Duck! by Kim Dare

         I always saw this book in a bunch of the Goodreads lists that I go through and I was always wary of it because of the exclamation point in the name. And looking back I think that is the silliest reason ever not to read a book. But I finally did read it, and man, I wish that I had read it sooner! it was amazing and this is a book that I definitely want to read again.

         A modern day M/M, BDSM retelling of The Ugly Ducking Fairy Tale using avian shifters.

         Raised among humans, Ori Jones only discovered he was an avian shifter six months ago. Unable to complete a full shift until he reaches his avian maturity, he still can’t be sure of his exact species.

         But with species comes rank, and rank is everything to the avians. When a partial shift allows the elders to announce that they believe Ori to be a rather ugly little duckling, he drops straight to the bottom rung of their hierarchy.

         Life isn’t easy for Ori until he comes to the attention of a high ranking hawk shifter. Then the only question is, is Ori really a duck—and what will his new master think when the truth eventually comes out?

Click to view on Amazon: Duck!

         I was surprised at how good this book was. Lately I think the BDSM thing has been over played, maybe it is because of the craze of 50 Shades of Grey, but sometimes it just gets a bit crazy. But that being said this book was great!! Maybe it is because I tend to be a very timid person that I loved Ori so much. I just thought he was very endearing, I do wish that he had a bit more of a personality outside of worshiping his "master", but Ori was very sweet so I guess that made up for it.

         I liked Ryland, and I really liked how he thought that Ori deserved respect no matter what. I also thought he was a really caring Dom, I feel like there are a lot of books out there where the Dom is less than nice to the sub, but in this one I could see the love between the two of them.

Spoilers ahead! Read the book then come back!

         Of course we knew from the start the Ori would end up being a Swan, something that confused me though was the fact that the hierarchy between the birds was based on who was the strongest, who was the most predatory, but swans are not like that at all and yet they are at the top of the chain. Also, Swans in real life are kind of mean so I was a bit confused as to why they would be so nice in this book. I am not complaining about that, I liked how gentle Ori was, I just thought it was a bit confusing.

         One of my favorite parts of the story was when Ori fell while cleaning the cabinet in the dining room, and was really hurt. Ryland came home and lost it, and that was the first time we had an inkling that Ori was more to him than a sexual partner. And I liked the punishment that Ryland gave to him, because I feel like in most BDSM books the sub would have been physically punished, which usually turns into pleasure, but Ori was punished psychologically and he got no pleasure out of it and I think it was such an appropriate punishment because Ryland was so scared.

         I was so pissed though at how Ryland behaved after he found out what Ori was. I felt it was a little out of character because he had been so supportive and accepting of everything that Ori was, so it didn't make sense to me that he would all of a sudden switch directions and abandon him. I understand that he thought that everything he was doing was for the best because a swan was above him in rank so there was no way Ori could be his sub, but man it made me mad. Especially when it was obvious that Ori was really suffering while he was away from Ryland. I just thought that was a dumb thing for Ryland to do.

         This was my first time reading a book written by Kim Dare, and I really really loved it. I love her writing style and I love how she puts the characters into the roles that they are suppossed to say. Something I realy love is how natural she make submission seem. In a lot of books I have read the subs alwaysstruggle to submit and have to be convinced that that is what they want, but what I have read in this book and other books by Kim Dare she just has the characters fall into it in such an easy natural way, and it really is exciting to read, because then we get to see more of the actualy interactions between and Dom and a sub instead of that weird inbetween period where the sub doesnt want to give in.

I really liked this book and it made me go back and read more of her books! I give it a 5 out of 5 stars :)