Cara McKenna
Author of Willing Victim
About the Author
Series
Works by Cara McKenna
Associated Works
How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors (2011) — Contributor — 48 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Maguire, Meg
McKenna, C.M. - Gender
- female
- Occupations
- author
- Agent
- Laura Bradford (Bradford Literary Agency)
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Pacific Northwest, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Warning: if you're not interested in an erotic romance about acting out rape fantasies, move along.
If you are, buy this book.
Ok, review done.
And that was my joke for the day, folks. Seriously, though, I loved this book. It pulls off the almost impossible feat of introducing a hero who's preferred sexual kink is acting out rape fantasies with willing partners but, outside the heat of the moment, is a genuinely nice, really likable guy. A gentleman, if it's possible to say such a thing about a show more blue-collar construction worker in Boston, a guy who chews with his mouth open and holds up traffic out of sheer orneriness.
The hero, Flynn, is a wet dream of a character. Tall, hung, an amateur heavyweight boxer who benefits from a severe gym addiction. His dialogue is pure guy-speak, plain, to the point, no frills, but I found myself hanging on his every word. He's blue-collar, yes, but he's whip-smart and happy with who he is. A really interesting character. I admit that I bought WILLING VICTIM for the dirty sex scenes but I found myself enjoying all the in-between moments as much if not more, mostly because of him.
Laurel is pretty interesting herself. Damaged and untethered to her own life, off-course, behaving unpredictably - when she asks Flynn out and then later takes up an offer to watch him have rough sex with another woman, even though she's never done anything similar before, it's believable. Laurel takes up Flynn's invitation to meet again and elements of friendship and tenderness bookend their encounters. Laurel doesn't know how to interpret this; she's pretty sure she and Flynn have an NSA arrangement based purely on scratching a kinky itch, but seeing other sides of Flynn makes her want more from him.
The sex scenes are explicit and, as others have mentioned, Flynn really does commit to his role - but the book feels very real, and McKenna respects that. There's a safe word, and before getting busy Flynn always asks Laurel what she's up for, then respects her limits. This made me like the book, and Flynn, more but it detracts from the fantasy a bit, I think. Also, personally, I could have done without the scenes where Laurel turns the tables on Flynn and takes control in bed.
I wish it had been longer, and there was room to develop the relationship further, but this is a really well-written, wonderful little book. Anyone who's interested will be glad they've found it. show less
If you are, buy this book.
Ok, review done.
And that was my joke for the day, folks. Seriously, though, I loved this book. It pulls off the almost impossible feat of introducing a hero who's preferred sexual kink is acting out rape fantasies with willing partners but, outside the heat of the moment, is a genuinely nice, really likable guy. A gentleman, if it's possible to say such a thing about a show more blue-collar construction worker in Boston, a guy who chews with his mouth open and holds up traffic out of sheer orneriness.
The hero, Flynn, is a wet dream of a character. Tall, hung, an amateur heavyweight boxer who benefits from a severe gym addiction. His dialogue is pure guy-speak, plain, to the point, no frills, but I found myself hanging on his every word. He's blue-collar, yes, but he's whip-smart and happy with who he is. A really interesting character. I admit that I bought WILLING VICTIM for the dirty sex scenes but I found myself enjoying all the in-between moments as much if not more, mostly because of him.
Laurel is pretty interesting herself. Damaged and untethered to her own life, off-course, behaving unpredictably - when she asks Flynn out and then later takes up an offer to watch him have rough sex with another woman, even though she's never done anything similar before, it's believable. Laurel takes up Flynn's invitation to meet again and elements of friendship and tenderness bookend their encounters. Laurel doesn't know how to interpret this; she's pretty sure she and Flynn have an NSA arrangement based purely on scratching a kinky itch, but seeing other sides of Flynn makes her want more from him.
The sex scenes are explicit and, as others have mentioned, Flynn really does commit to his role - but the book feels very real, and McKenna respects that. There's a safe word, and before getting busy Flynn always asks Laurel what she's up for, then respects her limits. This made me like the book, and Flynn, more but it detracts from the fantasy a bit, I think. Also, personally, I could have done without the scenes where Laurel turns the tables on Flynn and takes control in bed.
