I have been to Oz before. Not only did I grow up with Dorothy, I've also read Wonderland 1-4: King of Hearts, King of Spades, King of Diamonds and King of Clubs. Lord Kir of Oz does stand alone, though it coordinates with the others. I have to admit, it took some adjusting for me to accept the Dorothy that I know ending up in Cheyenne's and Mackenzie's version of Oz. I finally had to suspend my belief and give sixteen year old Dorothy permission to be a fictionalized adult shadow of the Judy Garland Version (and no relation at all to Frank Baum's nine year old Dorothy.) Once I got Garland out of my head--or mostly out--I was a little more tolerant. Still, I really had trouble pinning down my issues. I don't know if it was the different pacing, or the occasional nod to the original (movie version) without a tight parallel, or that the elements that were kept were different from what I would have kept, and the elements that were not kept were different as well. This is a subjective reaction I doubt anyone else will have because--face it folks--I'm an opinionated misanthrope. But on to the story...

Lonely twenty-five year old Kansas farm girl Abby (nee Dorothy Abigail Osborne) dreams of somewhere else, then finds herself there when the tornado whisks her away--in her car. Her little dog Toto is a wolfhound named Otto. Aunt Em is renamed Maye, and Uncle Henry is deceased. The magical characters from Dorothy's Kansas life (who are redreamed in Baum's Oz) are absent in Abby's. In spite of the mention of Emerald City and the Yellow Brick Road, this is Cheyenne and Mackenzie's Oz. The one who finds her is the shape-shifter King Kir; and because Abby is injured, he takes her to his Emerald City, an underground cavern studded with emeralds set in glowing moss. His sulfur pool, complete with healing amoeba, tends the wounds from her accident. And everything is wonderful.

Until she wakes up. And then Abby has a lot more to worry about than being twenty-five and bored on a desolate farm.

This is a graphic visit to the BDSM land of Oz, where there are shape-shifters, telepathy, were-fins, magic, and an evil wizard (Balin) out to destroy Kir. Kir has a brutal Dom attitude which goes against Abby's independent Midwestern grain, and she has a real talent for puzzling him just as he thinks he has her under control. Their tempestuous and very sexual relationship is never at a standstill. For Cheyenne McCray and Mackenzie McKade, this is a fitting book to continue the series. Smoldering, teasing return to Oz.

Reviewed by Maitresse
Copyright August 2006