CW: attempted sexual assault
I haven’t read a ton of romances with Daddy kink but the ones I have read have done it more along the lines of Stern Brunch Daddies. This one really leans into the “little” part of the DDlg kink. That’s not my kink but I enjoy reading about kinks I don’t have, even when I don’t understand them, because I like to see authors explore it and it’s refreshing to read about a kink that isn’t as prevalent in BDSM romance. At the same time, I tend to read those stories in a more anthropological way and so my enjoyment is less about the kink and sex and more about how the romance comes together.
Sable’s Santa Daddy spotlights DDlg in a way that seemed respectful of the kink and doesn’t spend much time on why people find it kinky. A lot of Sable and Jethro’s age play was out of my comfort zone: she wears a diaper, he has her wear a bib during meals, he gives her a bottle. He also gives her an enema a couple of times to clean her out and this is not prep but a part of their scene. Sable is always into it and that’s what matters. But they are 24/7 DDlg and I’m not sure how prevalent that is. It could be disconcerting for Jethro to treat this grown and accomplished woman like a little girl at all times but he was very respectful of her and did a great job with consent and also explaining what he was doing and why. More importantly, this is what she wanted.
Her parents are awful and she’s never had someone take care of her before so this was lovely. I did not understand why she maintained a relationship with her parents, especially to that degree, since she works for the family company and they own her apartment and car and can take away her trust. She doesn’t like spending time with them but doesn’t seem to recognize how enmeshed her life is with theirs. I did not at all agree with Jethro’s plan to “show Sable what her parents are really like” in order to help her sever ties because she does know what they’re like. And of course his plan backfires. This element of the plot felt out of character and over the top and really impacted my enjoyment overall.
The other thing I struggled with is that Jethro and Sable’s relationship begins after trauma and it’s not dealt with. An outside Dom visits the club and sexually harasses her, then is kicked out. He then sees her after she leaves and attempts to sexually assault her. She is resigned to having it happen when she can’t fight him off. The only reason she’s not raped is that Jethro happens to be in the parking lot about to leave and he hears a scream, finds them, and fights him off. That guy runs off and from there, Sable only wants Jethro to touch her and they basically immediately start their DDlg relationship, whereas before they’d only volunteered as Santa and elf at a community center together and barely interacted. It’s very instalove. While her attacker is tracked down and held for different charges, Jethro doesn’t tell her or let her decide if she wants to press charges. I found it odd that she didn’t ask what happened either but it’s also a normal response to trauma. But Jethro gets no such pass and of course that doesn’t play out well for him either, when she realizes he never told her. If an author is going to include sexual assault in their plot, it's essential to also showing healing and that did not happen here.
But what really took the cake for me is that they get engaged at the end of the book after knowing each other one week. And then in the epilogue we learn they got married a week after that. Because their relationship immediately began after the attempted assault, Sable didn’t have a chance to process what happened to her and that’s not healthy, nor is it the best foundation for their relationship. It made me worried for their long-term chances.
All this aside, I did enjoy reading it and I would certainly try something else from this author. It’s interesting to see littles front and center, even if I don’t share their kink. Jethro took such great care of Sable, which is exactly what she needed, even if I have reservations about the timing and how rushed it was. There were some hot scenes in this, especially the MFMM scene in the epilogue.
Character notes: Jethro is the 45 year old owner of a garden center and volunteer Santa. Sable is a 28 year old woman who comes from a wealthy family and works in finance. She’s a volunteer elf. They are both white. Jethro has two dogs named Marigold and Rhodie. This is set in Clover City.
CW: on-page attempted sexual assault (interfered before the perpetrator can rape the heroine), sexual harassment (countered), toxic parents, possible disordered eating (it’s not clear but she’s underweight when she comes to Jethro and Sable gains weight during their week together and she’s okay with that but there’s also references to her parents criticisms and what a normal meal should look like; Jethro “forces” her to eat more and she does not use her safe word), age play, dirty talk about breeding/impregnating her, kink-shaming (countered), male pejorative