Martin's a sexual submissive, but he's nobody's doormat. So when he discovered that his boyfriend was already married, he told him to go. When it still hurt weeks later, a seaside break house-sitting for a friend seemed just the thing to help him heal. When he made friends with two dolphins, he was simply grateful for the pleasant company. He didn't expect to need their help when his small boat was caught in a storm. And he never expected them to ask for payment--or what shape they'd be in when they did so...
Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: m/m/m male menage, D/s, sex while in shifted form.
Jules Jones is a British author of science fiction and erotic romance, mostly with m/m themes. Much of her work is cross-genre, being science fiction or fantasy with a strong romance element. Her day job is materials science, and it tends to show -- many of her characters are scientists, engineers, and sundry other geeks.
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I write science fiction, fantasy and romance. I read *lots* of things.
My main library catalogue is over on LibraryThing, because I'm the sort of anal-retentive bibliophile who wants to record the exact print run and page count of my individual copy of a book. This account's always going to be a somewhat out of date and partial mirror. But it lets me put my book reading log up on GoodReads to share with my friends over here. :-)
I don't know WHAT THE FUCK to say. Except that Natasha says it best so read her review.
It was indeed worth almost $8 and the most BORING 250 pgs ever, EVER, for this scene:
"W-what..." Simon stammered. "W-was...was that dolphin fucking you?"
Yes, he was, Simon. YES HE FUCKING WAS.
It was so damn funny I think I'll spend the rest of my life snorting at inopportune moments while thinking about this book. And while watching Flipper. Or when I'm at an Aquarium. Or if anyone asks me to swim with the dolphins - um, I don't fucking think so.
Okay, as much as I'd like to leave this review as is, I feel the need to discuss the actual point to this book. And yes, there is one. Here it is:
Martin is a sub. He can't find a dom that doesn't take advantage of his subby nature. Oh noes! What will Martin do? Apparently, he'll go on vacay to the shore and meet two horny dolphin shifters who are also doms. Yay! But can Martin trust his doms enough to let one of them possibly fuck him to death with his massive dolphin dong? [For the answer to this question, please see the above quote. Thank you.]
So, you see, it's not about dolphin dongs -- it's about POWER EXCHANGE.
Isn't nice to learn a valuable lesson while reading dolphin porn?
Before reading: I'm totally clapping my fins for this!
*dolphin clicks*
After...reading?: An actual depiction of me reading this book:
(when weird battles weirder, who loses?)
I hate calling in the towel on a book once I've starting reading, but it's been 4 years now. And I can't.
The writing is drrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy as fuck. Though side note: this being a dolphin shifter book you'd think the mammals would be able to keep the text moist.
BOOM!
*clears throat*
This is a poly book. Eh...from what I read (and no it's so slow I don't want to check out the exact percentage I stopped) left more to be desired.
And if you're into weird pairings, even weirder matings and don't mind feeling like your watching the anatomy of a saltine being dissected ever so slowly in 200+ pages (this really should have been a 50pg novella. Max.) by all means, dive in to "Dolphin Dreams".
But me? Consider this DNF'd and this is my permanent reminder to be leery.
Not all dolphin shifter stories are paved in gold.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
All the images under the spoiler tags are NSFW Actually it was more like when you go to a restaurant and the waiter serves you your food and says "be careful, the plate is hot", and the first thing you do is grab the plate and burn your hand. Yeah well, Natasha (her review here) warned us. "Don't touch it", she said. "It's hot", she said. But Rosa (her review here) and I just had to go and grab the damn plate.
Martin just got out of a bad relationship and decides to spend some time at his best friend's house on the beach. Out alone on the friend's boat, he meets a couple of cute dolphins.
But, it turns out they're not just dolphins, they're shifters.
Horny dolphin shifters, named George and Patrick, who have the hots for Martin.
Lucky for submissive Martin, they happen to both be Doms looking for a subby third.
They go on to have lots a vanilla sex.
