The Queen's Consorts - Kele Moon

There are some books you just don't want to cop to reading, and I admit, a "menage a trois" romance for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 challenge was going to be one of them for me, no matter what the specific book ended up being.  And yet here I am, admitting it to the internet at large.

I have to admit, finding a book for this category was a struggle.  Why?  Because most books involving a menage are not going to be romances, they're going to be kink erotica and probably not all three parties are equally invested in the relationship; hence were my findings as I trawled through Goodreads lists.  Why did I end on The Queen's Consorts?  Well, it was an actual novel, which meant there would likely be some semblance of plot beyond just sex, since shorter pieces in erotica subgenres tend to be "characters meet, characters fuck, end scene."  Also, it was a fantasy/sci-fi book, which made it more reader-friendly to me and I actually think helped integrate a three-member relationship better into the story.

Heroine Sari is a young woman living on the streets after escaping years of sexual slavery in which she managed to never actually have sex--because of course, the heroine's virginity is tantamount to her goodness.  *eyeroll*  While helping a little girl who's also on the streets, Sari is attacked and almost killed before being rescued by a royal guard, who recognizes that she's of higher birth because of the streaks in her hair.  (Basically, society here is the upper class, which all have streaks, and the lower class, which doesn't, and it's all very weird and kind of racist in its own way.)  He also recognizes a pendant that she has, that no one else has recognized in all her years even though it means she's the queen who went missing when she was a child!  Gasp!  Who would have thought!  So he brings her into the palace and turns her over to "the queen's consorts" so they can take care of her while the guard puts things to rights.  You can imagine how well this goes.  Of course there is scheming and a coup and lots of sex in a magical bath along the way.

Let's start with things that I think worked for this book.  As someone who is not big into "kink" erotica, I liked that Moon set up her world where it is the norm for people to be in triad relationships composed of two males and one female, though it does make one wonder where all the lesbians are.  This norm made it easier for me to slip into the story and also did away with a threesome being something that Sari herself had to get over.  There's also some interesting mixing of sci-fi and fantasy; magic abounds, from how Sari's emotions control the weather to how there are magical healing baths, but there are also "bolter" weapons that seem more like something out of a space opera.  And finally, there were some good supporting characters beyond Sari and consorts Calder and Taryen; Macro comes immediately to mind, as does a "sister" that Sari encounters in the palace.  The writing was okay overall, and I will say that Moon can write a pretty good sex scene.

And as for what didn't work?  Well...I mean, Taryen and Calder's entire purpose in life is basically to give Sari orgasms so it will be sunny, which really seems to diminish Sari's purpose.  The planet seems to have run completely fine without her except for the weather, and having role of "orgasm to bring the sun" kind of reduces her to a sex object more than I'd like.  Also, all of the "sisters," aka others of the streaked-hair upper class, are basically evil, with the exception of one.  There is rampant sexual abuse of Calder and Taryen throughout at the hands of the sisters, which was hard to read.  And, while the world has some cool elements to it, it never really felt complete because Moon speeds through the book from sex scene to action scene to sex scene again, back and forth with little space to actually develop any of the world or characters--as they come to us is basically as they leave us at the end of the book.  And, am I really supposed to believe that Sari managed to not be found for years and escaped sexual slavery without having sex?  Because I don't.

Overall, I think this was kind of trying to be a Luna book (a publishing imprint that focuses on romantic fantasy novels!) but it kind of missed the mark because it just wasn't fleshed-out enough to shine.  There were some strong elements to it, but they weren't really tied together and kind of fell apart when Moon moved from one to another.  Unfortunately for me, this is a category in next year's reading challenge for the Unapologetic Romance Readers, too, so maybe I'll pick up another of her books if they fit and see if they're any more polished.

2 stars out of 5.

Punk 57 - Penelope Douglas

Punk 57 was the April read for the Unapologetic Romance Readers on Goodreads, and while I finished it a bit ago, I just got around to writing the review today!

This is, I think, supposed to be some sort of young-adult erotica, which was kind of, uhm, strange to read.  The story follows Misha and Ryen, who became pen pals through school when they were in fifth grade and kept it up.  In their senior year, they meet at a party, but only Misha realizes it.  Then, following a family tragedy, he vanishes from their correspondence...and turns up at Ryen's school months later, for reasons that are actually unrelated to Ryen.  But in the course of being there, he discovers that Ryen isn't who he thought she was.  He thoughts she was some quiet nerd, but really she's a popular cheerleader who's going to prom with one of the most popular guys in school.  And so he decides to punish her for not living up to his fantasies and proceeds to bully her mercilessly.  Though Ryen isn't completely innocent and bullies other people, too.  But for some reason, she doesn't find Misha's bullying to be terrible, which bullying is.  She finds it hot.  But she still doesn't like him, until she suddenly loves him, and the two spend half the book hate-fucking.  Which is not not not healthy.

But there's the thing: Penelope Douglas is a good writer.  The underlying premise here is an extremely abusive relationship (until, again, it isn't, the odds of which are nil) but Douglas manages to weave her writing in such a way that it merely seems contentious, and the quiet periods come across as downright sweet.  I had to keep checking myself here, reminding myself that, as cute as snuggling was and as hot as the kissing at the car wash was, this was not a healthy relationship.  It was founded entirely on lies, both the in-person one and, to a large degree, the one in correspondence--which both characters held up as being some paragon of truth and realness.  The very fact that they hated each other and were still having sex is not healthy; it links sex in the mind to negative feelings rather than positive ones, completely undermining the point.  And their sexual relationship was very porn-y from the very beginning.  Ryen, for example, has had sex once before she meets Misha, a few years before...and yet as soon as they get together she dives straight into some stuff that I think many grown women would shy away from.  I mean...ouch.  And yet, again, Douglas' writing has it seeming like this is all cool and normal and healthy...which, it might be--girl has a right to pick her sex acts, after all--except it's again mixed with all the hate and bullying and awfulness.  It kind of feels like Douglas wrote this when everyone was YOLO-crazy and using it as an excuse to do things and pressure each other into doing things that they normally wouldn't.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book.  Like I said, the writing was good, and I like the basic premise of the pen pals meeting in person, and the bringing down of the high school bad guy.  But.  There's just such a toxicity underlying the whole story here that it kind of left me feeling slimy all over.  It portrays an abusive relationship as normal and healthy and happily ever after, and that is definitely not cool.  So, in good faith, I don't think I can really give this more than...

2 stars out of 5, and I'm a little uneasy about even that given the setup here.