Blood Red (Cordelia Kingsbridge)
Warning: non-con, sex galore, violence, knotting, and reference to mpreg (which made my eyes twitched)
But I enjoyed it nonetheless -- hey, some of those non-con scenes were hot...
Personally, Blood Red will not be a story that I read by my own curiosity. I have this weird brain that separates romance and porn -- and most of the free online stories I read would be, well, porn *cough*. I also have a stance of not reading WIPs -- which most of online stories started as. What I'm trying to say is because this is an online free story that started as WIPs, and it is swarmed with non-con sex, it will not fall into my radar. The reason that I read it is because the book is one of this month's challenge books at Indonesian M/M Reader Group.
First of all, the writing was VERY accessible for me -- please note, that I'm not a fan of straight-up/pure fantasy, I prefer urban setting. From the beginning, I was immediately drawn to the world of gladiators, Beastman, and slavery. The arena setting was full of violent (in between the sex galore considering that Aedan is a sex-slave) but it provides quick read because it is full of action.
The story dragged in the middle, after Aedan and Demetrios left the Arena and returned to the Beastmen village. . This phase was an important time for Aedan to learn about himself, his sorcery power, and to get a sense of the beastmen community. This phase was probably the one where I thought the sex could be trimmed in order to make progress for the relationship. Although the Lunacy chapter totally made me wet my panties.
Aedan was quite appealing as a character. I liked the character insight that Kingsbridge gave for him. Aedan only knows the way of slave. He never experience being a free man. He learns not to say no. So he thinks he needs Demetrios to be his master because that's how Aedan feels safe. But Demetrios will not look at it that way; that is not how sorcerers, humans, and beastman live. It was a dynamic dilemma, if I could say so myself.
So bottom line, it is a great built-up towards the climax and it ends in a satisfactory manner.
Indonesian M/M Readers' Monthly Challenge -- May
But I enjoyed it nonetheless -- hey, some of those non-con scenes were hot...
Personally, Blood Red will not be a story that I read by my own curiosity. I have this weird brain that separates romance and porn -- and most of the free online stories I read would be, well, porn *cough*. I also have a stance of not reading WIPs -- which most of online stories started as. What I'm trying to say is because this is an online free story that started as WIPs, and it is swarmed with non-con sex, it will not fall into my radar. The reason that I read it is because the book is one of this month's challenge books at Indonesian M/M Reader Group.
First of all, the writing was VERY accessible for me -- please note, that I'm not a fan of straight-up/pure fantasy, I prefer urban setting. From the beginning, I was immediately drawn to the world of gladiators, Beastman, and slavery. The arena setting was full of violent (in between the sex galore considering that Aedan is a sex-slave) but it provides quick read because it is full of action.
The story dragged in the middle, after Aedan and Demetrios left the Arena and returned to the Beastmen village. . This phase was an important time for Aedan to learn about himself, his sorcery power, and to get a sense of the beastmen community. This phase was probably the one where I thought the sex could be trimmed in order to make progress for the relationship. Although the Lunacy chapter totally made me wet my panties.
Aedan was quite appealing as a character. I liked the character insight that Kingsbridge gave for him. Aedan only knows the way of slave. He never experience being a free man. He learns not to say no. So he thinks he needs Demetrios to be his master because that's how Aedan feels safe. But Demetrios will not look at it that way; that is not how sorcerers, humans, and beastman live. It was a dynamic dilemma, if I could say so myself.
So bottom line, it is a great built-up towards the climax and it ends in a satisfactory manner.
Indonesian M/M Readers' Monthly Challenge -- May
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