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magnafeana's reviews
260 reviews
Unrestrained by Joey W. Hill
3.0
3.5 restrained yet unrestrained stars on the balanced BDSM novella
Hill has taken us on a story of complex characters in the hidden world BDSM and the almost unspoken world of 40+ people falling in love again all set in New Orleans and Club Release.
Athena (h) is a well-to-do woman who is a scarily rich one-percenter in terms of wealth, yet her money and personality is used for the greater good (except when she hosts neo-Confederates). After the loss of her submissive yet affectionately possessive husband Roy to an awful (technically the OM), Domme Athena is understandably straying from a passion her husband desired more than she did—and there may be more of a reason to that than grieving.
Dale (H) is dominant to the core, a retired “Master Chief” of the Navy SEALS, and a great trainer to dogs in need. Serving as Master Craftsman (MC) at Club Release, he is noted for his tight control and the intense passion her pours into his session. But when a certain Domme serves as a quiet voyeur to a D/ session, Dale understands the Lady Mistress of Club Release needs much more than she thought she did.
Admittedly, I was reluctant about this recommendation after reading Hostile Takeover. I couldn’t rap my head around the FMC and all those around her somehow justifying the MMC’s cruel actions and encouraging her to run to him. But an Internet friend encouraged me to read Unrestrained , and their judgment is sound, so I dove in.
And now I have some thoughts.
From a subjective level, this story is definitely a contemporary romance (CR) BDSM that should be put in everyone’s GoodReads (GR) To Be Read (TBR) list. While there are CR stories aplenty, it is increasingly hard to find CR romances that aren’t thinly-veiled NA. Hill brought us beautifully flawed and complex characters in which we see the emotion and also are told rather than we are getting an unbalanced side of either or.
I greatly appreciated Athena and understanding her thought process as well as Dale’s reinforcement that she needn’t give up Roy but make room for him and separate the two. I also appreciated Dale wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws, notably his knee-jerk wall-building whenever his prosthetics and his SEAL brothers were involved.
That being said…
From a literally standpoint, the prose, pacing, and formatting made this book a difficult read.
Hill strove for us to very much understand Athena and all her choices, but the pages of internal monologue to help us understand ended up overcompensating to the point where dialogue and conversation fell flat and I constantly skimmed the monologuing to make the dialogue flow better.
The spacing between paragraphs was nonexistent. I was bewildered seeing walls of texts with the indents the only vague thing telling me another paragraph started. Not to mention the odd placing of some quotation marks and dialogue tags broke up the flow of speech.
The over-description killed so much of the personal imagination. Not to mention the setting. This took place in New Orleans, but… The setting truly did nothing for this. Most of the time, settings are integral to the story, but from how I read all of this, this entire story could have taken place in any part of US south.
And as a Black woman, I didn’t appreciate the slide of Daughters of Confederacy. That is a neo-Confederate group that is similar to the 21st century KKK, in my eyes. I understand Athena lives off slave money in her plantation home, but then to do that? And then none of that is ever mentioned again?
I really wanted to ask the author Was it even necessary to do that and make me feel that uncomfortable with Athena? What did adding those traits do for Athena? Did that contribute to her character or did you add this to hammer it home she is a white lady who benefited off slavery?
That’s just…not for me. Same with Dale teasing how the Israeli woman as a slave not helping his character.
Both of these traits were so minor, but they gave me pause.
Racism, phobias, isms—they are all fine in any book with any character as long as it shapes the characters in some way.
I’m a pescatarian. This means I actively avoid places where meat is predominantly on the menu, which also affects where my friends and I eat (to a degree). I’m also an atheist. This means I don’t go to church, I don’t adhere to religious rites, and I squint when someone tries to push their rhetoric in my face.
If Athena and Dale’s little “Deep South” traits contribute nothing to them as people…then the author added them for a reason I reeeeeeally don’t like.
From a personal standpoint, I found myself disliking Athena. While she was not the same type of FMC who goes looking for trouble by making mistake after mistake all for the sake of pride, she did herself no favors with all her “claims of independence” such as going to club by herself to expose herself as a submissive or thinking she had the right to pop into Dale’s sanctuary at her choosing
I also didn’t appreciate Dale’s constant push push push. To an extent, having an MC push the other because they are too far in their heads is acceptable. However, that’s only when I feel like the characters know each other well enough to understand the signs.
Athena herself mentions how Dale lacks conversational grace (segueing), which leaves her a bit floundered and, honestly, I felt the same. Dale proves a bit that he can slow down, but he never slows at the critical moments. He continues to domineer, not dominate.
I will say I’m pleased neither of them had children or wanted children. It’s refreshing to see childfree in CR. They could have adopted or other options, but when Athena mentioned she had her tubes tied, I lived.
All in all, this was a solid 3.5 ⭐️ rounded down for all the aforementioned. Thank you to my local library for the e-loan.
Hill has taken us on a story of complex characters in the hidden world BDSM and the almost unspoken world of 40+ people falling in love again all set in New Orleans and Club Release.