I wish it had been longer, and there was room to develop the relationship further, but this is a really well-written, wonderful little book. Anyone who's interested will be glad they've found it. show less
I bought this book for two reasons:
1. It's set in Boston and written by a local.
2. The characters act out rape fantasies.
It met my expectations completely on both accounts. Boston was a living, breathing character and the rape scenes were deliciously dark and satisfying.
Laurel White is nearly thirty but she's spinning her wheels working as a waitress at a tourist trap. She hasn't been able to make a relationship work long-term and she's stuck living with two roommates in a small apartment in show more the North End. When she sees a bruiser of a construction worker break up an escalating lovers' spat at a downtown park, she's immediately drawn to him, following after him to ask him on a date. He initially turns her down, but when she presses him, he writes an address on a napkin and hands it to her.
Laurel and Flynn then forge a "friends with benefits" sort of arrangement where she explores a hitherto unknown part of herself that is unspeakably turned on by rape fantasy.
The book is in third person, but told exclusively from the heroine's point of view. Flynn is a chatty Cathy (while somehow managing to stay the strong silent type as well, not sure how that happened) so he's made completely real to the reader despite the lack of his POV. Being in Laurel's head is integral to enjoying the unorthodox sex scenes. Watching Flynn with another woman would have been off-putting if the reader didn't know how much Laurel enjoyed the spectacle. The forceful rape scenes - complete with fighting, spitting, and name-calling - would have been disturbing without the firm assurance that Laurel felt completely safe and was completely on board.
As a result of the focused POV, the book relies strongly on dialog, and does a smashing job of it. When Laurel expresses her nervousness, Flynn calms her nerves in a way that both explains what they're doing and gives a glimpse into the kind of person Flynn is.
Where the book fell apart for me was the ending. Ms. McKenna may insist she writes erotica and not erotic romance, but whatever she intended, she's effectively written 90% of an erotic romance. Just as the characters are admitting feelings for each other, exposing vulnerabilities and showing greater insight into who they are, the book ends without much of a resolution to it. It's not completely devoid of a HFN, but to end a book 5 pages after introducing a number of new character revelations? Not nice. Sure neat and tidy is ultimately forgettable, but you can have resolution *and* leave open possibilities at the same time. I was just the teeniest bit frustrated after finishing it. show less
1. It's set in Boston and written by a local.
2. The characters act out rape fantasies.
It met my expectations completely on both accounts. Boston was a living, breathing character and the rape scenes were deliciously dark and satisfying.
Laurel White is nearly thirty but she's spinning her wheels working as a waitress at a tourist trap. She hasn't been able to make a relationship work long-term and she's stuck living with two roommates in a small apartment in show more the North End. When she sees a bruiser of a construction worker break up an escalating lovers' spat at a downtown park, she's immediately drawn to him, following after him to ask him on a date. He initially turns her down, but when she presses him, he writes an address on a napkin and hands it to her.
“Friday and Saturday nights, eight to one. Tell the guy working that Flynn invited you...If that doesn’t scare you off,” he said, “you can try askin’ me out again.”As it turns out, Flynn has invited her to one of his boxing matches - held in the basement of a South Boston dive bar - and to meet Pam, the woman he has rough sex with. Before he gets involved with her, he's letting her know just what sort of beast she's poking at. When Pam invites Laurel to watch her and Flynn "scratch each other's kinky itches," that night, Laurel agrees to go, intrigued despite herself.
Laurel and Flynn then forge a "friends with benefits" sort of arrangement where she explores a hitherto unknown part of herself that is unspeakably turned on by rape fantasy.
The book is in third person, but told exclusively from the heroine's point of view. Flynn is a chatty Cathy (while somehow managing to stay the strong silent type as well, not sure how that happened) so he's made completely real to the reader despite the lack of his POV. Being in Laurel's head is integral to enjoying the unorthodox sex scenes. Watching Flynn with another woman would have been off-putting if the reader didn't know how much Laurel enjoyed the spectacle. The forceful rape scenes - complete with fighting, spitting, and name-calling - would have been disturbing without the firm assurance that Laurel felt completely safe and was completely on board.
As a result of the focused POV, the book relies strongly on dialog, and does a smashing job of it. When Laurel expresses her nervousness, Flynn calms her nerves in a way that both explains what they're doing and gives a glimpse into the kind of person Flynn is.
