This is not a romance. This is not a pat little ending about me and Jonathan riding off into the sunset. I knew I was never destined for that, but no one warned me about the pain. No one told me about the hurt. No one told me what I’d risk for him.I’ll do anything to make it right. Anything. You think I won’t kill for him? You’re wrong.I have to earn my happily ever after, and we have to survive … have to survive it.
——
Previously released as Sing Coda Dominance
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Sing-Part 7 of 9: I’m not really a fan of what happened with Jonathan in this episode. It didn’t help that it lasted for the whole book. I prefer to see him strong and dominant, not pushed to background due to his condition. The rest of the story in this part was what carried the book for me. Finally the ex-wife gets what she deserves. Monica finally interacts with the evil father who pretends he isn’t evil. I’m interested in seeing what happens there. Will we see him show his true colors later? This ended in a way the author could have stopped at this book but I’m glad she didn’t because it would have been an underwhelmed ending. I have no idea where the story will go from here.
Coda-Part 9 of 9: The final conclusion to Jonathan and Monica’s love story. It was real and raw. It gave us a look at what struggles a married couple would go through after dealing with the aftermath of a heart transplant and a new career in the beginning of a marriage. There was no interference from the ex wife, the ex boyfriend or even the evil father. It was just them.
This couple went through a lot in the short time they have been together. I would have liked more fluff for their last book but I still very much enjoyed it. I’ve loved the whole series. I like these two and for the most part, I liked how they handled everything that was thrown against them.
I listened to the audiobooks for this series and the narrators were fantastic. This is one of the rare cases where I think the narrators enhanced the books. I highly recommend listening to them.
DOMINANCE-Part 8 of 9This is technically part 8 but it is really just extra pov’s for different parts of the timeline in this series. It’s worth the read to learn a bit more information, mainly Jonathan’s pov.
This series really blew me away, it has become one of my favorites.. Jonathan is the Dominant, alpha male you always have been dreaming of and Monica is the prefect submissive strong, vulnerable and compliant..
in this last book of the series, there is more ups and downs in Monicas and Jonathans relationship.. tragic situations that both are trying to survive and move on so they can continue living their love.. but sickness, tragedy, family and past keep trying to separate them.. So many lies still hidden.. is time for the truth to finally come out.. is time for Jonathan and Monica to be happy..
In Connection, i saw a very big change in Monicas character.. she felt stronger, less insecure.. more trustful and also i love how beside going into old habits and run away whenever thing got heavy.. she fought harder and stronger for him.. this time she wanted to be happy with the love of her life, her King her Sir her Master…
love the series, love the characters, Monica and Jonathans chemistry is OFF the charts, is hard to find such a chemistry in books but they really surpassed my expectations.. amazing!!
wonderful conclusion of the series, super recommended..
Holy Book Hangover! Love Monica & Jonathan and their story. Not ready to say goodbye to them just yet. Amazing series that is a must read!
This is Book 3 of the Submission Series – The Drazen Books
1. Sing
Jonathan & Monica’s story continues. Jonathan had damaged his heart when he was a teenager. At an event they had been at he collapsed. He needs heart surgery. They get really close when he’s in the hospital, telling each other about their lives, and getting to know one another, finally. Meanwhile, Monica is due to record her first record. Needless to say, she didn’t record her music. Things began to get very intense. She has big problems, too. This is a tear jerker of a story. It is very emotional as well. Then it jumps to two years later. She is a music star. Monica was worried that he would never be himself again. They are married. She is performing on her wedding day with her best friend, Darren and his band. There is a discrepancy between her and Jonathan about who is performing, which means her name. End of book 1.
2. CODA
This section is the story between the two years from the previous book. It tells in detail how Jonathan came back into himself. Jonathan & Monica together after the surgery. He tells of all the feelings he is going through, but he is not the Jonathan he was before the surgery. He’s missing something within himself. He feels like he is losing Monica. She has her own doubts. She’s always thinking what could happen to him after his heart transplant. After all, they only last for ten years or so. All the feelings that each of them go through are told. Then we come to the present. Will they be together fully again? Will they get rid of their fears? I guess you’ll just have to read this book to find out. I promise you it will be worth it.
