ROMANCE IN THE AIR By Jean Roberta
PARADOX: Fly
with a Dragon by Rosemary Laurey, and Heart of a Raven by
J.C. Wilder
(LTD Books 200,
Oakville, Ontario, Canada, 2002.
ISBN:1-55316-581-0
Would you climb onto a dragon's back and let him fly away
with you to his home in the mountains? Would you trust a mysterious
feudal lord if he rescued you from your drunken oaf of a father?
Join the brave young heroines of these two erotic fantasies,
and decide whether you envy their plights. Or whether you
would prefer the privileges, responsibilities and secrets
of a man who is born to rule a tribe or a village in a medieval
world.
In FLY WITH A DRAGON, the maiden Myfanwy has been tied to
a tree as a human sacrifice for Arragh, the local dragon.
Much to her relief, he has no intention of devouring her.
As a magical creature (and Welsh national symbol), he is capable
of shapeshifting; he reveals himself to be a man in all the
best ways. He has been looking for a bride, not a meal, and
he is charmed by Myfanwy's courage and beauty.The dragons
in this novella, like other supernatural beings in fantasy
fiction by women, have been vilified by narrow-minded humans
who try to destroy what they do not understand and cannot
control. Myfanwy (and the reader) is impressed by the pleasures
and luxuries of dragon culture, which contrast with the physical
discomfort and Christian prudery in which the human girl has
been raised. Her new lord and master realizes that she needs
to be enlightened as well as brought to ecstasy for the first
time. Myfanwy realizes that her fate could have been much
worse.
The bride is prepared for her wedding by female dragons who
feel honored to do it. Although readers looking for lesbian
scenes will be disappointed, the extended description of the
bathing and grooming of the heroine by her female attendants
in both novellas is quite a tease.
The rivalry between women in male-dominated, heterosexual
cultures is shown to be softened by sisterly affection and
sensual curiosity.
In HEART OF A RAVEN, young Dani is kept chained and filthy
by her brutish father until she is won in a game of chance
by the local Overseer, master of all he surveys and no friend
of Travellers, the tribe of outsiders into which Dani was
born. His terse, muscular presence makes her heart beat faster,
but his motives remain unclear to Dani and to the reader even
after she has been installed in his castle and pampered beyond
her wildest dreams. Does he want her as a slave or as a protÈgÈe?
The raven-claw birthmark on Dani's back reveals that she is
meant to play an important role in the life of Lord Haaken.
He is shocked to discover, however, that even the most mutually-satisfying
wedding night cannot release him from a hereditary curse,
just as it cannot release Dani from her desire for freedom
and respect. To reach fulfillment, both the hero and heroine
must prove themselves in various ways as they learn that sexual
compatibility is not enough in itself. (It makes for a hot
read, though.)
Both novellas seem like variations of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST,
but their plots include just enough surprises to keep the
reader's interest. The sex scenes are detailed but faithful
to the flavor of stories set in Days of Yore. The Grimm brothers
and Hans Christian Anderson might have written like this if
they had lived in an era with more liberal literary standards.
The pairing of a dominant older man with a spunky wench in
each story marks this book as erotic fiction for modern Masters
and especially for the women who love them. Power, chivalry,
patience, tenderness and steadfast love have always been hard
enough to find in one package. Women who dream of princes
who embody all these qualities need encouragement. These fantasies
offer hope that a girl can find everything she seeks.
These stories are like Goldilocks' idea of the perfect bed:
neither too hard nor too soft, too complex nor too simple.
The authors of this volume intend it to be the first of a
yearly series which will fill a particular niche somewhere
between sword-and-sorcery and porn. Having started with an
"air" theme, they will go on to explore other elements;
the next volume will be on "water." Stay tuned for
the adventures of selkies, mermaids, or other ancient creatures
that lurk in the deeps.
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