“Neither of us is here to prove anything,” he said. “We’re here to have fun, and for you to maybe get your motor cranked like you never knew it could be. Or not. Who knows? My ego’s not tied up in this going a certain way. The only thing that makes me nervous is hurting you by mistake, and I trust myself enough to think that’s unlikely.”The characters are constantly communicating and nearly all of the character development comes through in their own words. Since they're basically talking it out with me, they felt especially real. Flynn was pitch-perfect working-class Boston as well. The bit where he intentionally held up another driver on Laurel's tiny North End street just to be a prick was classic. I lawled.
Where the book fell apart for me was the ending. Ms. McKenna may insist she writes erotica and not erotic romance, but whatever she intended, she's effectively written 90% of an erotic romance. Just as the characters are admitting feelings for each other, exposing vulnerabilities and showing greater insight into who they are, the book ends without much of a resolution to it. It's not completely devoid of a HFN, but to end a book 5 pages after introducing a number of new character revelations? Not nice. Sure neat and tidy is ultimately forgettable, but you can have resolution *and* leave open possibilities at the same time. I was just the teeniest bit frustrated after finishing it. show less
There are a ton of things I loved about this book. That she managed to make a 29 year old virgin heroine a grown-up member of the real world is one of them. Caroly may have had self-image issues and a fear of rejection that turned her off dating and on to patronizing a prostitute, but she had a libido and a sexuality of her own. She was the virgin, but she wasn't an ingenue. Their first encounter has Caroly asking Didier to masturbate in front of her, and her increasingly confident requests show more throughout the night showed a woman taking an active role rather than submitting passively to a seduction.
I also loved that while Didier clearly enjoyed the concept of being her first sexual partner, she was neither the first virgin who'd come to him nor was she the first woman he wanted to date since he'd become a prostitute. He'd had two relationships before that fell apart over perfectly normal issues. Avoiding the old "tortured soul healed by a pure woman's love" cliche was awesome. Didier wasn't the least bit emotionally closed off. He's just an agoraphobic lover of women.
Where the book faltered was the dialog. While I thought lots of Caroly's personality came through it the first-person narration, the dialog often felt wooden. They often spoke in paragraphs, Didier especially, and it felt scripted for the sake of the plot. show less
I also loved that while Didier clearly enjoyed the concept of being her first sexual partner, she was neither the first virgin who'd come to him nor was she the first woman he wanted to date since he'd become a prostitute. He'd had two relationships before that fell apart over perfectly normal issues. Avoiding the old "tortured soul healed by a pure woman's love" cliche was awesome. Didier wasn't the least bit emotionally closed off. He's just an agoraphobic lover of women.
Where the book faltered was the dialog. While I thought lots of Caroly's personality came through it the first-person narration, the dialog often felt wooden. They often spoke in paragraphs, Didier especially, and it felt scripted for the sake of the plot. show less
Fetish is a fairly loaded word, and it is too easy, too throw-away a word, to use for this novel, which appreciates a continuum of sexuality, with no derision.
The humanity of this novel was why it was so rewarding. Tolerance, lack of prejudice, curiosity, liberation, indulgence - so many words could describe Merry and her embrace of Rob.
Her background is a gay father, an independent mother, growing up in San Francisco - it's the good side of American culture. There's also a lot about show more wilderness, solitude, aloneness, nature - which is a nod to another good side of California.
There's a purity to the novel, and Merry's and Rob's reactions to their discovery of each other - that is other-worldly, like an Eden, thanks to the setting in the Scottish Highlands, and the lack of intrusion of the outside world. The only thing that looms menacingly is their upcoming separation and the implications for Rob's addiction.
Unbound will count as one of my most memorable and heart piercing reads of 2022 for sure.
Every now and then I read a romantic drama that doesn't rely on the cleverness and wit that characterises romantic comedies - which seem to be having a heyday and are the best of romance literature at present.
This was published in 2013, not quite 10 years ago, and according to one blogger I read, the explicitness that makes this story possible was around for about a decade before this book, which she reviews: https://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/the-vanishing-closed-door-rom...
This explicitness certainly passed me by until I took up romance literature about 2 years ago, and I'm very sorry that I didn't know it existed.
This revolution playing out in popular romance fiction is on the scale of the sexual awakening of the 60s! and I wish everyone knew about it, both men and women - so they can participate in it, passively if not actively - but hopefully, act it out in their day to day lives!
