WHORE!

Now that I have your attention, I begrudgingly give this 1 star and I am upset that the author is forcing my hand in giving it. But the authors will is to be respected. 

This is the first fanfic I’ve ever read, I’ve actually gone out of my way to avoid fanfic as I’m not a big enough fan of franchises to even go looking for them. But I’m happy this was my first fanfic, I popped my fanfic cherry with an excellent. 

As a review, I believe this one deserves at the least 4 stars. The writing, pacing, character work, personality, and voice are all excellently communicated. There is the occasional clunky sentence structure and wonky grammatical choices but that’s completely fixable. 

As someone who was younger when YuGiOh! Came out, I really enjoyed the characterization of the Kaiba brothers. Seto is what Christian Grey wishes he could be and Mokuba is still cute even as a 22 y/o virgin. But the crowning achievement is Joan and her strong, healthy representation of a woman who knows exactly what she wants and how she wants it. I enjoy that s*x, and s*x work, isn’t stigmatized or otherised like how most media tends to portray it. Joan is in complete control of herself, from a s*xual standpoint, but also shows a natural vulnerability due to past traumas. She is a businesswoman first and foremost and continues to impress me with how liberated she is in her views regarding polyamory and s*xuality. I think this is one of the few times, that I’ve read, where s*x and the freedom of expressing ones s*xuality and preferences isn’t treated as a crutch. We aren’t told how to feel about s*x or polyamory or marriage, we just get to experience the wild story of a woman who seduces a pair of rich brothers with her wit, experience, and charm. And I’m here for it. It is a breath of fresh air to read a romance that isn’t trying to force monogamy and societal norms down your throat while also representing s*x work and polyamory in a much more positive light than we would usually get. While s*x is at the crux of the story, it isn’t the end all, be all. The author utilizes implied storytelling wonderfully, letting the readers imagination do some of the work by insinuating what did and didn’t happen. Getting a hard-on while reading about Seto getting a hard-on is weird but fun because you’re getting turned on by the thoughts that he’s having. But, at the base of the story, this is a romance that celebrates s*x, polyamory relationships, s*x work, and healthy representation while addressing and humanizing flawed, insecure characters like Seto and Joan. And Mokuba is best boy.

On the technical side, there wasn’t a whole lot that broke the immersion for me. The flow and pacing keeps everything moving at a quick pace without feeling too rushed. The words used and characterizations make the characters feel like actual adults, some are man-children who just want to get a nut off and don’t know how to deal with their emotions while others are children trapped in an adults body who haven’t had much time to develop and learn how to be with someone of the opposite s*x. As stated before, there are occasional clunky sentences, redundancies, and odd grammar choices but nothing that absolutely breaks the reading experience. The author excellently conveys their voice. Even though the story is told from a third-person limited, there is some head hopping but I think it allows the story to be more relatable. We get to see the thoughts of the characters as if it were a third-person omniscient close. 

In all, I really enjoy the story and will most definitely continue reading. I am not the biggest fan of romance, I’m loathe to call this smut because it is so much better than simple smut, but this one was really enjoyable. The characters are most definitely the strongest point of the story and if the author wasn’t asking for 1 stars, I would be giving a higher rating. Also, I’m from the Bay Area and I always get excited when I see a story mention places I know about intimately. 

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I started reading this story just out of curiosity since I don't like this polyandry stuff, but damn, this was beyond my expectations, it's very different from anything I've ever read.

I should probably wait a bit more, but that surprised me enough to make a review.

Before I started reading it, I thought it would be hard to accept this polyamorous relationship thing, but although I had a brief initial shock, I quickly got used to it. I must say that this story is very different from what I thought, the author didn't come and just forcibly started a relationship between the characters, but instead, made it happen smoothly. 

The interaction between the characters is by far one of the best things here, they were very well worked out, which for me makes them the highlight of this story.

Personally, I like Joan a lot, she is a determined woman who doesn't give a sh*t what others think and accepts herself as she is, without shame or regrets of what she does. Although she seems to have a few screws loose, she is fun and interesting, which makes her a charismatic character. In the end, I ended up hoping that she would accomplish her goals.

Something that I would also like to highlight are the illustrations that have in almost every chapter I have read so far. This helps a lot to get an idea of how the characters look and to have a better immersion in the chapter. Besides, there are several different styles to enjoy.

I think this story suffers a lot of injustice, it deserves much more than just 1 star, but since the author wants, then I will do it.

Anyway, I recommend you read it, it's a great story.

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