Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsI give the series 3 stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2019
This review is for this SET of books. There are six in print right now, but I have no knowledge if there are to be more. The story leaves the possibility of more.
None of my favorite authors have a release coming soon. So I looked to see what Amazon recommended for me. This series by BJ Wayne came up. As the first book is free, I figured why not. After reading the first book, I felt the story had a very light plot and underdeveloped characters. But it wasn't horrible.
So I went ahead and bought the rest of the series. I know, I know. Why I didn't buy the books one at a time, I don't know. My fault. And since I always feel bad about returning a book for a refund, I told myself I would read them. (It's a woman thing feeling guilty.)
I made it through all six books. But I was gritting my teeth to finish them.
Every single book had a very light plot and underdeveloped characters. Every one. The dramatic moment near the end of each book was predictable. There was nothing unique about any of the books.
I enjoyed reading the scenes from The Barn. They were also "light" in my opinion, especially since the focus of all the main characters in the book is a D/s relationship. But I do admit that everyone is going to have their own opinions about the club.
(Want to read really good books based on a D/s club? I highly recommend the Shadowlands series by Cherise Sinclair.)
I have the privilege of proofing for a great author who writes D/s as a lifestyle. So the following few comments are things I noticed that I would have pointed out to my writer, should it have been her doing the writing.
First, I would like to respectfully recommend this author to make use of Thesaurus.com. Every single book had multiple mentions of "malleable buttocks". Occasionally they were "malleable globes", but not often. What about a nice, round a** sometimes? Every single book had multiple mentions of "turgid nipples". Really? Turgid? Over and over again? Try noticing the number of times "denuded" was used. I went to Thesaurus.com myself and there are many options for malleable, turgid, and denuded. While there are many other examples of repeated wording, these three were the worst.
Second, there were obvious errors in grammar. I don't know how they got through an editor and/or proofers, but they did. If I were the author, it might be time to look for new help.
Third, a large majority of the D/s scenes focused on spanking (those malleable buttocks). I know there is a whole genre dedicated to spanking. And I don't have any problem reading about spankings. But to me, it felt like there might be one sex scene to every three spankings. Whether at the club, or at the home (ranch) of Mr Main Character. And more details were given about the spankings than the sex. If these books were aiming at that spanking genre, they'd be great. But the aim was D/s relationships.
Yet I find myself saying again "the books weren't horrible". I did expect a lot more oomph to the books, especially if the price is $4.99. But they weren't horrible. And I think this author could really go places with a bit of effort.
My recommendation to potential readers is to read the first book in the series that is free. Did you like it or not? The rest of the books are basically the same.
I was seriously torn about how many stars to give as a rating. I did not feel like they were worth a 5. But I also didn't think they deserved a 1. So I went right in the middle with a 3.
