Clients call me Lexi. Naked is my super power, and I work it like a boss.
In New Orleans, pleasure is a public service and I’m happy to do my part. I know what women crave, and I help their men learn to give it to them-- with plenty of kinky window-dressing and an air of delicious command. It’s just a game men and women play, one that leaves everybody satisfied.
Until the day I’m dragged into court on a ridiculous charge.
Now I’m playing the game with Erik Jensen, Esq., the man who looks more like a sexy pirate than an attorney. Suddenly, the stakes are higher than I could ever have imagined. Because Erik isn’t the man I thought he was, and neither is the game.
If I win, I keep it my business, my reputation, and my formerly invulnerable heart. If I lose…well, I won’t let that happen.
But it’s getting harder to tell which one of us is being mastered and before long, a safe word is the only thing standing between happily ever after and a pair of broken hearts.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Evelyn Adams loves coffee, her kids, Netflix, and books. Not necessarily in that order. If she's not writing steamy romances, she's chasing kids, reading, or binging Mrs Maisel
*face palm* Ugh There are good things and very bad things here. My opinions won't mean a damn thing to this author or anyone in the least, but here we go... -Safe wording is not a sign of weakness. Safe wording does not mean someone wins or loses. Safe words are for all parties in a scene. SAFE WORDS DO NOT MEAN YOU "GAVE UP" It means you are aware enough to know what you want and need in that space. Alex's use of her safe word was for dramatic fictional intent. It does safe words the ultimate disservice. -Alpha subs are the equivalent of a "pick me". Alexandra's Submission is no more unique or special than ANYONE'S submission. It's a gift, treat it as such. -Her job. JFC. The amount of damage that 50 Shades and others like it, have done to the BDSM community is immeasurable. This book is a direct result too. -The idea that "Alpha Male" equals Dom is so absurd. The perpetuation is tired and dumb at this point. -Is the author aware that a D/s dynamic can exist in full without bondage or pain? 🙄 -The biggest reason I despise a lot of brats, is they always think they're smarter and more clever than everybody else and it's never the case. They're just insufferable. Alexandra is that fucking brat. Sarcasm doesn't make strong, sweetie. -They used a condom on the first pass and then went bare on the second, with zero discussion or consent. Fuck all the way off, Ms Adams. -Also using the exclamation, "Coming!" more than twice by itself is fucking dumb. Completely cringe worthy 😆
Don't let this horrible title keep you from reading this book! It is a RITA award finalist in the RWA Erotic division and it is erotic and romantic and sexy. It's a beautiful study in sexual tension. The couple doesn't actually do the deed until almost the end of the book, but I didn't miss it because the sexual tension was fabulous! This one also spoofs some of the cliche behavior often read in BDSM books -- "Your orgasms all belong to me!" "You must call me 'sir.'" "Don't look at me. Eyes down." This Dom isn't interested in all these silly rules, but he knows his stuff! I enjoyed the clever dialogue and sexy scenes. This one will leave you smiling.
I didn't care for this book, mostly because of how careless and self-absorbed both MCs were. I don't mind a book where people grow, but neither of them seemed to gain substantial insight over the course of the plot.
Lexi is a recent college graduate who has decided that despite not being involved at all in the lifestyle, she would be an excellent guide to men wanting to learn how to dominate women. She sets up a little bespoke business which straddles the line between providing instruction and being a professional submissive. The physical and emotional safety of the women who will later be playing with the men who have done one or two sessions with her and decide they're now full-fledged doms doesn't seem to occur to her.
Erik is a local dom and a lawyer and when he finds out about a woman who was injured by one of Lexi's clients, he decided to sue her. Not on behalf of the woman that was injured, but a junk lawsuit dredged up by him finding another business that has a similar name and convincing THEM to sue her (". . . [the] owner actually seemed to believe a professional submissive on the other side of the state had wronged the adult entertainment company he ran out of his garage. It took some legal massaging to justify the cease-and-desist, but I managed it"). I'm not a lawyer, but this certainly seems like a very creative application of legal ethics. If you're having to find the client, talk him into suing, and then use "legal massaging" to get a cease-and-desist, maybe you should have a sitdown and think about what you're doing. Later in the case, he tells us that his clients interests and wishes are irrelevant -- this lawsuit is about revenge:
Regardless of what my client wanted, settling wouldn’t suit my purpose this time. I shouldn’t even be thinking like that. Again with the emotions. Lawyers were supposed to get the best deal he could for their clients and keep their own crap out of it. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t going to be satisfied until the Gentleman’s Submissive was out of business. I wasn’t looking for just a punitive settlement; I wanted her gone.
