The Erotic Dark by Nina Lane

 

The Erotic Dark had a promising premise, but unfortunately, didn't follow through.

The writing style didn't work for me -- too much purple prose for my tastes, and a few times I couldn't focus on what was being said because of the flowery writing. I had to read a couple of the sentences a few times to get what the author was trying to say.

Some of the scenes were hot, but some of them disturbed even me, and it's kind of hard to squick me. It was the childish and taunting humiliation aspects that bothered me more than the lack of a safeword, though two scenes had me wanting to beat the crap out of the Dom bully, for taking things too far.

Here's the blurb:

SUBMISSION IS HER ONLY ESCAPE... And punishment takes many forms. Seeking escape from her criminal past, a desperate woman enslaves herself to a dark trio of men who own an antiquated Louisiana plantation. Known only as Lydia, she becomes controlled by three very different men -- malicious Preston, inflexible Kruin, and gentle Gabriel, all of whom introduce her to a world in which the lines between pleasure, pain, and shame are irrevocably blurred. 

The plantation becomes both Lydia's haven and her prison as she surrenders to the desires of her unholy trinity. Lydia's submission is fraught with tension and hunger, but what happens when the outside world enters her dark, anonymous sanctuary?

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 2 of 3. Lots of discipline, a little bondage. But the discipline in some cases was irresponsible.
• Dominance and Submission: 2 of 3.  Two of the men were Doms, one was just an ill mannered childish bully.
• Sadism and Masochism: 1 of 3. There was plenty of Sadism, too bad she didn't appear to be enough of a masochist to truly enjoy it. 
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements, the plot was a nice idea, but had some flaws in the execution.  Pacing was slow. Prose had issues, dialogue was fine. Character development was written well enough, I just didn't like most of the characters. 

• Book Rating: The Erotic Dark: 5 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 5 of 10  (the book is rough, but too much of it doesn't fit my definition of BDSM)
• Heat Level: 2 of 5

The story is basically about four criminals who hide in this luxurious plantation, so they can escape prison sentences. The men are allowed in with, presumably, friendship and money. However, when Lydia wants in, she has to agree to submit to all three men. No safeword, no way to escape what they want to do to her, available to them at all times. The story could have been a good one, but one of the men isn't a Dom, he's an immature jerk focused on making her pay for turning him down when they were teens. Now she can't turn him down, must submit to whatever he wants to do to her. He's not a Dom, he's a bully, and the things he did to her were not arousing in the least.