Detective Atticus Ware gave up Idaho to start again in the California mountains, close to his imprisoned brother. Although he’s found good friends, the experienced Dominant wants more than the “do me” submissives flocking around him. He needs a woman to give her heart as well as her body.
After Virginia Cunningham exhausts herself propping up a failing relationship, she accepts a social worker … social worker job far, far away in a California prison. Invited to observe BDSM classes on a wilderness camping trip, she’s shocked—her fiancé had insisted BDSM was a fabrication to sell books. But when Atticus lures her into participating, she learns submission under the hands of a powerful Dom is beyond anything she’d imagined. Nonetheless, she can’t permit a relationship—she’d just lose herself again.
Finally, Atticus has found the woman he wants in his life. In his bed. In his cuffs. Only she keeps backing away. Well…if he has to help a little counselor get her head on straight, he’s just the Dom for the job.
more
4.5 stars. One of my two favorites in this series!
I found this book to be of a proper balance of relationship-development and action/adventure which is hard to do within this series’ specs. I wanted to see a little more of Atticus Ware, and boy, did I get it!! And Cherise Sinclair picked a wonderful female protagonist to balance him and his predilections which isn’t very easy. I liked the excellent weaving of our previous characters in this series as well as the introduction of future folk (yay!) in future tales! (I only hope!)
When it comes to characterization, I think Cherise Sinclair did her best in this novel with both Atticus and Gin, but especially Gin. I appreciate the discussion of the difficulties experienced by psych folk, especially in a prison situation. Trust me when I say this, but male prisons aren’t a place for any woman. I had been offered a position as chief medical officer for a state penitentiary, and the best advice I got was from my great-uncle… NO! His issue? Safety period. Unfortunately, not enough has been revealed to the public of the abuse of psych staff by prisoners and prison officers. (NOT KIDDING!) Too much about litigation, cover-ups, budget problems, etc. Sure, I think all prisoners should get help. The problem is that safety isn’t enforced to the letter. (For both sides, really.)
As in most of Sinclair’s books, a particular fetish is often emphasized. I wish more emphasis had been given to suspension and shibari. (Thus the half-star deduction.) She normally goes into more of the psychosomatic points of each fetish, but in this one, it was missing.
I only wish I could read more about these two, but so far, that isn’t Sinclair’s style. One can only dream…
Ratings (out of possible 5)
Character building:
World building:
Relationship building:
Romance:
Heat/steam:
Drama:
Action:
Suspense:
Dark:
Triggers: Kidnapping, physical attacks, prison systems.
POV: Multiple (2)
Ending: HEA
Length: Approximately 232 pages
Recommend: YES
Thank you, Liz K, a reviewer on Amazon!
Virginia is a therapist who relocated to California after her life imploded and started treating inmates at the local prison. Aticus is a detective who relocated to be closer to his brother who is incarcerated after making a terrible mistake. He is a dom and he hasn’t found his perfect mate until he met Gin. They have this explosive attractionbut both have issues that could very well keep them appart this heartwrenching story, will keep you on edge always guessing what Atticus will come up with for Gin. It will take a dramatic escape and hostage taking for these two to realize the obvious. I volunteered to review this story.
Cherise Sinclair is an amazing writer! Her stories pull you in with her very believable characters. Anything written by her is a must purchase for me!
Wow, these books really draw you in and get your imagination firing on all cylinders.
Hot and sexy with real life issues to deal with and a few bad guys. Just perfect.
So many characters from other books and another series, but none of these take anything away from the main 2 characters. I love how this author can keep you up to date with characters from previous books. She doesn’t just write a character and then leave you hanging for more of them in the future. Well I would like more, but some appearances in other books is great. Makes me want to do a re read.
Anything by Cherise is a Five Star read!! Love her books!!
I think I’ve said this about the last few books from Cherise but I love that they shows the characters in their jobs and lives away from the Dom/Sub situations. I know these books are fiction but they are written so it feels like you are reading real life situation that could really happen. I love that about Cherise’s writing. The characters all have flaws even the Dom’s which makes it so much more real. Virginia, “Gin,” job a prison psychologist defiantly showed the scary side of what that job would entail. It was also nice to see that even though Gin was a psychologist and was good at seeing others problems she wasn’t very good at identifying her own and needed some help. Atticus was a perfect Dom for her. He too had a few issues that needed to be worked through but had to problem owning up to any mistakes he made with Gin and apologizing. Never a dull moment with the bondage scenes, the prison scenes that had plenty of drama and suspense, and then getting to catch up with all the Mountain and Dark Haven characters.