Martin then decides to buy a beach house that somehow connects to the dolphins' cave and the three of them spend a ridiculously LONG and BORING amount of time fixing it up.
George really wants to fuck Martin in his dolphin shape. So first Martin gives dolphin Patrick a hand job to get used to the idea.
And then they finally do it with Martin underwater wearing a snorkel, while human Patrick holds him and dolphin George fucks him. (Really the only reason I read this damn book was for this one scene.)
But, uh oh, the best friend catches them in the act and totally frea... actually, for a guy who just saw his best friend getting fucked by a dolphin and then finds out that said best friend's new boyfriends are dolphin shifters, he took it remarkably well.
And so Martin, Patrick and George move into their new place and live happily ever after.
So should you read it? Who the hell knows? Probably not, but I had a RIDICULOUSLY fun time googling dolphin porn.
Why you probably shouldn't read this: Not because there's a dolphin fucking a guy. That's pretty awesome, actually.
-It's way too long. The author could've cut this thing by half and had a much better book. -It's boring. Too much page time and detail on the fixing of the house and Martin's job. -The D/s relationship was not developed. Being a little bossy during sex does not a Dom make, IMO. -I saw the connection between George and Martin but not Martin and Patrick. I want to feel the love between all three men in my mmm.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
This is pretty long for a shifter book in general so I thought there would be more to it, but there really wasn't. Most of the drama happened at the very end and was resolved within a page or two. The actual interactions between characters took a backseat to the house renovation, which was a big deal to them all, I get that. But, the book felt more practical than fantastical because of it. Conversations were very matter of fact, which can be good for some instances, but when they are all like that it's hard to connect with the characters.
The dolphin sex was really not that big of a deal. After their initial encounter it was mostly quickies because they had work to do on the house. The "actual" dolphin sex felt more clinical than passionate and was more about Martin getting over the squick factor and developing trust, makes sense, but it read more clinical than anything else and when George it completely negated what they were trying to do to begin with.
Some hardcore editing and focus on the character interaction would make this one read more pleasant than plodding in the long run.
Sorry, fellow unicorns, I just can't read anymore. I didn't even make it to the freaky stuff. *shrugs*
Even without freaky stuff, this was just too weird for me. The story was kind of cute, but very odd, too. I had a lot of "Wait, what?!" moments when different things happened. Too much of what happened didn't make sense to me, and I didn't understand what the author was trying to do. There were also a lot of really sloooowwwww parts that weren't very interesting.
Okay, I don't like shifters. I used to until the damn subgenre went stark raving batshit with practically every animal under the sun. Oversaturation much folks? But I LOVE dolphins and no one (thankfully) had written a dolphin-shifter tale until now, and Jules Jones did a smashingly bang-up job of it. Yes they're dolphins and yes, they're part human, but Jones never lets the reader forget they're still wild animals with all the instincts and behaviors of our finned mammal friends. To add fluffy whipping cream to an already awesome story, Jones peoples (and animals, LOL) her tale with some of the most finely-drawn characters I've seen in a while in any genre, especially M/M (or in this case M/M/M). Martin was great, but very seldom do straight male characters come off so well as did his best friend Simon (whom I loved). Theirs is definitely a bromance, but one based on deep and long friendship annd respect.
And what else can I say about George and Patrick, the dolphin shifters who come into Martin's befuddled life and turn it topsy-turvy. I thought it was adorable how Patrick loved chocolate. The best thing about Dolphin Dreams was the story itself: no unnecesary angst, no major tragedy, just a rousing (and A-rousing) good tale of love lost, found, dreams made flesh and long-lost second chances. And, it was about family--the family we make, not that of flesh and blood. Jules Jones has become another auto-buy.
I love dolphins. As a child I wanted to be a marine biologist. I read books after books about marine life. While I would have preferred this to be a m/f/m menage, this story was still lovely. I loved the blending of dolphin behaviours with the male shifters. The threesome between Martin, George and Patrick was sweet and hot. I enjoyed every single scene. The shifter sex scene was HOT. I was blown away by it.
