Duck!

I love shapeshifter romances, so when I stumbled across this while browsing for books for my new Kindle, I couldn't resist. Shifters other than wolves are still uncommon, and Avian shifters even more rare. Once I started reading, I could not put it down!

Dare has done a creative twist on the ugly duckling fairy tale. Ori was raised by humans, not knowing he was a shifter. After a partial shift, the Avian Elders determine he is probably a duck, one of the lowest ranked avian species (predators being high). He is given a job in "the nest" until he fledges. There, he is bullied by a bunch of crows until one day he is swept away by a Hawk. Raynard senses that Ori is a submissive, and they quickly establish a relationship. Raynard does not show more care that Ori is only a duck; he believes each species has its own strength and beauty. But, when Ori fledges and they learn he is not a duck, Raynard suddenly must face his own prejudice concerning rank. How can Ori truly be a submissive?

This romance is true D/s. Ori is a submissive to Raynard's dominant, and there is some minor punishment. However, the BDSM element is very, very light (for those readers that care). However, the sex is scorching. It's frequent enough to enjoy without consuming the entire story. Though the secondary characters are pretty one dimensional, the two main characters are fully developed. I was interested in them; I cared about them. The world-building is also top notch. The author doesn't get buried in details, but there is still plenty of description to bring her fantasy to life. Overall, this was a fantastic book. show less

For anyone who is familiar with the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen it will be not difficult to imagine the evolution of this story, but I will try to not spoil it too much.

In a modern paranormal society (and so modern time, cars, swimming pools, city parks and so on) the avian shapeshifter society is ruled in an almost medieval way; there are caste, and according to the caste you belong to, your role in the society is written for you. Hawks and Eagles are leaders, Ravens and Crows are middle class, Pigeons and Seagulls are servants, and Ducks? Well ducks are nothing more than playthings. Other avians can use and abuse them and no one will see anything wrong in that.

Ori, still too young to shift, but supposedly a duck, not only show more has his own caste works against him, he is also an orphan and so he has no family to take care of him. He is working for the Nest, the central headquarter for all the avians, and he is a scullion and a sex toy for everyone who is interested. Ori is a natural submissive, something he was taught depends from him being a duck, and so he is not so much afflicted by the treatment, aside from the fact that he is a little scared. When Raynard, a noble hawk, decide to take him into his custody, Ori is more than happy to be able to serve only one man.

What started only as a servant and master agreement, soon turns in a Dominant and submissive relationship; Ori is sweet and dependant, he feels safe and comfortable only when his Master is there for him; even when he is given the freedom to do as he likes, he is happy only if his Master is there to witness to his freedom, and so basically, he is not freedom at all. But Ori doesn’t see it like a punishment, on the contrary, the submission is inside him, as it’s the strong pull to love only one man, to mate for the eternity.

When circumstances force him to be parted by Raynard, it almost kills him; with submission but also with strength, Ori will try everything to be again with his Master, proving that being a submissive doesn’t mean not having a will for his own.

It’s of course a BDSM story, but as often in the works I read by Kim Dare, the most hard side of these relationships is skipped over, and basically she points more on the heavy dependance, on an emotional level, that this relationship brings, both for the Dominant than the submissive. Ori is a wonderful character, so sweet and cute, he had me shed a tear or two when he was far from his Master and so lost.

Due to the plot and the choice of having a relationship between a duck and an hawk, I was expecting for this story to be light and fun, and in a way, it’s, but it’s also more involving on an emotional level then what I was expecting.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040GJDGC/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

This is one of the most amazing stories I have read in a long time, and it was wonderful to read it again, now that it has been rereleased. The novel takes the well-known tale of the Ugly Duckling and not only conveys its original meaning in a modern-day setting, but also adds another layer of interpretation in a domination/submission context.

