I’ve previously reviewed the previous books in this series and for the most part enjoyed them.
So I had high hopes for this one.
You can guess what happened next…
So let’s get into it.
Maggie likes being a sub, it gives her a chance to escape from the stresses of her job and give up control on her terms. Especially since she needs an escape from the man who bought out her company, David. Unfortunately her escape is shattered when David shows up at a scene party. And worse he’s a Dom. What is a secretive sub to do?
If you guess get with the guy who runs her business, you’d be right.
Power dynamics are a tricky thing. In BDSM ultimately it is the submissive who has the power… They decide where the limits are and when to stop. That is the beauty of it. It’s what makes BDSM awesome.
The problem comes in when that power is shifted. Like say, for instance and I’m just spitballing here, the owner of the company who is also a dom demands that an employee of said company be his sub.
Do you see what is wrong here?
The sub’s ability to say “No” goes away because of outside repercussions. The hero essentially brings his power over her and the power he has over her mother into the relationship. The hero has a very unequal work contract with the heroine and rather than negating it and thus changing the differential he doesn’t. In a way, the heroine couldn’t say no… Not and expect her mother to be taken care of. So this book falls into pure dubcon territory.
In addition, I’d like to see the safe words actually used at some point. In four books they’ve been set, but not actually used. This doesn’t follow what I know of most scenes. Subs often use safewords especially with Doms they are are uncertain of (which if we’re being frank Maggie should absolutely be using them on David). They just feel like window dressing at this point.
I did like Maggie. I liked that she was fuller figured. But I wasn’t terribly into David. He never appealed to me.
Ultimately I didn’t love this book and in fact was really disturbed by it. As a person who’s been sexually harassed in the workplace it troubled me. The reason it doesn’t get a one star is because I sincerely believe the author didn’t see the power differential as being as unequal as it was.
So if a hint of dub-con is what you’re looking for this is a great book. But since it hit a trigger, I can only give it
Two Stars.
If this is your jam, you can get it here.
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