, it is consistent, and it is off-putting. Educated people, especially Harvard grads who spent time at Oxford, speak properly.
The fraught nature of the sex creates a weird paradox. The underlying story in this book is wildly absurd. Really. And also absurd is the concept that there are one or two people in the universe you are irretrievably drawn to and you are powerless to deny the "love." But then there is an undeniable verisimilitude in the motivations of these characters, all of them, to act the way they act (until the end, which is ridiculous even if you are trying to create a modern Lancelot) and to beg people to hurt them, to scar them, to cause them real pain. The first Embry/Greer sex scene is freaking sick and horrifying, and triggering, but it also makes sense. I have seen a lot of pat answers in BDSM romances about why people need, or at least crave debasement and physical harm (giving or receiving) and some of them are so ridiculously Psych 101 (50 Shades comes immediately to mind, but there are many others) that all one can do is roll their eyes and move on. This series, and especially this book, comes closer to Tiffany Reisz than EL James. It is fascinating climbing inside the skin of these people.
Another plus for me - the author is smart, has a nuanced knowledge and understanding of English lit and mythology. (I enjoyed the lit exposition a good deal more than the clit exposition in these books.) Petroclus rarely makes appearances in books with good 3-ways. Its too bad really. He is an intriguing character, as are most characters damned to hell.
All in all worth a read, but not nearly so fun as American Princess, nor as sexy -- IMHO not much hot happens in this book despite the frequent pulsing, pushing, gripping, dripping, shooting and clenching. Yes, I did check out the final book in this trilogy and its next on the playlist so let's see where we end up.
**** Note that I got these on audio through Hoopla, and the male reader of this book is really bad. He is supposed to be Embry, and there are two major issues. The first, his "Ash voice" is laughable, its so affected, like a child imitating a teacher -- a not very smart teacher. The second, Embry is supposed to be cultured and old-money. The reader does not properly enunciate, which would not be typical in Embry's circles. Servants would be expected to speak more precisely, and certainly favored sons would not get away with such sloppy articulation. The biggest issue is all the dropped "t" sounds. So "little" is "liddle" "important" is "impordand" "persistent" is "persisdand." Its not a few times, it is consistent, and it is off-putting. Educated people, especially Harvard grads who spent time at Oxford, speak properly.