Willing Victim by Cara McKenna - A Review(-ish)

I picked up this book at the encouragement of both Jane Litte of Dear Author, who read and reviewed it in September, and Elyssa Papa, who is becoming my go to recommender-girl. I got a new Kindle for Christmas and this was the first book I downloaded.

The premise of the book is this: Laurel is a waitress at a Boston tourist trap. She quit her engineering job after the death of her mother, and is very much feeling dead inside, as if nothing challenges her, or moves her, or really motivates her. One day, while reading in a park, she witnesses a young couple arguing. The guy in the argument begins to get physical with the woman, and Laurel is just getting ready to dial for the police. Suddenly, a big, brawny guy dressed in construction worker clothing intervenes and breaks up the altercation. Laurel's interest is immediately sparked by the guy, and she asks if she can buy him lunch. He is initially wary and declines, but after some persistence, she manages to get him to agree. His name is Michael Flynn, and he's blue collar in every way. Laurel is interested in his brusque, caustic seeming manner, and would like to see him again. After much cajoling, she gets him to invite her to a bar where he'll be later that week. She goes to the bar, and uses his name, and is let into the basement of the bar where a Fight Club sort of sub-bar seems to exist. Flynn is a fighter there. Laurel meets a woman named Pam who seems to be with Michael, and Laurel immediately apologizes realizing that she's poaching on Pam's man. Pam sets the record straight saying that she and Flynn are just scratching a particular itch that they have. You see, Pam and Flynn engage in what I would characterize as very rough sex. Rape fantasies. Laurel is immediately intrigued and says yes when Pam invites her to come and watch her and Flynn have sex that night. so that she can get a feel for whether it's something Laurel might be interested in. Laurel watches and strikes an agreement with Flynn to have her own "session" with him.

What ensues is Laurel indulging a variety of rape fantasies with Flynn.

I read this book because it is almost antithetical to me. I don't understand the need for pain during sex, and I have a hard time identifying with those who might like to be overwhelmed by their partners to the level of a rape fantasy. So the book was definitely outside of my comfort zone.

That being said, I thought that Ms. McKenna did a fantastic job with the book. The story is told almost exclusively from Laurel's viewpoint, although Flynn loosens up during the book enough that we get plenty of insight into him as well. The reader understands from the beginning that Laurel is really calling the shots. She and Flynn have a very frank conversation before they begin to lay out all of the ground rules. And Flynn sticks to them strictly. But the sex scenes are graphic, and filled with aggressive sex. This is not a book that I would ever recommend for readers who are sensitive at all about rape.

Laurel and Flynn do get to know each other very well and in the end, we're left with a definite HFN ending, which satisfied me as a reader. I have mixed feelings about how to grade this book. Ms. McKenna is a gifted author and wrote a compelling couple and certainly the characters evolved as the story went on. But the storyline itself is one that made me pretty uncomfortable and is certainly not a storyline I think that I would ever want to read again. Also because I know a couple of rape survivors quite well, I couldn't help but project what I know about those women into the story, which probably made it even more uncomfortable reading that usual for me.

I'm not sure I would list this book among my recommended reads, but I'm glad I read it. Overall, Willing Victim is a well done erotic story that combines excellent character development and strongly sexual situations, albeit utilizing the rape fantasy to accomplish those goals. If you're looking for something outside the norm of what one finds in erotica, this may be the book for you. For me? I don't believe I'll ever read it again, but as I said, I'm glad I tried it.

Final grade: B-