I'm always on the lookout for books that expand my reading horizons. So while an erotic BDSM lesbian menage romance is not my normal type of book, the cover of Double Six was pretty and featured a woman of color, and the story sounded interesting, and I decided to request it from NetGalley. The publisher was kind enough to share a copy with me, and it even met some reading prompts for my 2020 reading challenges. Score!
And then I started reading, and I was so disappointed. I hadn't realized from the description that this was book 5 in a series, so I had to do a little catching up to understand what was going on. I eventually understood enough to follow the story, but it wasn't thanks to the awkward writing. From what I can gather, Elaine is part of a very rich found family/ BDSM house? I'm very confused by all this, but it didn't play into the story too much. Except that a lot of time was wasted talking about the horses that the house owned, which Elaine loved, and which had nothing to do with the plot otherwise. Also, there were submissives to do all the work around the enormous property. And money for travelling whenever/ wherever the characters wanted seemed to be no problem, as was money for hiring mercenaries and fixers to protect characters from violence apparently related to drama that occurred in previous books. But for all the talk about how the house existed to serve clients, which is why they wanted to hire Petra, there was never any mention of that actually happening. Elaine was too busy having angst to do the work that they supposedly did. So how they maintained that wealth remained unclear.
There was just so much telling instead of showing. So. much. awkward. exposition. in. Elaine's. head. Not only did we have to listen to her think everything through (especially so much emotional angst. so much. over and over and over), but she did so in bizarrely short, staccato phrasing. For example, "Can I do it? Will my pride get in the way? What will Petra do? What does she want? Besides a dead woman. Shouldn't speak ill of the dead." etc etc etc. Maybe this is how some of us think. But it is torturous to read, and since 95% of the story was the angsty romance, with Elaine back and forth in her own head, we got to hear that awful inner narrative. A lot.
There were also strange inconsistencies throughout the story. At first I was sure Robin was described as blonde. But then about halfway through the story, Elaine mentioned Robin's dark hair. so I assumed I had misread, and just adjusted my mental image accordingly. THEN, right before the end of the book, another character describes Robin as highly desirable because she's blonde. WHICH IS IT? Then there's the sex scene where one minute Elaine is performing oral sex on Robin, yet somehow managed to "bury her head in the curve of Robin's neck" at the same time. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but that doesn't seem physically possible.
This applies to character development as well. I was VERY confused by the roles that these characters had among themselves. It seemed like the characters just did what the story demanded, whether or not it was consistent with what we'd been told about them thus far. Being angry at each other was apparently code for sexual tension, for example. (It wasn't sexy. at least not for me. just angry and mean.) Also, the romance is among 3 women, 2 fierce dommes and a submissive, and it was very confusing to me how two women who both said very firmly that they weren't switches ended up with one of them routinely submitting. It almost felt like a violation of consent, forcing someone to submit against spoken wishes. The submissive could be pretty bossy/ insistent too. It was all just so confusing. This story badly needs an editor.
Also, just be aware. This book is about 95% angsty romance, with some off-handed mentions of outside menace that I assumed were about as relevant as all the time spent talking about horses. And then, about 95% through the book, the story suddenly morphs into romantic suspense/ action, with Elaine killing people with her bare hands (in disturbing detail). After all that time being repetitive sex and romantic will they/ won't, it suddenly became a different book for about $% of the book, before subsiding into the ending. It was a surprising shift in tone, and one I feel like readers should know to expect.
What was good about Double Six? Well, the sex scenes, aside from the interminable minutes inside Elaine's head, were smoking hot, and frankly were also pretty creative. I had not read about that use of clothes pins before, for instance. And also, I'll give the author credit for including some diversity. Every significant character is female, and all seem to be LGBTQ. Petra is a beautiful Vietnamese domme. Early in the book it's mentioned that she's looking for a house where she'll be accepted as a person, not just an exotic caricature or Asian stereotype. Later in the book, an African American character very pointedly tells Elaine "You know I'm not your magical negro, right?" and I cheered a little. I appreciate the author including these moments of diversity as more than just tokens. It wasn't enough to save the book, but it was still noteworthy.
So, bottom line, I did not enjoy Double Six at all. I found the writing bad enough to be distracting, and had to read the book in tiny snippets, before I'd get frustrated or annoyed again. I only finished it because it was an advanced readers copy and because it fulfilled reading challenges for me (This book was MOST DEFINITELY the binary opposite of an Amish romance I read earlier in the year, for example.). I won't be picking up anything else by this author, and am a bit nervous to read the other two advanced copies granted to me by this publisher. If you want to expand your reading horizons, or fancy books like this, save yourself some disappointment and go find a different f/f/f BDSM erotic romance instead.
Thank you to #NetGalley and NineStar Press for letting me read this advanced copy of #DoubleSix. I'm sorry I can't give it a better review. This is my honest opinion.