Year of the Cat

Title: Year of the Cat
Author: Selah March
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, D/s, M/M
Length: 99 Pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Jenre

On one hand this sly retelling of the fairy tale "Puss in Boots" has its tongue firmly in its cheek with the incorporation of many traditional fairy tale tropes. We have the description of the hero at the beginning, the asides addressed directly to the "gentle reader" and the setting of Perrault's France. On the other hand, this is a dark tale of a man who is taught the true meaning of love in a most unexpected way.

The book begins with a description of three men, one of whom is Etienne, the youngest and best loved son of a French country gentleman. Etienne's father is dying and Etienne is well aware that once his father is dead, his two eldest brothers will try to kill him for his share of the inheritance. Etienne has been coddled and sheltered all his life and is unable to do the simplest of tasks, however, that does not deter him from packing a bag and fleeing to an abandoned cottage soon after his father breathes his last breath. Into this situation comes a nameless man who was cursed by a witch. He is condemned to spend his days as a cat, turning back into a man at night. Unfortunately the witch died before she was able to tell him how to break this curse, so he has wandered the land for over half a century, never growing old, but becoming more and more embittered by his experiences. The man, in his cat form, encounters Etienne as he is making his way to the cottage. Etienne names the strange cat Jacques and brings him to the cottage with him. What Etienne doesn't realise is that Jacques was listening in when his brothers were plotting to kill him, plus he spied Etienne earlier and was attracted to his angelic looks. Once Jacques realises quite how useless Etienne is, his admiration turns to a mixture of disgust and a desire to protect him and, as night falls, Jacques, in human form, takes advantage of Etienne's natural submissiveness by dominating and seducing him. The remainder of the book at first deals with how Jacques introduces Etienne into the delights of the D/s relationship whilst fighting any tender feelings for him and then how that impacts on their lives when Etienne once again faces danger.

The characters in fairy tales have a tendency to be stereotypes and here the author has played on that idea to perfection. Etienne wholly fits the role of the helpless lad or even princess who has to be rescued and protected by the prince, right down to his golden hair. Etienne's brothers too fit the mold as the 'ugly stepbrothers', grasping and greedy for all they can get of their father's inheritance. As a result of this, and also because he was so submissive, it was difficult to identify strongly with Etienne. However, if you can accept that he is a type or an ideal even, then his lack of character fails to be an important aspect. In fact we are told early on in the story that the hero is Jacques with Etienne being:

the cause of most of the misery and all of the joy contained within its pages.

Having said that, it's not difficult to like Etienne, despite his wimpish ways, and he does redeem himself at the end of the book in quite a delicious fashion.

What is most interesting is the clever way that the author has made the man Jacques almost as cat-like as his day time form. He has a streak of cruelty and selfishness common to most cats. He is predatory in his pursuit of Etienne, but also, as a lioness protects her cubs, he too is fiercely protective and possessive of Etienne. His total dominance in the relationship and the swift way he punishes for any transgressions reminded me of a male lion controlling his pride. I found Jacques to be an enthralling, fascinating character and was entirely pleased by his sacrifice and redemption by the end of the book.

This is the first D/s book I have read so I can't really comment on how it compares to others in the genre. However, I felt that this aspect of the book was believable. We are told enough about the characters at the beginning: Of Etienne's naturally accepting naivety and Jacques bitter reflections of his past; that it seemed natural for them to fall into that relationship. The sex scenes all built on each other, from the 'breaking in' of Etienne through to the gradual showing of tender feelings between the men, so although there is a lot of sex in the book, I never felt it was boring or repetitive, but rather that it was a necessary part of their developing relationship.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I like re-tellings of fairy tales and I like books which concentrate almost entirely on the bond between characters so this book was ideal for me. There is some action but mostly the book is completely focused on Jacques and Etienne imbuing the story with a sense of them being trapped both by circumstance, fear and by each other. The only slight niggle I may have would be with Etienne. I found his over reliance on Jacques and his inability to think or care for himself rather annoying at times. Then again, I think that is how we are supposed to feel about him; it's certainly reflected in Jacques' own disgust in Etienne at times.

If you are looking for something a bit different then I highly recommend that you read this book. I was engrossed from start to finish.