Of course, when Lexi and Erik meet, he immediately decides that he'd rather be WITH her than sue her. But instead of dropping the bogus lawsuit, he hands it off to another lawyer at his firm and dives headfirst into booking her services and teaching her how to submit. So he's going after a sexual relationship with a woman WHILE his law firm is going after a case to not just punish her with a punitive settlement, but to completely shutter her business. And the fact that he masterminded this lawsuit with a reluctant client and that the eventual resolution he has planned has nothing to do with their best interests is really gross. When Lexi displays reluctance to enter into an economically motivated sexual relationship with him, he threatens to make the judge order her to do it even though he knows there is no chance of the judge doing that.
The entire book is structured in a gross way that doesn't feel very connected to any real D/S dynamic or ethics. Erik is there to "fix" Lexi, even if it involves stressing her out with lawsuits. There's no real follow up on the serious ethical gaps both of them had in their approach to others. Lexi is a cardboard thin "feminist" character who despite having a PhD in gender studies, apparently has never thought at all about the dynamics of D/S relationships so her entire inner monologue is tired banalities like "I'm a feminist, why do I like exciting sex?"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Well, this book was completely different from what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be erotica. What I got was pastry eating, tea drinking, some flogging, oral sex, and one actual sex scene. I really liked the concept of this story. I thought the build up was great. However, the story either needed to be longer, OR it needed to just be a novella and a lot of the junk in the middle needed to be cut. I did enjoy parts of the book, and I'm not writing off this author. This just wasn't what it was pushed as, and that was disappointing.
Dr. Alexandra Smithson realized that she might as well have gotten a degree in basket weaving because it's too specialized and specific; there are no jobs for her. So, she uses her knowledge to start a company where she trains hesitant men to become Doms. However, Erik Jenson is a real Dom, and he witnessed a guy go overboard at a club and get kicked out. He was screaming Lexi's name as he left. So, what does Erik do? Decide to punish Lexi's obviously clueless business practices by finding a film company with the same name and suing her business for copyright infringement. That'll show her for trying to teach wannabes improperly. He believes she's clueless!
Unfortunately, Lexi and Erik run into each other before the deposition and are smitten, so when they realize they are on different sides, it's a mess. Erik offers her a dare that she can't refuse: he'll take her class and see how she operates. Lexi, thinking that he won't go through with it, accepts. Only Erik does. And he's a real Dom. And Lexi has never had a real Dom before...
So, yeah...Doesn't that sound like a fantastic story? It does. But the execution was just all off. Too slow at parts. Just one actual sex scene, and the rest of the story was some BDSM spanking, Erick "training" Lexi, and some oral sex. You'd honestly get more romance scenes from a spicier regular romance novel. *shrugs* I'm still going to read the next book in the series because I do think there's potential here.
I enjoyed reading this story. It is a very easy read, and full of humour. Lexi (Alexandra Smithson) graduated with a masters degree in psychology, and a doctorate in gender studies, with the intentions of teaching, or writing a book that would change the world. Unfortunately, all the teaching jobs in her field were taken, and she needed to earn money to pay off her student debts, so time out to write a book wasn't feasible. Jobs were hard to come by, so she decided to set up in her own business, Gentleman's Submissive, in which she trained shy men to become dominant, a sort of BDSM lite, as she was aware that women were interested in the fantasy. She didn't actually believe that men could really dominate women. Then she gets served with a writ, to cease and desist, her business has the same name as a film company. She goes to meet up with her friends, and on the way into the bar she trips, and is saved from falling by a gorgeous man.
