Review: Story of L
Story of L by Debra HydeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Promoted as a lesbian story version of Story of O, I believe I may have had the wrong expectations coming into this story. When I was in my late teens, I read the Story of O and thought, wow, this is really hawt sex. In my later years, I realized, it was a kind of BDSM erotica that no longer appealed to me, except as spank bank porn.
To say that this story pays homage to the Story of O is probably true. That is about as close as it gets. This erotic tale started out rough for me because the writing style doesn't appeal to me. I am not quite sure what it is that bothers me about it, but it isn't what I enjoy. It lacks a certain polish or finesse that I like in my story telling. Since I tend to be picky about stories if I don't like the characters, the first 25 to 30% of the book I nearly put it down as did not finish. I am glad I stuck through because I ended up linking Cassandra quite a bit.
First off, I enjoy lesbian stories and I love femdom. It is hard to find both femdom and Ff stories. Most of the time femdom is a caricature of a dominant who is extremely selfish and cruel to their submissive. Thankfully, Cassandra is not a cruel mistress. What she is, is an old guard that is a dying breed. At first, the hurdles aka tasks Cassandra forces Liv aka L to go through bothered me. It has been brought up that if this was a male dominant doing it to a female submissive, I would find it okay. That is not the case. If this was a male dominant putting a female dominant through the same hoops, I'd be just as creeped out and thinking that something skeevy is going on.
When L and Cassandra are finally able to be together in person, and Cassandra reveals her thoughts, sorrows and fears, it becomes clear, the hurdles are a self protecting measure. Seeing it from Cassandra's point of view is sad. There comes a time when even the most notorious will be replaced by the young who no longer care and find a "dinosaur" to be irrelevant. For those who love the spotlight and being in the edgy center of attention, it is difficult to age out and end up in the sidelines.
Second, when it comes to the kink part of this story, it is pretty accurate. Lesbians tend to not take well to bisexual women. Just like submissives and dominants tend to have issues with switches. For L who is a switch and Cassandra who dabbled with men, these two strikes against them have caused conflict in their Lesbian kink community. This is pretty realistic as I have been on the receiving end of such disgust. The kinky scenes are delicious and realistic. The fisting scene is notable and there is a certain intimacy that can only be experienced, not explained when it comes to this particular act. I enjoyed reading all about it here. Ms. Hyde does a lovely job in all the erotic scenes.
This erotica novel is recommended for femdom lovers who also like Ff.
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