Athena (h) is a well-to-do woman who is a scarily rich one-percenter in terms of wealth, yet her money and personality is used for the greater good (except when she hosts neo-Confederates). After the loss of her submissive yet affectionately possessive husband Roy to an awful (technically the OM), Domme Athena is understandably straying from a passion her husband desired more than she did—and there may be more of a reason to that than grieving.
Dale (H) is dominant to the core, a retired “Master Chief” of the Navy SEALS, and a great trainer to dogs in need. Serving as Master Craftsman (MC) at Club Release, he is noted for his tight control and the intense passion her pours into his session. But when a certain Domme serves as a quiet voyeur to a D/ session, Dale understands the Lady Mistress of Club Release needs much more than she thought she did.
Admittedly, I was reluctant about this recommendation after reading Hostile Takeover. I couldn’t rap my head around the FMC and all those around her somehow justifying the MMC’s cruel actions and encouraging her to run to him. But an Internet friend encouraged me to read Unrestrained , and their judgment is sound, so I dove in.
And now I have some thoughts.
From a subjective level, this story is definitely a contemporary romance (CR) BDSM that should be put in everyone’s GoodReads (GR) To Be Read (TBR) list. While there are CR stories aplenty, it is increasingly hard to find CR romances that aren’t thinly-veiled NA. Hill brought us beautifully flawed and complex characters in which we see the emotion and also are told rather than we are getting an unbalanced side of either or.
I greatly appreciated Athena and understanding her thought process as well as Dale’s reinforcement that she needn’t give up Roy but make room for him and separate the two. I also appreciated Dale wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws, notably his knee-jerk wall-building whenever his prosthetics and his SEAL brothers were involved.
That being said…
From a literally standpoint, the prose, pacing, and formatting made this book a difficult read.
Hill strove for us to very much understand Athena and all her choices, but the pages of internal monologue to help us understand ended up overcompensating to the point where dialogue and conversation fell flat and I constantly skimmed the monologuing to make the dialogue flow better.
The spacing between paragraphs was nonexistent. I was bewildered seeing walls of texts with the indents the only vague thing telling me another paragraph started. Not to mention the odd placing of some quotation marks and dialogue tags broke up the flow of speech.
The over-description killed so much of the personal imagination. Not to mention the setting. This took place in New Orleans, but… The setting truly did nothing for this. Most of the time, settings are integral to the story, but from how I read all of this, this entire story could have taken place in any part of US south.
And as a Black woman, I didn’t appreciate the slide of Daughters of Confederacy. That is a neo-Confederate group that is similar to the 21st century KKK, in my eyes. I understand Athena lives off slave money in her plantation home, but then to do that? And then none of that is ever mentioned again?
I really wanted to ask the author Was it even necessary to do that and make me feel that uncomfortable with Athena? What did adding those traits do for Athena? Did that contribute to her character or did you add this to hammer it home she is a white lady who benefited off slavery?
That’s just…not for me. Same with Dale teasing how the Israeli woman as a slave not helping his character.
Both of these traits were so minor, but they gave me pause.
Racism, phobias, isms—they are all fine in any book with any character as long as it shapes the characters in some way.
I’m a pescatarian. This means I actively avoid places where meat is predominantly on the menu, which also affects where my friends and I eat (to a degree). I’m also an atheist. This means I don’t go to church, I don’t adhere to religious rites, and I squint when someone tries to push their rhetoric in my face.
If Athena and Dale’s little “Deep South” traits contribute nothing to them as people…then the author added them for a reason I reeeeeeally don’t like.
From a personal standpoint, I found myself disliking Athena. While she was not the same type of FMC who goes looking for trouble by making mistake after mistake all for the sake of pride, she did herself no favors with all her “claims of independence” such as going to club by herself to expose herself as a submissive or thinking she had the right to pop into Dale’s sanctuary at her choosing
I also didn’t appreciate Dale’s constant push push push. To an extent, having an MC push the other because they are too far in their heads is acceptable. However, that’s only when I feel like the characters know each other well enough to understand the signs.
Athena herself mentions how Dale lacks conversational grace (segueing), which leaves her a bit floundered and, honestly, I felt the same. Dale proves a bit that he can slow down, but he never slows at the critical moments. He continues to domineer, not dominate.
I will say I’m pleased neither of them had children or wanted children. It’s refreshing to see childfree in CR. They could have adopted or other options, but when Athena mentioned she had her tubes tied, I lived.
All in all, this was a solid 3.5 ⭐️ rounded down for all the aforementioned. Thank you to my local library for the e-loan.
Homebound by Lydia Hope
3.0
3.75 stars rounded up down!
Let’s get started, shall we?
In a world similar to the Elysium series, the wealthy have fled for space while the working class and all its aliens remain on Earth where they struggle to make a living.
Enter out FMC Gemma (h). Working in a prison with little money and food, she stays with her reluctant extended family after her disaster back home left her orphaned and crippled. Gemma had high hopes her brother will return for her as she held him get to the Promised Land, but when his letter back to her does nothing but trample her expectations, she realizes she truly is alone.
Well—perhaps not as alone as she thinks.
