Heart of Submission
Claire ThompsonBDSM
Available from Romance Unbound Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61508-948-2
April 2010
| Kate Alexander is a successful erotic romance author with writer's block. Given a sizeable advance by her publisher to write a BDSM novel, Kate realizes she doesn't possess enough personal knowledge about the whips and chains experience to write a story that feels authentic. Her own brief foray into the world of submission turned into a disaster, when the man she offered her trust to violated it and humiliated her by calling her desires "sick games." Deciding she needs some real "hands on" instruction, she searches for events in the area and finds one taking place that weekend. More than a little nervous she signs up under her author name of Ashley and is immediately drawn in by the charisma and dominant will of the devastatingly handsome Master John, who promises to make her deepest, darkest fantasies come true.
Chase Saunders, the bondage master, is attracted to Ashley, but refrains from pursuing her when he notices that she has already committed to doing a scene with Master John. Chase senses a vulnerability in Ashley that he fears John might be all to willing to exploit, so he tries to keep an eye on her, but fails when his duty pulls him away. When he is finally free to follow up on Ashley again, he perceives she's in trouble and even though it is against the rules for one Dom to break up the scene of another, Chase doesn't hesitate to intervene. John resents Chase's interference and when the situation quickly comes to a head between the two Doms, Kate slips away, running scared. Chase tries to find her, but all he is able to get is her e-mail address. Knowing Kate is hurting, the Dom in him insists he reach out to her, but even though Kate liked and admired what she saw of Chase, she refuses to open herself up again to a world of hurt. The plot of Heart of Submission holds a deep personal appeal for me, and Claire Thompson exceeded all my expectations. I love stories with dominant alpha males interacting with previously wounded females who vow never to be victims again, but I have difficulty accepting how inflicted pain, such as whippings, could ever lead to pleasure. In Heart of Submission, Claire Thompson shows how submissive individuals can attain a personal nirvana when topped by a caring and competent Dom, and she does so by delving into this diverse sub-culture with a fully-developed, three-dimensional hero and heroine. Though Chase is a Dom, he is not perfect and has an understanding of his own flaws as well as Kate's fears. Through discovery and shared trust, these two characters seek to heal each other of their past wounds while admitting and addressing the needs of the other in a journey that is fraught with emotional land mines. I thoroughly enjoyed Heart of Submission, and didn't want to put it down. At the end, I emerged with a much better understanding of what "different strokes for different folks" really means. Whether you are new to the genre, or already familiar with all the different flavors available in BDSM, I think you will find something special in Heart of Submission, and I highly recommend you give it a try.
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Reviewer: Kathryn |
