Katie Snow is content worshipping her object of lust from afar. After all, Jack isn't merely a crush, he's also her boss. And office romances are trouble. When Katie accompanies Jack to a weeklong conference in Rio, she's sure she can control her libido--until she discovers her boss's dominant nature extends beyond the boardroom. What's a good submissive girl to do? Embarking on an intense affair, Katie falls deeper into the pleasure of Jack's demands--deeper into the man himself. His will is her command, every correct move rewarded with praise that she comes to crave. But suddenly Katie is caught in a vortex of conflicting emotions and doubt when a flash from Jack's past enters the picture--in the form of a dramatically gorgeous ex. How can Katie compete? How could she have allowed a short, sultry affair to turn into love? Out of her depth, Katie's heart is suddenly in more danger than her spankable behind. Something tells her the Big Book of Submission won't help her this time.
Okay, there is a lot about this book that I really enjoyed. The first was the first person point of view. I don't always enjoy it, but Del really captured Katie's voice here. I felt not only like I knew her, but I really understood why she was willing, yet reluctant to submit to Jack.
And Jack is just too yummy for words. I love a Dom who isn't hard as nails all the time. Both he and Katie came alive for me and I wanted them to work everything out so they could be happy.
Okay, so I have some squicks about 24/7 "lifestyle" BDSM. And this book is not about that, but skirts close enough to trigger me, particularly because the hero is the heroine's boss and also she has some serious insecurity issues (though she's well aware of her own professional competence).
But this book explores the complicated psychological and logistical issues involved in a kinky relationship. I especially liked how both h/h want to make sure that they can build a relationship between people not just interlocking kinks and conflicted about the degree to which they are their proclivities and how to make peace with that while also trying to be more than just their kinks to one another.
Well-written with good characterization, which is only proved by my twinges of discomfort. Also, Dryden does a good job depicting the almost-indescribable feelings-emotions-urges evoked in BDSM participants, and possibly a better job making her intelligent characters fumble with language in their attempts to articulate the aforementioned.
Funnier than I was expecting. I liked the characters and that the story and their relationship made sense. (Supervisor/Supervisee romances can get ick quick, but this one acknowledges the challenges and deals with them in a way that satisfied me.)
This is on the erotica end of the romance spectrum, but it spent enough time on character and relationship development that it kind of reminded me of a spanking and bondage heavy category romance.
Overall, I enjoyed it and would be happy to read more by this author.
A solid love story, hitting a few of my sweet spots - unrequited love, workplace romance and Dom/sub. The angst and drama was a little over the top for me, but I enjoyed the story regardless.
So regretful this languished in my TBR for so long (though admittedly I've been pretty meh about the Dryden books I've read previously, didn't like the Carina series). There was great integration of the emotional and the sexual parts of both the narrative and the characters' relationship, I laughed out loud a couple times, and while the ending was a bit too "this is what is needed in order to end a romance narrative"-ish, I loved how the relationship itself was developed on the characters' own terms and based in their own personalities. So good.
I really think I could have enjoyed this more if it wasn't in first person. The cover was a little misleading... There wasnt a leash in the whole book and the BDSM was a little on the lite side. Not that it's a bad thing, as i never try to fault a book for the level of heaviness in regards to BDSM amounts. Just sort of expected a bit more than just a couple playing at it... But still it was a good read.
This author writes some good character. I did not like the boss-employee aspect, but it provided some good tension at the beginning. The sex scenes were numerous which detracted from the steam. I also thought the relationship was better at the beginning when it was more balanced. It was a little over the top later.
Hmm...I have a variety of emotions after concluding this book! Most of my thoughts are positive and for as good as this story was, the conflict and its resolution at the end left me aggrevated! Don't want to spoil anything so I'll conclude by saying it was just ok for me. Not the best I've read but by no means the worst...simply somewhere in the middle.
Enjoyable BDSM book. The conflict at the end seemed contrived. The whole book was a bit distant, I never got very emotionally involved in the characters.
Nice to have a relatively experienced sub, though this was still slightly preachy at times; not too overdone. I don't generally like workplace romance, but this was not bad. good relationship development. The big conflict at the end was somewhat irritating.
A very enjoyable read! I just adore Jack, there is just something about his character that just drew me in from the beginning. No wonder to why Katie fell in love with him. :)
This was a pretty good book. I need a little more conflict in my stories to really get into them. There was really no conflict until the very end. Excellent character development and decent story.
Loved this story. The writing just flows, the secondary characters leap off the page and the author assumes a reasonable level of intelligence from her readers!
Boring. If you want information on D/s relationships, go read or listen to Dan Savage. This book is half that with some environmental conference trappings and surprisingly vanilla sex for the theme.