Where do I even start? The world-building is excellent, with an avian shifter culture that is fresh, believable, and utterly fascinating. The plot, even though the same as in the well known fairy tale, is put into a new perspective with a fascinating twist at the end that takes its message beyond the original. The language and descriptions are vivid and enjoyable; words and expressions an avian show more culture might use are integral to the way the characters think and speak. The domination/submission aspects are handled with care and sensitivity.

As for the characters? They held me spellbound. Ori, the duckling shifter, is so lost and lovable in his search for what species exactly he might be when he grows up, you just have to love him. He has all the traits I think of when I hear "duck", except he is a human struggling with his role in life. Raynard, the hawk shifter, is the quintessential strong and responsible Dom, who sees the world in terms of hunter and prey, but has a lot of potential for caring inside him that he isn't even aware of. Both of them have to learn a lot as they teach each other what it is they each need in a relationship, and ultimately, what their roles are in life and in the avian shifter community.

I think this is a stunning read, even more so now that I have read it again. If you like imaginative worlds that seem very far removed form reality, yet are much the same where it counts, if you’re looking for a different shifter experience, and if you want a read that is as unusual as it is touching and hot, then you will probably like this novel. I adore it!


NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. show less

I did not like this book. It's a BDSM story, which I already stated in my review for Katrina Strauss's Some Kind of Stranger is not something I generally like, so I've thought about whether my dislike stems from that or from other aspects of the story. I think I would have disliked this book even if it had not featured BDSM.

Raynard and Ori, especially Ori, were incredibly boring characters. When they were together, they were little more than a dominant and a submissive. When Raynard wasn't with Ori, he spent his time trying to put his late uncle's business in order, but none of that was ever shown. Prior to living with Raynard, Ori grew up in lots of different foster homes and eventually ended up at a club where other avian shifters show more verbally, physically, and sexually abused him, but, again, little was shown. I wanted to know more. Did Raynard have any friends? What kind of business did his uncle leave him? Did Ori ever leave Raynard's house for anything other than attending to his needs as an avian shifter or to run the occasional errand for Raynard? Did Ori ever think about anything other than Raynard and things related to Raynard? Did Ori enjoy anything besides cleaning Raynard's house and having sex with Raynard? (The answer to the last couple questions is probably “no,” which should explain why I thought Ori was the more boring of the two characters. He was so. Incredibly. Dull. Not unlikable, but dull.)

Initially, I found Ori and Raynard's relationship intriguing. Raynard made Ori his servant in order to get him away from an environment where he was clearly being mistreated. Although he was attracted to Ori, he resisted doing anything about that attraction, because he was pretty sure Ori would assume that sex was part of his duties and would say yes to whatever he was asked to do, whether he actually wanted to do it or not.

Unfortunately, then Raynard noticed that the attraction was mutual. He gave Ori a “choice” between being his servant and being his submissive, and Ori decided to be Raynard's submissive. I put the word “choice” in quotes because I, personally, was not convinced that Ori was emotionally capable of making this choice.

Ori had an intense desire to please that was probably due, at least in part, to years of living in foster homes and feeling like he didn't fit in. Ori was essentially abused in every way at the avian club he served at prior to being taken to Raynard's home. That only increased his desire to please and to avoid offense. What Raynard took as a natural tendency towards submission I took as a sign that Ori could have benefited from some therapy. Had Ori gotten that therapy and still wanted to be Raynard's submissive, I probably wouldn't have been as uncomfortable. As it was, the very foundation of Raynard and Ori's relationship didn't sit well with me, and I could never fully settle into seeing it as the light, sweet BDSM tale I think Dare intended it to be. Raynard may not have been abusive the way the other avians were, but he never invited outsiders to help Ori, even when outside help would have been warranted. The mansion could have used more than just Ori as its cleaning staff, I already mentioned that I thought Ori could have benefited from a therapist, and why the heck didn't Raynard take Ori to a doctor after Ori cut his arm?