The one thing I found interesting was there was not a single woman in the story. It's rare that I read a romance story without even a single female in the story, even if a secondary character. Still, the dynamics between Martin, George and Patrick were wonderful to read. I wish I was Martin! The devotion and love George and Patrick showered on Martin brought tears to my eyes. Simon, Martin's friend ended up being a pivotal secondary character. I found him to be a wonderful friend that I don't see much in this day and age.
Ms. Jones' writing voice works well for me. I enjoyed her writing so much I wish she would write a follow up book that I may purchase.
It wasn't nearly as kinky or freaky as I'd feared it would be, even with the sex in dolphin form. It was always made so clear that even as dolphins, they were still very much George and Patrick. That helped mitigate the bestiality/squick factor for me as much as for Martin. And the threesome was well done and made clear that it worked better that way than in any possible twosome combination.
So it turned out to be a surprisingly sweet story about lonely people finding each other, connecting, developing friendships, etc. - not just the three MCs, but also wonderful secondary characters who had great platonic relationships with them all. The dolphin aspects were a fun and interesting extra layer atop the solid foundation of a wonderful, very British story.
It started out okay but besides the nonstop sex and fixing a broken down house with a tunnel to the water it really dragged on an on. I found myself skimming over the too long details and looking at the page numbers to see if it was almost over. I didn't hate it but there really too much detail on shopping trips, how to fix a broken wall, etc....
The sex in shifter form was strange...yea...just strange.
Plus Simon was just too accepting of his friend having a threesome with two large men he assumed were homeless.
Hey dear I am dolphin and next me is another dolphin. We make happy dolphin time with each other like true male dolphin plus we can be humans too. Hey hey shape shift that is it. It was funny to read how one geologist found his love and his way how to be one with nature namely dolphins aka it is fun to have sex with them.
post-read EtA Caveman speak. "He knew now that he had concussion." ...concussion...is not a condition. And he really shouldn't have been sleeping with a concussion...
But other than that, I liked it. I actually liked it a lot.
This is really a shapeshifter romance cause for the first time, both in M/M than in F/M romance, I have read of the problems and fears a normal man could have to deal with a supernatural lover.
Martin is a quite and clever man, openly gay and he is still recovering from the betrayal of his last lover, a seeming on the closet gay, and really a bisexual man who has used Martin as his mistress behind his wife.
So Martin has agreed to pass some time in the sea home of his best friend Simon. The first day he meets two dolphins, very friendly and interested in him. And maybe for lack of company, or maybe cause he really like the dolphins, he starts to go out to meet them.
But the dolphins are two hunk shapeshifters, George and Patrick, cousins and doms, who want a sub lover like him. Martin has some worries about accepting this relationship, but in the end he lets his heart drives him, instead of his mind.
Martin is a quite beautiful character, even if sometime I found his submissive behaviour a little too sub... I know I know, is incoherent, and maybe is a demonstration that Jules Jones has really achieved to describe a perfect sub character.
Patrick is a "preferibly" dom, but not a "must be". He deferred to George, and he can also manage to be a bottom sometimes. He really likes only two things, sex and food, and now he loves Martin. He is tender and young, and still needs to be cuddle.
George is a real dom, he is in charge, of Patrick and Martin, and holds the weight of responsability on him. But like a good master, he knows when push, and when holds back. And he really cares of Martin, wants only to pleasure him.
Sex between the three of them is more a natural need than a proof of feeling, but this is coherent with the partial animal nature of George and Martin; and what really matters to Martin is that they understand that is a choice of Martin to let them do what they do.
I really like this book and as it takes me two day to read it, between the two reading session I continue to re-live mentally some scenes: this for me is a sign that this book will remain in my mind for many time and I will re-read it often.
I spent a long time thinking about how to write this, but there really isn't much. To compliment about. For an erotica, there is an amazing amount of background info on the characters. Too much, if you ask me. I like stories to have a plot, this this one was a bit drawn out;I found myself skimming through some pages. Which is a really annoying thing to do with a $75 kindle. The sex scenes were ok ; 3 out of 5. As I've said before, it takes a lot to get a rise out of me, and very few people 'make the cut. And then I reached the middle of the book, where they start talking about .... Dolphin sex.
