To read this book objectively you must accept that there is a legitimate place for this level of eroticism in genre fiction, and I have to admit that while intellectually I absolutely am open to a wide spectrum of behavior, I still found myself thinking "ick" more than a few times.

But the real test is whether all the encounters have adequate emotional motivation. And the answer is a cautious yes. I paid close attention to the way Devlin revealed backstory and external conflict and so forth and I must say she passed the test for drawing connections between all that and sexual need. (There did come a point however when I found myself thinking hmmmm....so the answer to all that strife and pain is....to become the middle of a man sandwich? - and I had to put the book down.)

Devlin's writing is very competent, her characters are interesting and mostly sympathetic, and her fictional world is interesting and, to me, not over the top, which I think is way too easy to do in this sort of book.