First, a quick disclaimer: quite some time ago Lia Silver offered me a copy of her book Laura’s Wolf if I wouldn’t mind reviewing it. I like free stuff as much as the next person, but if I hadn’t enjoyed the book I would have politely told Lia so in private and you all would never have heard anything about it.
Laura’s Wolf is a paranormal romance focusing on the relationship between Roy, a newly turned werewolf Marine and Laura, a former con-artist trying to go straight. It’s exactly the kind of thing I would love to read on vacation while I sip cocktails, and although I ended up reading it in bits and pieces on my lunch break while I worked entirely too many hours, it still helped me relax.
What I really love about Laura’s Wolf is the way it presents female domination as a fun thing normal people choose to do sometimes. Sure, Roy is a werewolf Marine dealing with PTSD (which is not unusual – according to NIH MedlinePlus, in 2009 there were about 7.7 million adults in the US affected by PTSD) and Laura is a former con artist recovering from her own trauma, but they’re both enormously relatable characters. Aside from her colourful past, Laura is lonely but afraid to let people in. Roy, aside from the whole werewolf thing, worries that he’s broken and doesn’t have anything to offer a partner. Who hasn’t felt like that, even just a little?
At their cores, the characters are pretty normal people. Roy’s a regular guy, basically the exact opposite of the awful worthless worm stereotype. Laura’s a normal woman with more curves than society says she should have, not the kind of icy bitch-queen that porn and pop culture say dominant women have to be. And the way they relate to each other sexually is just the way they work, not a symptom of their problems (Secretary, I’m looking at you).
The sex scenes themselves are hot and well written, and perhaps ironically for a hardened perv, I like the fact that they’re not all particularly kinky and that they don’t go straight for whips and chains. One of my many, many pet peeves is the idea that once you explore kink you can never have or enjoy non-kinky sex again. That’s a hot fantasy and there are people out there who don’t care to have vanilla sex, but I think most of us are perfectly capable of enjoying sex that involves nothing more than an enthusiastic partner.
It’s also nice to see kink shown as something you can do without spending a lot of money on equipment. I’m not going to say Laura’s Wolf is perfect, but there’s an awful lot to like about it. If there’s someone you want to introduce to female domination without freaking them out, I’d recommend giving them this book. If you’re already familiar with kink, it’s still an entertaining read. The next book in the series, Prisoner, is already out, and I’m planning on picking it up.
Ooh, I got to see a snippet of this while Lia was writing it, and I’m not surprised that it turned out great! 🙂 I feel like there should be more novels with female dominance quietly woven into things without a big fuss. (Lord knows there’s enough maledom that passes unremarked.)
I totally agree with your take on this and so many other things. Not just because I trend bottom, either. But I am beginning to wonder if your opinion (and mine) isn’t too contrarian within the fetdom world. Is there really a market for writing that isn’t squarely “on the nose” with regard to practitioners and fans of femdom, fetish or lifestyle? I check out femdom book lists and they all seem to drift from the core definitions, and bubble down to dominatrix, sissifying, spanking, whipping, humiliation, toe worship, ball smashing, cuckold, stainless chastity devices, panty wearing, pegging, nipple clamps, slave/protocol, etc. Why does it have to span the full spectrum of BDSM, and why a capital D? It’s like the concept has been hijacked and corrupted by the most extreme elements. It’s not femdomBSM/BSDM. It’s fem “dom,” pure and simple. Not female dominatrix–it doesn’t need to have thigh high boots. It makes me doubt if a more centerline approach to storytelling is marketable, or desired by enough people. I read a review of Sweet Surrender, and it seemed like the male cop was actually a bottom to the protagonist’s top, but readers swooned over him as some alpha dog. He gives her baths, brushes her hair, makes her meals, lets her nap, and focuses on giving her endless orgasms. How the fuck is that dom, and not femdom? I’m confused. Does that mean we have to write about a bottom male focused only on the woman, but put a bullshit wrapper around it, making it look like he’s an alpha male stud that “takes what he wants, when he wants it?” By making her breakfast and giving her a bubble bath?