Thinking, oh so desperately hoping the author was joking about it, I forced myself to continue. A few more boring chapters (what is it with British culture and drawing out things tirelessly?) and then...
AND THEN.....
I read my first- and hopefully my last - animal- human sex scene.
Please note there are somethings readers may be opposed to:
George and Patrick are dolphin shifters (not mermen) and they meet Martin and want him to be a third in their relationship. There is a D/s aspect to the book, but no heavy BDSM. This story is about making a true menage work and the shifters adapting to live as men instead of in their dolphin forms for a majority of the time.
I'm gonna give this 2 stars purely for being British... and I think that's it.
It was too fricken long! I skimmed a lot and ended up reading dialogue only.
There was no connection there between the MC's at all for me... Hell I felt like Martin was nothing but another hole. The guy seemed to have no libido at all, the sex pretty much all the way through seemed like a conveyor belt and had no intimacy at all. Then there were the freakish scenes near the end (which I'm glad didn't happen spontaneously at least, and were prepared for.) I felt like that was built up with a lot of expectation and then just fizzled out and forgotten about once Simon showed up.
Okay, I admit it, I'm a complete perv because I totally bought this for the douphin sex lol. This was a pretty good book even if I finally did space out on some parts. The characters are pretty deep and well thought out along with good details. The problem lay in that certain aspects were given too much thought and detail and other aspects weren't. I learned more about fossils and moving walls than I ever anticipated and while at first I really enjoyed it, after awhile it took away from the deepening of the relationship. The connection was good but it could have gone further and should have gone further but I still enjoyed the book.
I thought this might be interesting since it was about dolphin shifters but unfortunately these guys spent most of their time in human form and there really wasn't too much going on in this book. Some sex and home repairs but that was about it. The D/s aspects of the book are really tame to more like a little bit of kink vanilla sex more than anything else. The beginning started out good but it just really never went anywhere and it was a major disappointment that they spent so much time as humans and nothing but dolphin/human sex was ever explored for their dolphin side.
It’s amazing a book that features a dude f*cking a shifter in dolphin form could be so boring, but here we are 💁🏾♀️😅. Further, we’ve got dolphin shifter lovers who are also first cousins and part time prostitutes/thieves/possibly rapists based on a weird convo between George and Martin. And yet, still boring. How?👏🏾 I blame cave excavation and geology lessons. 😆
There’s so much weird and random here …did we need Barry’s drama? I say no. Did I applaud the condoms during oral that so many authors leave out as if sti’s can’t be transmitted that way? Yes. Did I LMAO when Martin put a condom on dolphin-George? HELL yes. I could go on or go further in depth but just read it. Or don’t. That would make sense too. 😆 2.5 rounded up
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was something new for me, not the three way, no, but the dolphins, hell yeah I am surprised I liked it. Maybe because I read it for a week slowly and enjoying myself. It had too much information on geology and reading books but I even enjoyed that. Usually I just want to get over the paras that has extra information not pertaining to the story but I liked all the useless info in this book. It's a slow read so I would advise people to not read it in one sitting but to take your time with it. If you do that you will clearly enjoy it more than reading it in one go.
There were some really good things about this book but there were also things that fell a little flat for me. I loved the way Martin connected with the dolphins. It was really sweet seeing him communicate with them and I loved that they were there to save him when the storm blew in. But I never really connected to them in human form or to the three of them romantically. I did really like how the author tied Mr. Parker to George and Patrick. I definitely didn't expect that but it was a nice way to end things.