Lexi's friend Charlotte is a barrister, and agrees, reluctantly as she usually fights divorce cases, to represent her, and when they get to court they find that the barrister for the film company is none other than Erik Jensen, the man who had caught her when she tripped. After the case management conference Erik decides to turn down the case, leaving another solicitor in his company to deal with it. He is too fascinated by Lexi, and wants to teach her where she went wrong (someone she had taught had gone to a BDSM club and badly hurt a woman because he did not understand what he was doing, the actual reason for the writ.
The rest of the book is about their relationship, they both turn each other's worlds upside down, making both realise that the certainties they felt about relationships were flawed. We get a Happy Ever After, but it is hard won!
Sensuous story about the nature of domination and submission
Spoilers. Erik is a Dom’s Dom and he hates that there’s a woman teaching domination who has no idea what she’s doing. When they meet, Alexandra becomes curious about Erik’s interpretation of erotic dominance and allows him to demonstrate what attention from a real dominant is like.
So the book is a very sexy exploration of the nature of dominance and submission between two very intelligent, strong-willed people.
The first lessons are especially fascinating because he doesn’t even touch her and it’s still deeply erotic. You really feel his magnetism and the appeal of letting go with someone you trust.
If you have a friend who is curious about BDSM erotica but isn’t ready for something hardcore, this would be a solid choice because it’s as much about the sensuousness of the mindset as it is about the sex.
Two reasons why it doesn’t have 5 stars: I can’t believe that a woman with a PhD didn’t do more research about BDSM before opening a whole freaking business. She hadn’t even read deeply, and only consulted one person. That’s just not the way a gender studies expert would approach a topic. And I was disturbed by the fact that Erik’s civil-war-era plantation home was a part of a story about domination with no acknowledgement of the home’s very foundation in enslavement and power abuse of the most horrific kind. He was even a benefactor of a domestic abuse charity. It doesn’t make sense. Is the author oblivious?
Alex briefly meets Erik on a night out, then later finds out he’s bringing her to court & she could lose her Dom training business. He convinces her to let him pay for a session in order to prove her business is a good one, since she’s training Doms but doesn’t really believe people are subs or Doms at all.
I find it interesting that she doesn’t even hide the security code to her training area, considering safety is a must with her work. What he does in their meetings in order to prove her wrong is quite interesting...
“If she was the one submitting, why did it feel like I was the one being mastered?”
On the weekend they spend together, I didn’t like how all of a sudden it didn’t matter in the middle of the night if contraceptives were used (without prior discussion about this).
When she gave her safe word, it was definitely reminiscent of Pretty Woman.
I believe I got this book for free from a promotion in which there were over 300 free books, all from the romance category. Unfortunately, this book for me was a DNF (did not finish). It’s a shame really, as I try my best to get through a book but after reading chapter 3, I just had to give up.
I’m going to keep this short as I really don’t like slating anybody. I know how difficult it is to write a book, I’m trying myself and I’m still no where near publishing, so hats off to the author for getting her work out there. This book just didn’t work for me. Here’s the reasons why:
Constant switching of tense – past, present etc. This could be sorted with a decent editor Waaaay too many characters introduced in the first couple of chapters – Lexi, Erik, lots of Lexi’s friends, lots of Erik’s friends – I just couldn’t keep up Repetitive – Erik’s thoughts were just the same, no personality just sex. A full chapter pretty much about taking an antacid.
This is Deposition and A Dare, book 1 of the Saints and Sinners series, written by Evelyn Adams. Well....this is my first book that I have read by Ms Adams. I found the book to be very interesting and the characters were relatable. I enjoy books that are set in Louisiana, and this one is set in New Orleans. Will Alexandra be forced to close her business when she is served with a Cease and Desist letter? Alex sees Erik across a room and can’t fight her body from wanting to be near him. Well folks, guess who is going to ruin her career? This is a fast paced book that also deals lightly with BDSM. It’s hot and sweet and fun! Can’t wait for the next book in this series!
-hero is a lawyer trying to ruin heroine's business as he feels she is being irresponsible teaching people to be doms, he doesn't feel she knows how to do it appropriately. Described as tall, dark, handsome
-heroine is a professional submissive in that she teaches people how to be doms. They don't go too much into her teachings. Just a lil at the beginning. The rest of the book is about her really experiencing what it's like to be a sub.
