So, there are a few categories in the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 challenge that I wasn't super-psyched about. A BDSM romance was one of those categories. It is sooo not up my alley and I was also leery of falling into the "Fifty Shades" trap where it's actually not a BDSM romance but a story about a horribly abusive relationship. So I basically had a few requirements for this category. One, it needed to be an actual book, not a short that consisted entirely of sex--which was a requirement for all of the categories for me. (I did cheat on the holiday romance one for this, but read 3 novellas to make up for it.) Two, it couldn't be a Fifty Shades book. Three, I didn't want it to be downright awful in writing or content. So of course I headed off to the Goodreads lists. This was something I knew I was going to have to buy, because the library wouldn't have it and I was skeptical of anything in this category that was for free, and after some perusal I purchased In Flight, which appeared to be both an actual romance novel with BDSM aspects instead of just straight sex and had a very strong reading (4.1/5) on Goodreads.The book is written in first-person from the perspective of the heroine, Bianca, who works as a first-class flight attendant on an unnamed airline and encounters a hot young billionaire with a taste for BDSM. (Okay, so maybe there are a few Fifty Shades similarities here, but I'm willing to let that go.) She and James, said billionaire, are immediately attracted to each other and James outwardly states his intentions to get Bianca so sleep with him, though he doesn't want the relationship to be public. Though she initially is reluctant, she finally caves, because she's young and hot and is still, of course, a virgin--though James didn't know that initially so at least he's not coveting her for it, though he admits it's a perk. Bianca is also the least-connected woman on the face of the planet--no TV, no internet, no social media... Basically all she does is work and paint. That said, none of this actually hit me until later in the book, when I started to go, "Wait a minute..."
There's definitely some wonky language in here that was funny more than sexy, and could put an instant damper on the mood. The writing was average--not good, not bad. There's some annoying slut-shaming, because clearly every other girl who has ever been interested in James is a dirty whore where Bianca is pure as the driven snow, though she has a Dark Past and can orgasm on command. *eyeroll* But what I will give this book credit for is that, as far as I can tell, it's an okay portrayal of a BDSM relationship that isn't actually abusive, which is how these things apparently tend to go in books--not that I am an experienced enough reader in this subgenre to make a firm call of my own. They discuss a safe word, James provides aftercare and time for Bianca to rest even when neither of them particularly wants to take a break. But he seems to flipflop between personalities and not just when they're getting freaky, and that put me off a bit from him--he's warm and welcoming and cuddly one minute, and absolutely frigid the next for little to no reason.
I think this was a decent book for what it is, and the writing is certainly better than Fifty Shades (no "inner goddess"es here). The actual BDSM is pretty light (good for me!) though it seems like it might head into slightly heavier territory in future books. Also, as this is a proper series and not a string of connected books with different main characters like most romance series are, there is no Happily Ever After ending here--that's left for the future. But still decent, and I didn't hate every second of it like I expected to for this category, though I'm not sure if I'll take on the other two books or not.
3 stars out of 5.
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