A Realistic Introduction To Age Play
Being Their Baby is a breath of fresh air. Unlike many age-play and harem romance novels, the protagonist is not all-accepting and enthusiastic, so there are real relationship conflicts to entertain the reader. There are also, perhaps surprisingly, two well-constructed romance relationship arcs, so this is Romantica rather than mere erotica.
However, because this is an erotic novel that covers all the aspects of age play—not just wearing a school uniform and calling the others Mommy and Daddy—sensitive readers should avoid this book. It requires a reader with an especially open mind.
The Opening
The opening is fantastic. The very first paragraph both establishes Sophie as a sympathetic character and introduces conflict.
The Characters
Sophie is a perfect protagonist. She is always proactive about improving her situation, though she usually comes up with terrible ideas about how to do so. She also has enough baggage and backstory tragedy to make Ebeneezer Scrooge wince. But what I really liked about her was her resistance to change, to assistance, and to doing what the other characters wanted her to do.
Elizabeth is great. She’s a dominant who occasionally gets dominated. She is also likable because of the way she cares for Sophie and attempts to help her out. Because their initial talk in the novel is nothing to do with relationships and touches on important themes, this erotic romance manages to pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test.
Josh and Charlie are also fantastic characters. I love the fact that all the older characters have deep backgrounds with fully developed careers, back history, and individual interests that make them into three-dimensional characters.
The Plot
The main conflict revolves around the fact that Sophie has suffered a terrible childhood and now feels unable to accept that anyone can love her. What I liked about how this was handled was that Sophie, unlike other “littles”, does not immediately accept the lifestyle they offer. Instead, she digs her heels in despite the fact that she’s only making things worse for herself.
The twin relationship arcs in this are well developed, and I loved the direction this novel was taking toward the end. However, I felt that the ending was far too abrupt.
I would have liked to have seen a slower ending that demonstrated more fully both Sophie’s acceptance of the lifestyle and her maturing relationship with the other characters. To me, the story seemed to fast-forward from her first “bad baby weekend” to the resolution of her relationship arc in the following chapter. I would also have loved to see an epilogue to show more clearly what happened in these character’s future.
The Setting
The setting of this novel was excellent. I always understood where we were and could easily picture the scenes. There is also a lot of sensory information that helps to ground the reader, such as the texture, smell, and taste of the food Sophie eats.
The introduction to the fetish lifestyle of age play is described well and covered in more depth than I’ve seen in other age play novels, such as Jade West’s Call Me Daddy. The lifestyle is also better integrated into the plot and relevant to resolving the conflicts in this novel.
The Prose
Generally, the prose is very clear. I loved that the multiple viewpoint characters each had their own voice so we really got into the character’s heads. The story is well shown.
One small thing I didn’t like was that Sophie alternates between thinking Elizabeth and Liz from their very first interaction. Since Sophie holds Elizabeth in such high regard, I think it would have worked better if Elizabeth had remained just Elizabeth in Sophie’s viewpoint thoughts.
My Opinion
Overall, I thought this was a fabulous story of love overcoming the damage caused by long-term neglect and bad parenting. However, I was a little disappointed by the ending, so I’m going to give it 9 out of 10. On Amazon and Goodreads, I’ll award 5 out of 5.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.