3. A Valentine
This is Bonus Material about Jonathan & Monica
It’s six weeks after Jonathan’s transplant. Both of them are afraid to have sex because of Jonathan’s condition. He has been given the go ahead, though. He goes for his biopsy the next day, just to find out it’s Valentine’s Day, which he forgot. He made a plan for a romantic dinner. She had already made plans. Both of their plans were surprises. He ended up going home where she was. Finally, the sex issue wasn’t a problem anymore. It’s a cute little story; only four chapters.
4. Rachel
Rachel is the girl that comes up in the story of Jonathan & Monica. Jonathan knew Rachel way before he met Monica. This little story tells of the time when he was fifteen and she was not much older than him. This story involves Jonathan’s father. It is not pretty in the least. The story jumps back and forth from his engagement party with Jessica, to the past of him and Rachel. There was also the birthday party for Sheila, but they weren’t engaged yet. Jonathan and Rachel were seeing one another at that time. Rachel was there and she was talking to his father. He left with Rachel, but he was drunk, and doesn’t remember the rest of the evening. At his engagement part there was a hypnotist and he hypnotized him and everything came back to him. What an awakening it was. This brings to light the missing pieces in the book itself.
5. Breathe
This is a story that takes place before Jonathan and Monica had the baby. This story has to do with a singing coach who teaching her correctly. She had to learn how to breathe, such the title of this story. Monica goes through a rough time in this story. There are steamy scenes in the story, as in the whole series. She also needs to breathe with the things she does with Jonathan, such the title of the story, also. It’s a fascinating short story. I love it.
What a delectable anthology. I devoured Reiss’ words like tomorrow didn’t exist and if it were ever possible, fell even harder for two of my all-time favourite characters. I don’t know why I seem to start her books late at night. Maybe niggly interruptions are less likely to occur but for whatever the reason, I didn’t put the Collection down until I’d turned the last page.
For me, meeting up with Jonathan and Monica again was like going home after a long stay away. I’d seriously missed them so with Rachel’s first words, memories came flooding back. And I wanted more. Reiss never fails to deliver mouthwatering prose and her generosity towards these two incorrigible lovers who are simply meant to be, abounds.
‘I was letting him do whatever he wanted, because he was my king, and his voice let me know a king was precisely what I needed.’
Ooh my! Both are so tuned into each other that they left me speechless. Their ribbing, innuendos and Monica’s heartfelt doubts which I have no wish to divulge as they’re hers to tell, blew my mind. I couldn’t have enjoyed their honesty in and out of the bedroom more. Getting lost in their thoughts, humming do-re-mi…well, not only was I offered laugh-out-loud moments, but I never doubted Monica’s SUBMISSION to her gorgeous husband for one minute. He’s her king, she’s his goddess and together they are dynamite.
“You’re my goddess of light and beauty. You know that, right?”
Reiss has also included unpublished snippets of CORRUPTION. Flipping heck…remember Theresa and Antonio? If you’re like me and into Mafia reads, you know what you have to do. One of my top reads last year was PRETTY SCARS; Carrie and Gabriel are the couple to watch out for and Caden and Greysen in EDGE OF DARKNESS will bring out all the feels. Adam has a surprise up his sleeve for the love of his life, Diane…hmm, you’ll be able to discover if he can save their marriage in THE COMPLETE GAMES DUET.
But more to the point, what Reiss has accomplished is a very, but very titillating read with plenty of substance. She has taken her readers on a scorching hot journey right up to our beloved characters in lockdown. Haven’t one-clicked Collection: A Jonathan & Monica Shorts or any of the books mentioned yet? What are you waiting for!
These two are my favorite. Jonathan Drazen is sinfully dominant and unapologetic. Monica is his goddess and his wife. Together they are explosive.
“He was my sky. Through blood and breath, sin and sorrow, I was his sea,”- Monica
“He was my sky. Through blood and breath, sin and sorrow, I was his sea, and wherever the horizon was and the world ended, we were there, together.”- Monica
Throughout the entire “Songs of Submission Series”, I have been utterly captivated by the beauty of the language and the crafting of the intertextuality between the novellas and books in this series, Monica’s poetry/songs, and other culturally significant works of literature. The phrasing in the prose was lyrical and musical. The writing itself is expansive and cinematic.
