Let's be clear about one thing: swans are bad ass mother fuckers.

No really. Google swan vs dog and notice that in every case the swan WINS. Three dogs, one swan? NO FUCKING CONTEST. Swans -vs- pitbulls? DONE. Swans are so bad ass they will come to your house and try to beat up your cats. The honey badger takes one look at the swan and says "Fuck, no way. I am out of here."



So I had some trouble with the idea that a swan's nature is good and pure and loving to all creatures, a concept fundamental to this story.

Duck! is The Ugly Ducking Fairytale with an D/S twist. And as much as I love a good D/S fantasy, I find it very hard to read in the romance genre. Maybe my tastes are a bit too specific? I'm not sure... There are two kinds of D/S storylines that get me going:

- True to life D/S where the submissive seeks out the relationship as an escape from the stresses of normal life. A way to unwind and let a partner they trust and respect take full control. (HOT)

- "Fantasy" D/S where the submissive is unwilling, otherwise capable of being dominant, fights back but is just overwhelmed by pleasure he can't help but give in. (SUPER HOT)

More often than not, what I come across is what I like to call "wet noodle D/S" where the submissive is only submissive because he is completely powerless and unable to be anything else, unwilling to *try* to be anything else. Typically this is accompanied by years of abuse at the hands of evil villains (or occasionally evil society). The dominant comes in as a master among rival masters, whose affections are appreciated because he is somehow a better, more righteous man than all the other abusers. D/S relationship is more a sex-for-protection exchange. Please the master or else he will send you back to those horrible people. Eventually the dominant and submissive fall in love, retroactively making everything the dom might have done up to that point okay.

I HATE THESE STORIES

But oddly, I did not hate this story ... even though this is essentially what Duck! is. Right down to the collar and the "Yes, Sir".

No, I didn't care for the characters. Raynard was all right: patient, respectful of his partner, ever mindful of Ori's past abuse, more than capable of affection. At the same time he spends most of the book telling Ori that being submissive is not about humiliation or dominance, that it's not about certain species of bird-shifter being better, but embracing your true nature-- only once its revealed that Ori is not a lowly duck-shifter after all but an exalted swan-shifted he's suddenly is all like "OMG I HAVE DEFILED YOUR BODY" which only makes him seem completely hypocritical and sleazy.

Ori isn't much better. Psychologically healthy people are multi-faceted. They might want to be submissive. They might even want to be whipped. I can easily accept those things, but I cannot accept the idea that a person can be fully 100% submissive ALL THE TIME and want nothing else, ever. It's neither healthy nor believable. The fact that Ori has spent years being physically and sexually abused just makes it more disturbing really.

I don't find this set up sexy. As such I didn't find the many many many sex scenes in this book sexy. But here's what I did like: Dare has created a rich and interesting world. Other than a little melodramatic lagging towards the end, Duck! is well written and moves at a nice pace. You can glide through the prose.

And even though I never found them sexy, I did find Ori and Raynard cute at times. I'm not sure I ever got over the creepies long enough to root for their love story, but-- you know-- from the outset Raynard did everything the right way. So even though I think their relationship is still crazy fucked up, I didn't completely object to it either.

Obviously people who are not me like these kind of stories. Because they keep getting written and people keep buying them (and then lending them to me so that I can read them for Bingo *lol*), so if you like D/S stories where the sub is completely emasculated you will definitely love this book. It's very well done, I just object to the story's perspective on D/S really.

Oh... and can I just throw out one other little pet peeve? Erection =/= Desire. I'm really sick of reading stories where a character's hardon is used as proof that sexual advances are not unwanted. That's the way rapists think. Can we please stop?