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( First off... )
Okay. I bought 'A Stroke of Midnight'. It was forty percent off, and I like the Merry Gentry books. I know that I'm not going to get much plot, but there will be pretty pretty men, intriguing setting, and of course, sex. They are soft fantasy porn. Yay for that.
However! The fact that they are softporn means that you don't have to use flowery euphemisms for all the good bits. Also, using the word 'bring' for climax got very silly, very fast, especially in dialogue. Our protagonist, Merry, points out over and over and over that the fey do not have the same sexual taboos as we do. They don't see anything wrong with sex, in a variety of interesting fashions. Unfortunately, this is contradicted both in the overly prudish way her fey characters /talk/ about sex (and there's almost more talking about sex or the aftermath of sex than there are good, solid, sexual scenes), and in the fact that the author spends a lot of time on what the fey /won't/ do. Which, it seems, covers quite a bit.
Essentially, the free love kinky elves are limited to just a little bondage, a little pain, and a few relatively tame group sex scenes. It's even considered remarkable (in a rather contrived way) that the main character enjoys giving oral sex, and her male sidhe lovers (who have mostly been celebate for centuries before she came along) frequently deny her that. Even homosexual encounters seem mostly off of the sexual radars of Merry's kin...of the three propositions she gets from women, one is desperate to do ANYTHING to get away from the influence of her lord, one is in True Love with one of her guard and thus willing to sleep with Merry if it will let her stay with him, and one is motivated entirely by the possibility of regaining power. There's no indication that any of the women find her attractive, or that any of the male guard find each other particularly attractive. It's a peculiarly heterosexual world for a species that is supposed to be broadly sexual and openly physical.
I'm really getting to the point where I want to say, "I can do better." And considering my complete lack of experience in that area? That's not good.
However! The fact that they are softporn means that you don't have to use flowery euphemisms for all the good bits. Also, using the word 'bring' for climax got very silly, very fast, especially in dialogue. Our protagonist, Merry, points out over and over and over that the fey do not have the same sexual taboos as we do. They don't see anything wrong with sex, in a variety of interesting fashions. Unfortunately, this is contradicted both in the overly prudish way her fey characters /talk/ about sex (and there's almost more talking about sex or the aftermath of sex than there are good, solid, sexual scenes), and in the fact that the author spends a lot of time on what the fey /won't/ do. Which, it seems, covers quite a bit.
Essentially, the free love kinky elves are limited to just a little bondage, a little pain, and a few relatively tame group sex scenes. It's even considered remarkable (in a rather contrived way) that the main character enjoys giving oral sex, and her male sidhe lovers (who have mostly been celebate for centuries before she came along) frequently deny her that. Even homosexual encounters seem mostly off of the sexual radars of Merry's kin...of the three propositions she gets from women, one is desperate to do ANYTHING to get away from the influence of her lord, one is in True Love with one of her guard and thus willing to sleep with Merry if it will let her stay with him, and one is motivated entirely by the possibility of regaining power. There's no indication that any of the women find her attractive, or that any of the male guard find each other particularly attractive. It's a peculiarly heterosexual world for a species that is supposed to be broadly sexual and openly physical.
I'm really getting to the point where I want to say, "I can do better." And considering my complete lack of experience in that area? That's not good.
.