Any lover of most subgenres of romantic fiction would enjoy the complex characters and their evolution through an intricate, elastic storyline which is most appropriately described as an epic love story.
“I was hers, and she was mine, and we only came close to the expression of the depth of it when I broke her patience, her resolve, her expectations, soothed her heart, and broke her again.” – Jonathan
For those of us who adore hot, filthy-dirty erotic sex with the seemingly forbidden dark element of bdsm, these books do not disappoint. The hero, Jonathan, is “six ways to Sunday” hot, beautiful, intense and Dominant male. The heroine, Monica, is beautiful, talented, an intrepid and passionate lover. Their erotic love scenes will hold you rapt with the fire and intensity of love’s true passion.
The dynamics of Jonathan and Monica’s bdsm relationship are like a sculptor’s artistic clay. This author creates a work of art and beauty with the intricacies of their love play and their love story like a sculptor molds sculpture.
The visual art between two of the books illustrated the straight line of horizon between “her sea under his sky”. This is very thought provoking. The “straight line that is the horizon dividing sea and sky is but an illusion”; of course, our earth is round, so in actuality it is a curved circular separation between sea and sky, not a straight line. I have pondered upon this imagery for a few days and it occurred to me that sea and sky never meet at the horizon. They interact with each other wherever the two exist. The sea gives up its moisture to the sky and the sky pours itself into the sea during the violence of a storm. Think Monica, the sea, evaporating into Jonathan, the sky, and Jonathan emptying himself back into the sea in the violence of a storm. Hmm…
During another unrelated discussion, I also discovered that thinking in a narrow straight line cannot fully involve the circular nature of our world, our life, the forces that shaped our beliefs, our very destiny. Straight line judgements and thinking are too simplistic and lack substance. The result of straight line thinking is that you base conclusions on something that is purely illusion.
My last thought was what lies beyond the earthbound horizon we see in our lives, may be wonders, glories and joys beyond the illusion that is mortal life.
I suspect that scholars of 21st American literature may overlook the true significance of this literature either dismissing it as women’s sexual entertainment, (I am putting this politely.) or, they are unreceptive to this work because of the salacious nature of the narrative.
The varied and complex psychological, familial, religious and societal elements that shape any one person’s sexual self are rich resources to mine for materials with which to create literature (art).
It is part of the human sensibility to create art to rise above the mundane. We don’t simply just live in homes and work in buildings that are functional, we design interiors and architects and landscapers create beautiful architecture surrounded by gardens. We don’t simply eat for nourishment. Chefs and expert cooks create dishes that delight the pallette. Visual artists bend the light with colors to delight the eye and convey heartfelt emotion and soul-seated truth. We produce organized sounds with different sound qualities, timbres and frequency of pitch to move us, motivate us and anchor our memories. We don’t just move, we dance. And so is it with sex; there are many flavors involved. We may hope as men and women of passion that we can elevate our sex life to something beyond a necessary bodily function. Writing a story to touch your heart, give you a new perspective as well as,entertain you by delving into an example of elevated sex life within bdsm and the totality of a bdsm relationship can be, and in this work, is a significant work of 21st Century American Literature.
After all, the subjects of many writings of the icons of English Literature were base, banal, flawed, violent and evil. The great William Shakespeare wrote some of the most bawdy material of his day. Even reading him in today’s cultural context, his bending of language for a bawdy joke is not unappreciated. Whereas, this saga of love has a purity of purpose in the end. I will not elaborate further, but I am sure it will be plain to you as you read to the finish.
The point of this in my review is to share my all encompassing delight in this tour de force of Ms. Reiss and contend while it entertains, it is as erudite as any recognized literary work for the lasting eternal message of true love and the many evolutions of a love affair, its challenges, its triumphs, the fears, the joys, meeting God in your love of each other…the gratitude for so precious a treasure. This series is simply not to be missed.