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A review by readingpenguin
Darius: Lord of Pleasures by Grace Burrowes
2.0
For whatever reason the premise of this book had me expecting delicious so-bad-it's-good cheese. Unfortunately I developed absolutely no fondness for either main character, but more importantly there were simply too many of romance's more irritating tropes for me to enjoy this.
I have a very low tolerance for extremely virginal characters. No problem with virginity itself, but when the heroine has to have erections explained to her I just feel my eyes roll and I'm worried they might get stuck that way. Vivian is the absolute worst--zero awareness of her own body or orgasms or intercourse. Look, I KNOW, women of this time period were sheltered, I freaking get it, but I don't have to like it.
Then there's the makeover subplot which is never my favorite thing, and it's worse somehow because Darius is the one to insist on new clothes for Vivian. He's almost too sensitive, our hero, with his wardrobe makeover and his fondness for kittens and small children, and he's forever rubbing Vivian's feet or brushing her hair, bringing her hot beverages, buying her personalized perfume. In addition to occasional prostitution he farms and makes, I kid you not, herbal sashays to sell in town. He's written as someone's fantasy rather than as a person, but certainly not my fantasy because all I could think was oh please, just stop.
The other interesting thing about Darius is his whoring activities, which in themselves could have been hot but end up really awkward. Basically he's got a couple of female patrons who pay very well for the privilege of playing some extremely lightcore bdsm with him, in which he features mostly as a naughty pony or errant servant (trust me it is a lot less kinky than it sounds). And there's a bit of oral here and there, that's about it. What sort of stuck in my brain like a splinter about the whole thing is that the author makes repeated points of telling us how shameful this all is for Darius, and not necessarily just because he's been whoring, but also because of the submissive role therein. The women are painted in turn as bitches and then pathetic old ladies for seeking out this kind of activity, taking advantage of him (but come on, they didn't have Craigslist back then, what's a girl to do?) I'm sorry, but he chose his role, it's not like there aren't other women and men out there with other kinds of needs that maybe don't involve spanking if it bothers you so much. I don't know, the entire manner in which these relationships and characters were portrayed just disgusted me--Darius the victim, the dominatrix harpies, the angelic-by-contrast Vivian. Just, bleh.
I have a very low tolerance for extremely virginal characters. No problem with virginity itself, but when the heroine has to have erections explained to her I just feel my eyes roll and I'm worried they might get stuck that way. Vivian is the absolute worst--zero awareness of her own body or orgasms or intercourse. Look, I KNOW, women of this time period were sheltered, I freaking get it, but I don't have to like it.
Then there's the makeover subplot which is never my favorite thing, and it's worse somehow because Darius is the one to insist on new clothes for Vivian. He's almost too sensitive, our hero, with his wardrobe makeover and his fondness for kittens and small children, and he's forever rubbing Vivian's feet or brushing her hair, bringing her hot beverages, buying her personalized perfume. In addition to occasional prostitution he farms and makes, I kid you not, herbal sashays to sell in town. He's written as someone's fantasy rather than as a person, but certainly not my fantasy because all I could think was oh please, just stop.
The other interesting thing about Darius is his whoring activities, which in themselves could have been hot but end up really awkward. Basically he's got a couple of female patrons who pay very well for the privilege of playing some extremely lightcore bdsm with him, in which he features mostly as a naughty pony or errant servant (trust me it is a lot less kinky than it sounds). And there's a bit of oral here and there, that's about it. What sort of stuck in my brain like a splinter about the whole thing is that the author makes repeated points of telling us how shameful this all is for Darius, and not necessarily just because he's been whoring, but also because of the submissive role therein. The women are painted in turn as bitches and then pathetic old ladies for seeking out this kind of activity, taking advantage of him (but come on, they didn't have Craigslist back then, what's a girl to do?) I'm sorry, but he chose his role, it's not like there aren't other women and men out there with other kinds of needs that maybe don't involve spanking if it bothers you so much. I don't know, the entire manner in which these relationships and characters were portrayed just disgusted me--Darius the victim, the dominatrix harpies, the angelic-by-contrast Vivian. Just, bleh.