She meets the MMC Simon (H) after being transferred into an alien sector of prison. While the inmates and coworkers are trouble, weakened Simon the Rix makes Gemma’d job worth it as she grows emboldened in nursing him back to help. But in doing do, she discovers how truly unfair the galaxy can be.
Let’s talk about this one the literary front.
A few grammatical errors and some extra letters that didn’t belong, but it was more like something that would raised an eyebrow than make you DNF.
This is a character-driven story. The inmates and Ruby felt diverse, but the side characters had been given deliberate one dimensions that made them offputtingly cartoonish. It was as though the intention was to uplight the FMC’s grace and compassion by villainizing every person and every thing around her, which felt like the author didn’t trust the audience to understand that the world was cruel.
The constant sexual assault does happen in war. But was it necessary to get the point across here?
The dialogue felt connected at some points and unrealistic at another. When the character tones would take a Shakespearean shift, it broke my immersion on thinking, Why would X character even say that?
The ending felt flat. Because this story adhered to western story telling of the three arc structure with the exposition ➡️ rising action ➡️ climax ➡️ falling action ➡️ third act ➡️ finale, this story seemed not be able to pull strong and settle for what its second and third act would be or about its conclusion.
Open-ended endings are a great move and one I prefer. But this story felt like there should have been two to three pages more to feel like a well-received ending.
Pacing on this story had the right amount of action and intimacy. Though the back half of the story felt very quick.
From a personal standpoint.
I didn’t find Gemma a strong FMC, especially when she self-described herself as “compassionate”. Simon was right in her over-analysis, but all her questioning made no sense considering she was disabled and also didn’t like to be judged. Her naïveté toward her situation made no sense, given the state of earth in this story.
When writing a maiden, virtuous heroine, it can’t feel strong. It has to make sense within the context of the story. And hers felt like an overkill to truly depict how compassionate she was. I more would have bought she was a prison nurse, new on the job, and had yet to experience burnout. If that was the case, her attitude would have matched and I would have believed it.
Her savior complex toward an alien? It made me go Sure, Jan.
This is all from third person limited so we have no inkling of Simon’s thoughts, but I was fine with that. He was a very straightforward character.
Overall, this was an SFR, and it is what it is. The steam felt like PNR insta-lust/matebone, and I skimmed through it.
Solid 3 ⭐️ read.
Let’s get started, shall we?
In a world similar to the Elysium series, the wealthy have fled for space while the working class and all its aliens remain on Earth where they struggle to make a living.
Enter out FMC Gemma (h). Working in a prison with little money and food, she stays with her reluctant extended family after her disaster back home left her orphaned and crippled. Gemma had high hopes her brother will return for her as she held him get to the Promised Land, but when his letter back to her does nothing but trample her expectations, she realizes she truly is alone.
Well—perhaps not as alone as she thinks.
She meets the MMC Simon (H) after being transferred into an alien sector of prison. While the inmates and coworkers are trouble, weakened Simon the Rix makes Gemma’d job worth it as she grows emboldened in nursing him back to help. But in doing do, she discovers how truly unfair the galaxy can be.
Let’s talk about this one the literary front.
A few grammatical errors and some extra letters that didn’t belong, but it was more like something that would raised an eyebrow than make you DNF.
This is a character-driven story. The inmates and Ruby felt diverse, but the side characters had been given deliberate one dimensions that made them offputtingly cartoonish. It was as though the intention was to uplight the FMC’s grace and compassion by villainizing every person and every thing around her, which felt like the author didn’t trust the audience to understand that the world was cruel.
The constant sexual assault does happen in war. But was it necessary to get the point across here?
The dialogue felt connected at some points and unrealistic at another. When the character tones would take a Shakespearean shift, it broke my immersion on thinking, Why would X character even say that?
The ending felt flat. Because this story adhered to western story telling of the three arc structure with the exposition ➡️ rising action ➡️ climax ➡️ falling action ➡️ third act ➡️ finale, this story seemed not be able to pull strong and settle for what its second and third act would be or about its conclusion.
Open-ended endings are a great move and one I prefer. But this story felt like there should have been two to three pages more to feel like a well-received ending.
Pacing on this story had the right amount of action and intimacy. Though the back half of the story felt very quick.
From a personal standpoint.
I didn’t find Gemma a strong FMC, especially when she self-described herself as “compassionate”. Simon was right in her over-analysis, but all her questioning made no sense considering she was disabled and also didn’t like to be judged. Her naïveté toward her situation made no sense, given the state of earth in this story.
When writing a maiden, virtuous heroine, it can’t feel strong. It has to make sense within the context of the story. And hers felt like an overkill to truly depict how compassionate she was. I more would have bought she was a prison nurse, new on the job, and had yet to experience burnout. If that was the case, her attitude would have matched and I would have believed it.
Her savior complex toward an alien? It made me go Sure, Jan.
This is all from third person limited so we have no inkling of Simon’s thoughts, but I was fine with that. He was a very straightforward character.
Overall, this was an SFR, and it is what it is. The steam felt like PNR insta-lust/matebone, and I skimmed through it.
Solid 3 ⭐️ read.