The story was, for the most part, as dull as the book's characters. Dare made creative use of the story “The Ugly Duckling,” but it took two thirds of the book for anything like conflict to be introduced, and then I felt that part of the book dragged on for too long. Since I did not find Ori and Raynard's relationship appealing, I didn't feel particularly affected by their grief when it looked like they could no longer be together as master and submissive. Ori began to look more and more pathetic, and I felt no sympathy for Raynard when he worried that the only way he might be able to stay with Ori was as something other than his master.

I got this book because I was intrigued by its unusual shifters, but I found Dare's world-building to be sketchy at best. From what I could tell, Dare's shifters could be any species – hawks, ducks, geese, hummingbirds, finches, and more were all mentioned. Shifters seemed to almost always be categorized as either dominants or submissives, with certain species being more inclined to one role or another. All the shifters were male, and it was never explained how women fit into that world. I'm assuming the avian shifters had children with human women, but did the relationships end at the egg donor (no pun intended) level or did avian shifters ever have lasting relationships with the women?

Kim Dare's books appear to be quite popular, and this one was well-received by many of Dare's readers. Had the world-building been better and Ori and Raynard less one-dimensional, I might have liked it more. If I come across another work by Dare with an interesting setup (like I said, I got this one for the avian shifters), I might give her works another shot, but at this point I don't plan on purposefully seeking anything else of hers out.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

characterization in this would've been better suited to a shorter timeline, rather than the span of time in which the story actually takes place, if that makes sense--there wasn't a ton of growth in either of the characters beyond their feelings for each other. despite that, i had fun reading it and intend to read the others in the series. with shifter stories it's all werewolves, maybe werecats if you're lucky--refreshing to see some other species for once!

I’m not into stories about shifters, shedders and suckers.

Too often writers just use the alternate form to allow the character to do things they can’t in real life. Be more powerful, more dominant, more macho.

I’m a big fan of Kim Dare’s writing. I love her GAY stories. Yes they’re short, but each one shows her understanding of her characters and how their very nature affects their coming together and their relationship.

In Duck!, Kim has done three things and done them very well.

First, she’s taken the standard 15,000 word relationship story she excels at and expanded it by creating a new world around the characters.

Then she’s done the next step. The step her stories have been lacking, by finding the one thing that could show more threaten their relationship, and exploring what happens when this conflict eventuates.

Finally, she's used the shifting, not so much to explore the form of the different being but to explore what that form means. This shifting could even be seen as allegorical and relate to real life. What happens to a relationship when one of the duo inherits something or changes.

K.A.Mitchell did it really well in A Regularly Scheduled Life when one of the couple becomes famous. In this case, there's a change of role when one is reluctantly forced to accept his birthright.

Being about dominance and submission, as all Kim’s stories are, this shift in hierarchy places stress on the relationship and needs to be dealt with.

This isn’t so much an ugly duckling story as a story about understanding the difference between submission and subservience. It also exlores the difference between domination and superiority. I have trouble stomaching this relationship sometimes, but when you read something like this:

I thought about what my submissive would want. I thought about what he'd need in order to be happy under my protection.

You start to see how dominance in a way can be a form of serving.

The saying that every great leader sees himself as the servant of his subjects isn’t that far away from the truth. It would be nice to think that every leader who filled that role had someone behind them who knew what they needed and made sure they got it.

I can just imagine how Ori's relationship with the world would and should change over time as he settled more into his birthright.

Oh, and on a more important front. I love the way the curves of the "C" and "U" on the cover so lovingly curl around the guy's arse.... show less

You know stories that you can feel in your gut? Like when the emotions are running high, you're right there? And you really can't find a single thing wrong with said story? You're just still reliving some great scenes between the main characters even after finishing.

Well that's me and [b:Duck!|8178400|Duck! (Avian Shifters, #1)|Kim Dare|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1273661196s/8178400.jpg|13024937].

Ori? Loved!

Reynard? Loved!

The subtle nuances and the emotions said without saying a frigging thing? Loved!

The BDSM mixing into this modern fairy tale? Loved!

I need to add more work from this author in my life ASAP.