Advanced Reading Copy
Published: August 29, 2013, Bethany Bazile
My rating: 3.5 of 5 ⭐
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What Kylie Weber does best is seduce men, but she never lets them in her bed. She just makes them think they can get there. Only once before did she allow someone in her heart and her bed, and that didn't end so well. So now, all she does is what is expected of her......she leads men on, in order to get from them what Mason wants. Mason has controlled her every move for years and she doesn't know how to break away.
Immediately when she catches his eye, Jude Baxter knows that there is something special about this girl. Sure she is gorgeous, and she is also apparently here with another man, but the way she looks at him stirs something inside him. When a few days later he bumps into her again in the elevator in his hotel, he starts to think this may not be a coincidence and decides to grab the opportunity to find out more about her.
Kylie is overwhelmed by Jude. Accustomed to being in control of her contact with men, she is completely out of her element when Jude immediately grabs firm hold of their connection and dominates every inch of her. Not having any experience other than her one disastrous love, Kylie is stunned by her own response to the extreme demands Jude places on her and her body. She loves every minute of it.
So much so. that her end objective is easily shoved to the back of her mind, while she is enjoying every new exploration Jude introduces her to. Jude himself is not left unaffected either. Normally keeping his encounters strictly sexual, he finds himself fast becoming emotionally entangled with this mysterious beauty and quickly starts overstepping boundaries he himself usually puts up.
When Mason becomes impatient for results and starts hounding Kylie, the pressure on her becomes visible and Jude begins to ask questions. Torn between her feelings for Jude and her fear of Mason, Kylie tries as long as she can to hold off both men to the best of her ability. But when threats start being issued, and a shocking confrontation takes place, she realizes she may have made the wrong choice after all.
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A very interesting storyline!! I really started enjoying it, once I was about one third into the book and started getting a bit of an idea of what was going on. The twist at the end was one I had honestly not seen coming, but probably should have in hindsight. It made the whole book make more sense and was very clever.
I had a few question marks regarding the validity of Jude as a Dom, wondering if a real Dom would so quickly subject an innocent, unexperienced girl, into such an overt BDSM scene. No real discussion beforehand, just quickie sex turned into a dominant/submissive scene, somewhat forced. That didn't sit too well with me. From Kylie's point of view, that is rather circumspect as well, seeing as she is supposed to be innocent and all vanilla, up until that point, and yet completely goes against all she has stuck to for years and gives herself sexually to a 'mark'. Not just gives, but completely submits.
Despite the rather choppy start, as the story progresses, the ongoing D/s exploration starts fitting better. The storyline starts feeling better too. The whole flow of the story now feels smoother, as if it is more coherent and leading up to something important. The description of each character's slow emotional involvement is believable and nicely done and seeing especially Kylie blossom, is very satisfying.
The erotic scenes, of which there are plenty, are well described, stimulating and at times intense. But these too, as does the rest of the book, improve in the second half. Perhaps it is the involvement of feelings at that time, I don't know, but it gives the sex scenes that trust that is needed to heighten the experience I guess. Even for the reader.
✨An interesting and titillating plot, a good read.✨
**ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the author in return for an honest review.**
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