Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Review- Miyuki: The Silence of the Deep Snow by Carla Croft



Miyuki: The Silence of Deep Snow

By Carla Croft

March 16, 2013

Erotica/ f-f-f/ Bisexual/ Contemporary/ Interracial/BDSM/D/s

111 pgs

From the renowned author, Carla Croft, comes Miyuki: The Silence of Deep Snow. Ms Croft has been described by one well known erotic author as her favourite find of 2012.This, her first novella, charts her discovery of the relationship between Miyuki (a beautiful half-Japanese girl) and her Mistress. Described as a stunning story full of dark angst, mystery and suggestive erotica, the story is sure to delight readers of Romance and Erotica. The story contains adult themes including explicit sex, lesbian relationships, bondage and S&M. Graphic Content

It’s been a while since I ventured into erotica territory and I had a craving for it after reading many fairly non erotic romance books. I found out about this book from a link on Twitter and it looked interesting. I like finding books with Japanese characters in it and the reviews gave me an indication that maybe it’s a good book.

Cara (Carla) is a lawyer by day and a sort of sex writer/collector of sex stories by night. She’s living an average life: married, working, but her passion of sorts is collecting those  stories. In her everyday dealings with many people she has met Miyuki, a biracial Japanese girl who has been living in England for a few years. Miyuki is an enigma and mystery to Cara and capturing Cara’s imagination, has become fodder for her sexual fantasies.

(By the way, the character’s name in the story is the same as the author’s, which I don’t know how to take really. Also, the author’s bio is the same as the lead character’s in this story. Is this autobiographical? Not sure.)

One evening to Cara’s delight, they meet up at Miyuki’s request. Miyuki offers Cara a proposition that shocks and freaks her out on one level, but also excites her on another, and Cara decides to go along with it.

The rest of the night is all about Pretty (Miyuki’s sub name) and Pretty’s mistress Dominica, a much older woman, introducing Cara to the delights and specifics of the sexual world of Doms and Subs.

I found the author’s voice and way of writing to be rather exquisite and it appealed greatly to my sense of aesthetics. I would call this more highbrow erotica since the focus seemed to be less on the actual sex acts and more on the senses and strict rituals involved. Also, she got the essence of Japanese aesthetics down as well, meaning way of expression and thinking. (Not the part that the author included in which Miyuki has trouble saying certain letters in English words.)

The author really gets into the nitty-gritty of what’s going on in Cara’s head, what she’s experiencing, and to some degree Miyuki and Dominica's as well. Through Cara’s thoughts, emotions, impressions, and astute observations about how Miyuki and Dominica interact, we get to see her process as she goes from being someone with only superficial knowledge of and having a somewhat negative view of the D/s world, to someone who comes to “get it.”

For the most part, this book is provocative and sexually intense. The characters, how the sex is written- fairly hot-- and style of writing as it starts and ends is engrossing. However, it wasn’t a perfect story.

I was all into these three women, how they are engaging with each other on a visceral level and then bam, there’s this whole section in between in which Dominica starts explaining what the D/s relationship is all about to Cara. It got way too cerebral for me, taking me out of the story altogether and my mind started wandering into chores I needed to do, what was on TV, etc. Since the writing does get into lofty philosophical territory at times outside of that, I was afraid it might not get back on track. Others might like a tutorial on D/s lifestyle, but for me, it detracted from the fantastic energy and chemistry of the beginning of the book.

I get that Cara is there partly from the standpoint of a writer who likes to do “research” on sex as it were and didn’t know much about the D/s relationship, so I can see the injected commentary from the character’s standpoint. However, her main reason to go there, at a baser, more instinctual level, was due to her deep attraction to Miyuki and desire to be with her. Even so, I wanted to see how it turned out and did keep going. The end does make up for it and carries on with the same intensity as the beginning had, but with an interesting and unexpected twist.

As far as the actual D/s/ BDSM part of the story goes, I felt it’s rather mild compared to others I’ve read. This would be a really good story for anyone wanting to step into reading the genre for the first time without being overwhelmed with aspects that that can put off those not into or accustomed to reading it.

Overall, with the story getting back on track at the end, I’d give this recommend if you’re looking for a light D/s f/f erotica story.

Heat Level: 4-5- graphic sex, although not as much as I would expect in erotica. Light BDSM, D/s, f/f/f.

Grade: Liked it

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