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A review by lyzz
Story of L by Debra Hyde
4.0
The Story of L is a dark romance/erotica by Debra Hyde about a lesbian named Liv, a submissive, and her relationship with Cassandra, a dominant. Liv and Cassandra meet at a BDSM club, Hippolyte’s where Cassandra dominates Liv. After meeting at the club, Cassandra’s personal assistant Reese reaches out to Liv to see if Liv is interested in pursuing a relationship with Cassandra. She is and must endure multiple trials to see if she is worthy of being Cassandra’s submissive.
What I liked about this book:
**I really enjoyed that this book featured power play that is inherent in a domination-submission relationship. This power element in these types of relationships are not always sexual and the author captured this well through Liv’s trials.
**The Story of L also did an excellent job showing some of the mental challenges and experience of submission in a thoughtful way. There was a lot of discussion of Liv’s void and what submission feels like.
**I found the story to be compelling and the pacing spot on. While Liv was going through her trials, you felt that sense of waiting along with. I read this book in two sittings – mostly because I wanted to see how the relationship unfolded and how the story ended.
**The sexual scenes were hawt!
**The ending felt appropriate for the story.
What I didn’t like about this book:
**I found the lack of discussion about consent during the first chapter (party at the BDSM club) to be very troubling. Before meeting Cassandra, Liv played with her friend and long-time play partner Quinn. They did a very intense scene that had no negotiation or indication that there was negotiation beforehand. This scene included audience participation. As they had a long-standing relationship, they may be aware of each other’s limits, preferences and needs. This could have been handled quickly by saying they had discussed the scene on text before the party.
** I was troubled by some of the language used about Reese. Reese is Cassandra’s personal assistant and is also a trans man. It was clear that the author was trying to honor the character’s gender but it came across poorly and transphobic. Some of the examples included a weird hyper-focus on how Reese’s body had changed during his transition. I’d really encourage future work to have members of the trans community review and give feedback on the writing if the author has trans characters.
Overall, this book has good pacing, a balanced view of the dominance and submissive relationship with hawt sexual scenes. I’d recommend it to individuals looking for a dark romance that features BDSM.
Thank you to Riverdale Avenue Books for providing this ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.
What I liked about this book:
**I really enjoyed that this book featured power play that is inherent in a domination-submission relationship. This power element in these types of relationships are not always sexual and the author captured this well through Liv’s trials.
**The Story of L also did an excellent job showing some of the mental challenges and experience of submission in a thoughtful way. There was a lot of discussion of Liv’s void and what submission feels like.
**I found the story to be compelling and the pacing spot on. While Liv was going through her trials, you felt that sense of waiting along with. I read this book in two sittings – mostly because I wanted to see how the relationship unfolded and how the story ended.
**The sexual scenes were hawt!
**The ending felt appropriate for the story.
What I didn’t like about this book:
**I found the lack of discussion about consent during the first chapter (party at the BDSM club) to be very troubling. Before meeting Cassandra, Liv played with her friend and long-time play partner Quinn. They did a very intense scene that had no negotiation or indication that there was negotiation beforehand. This scene included audience participation. As they had a long-standing relationship, they may be aware of each other’s limits, preferences and needs. This could have been handled quickly by saying they had discussed the scene on text before the party.
** I was troubled by some of the language used about Reese. Reese is Cassandra’s personal assistant and is also a trans man. It was clear that the author was trying to honor the character’s gender but it came across poorly and transphobic. Some of the examples included a weird hyper-focus on how Reese’s body had changed during his transition. I’d really encourage future work to have members of the trans community review and give feedback on the writing if the author has trans characters.
Overall, this book has good pacing, a balanced view of the dominance and submissive relationship with hawt sexual scenes. I’d recommend it to individuals looking for a dark romance that features BDSM.
Thank you to Riverdale Avenue Books for providing this ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.