Just meh, I wish her experience/background to teach dom was better and there was more confidence in her stance on teaching.
HEA, but the last couple pages were weird, maybe a set up for another book?
I liked this book. Didn’t love it or hate it. It was good. The only thing that annoyed me about the book, but this is the same in 80% of smut books, is the fact that they fall in love insanely fast. Like in this book, they barely had any conversations (which I am not complaining about lol), so how could they possibly be in love? They knew each other like less than 2 weeks?! But I did enjoy the Dom/sub aspect and how he blindfolded her walking down the street, the action in the car etc… It was nice that they didn’t actually have proper sex until the end of the book too, which was very rare but a nice change. Overall 3/5.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Don't let this horrible title keep you from reading this book! It is a RITA award finalist in the RWA Erotic division and it is erotic and romantic and sexy. It's a beautiful study in sexual tension. The couple doesn't actually do the deed until almost the end of the book, but I didn't miss it because the sexual tension was fabulous! This one also spoofs some of the cliche behavior often read in BDSM books -- "Your orgasms all belong to me!" "You must call me 'sir.'" "Don't look at me. Eyes down." This Dom isn't interested in all these silly rules, but he knows his stuff! I enjoyed the clever dialogue and sexy scenes. This one will leave you smiling.
WOW I found this novel refreshing, fun and a jolly good read. It approached BDSM from a different angle - pun intended! I am sure anyone who read this novel will agree with me. This author must have had a brilliant time putting this story line together, then getting it down on paper. Such a well worth read.
I read this book back in January, (one day) but waited to write a review until I had read the bonus content, which really wasn't very good in my opinion so only 3 *s. Feels Like Family. I didn't get any further. Sorry.
Any author that can create a sexy, yet thoughtful dominant hero who knows his way around a courtroom as well as the bedroom has me hooked. Alex's story is one many women can relate to in that being honest and true to oneself is not always easy. But the reward to allowing oneself to be vulnerable and "seen" is a connection like none other.
I enjoyed this read immensely....Erik climbs the ranks with some of my favorite heroes. Who could resist a man that focuses on nothing but his woman's pleasure and is an Outlander fan to boot?
I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the references to some pop culture and just some of the sense of humor was very similar to my own. I probably would have said this is one of my new favorite books but I felt like the ending was rushed and didn’t make that much sense. I felt like the resolution of the conflict should have been more than a few paragraphs especially with the characters personalities. I liked what came after. That was super sweet and made sense. Also the epilogue made little sense. I feel that was the point but still.
Well done Evelyn Adams, well done! I loved this story, an intelligent portrayal of two characters from opposite end of the spectrum and telling their story in such an intimate, intense way. It kept me flipping the pages and heavily invested in their journey to meet maybe in the middle. To find out if they did or didn’t read the book! You’ll be glad you did. Highly recommend this one.
I like the idea behind this book and there was plenty of steam but I can't get over how arrogant Erik was. The idea that he would expect Alex to trust him and submit when he started the whole relationship in anger really felt wrong to me. I'm going to try the next book in the series but this one left me disappointed.
I'm not a prude and your right, some people are dominate and some are submissive. Lawyers most generally have to be dominates otherwise they would get run over in court. I really don't know what to say about this book. Its sexy and juicy. Some parts pissed me off because they seemed degrading but sometimes true live requires give and take.
This book grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go!Now I am ready for the next one. I loved the characters, the city and the jobs they had.The storyline was unusual and I fell in and couldn't stop till the last page!
This is my first read of this author, and I was entranced from page one. There are equal parts of hotness, sweetness, and some laughter as well. Rest assured you will love this story!
Good read. Nice little plot with enough angst to keep things interesting. Characters were well suited, but I’d have liked more information about Juliet and the club that they never visit.
Loved the characters in this book Alex was a force to be reckoned with, but she definitely met her match in Erik, and he certainly met his match in Alex. The story unfurls into a HEA and is worth the read.
A great book with two main characters you would love to have as friends. She thought she understood power exchange enough to "teach" men how to be a Dom. Until she met a true Dom who slowly proved she could allow herself to experience submission.