This eBook collects all 4 novels in the Domestic Discipline Quartet. I've reviewed each separately; titles in bold, italics.
In the prologue, lifelong friends Hugh, Edwin, and Wesley witness Hugh's sister Eleanor being birched. Edwin and Wesley find this experience extremely erotic, while Hugh takes it as an opportunity to lecture his friends on the necessity of disciplining their womenfolk. Each book then follows the men's first-hand experiences with spanking, strapping, birching, and other erotic (and not so erotic) impact discipline practices.
Birching His Bride
Edwin looks forward to taking his bride, the unruly Lady Eleanor, in hand after they’re married shortly following Eleanor’s debut.
Set in an indeterminate historical period, this novel kicks off the interconnected Domestic Discipline series.
Overall, it’s clunky but steamy, and the spanking sequences enhance the steaminess.
Dealing With Discipline
The second book in the quartet adds two more POV characters, Eleanor’s brother, Hugh (Viscount Petersham,) and his bride, Irene. Theirs is a marriage of necessity - Irene’s dowry is land that adjoins Hugh’s holdings; the alliance grants the couple’s parents several advantages.
Irene is timid and withdrawing, so Hugh surmises he won’t need to introduce spanking, but as Irene comes out of her shell, so too does her confidence ...and rebellion.
This novel was quite head-hoppy (not a negative) but also frustratingly paced ... and the check-ins with Edwin & Eleanor delayed the action between Hugh and Irene. The subplot between Irene and her childhood crush, Alex, felt true to her character but shoehorned in to set up Alex’s book. Waiting two books for the payoff was ... unsatisfying.
Punishing His Ward
Wesley has been abroad for most of the past decade, so he missed his mother taking on a ward, the delightful, and disobedient, Cynthia. When Cynthia literally runs into his chest, she has no idea what she’s in for from the Earl of Spencer!
Wesley and Cynthia are very earthy, very horny beings whose push-and-pull, denial of attraction pairing makes for some high-steam bedroom scenes.
At this point, a more skilled writer could have worked an 8-strand braid more expertly than Golden Angel does, but her lack of skill is more than made up for in high-heat bondage & birching.
Claiming His Wife
In the weeks leading up to Wesley & Cynthia’s wedding in Bath, and the fallout from Irene’s social misstep in London, Alex has been working to win back his wife, Grace, who’s been earning a scandalous reputation over the past seven years thanks to an offhand comment Alex barely remembers having made.
This is the novel that manages to weave all 4 stories together, while still providing substantial tension and second-chance romance plot for Alex & Grace.
However, between the head-hoppiness and the flickering back and forth between the main story & Eleanor’s passive-aggressive attempts to get Edwin to tell her he loves her, it’s ... a mess.
Was it messy enough to put me off reading more Golden Angel novels? No.
But I will proceed with caution.