Status Updates From In the Care of Magic

DNF’ing at 27% for now.

I like the writing style and the characters, but for right now it’s just not hitting the right notes. I think I’ll come back to this in the fall and try it again!

What was the need of what amounts to a fleshlight, if she's gonna feel everything as if it was her body? To make sex between MCs feel even more detached than it already felt? Because it only served to confuse me since the author decided to stop saying it was the toy and started saying it was her xe was doing all of those things to, only to go back to say it was the toy all the time.

So, SHE's the one who has to appear the ropes? What magic does xe have? The only thing xe has mentioned is changing xyr body to accommodate her preferences, but that's it. Shouldn't a sex demon have some sex-enhancing magic? Xe doesn't even know about sex toys!

We're told that, somehow, she's essentially a nymphomaniac, yet he makes her come once or twice and she's ready to sleep? where's that hyper-active sex-drive? She's oh, so starved for touch, but she tires of it way too soon, it seems. It just doesn't add up.

Gosh, all this exposition makes the sex feel so detached and clinical... Not to mention that so far this has been 20% dialogue, and at least 50% of that dialogue has been exposition, and another 20% talk about gender and pronouns.

OMG! She just realized, after being up-close and personal with xe, AFTER realizing xe was naked, that xe has a dick. How exactly did she know xe was naked, if she didn't look there, huh? How oblivious is she? Or how self-absorbed?

Now that I think about it, I have no idea if this takes place in a fantasy world or in the real world but with an invented town. Nothing is described, i only know her cabin is so far from civilization that nobody has found it in years (how many, I don't know), that the town/village (it changes) is comprised solely of two-story houses, and that's all. Nothing about clothes, tech, lifestyle, materials, not even colors.

It feels woke and preachy. And it bothers me that main characters are not described, only vaguely. An can you tell me how, if she was looking at this person, she didn't realize xe (to use the pronouns from the book) was naked? like, how? She freaking saw this person standing in front of her, had time for a conversation about gender and pronouns, and somehow didn't realize xe was naked? Ugh.

Hey, author? You can’t just (rightly) put so much focus on consent in your erotic novella and then have one partner ignore the other saying not to rip her dress off because she likes the dress. Consent - and, y’know, basic respect - is not just about sex acts!!