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 6/10
PROS: - I'm a fan of shape-shifting stories in general, and this one is unique; I've never read a story in which a shifter takes the form of a dolphin. - The initial encounters between Martin and his two lovers are adorable, probably because the dolphins can't speak and prove to be such good listeners as a result. I think the personification of the dolphins is well done: they're cute and dolphin-like, yet they take on certain characteristics of their human counterparts as well. - The story contains a wealth of geographical details which I found interesting. I know very little about fossils and rocks and the like, and the author obviously knows her stuff in this area. - Overall I was bored by the details of the characters' renovation of an old house. I did, however, get to a point where I enjoyed reading about the emotional effect that the transformation has on the characters. It's sweet how excited they all get about the prospect of fixing up their house and getting to live in it. - Many of the conversations the three men have, especially about sex, are refreshingly direct.
CONS: - There are several sex scenes that I found decently hot; however, I don't enjoy reading scenes in which a human character and a shape-shifter character mess around while the shape-shifter is in his animal form. I can't get past the bestiality squick. - Sometimes the conversations struck me as jumpy because they're lacking in conjunctions, so I had to go back more than once and re-read things. The characters seem to be able to understand one another's meanings in a way that I couldn't. - The details about the renovation certainly seem well-researched, but they also made the story drag quite a bit in the middle. - It bothered me just a little that George and Patrick often speak ABOUT Martin rather than TO him: "If we're finished [curse word]ing him for the moment, let's have that lunch he promised."
Overall comments: This is certainly an unusual story, and I liked it well enough overall. There is a very slight D/s element in the book, but it's nothing more than verbal commands and some manual restraint. The Doms are only marginally stern; mostly they are supremely thoughtful and are concerned for Martin's welfare above all else. Fair warning on one thing that bothered me a bit, though: on more than one occasion, George and Patrick treat Martin as though he's basically a blow-up doll (with his permission, granted)
The good thing about this book is that the characters all had different personalities. That's what I like to see in my menage.
Unfortunately, there is a full string of things that just turned me off this book. One the book drags, a lot, especially in the middle when the house is being renovated. Two Patrick never really spoke to Martin but rather about him to George. Thirdly, and this is my biggest issue, human having sex with a dolphin. I realize they are shifters, but they are still essentially animals. That was not up my alley.
So all in all, there is no plot and there is dolphin sex. Therefore, no character development and very little actual romance. Plus REALLY awkward sex.
Do I recommend this, no. I would say that as curiosities go you can skim the book and still understand the entire "plot". What's weird though is I'm not turned off Jules Jones writing since it wasn't bad just bad plot.
I had high expectations for this book simply because the premise was original. This is the first time I've read about shifter dolphins.
The story had allot of potential, but it didn't live up to it very well. There was too much stuff about the house, not enough stuff about shifting in the second half of the story, too little dramatic tension. The last sex scene was very important I thought, but didn't get enough detail during it happening, got interrupted and then never mentioned again. I would have expected more there. And I would have expected it to be more graphic, then again maybe I'm just a complete perv, having never considered anything remotely like the last sex scene, and was way too currious about how that would go.
The little twist in the end was very cool I thought. That was a good touch.
Overall, a nice book, but it could have been really great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I admit that when I picked up this book and read the blurb, I was thinking it would be one of the many light, fun, impractical stories about shapeshifters that are everywhere. Instead, it was fun, but in no way impractical. The three of them actually talk things out and make compromises. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of their relationship as it grew rather than their work on the house, but I still loved it. I probably would have given it five stars if not for the shifted sex scenes which kinda weirded me out.
At first i thought it would be interesting, i had never read a story about shapeshifting dolphins before. And the story was intersting, till it became all about some old house and there wasn't more shifting, everything happened in human form... Didn't like it very much so i just skipped to the end, although there was a nice surprise, it was still not so great end. It was a bit too mawkish for my taste.
when I saw the page count, I thought this book would have a plot. Not so! It's just lots of sex, long boring stretches of house renovation, and then dolphin sex. Really, really didn't need to see the dolphin sex.
I also didn't like how they kept talking about how the two dolphins were such considerable doms, when they barely did any domming at all. A few orders in bed does not a D/s scene make.
Overall, fairly boring, and if this is your kink I'd recommend just skipping to the sex scenes.