Title: Unexpected Consequences (Rod and Cane Society #1)
Author: Cara Bristol
Publisher: Loose Id (20 September 2011)
ISBN: 9781611185768
I think ‘Unheld Conversations’ would have been a better title for this book.
Jared is a member of an organisation called the Rod and Cane Society. Personally, I prefer to refer to it by its original name when it was founded back in 1937: The He-Man Woman Haters Club. Therefore, throughout the rest of this review, I am going to call it He-Man for short.
So, anyway, the guys in He-Man are all into Domestic Discipline (DD). DD, if you aren’t aware, is a form of relationship where one partner gets to decide if the other partner has done something bad and, if they have, punish them for it – usually with a spanking. It can actually function either way (the Wife can spank the Husband) but that isn’t a He-Man idea. Oh, no. And when I say ‘guys’, I mean ‘guys’; ladies don’t actually get to join He-Man. They have to join the He-Man Ladies Auxiliary. More on that aspect a little later.
He-Man even has a really cool clubhouse. It has two sections: a public section (just like you would expect a ‘Prestigious Fraternal Organization’ to have) but also a way more interesting part the public don’t get to see. All the social functions occur in this private section, and it’s just chock-full of art consisting of freshly spanked, red-bottomed women (tastefully modelled by Ladies Auxiliary Members). Oh, and I should mention the ‘Disciplinary Chamber’. I would tell you more about what happens in there, but I don’t want to give anything away.
Jared meets Melania at a He-Man event. Not held at the clubhouse, obviously, because, well, that would have been a problem. You see, even though Melania knows her father is a member of He-Man and her mother is a member of the Auxiliary, she doesn’t know anything about Domestic Discipline or what He-Man is really about. You see, the first rule of He-Man is that you don’t talk about He-Man. So even though her parents play matchmaker for these two lovebirds they neglect to mention to Melania just what she is getting into.
Now I know what you are thinking: Jared surely wouldn’t enter into a DD relationship without making sure that Melania understood what he wanted? Well, actually … They talk about him being in charge and he does kind of mention that he wants to spank her if she does something really, really naughty, but she doesn’t really think he’s serious.
Of course, eventually she does something that he decides she should be spanked for and … What’s that? He gives her a good old-fashioned brisk hand spanking over his knee? Well, no, actually. He fastens her bottom upwards over his fancy spanking bench with fleece-lined straps and uses his shiny new paddle on her. Perhaps not surprisingly, things kind of go downhill for a while after that.
I am not entirely sure what the Society’s existence was supposed to add to the Unexpected Consequences story. The whole Code of Silence was disturbing. The nametags were condescending. The whole argument that Melania would just come to accept her place over time? I double-checked to make sure I wasn’t reading The Stepford Wives.
Jared was totally ruled by his emotions, spending the entire story either feeling sorry for himself or being angry at Melania. I did think his hunter/gatherer argument had the potential to be compelling – if it were still 25,000 BC. Before he took responsibility for someone else, he really needed to take responsibility for himself first.
I kept waiting for Jared and Melania to actually have a conversation about Domestic Discipline and what they both wanted out of it. I still can’t believe that no such conversation actually occurred. I thought the ending was a case of doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.
There are a lot of people outside of the BDSM and spanking communities who would consider Domestic Discipline abuse. I just don’t feel like Unexpected Consequences provides any arguments against that but could actually provide some in favour.
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