DARE: The sex is the story line

Most erotic stories get categorized as romance, for obvious reasons, and many erotic stories read like a romance with erotic scenes tossed in here and there to spice things up. Or the opposite, so much erotica it’s hard to find the story line, it seems everyone in the tale is having random sex for the sake of having sex, and there doesn’t seem to be much point to the tale.

Neither can be said for DARE, by James Crow. A tale where I found that the sex scenes carried the story. At times the flashbacks out weighed the present scenes and multiple sexual encounters play out for us simultaneously, but they are all relevant to the main story line. But reader beware, DARE goes beyond the erotic and into the realm of very twisted kink, and is definitely aimed at very mature audiences. To be honest, I found the subject matter a little shocking, but the matter-of-fact British tone that discusses atrocities as if they were run of the mill, everyday occurances may have something to do with the shock factor.

I’m not sure how I feel about this story, but it is an interesting approach to story telling, with a surprise twist at the end, so I give DARE four quills.

Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.