Kefir was always a favourite character in previous books, so I was very pleased to finally read his story. I still love Kefir but just couldn't warm up to Ellery and that marred my enjoyment of his story. This book was also rife with the terms "the dominant" and "the submissive", which is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Used once or twice and I'm quite clear on the character's roles and using those terms over and over...and over makes me feel more and more distant from the characters and the relationship that is supposed to be developing. Reading the term "the submissive" makes the character into someone random, generic and interchangeable instead of my sweet, naively adorable Kefir! ( )

In the same universe of the two previous stories, Ellery’s Duty takes a twist: Kefir, the werelion, is not a Dominant in searching of a pet, but he is more a kitten who wants to find his Master and being a lap pet himself (see all the lapping, cuddling and all kitten gestures he has). Kefir has a gentle soul; in lion form he is for sure stronger than any human, but not as strong as other lions. He is small and lithe and he has no mean bone in him. He is clever but sincerely he has not the push to be a leader. In such situation, and inside his pride, it’s unlikely that he is able to find a soul mate, because another lion will not allow to a peer to submit, and an ordinary man is not considered strong enough to be Master of a lion.

Ellery is a human Dominant who wants to be sure the submissives they send to the Lions’ Den are taking care of. No one has really ever complained but is Ellery’s duty to be sure of that. So he proposes himself as a “submissive” to be thrown to the lions; problem is that Ellery is everything other than a submissive, both in appearance than attitude. The night he is thrown to the lions, no one of the werelion wants to “play” with him until Kefir doesn’t come along: Kefir is fascinated by Ellery, by the strength of the man. It’s really a tender scene, with Kefir looking at Ellery like a wonderful gift Kefir has no right to ask, and Arslan, the pride leader, who pushes Kefir to ask for the unthinkable.

It’s true that Kefir is a submissive for nature and in his case is really a question of nature, Kefir needs a protective man, he needs to feel safe and comfortable, but he also knows that he is a lion and a lion protects his pet. It was quite endearing to read about how Kefir called Ellery “his pet” in his mind, right after he and Ellery has a sexual encounter where Ellery was not a pet at all. But indeed Kefir is right in his thinking, as Arslan tells him: he is the submissive during sex, and in their personal relationship, but outside that, Kefir is the lion and Ellery the man, and so, in front of the pride, Kefir is responsible for Ellery. They will not be able to explain that to Ellery, or to have him accept that, but both Kefir than Arslan know that, and that is the only important thing.

Again a good and naughty story by Kim Dare, with right that light touch of BDSM to make it kinky.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004C43HDC/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Disappointing. I bought this because I really liked Duck by Kim Dare, which was set in an entirely shifter world and somehow I could accept the heightened reality there.

But Ellery's duty is set in a world where humans and shifters meet, and the dominant, Ellery, goes to visit the lions, to make sure that they are treating the human subs who visit them well. I love m/m romances, it's my first choice genre right now. But somehow, the fact that there is not a single female character in this book bothered me. With Duck, they were all avians, but if we are introducing humans into the mix, I wondered where the other half of the human race was... And lions are not monogamous creatures. Lions have 4--5 lioness, who actually do all the work. So where were they? How did these lion shifters come to be, if their entire culture was around dominance and submission with male humans? Why didn't they have sex with each other? See, I couldn't sink into the world of this book. I didn't actually like Kefir, who was a little too kittenish for me, and it didn't explore well enough for me, the idea of submission has nothing to do with strength, Kefir is clearly stronger than Ellery but wanted to submit to him. That idea is interesting, but Kefir had so little insight or depth, that we couldn't go anywhere with it. Ellery was all about dominance but he didn't have any insight either, just a dominance struggle with the head of lions, which frankly was ludicrous and unfair. Ellery had gone into the lion's den to make sure that they weren't maltreating the human subs. I think it's appropriate for the head of the lions to be concerned about one of his more vulnerable members who had only known this other guy for maybe 2 weeks before commitment is asked for.

So neither the world building nor the relationship dynamics worked for me.

3228 locations, reasonable length, not a one bite and it's gone novella. ( )