Nov 2023: Looking back on my reading I saw the score on this one. Unfortunately, I didn't recognise it at all since I wrote nothing about the circumstances of the novel - the 'tramping' through the Scottish countryside and refuge in a remote cottage ... The blurb fills in this gap in my memory nicely:
"Merry's lost a lot recently--first her mother, then close to a hundred pounds. Feeling adrift, she strikes out in search of perspective. A three-week hike through the Scottish Highlands was supposed to challenge her new body and refocus her priorities, but when disaster strikes, she's forced to seek refuge in the remote home of a brooding, handsome stranger."
The narration is by Lucy Rivers - don't think I've heard her before, or since, yet her casting is perfect. Her voice - slightly husky, quiet - it exactly suits the material, and I love the voice she gives to the introverted Scottish Rob. I see that she has narrated 3 other novels in my libraries, two are historical fiction and I can see that would work very well with her style. Yet on Audible it comes up with the figure of 230 books read by her, when I do a search for her name!!
I wish there were more audiobooks by Cara McKenna in my libraries - but this is the only one - and two on Audible.
Dec 2023 - I borrowed this again given how impressed I was by it. OMG, the power of this book! It's very long, at 10 hours, so at times I wished it would hurry along. But the emotional connection that develops between these two characters over a week is so raw and powerful. They are ordinary people who have both fought demons, but the empathy and honesty between them turns each into a gorgeous spirit, a diamond. I've upped my score from 4.5 to 5 - a rare rating in my catalogue. show less
The humanity of this novel was why it was so rewarding. Tolerance, lack of prejudice, curiosity, liberation, indulgence - so many words could describe Merry and her embrace of Rob.
Her background is a gay father, an independent mother, growing up in San Francisco - it's the good side of American culture. There's also a lot about show more wilderness, solitude, aloneness, nature - which is a nod to another good side of California.
There's a purity to the novel, and Merry's and Rob's reactions to their discovery of each other - that is other-worldly, like an Eden, thanks to the setting in the Scottish Highlands, and the lack of intrusion of the outside world. The only thing that looms menacingly is their upcoming separation and the implications for Rob's addiction.
Unbound will count as one of my most memorable and heart piercing reads of 2022 for sure.
Every now and then I read a romantic drama that doesn't rely on the cleverness and wit that characterises romantic comedies - which seem to be having a heyday and are the best of romance literature at present.
This was published in 2013, not quite 10 years ago, and according to one blogger I read, the explicitness that makes this story possible was around for about a decade before this book, which she reviews: https://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/the-vanishing-closed-door-rom...
This explicitness certainly passed me by until I took up romance literature about 2 years ago, and I'm very sorry that I didn't know it existed.
This revolution playing out in popular romance fiction is on the scale of the sexual awakening of the 60s! and I wish everyone knew about it, both men and women - so they can participate in it, passively if not actively - but hopefully, act it out in their day to day lives!
Nov 2023: Looking back on my reading I saw the score on this one. Unfortunately, I didn't recognise it at all since I wrote nothing about the circumstances of the novel - the 'tramping' through the Scottish countryside and refuge in a remote cottage ... The blurb fills in this gap in my memory nicely:
"Merry's lost a lot recently--first her mother, then close to a hundred pounds. Feeling adrift, she strikes out in search of perspective. A three-week hike through the Scottish Highlands was supposed to challenge her new body and refocus her priorities, but when disaster strikes, she's forced to seek refuge in the remote home of a brooding, handsome stranger."
The narration is by Lucy Rivers - don't think I've heard her before, or since, yet her casting is perfect. Her voice - slightly husky, quiet - it exactly suits the material, and I love the voice she gives to the introverted Scottish Rob. I see that she has narrated 3 other novels in my libraries, two are historical fiction and I can see that would work very well with her style. Yet on Audible it comes up with the figure of 230 books read by her, when I do a search for her name!!
I wish there were more audiobooks by Cara McKenna in my libraries - but this is the only one - and two on Audible.
Dec 2023 - I borrowed this again given how impressed I was by it. OMG, the power of this book! It's very long, at 10 hours, so at times I wished it would hurry along. But the emotional connection that develops between these two characters over a week is so raw and powerful. They are ordinary people who have both fought demons, but the empathy and honesty between them turns each into a gorgeous spirit, a diamond. I've upped my score from 4.5 to 5 - a rare rating in my catalogue. show less
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