Review: Rich Pickings

Rich Pickings by Ashe Barker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



 

Summer thought she left Dan behind and when they are reunited through a mutual friend's wedding, the fireworks are explosive. Summer is still confused about her interest in BDSM. Dan is still a pushy dominant.

While this story's grammar, plot development and world building are fine, it's the character building which let me down. This is specific to the way the characters relate to each other. In addition, the way BDSM is portrayed in this one rubs me the wrong way. There is no one true way for BDSM. Still, in this story, it's not the BDSM I prefer, and if the dominants in here come across as jerks, it's because they are.

Dan is not smooth and suave. He's a domineering asshole who doesn't care about limits and comes up with trivial excuses to "punish" Summer. It's not even Dan and Summer's icky relationship that bothers me. It's Summer's best friend Freya's situation. From an outsider's perspective who does have experience in the BDSM lifestyle, Freya's relationship comes across as abusive. The issues which arise based on Freya's personal life are blown way out of proportion. Perhaps it's the clunky manner in which it is written, with contrived conflicts that bothers me more than the poor portrayal of the BDSM lifestyle.

First of all, who cares how much money Freya owns? Second, even after years of being together, couples still learn new things about each other. In this story, it appears the male dominants must know every little detail about their women and they must control every aspect of their life. Any decisions made outside of the male dominant's control is a cause for potential break up. This immature attitude and lack of trust is aggravating. These males come across as insecure domineering asshats keeping their women down. This is what made the book less than appealing compared to the previous one.

While the story moved in ups and downs, the characters were all less engaging in this one. With their constant drama and misunderstandings, this book read more like a young adult angst ridden story. Since this kind of story does not appeal to me, my enjoyment is rather low. At the end of the story, I'm not rooting for any of the characters except for Freya to escape and find some real friends and a better dominant.

This book is for those who enjoy the new adult genre and want a bit of fanciful kink.



View all my reviews