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A review by eilatan
Lady Doctor Wyre by Joely Sue Burkhart
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The worldbuilding is silly, but in a way that doesn't bother me--it's basically Firefly with an overlay of the Revolutionary War but with women in power. I went into this basically expecting crackfic (to borrow a term from the fanfic world--my favorite kind of fanfic is crackfic).
Sadly, it wasn't to be and for some pretty big reasons.
First of all, people become kinky in ways that don't involve their being abused by a parent. It really bothered me that Lord Regret wanted Lady Wyre to tie him up before having sex with him because his mother used to tie him up so he wouldn't be able to prevent her from abusing his father. There may be some people out there who are kinky for reasons stemming from childhood abuse, but the vast majority of kinky people are kinky because...they're kinky. Not because they are damaged goods or abnormal or sick.
Second of all, I disliked the rampant homophobia in the resolution of the love triangle between Lady Wyre, Lord Regret, and Sheriff Masters. Bothe Regret and Masters agree to both be in a relationship with Wyre, but only if she doesn't expect them to ever have sex with each other. I'm not saying that the male characters had to be bisexual (although it would have added a nice little bit of conflict!), but to explicitly come right out and say that they are 100% straight and have absolutely no desire to do anything sexual with each other just rubbed me completely the wrong way.
Also, if you blink you'll miss the BDSM. Seriously. Lady Wyre ties Regret up twice and has PIV sex with him and that's the sum total of the BDSM (and for some people I know that's super-edgy but for me it really isn't) so if you're expecting something a bit spicier, you'd do better to go elsewhere.
Sadly, it wasn't to be and for some pretty big reasons.
First of all, people become kinky in ways that don't involve their being abused by a parent. It really bothered me that Lord Regret wanted Lady Wyre to tie him up before having sex with him because his mother used to tie him up so he wouldn't be able to prevent her from abusing his father. There may be some people out there who are kinky for reasons stemming from childhood abuse, but the vast majority of kinky people are kinky because...they're kinky. Not because they are damaged goods or abnormal or sick.
Second of all, I disliked the rampant homophobia in the resolution of the love triangle between Lady Wyre, Lord Regret, and Sheriff Masters. Bothe Regret and Masters agree to both be in a relationship with Wyre, but only if she doesn't expect them to ever have sex with each other. I'm not saying that the male characters had to be bisexual (although it would have added a nice little bit of conflict!), but to explicitly come right out and say that they are 100% straight and have absolutely no desire to do anything sexual with each other just rubbed me completely the wrong way.
Also, if you blink you'll miss the BDSM. Seriously. Lady Wyre ties Regret up twice and has PIV sex with him and that's the sum total of the BDSM (and for some people I know that's super-edgy but for me it really isn't) so if you're expecting something a bit spicier, you'd do better to go elsewhere.