Whitley’s review of The Dominant (The Submissive Trilogy #2) by Tara Sue Me

Nathaniel West doesn’t lose control.

As the playboy CEO of West Industries, he governs the boardroom during the day; as a strict dominant with exacting rules, he commands the bedroom at night. He never takes on inexperienced submissives, but when Abigail King’s application comes across his desk, he breaks his own restrictions and decides to test her limits.

Abby’s combination of innocence and willingness is intoxicating, and Nathaniel is soon determined to collar her as his own. As long as she follows his orders and surrenders herself fully to him, no one will get hurt.

But when Nathaniel begins falling for Abby on a deeper level, he realizes that the trust must go both ways—and he has secrets which could bring the foundations of their entire relationship crashing down…

This was billed to me as a sequel, but it’s just an alternate POV of the very story that was covered in The Submissive.  The same time period, the same scenes, the same dialogue, the same everything.  It was a completely unnecessary addition to the series, because The Submissive did not leave any holes that needed to be filled.  Everything was neatly wrapped up and explained in the end, so this companion novel didn’t even serve the function of wrapping up loose ends.

That said, I enjoyed this story a lot more from Nathanial’s perspective than I did from Abigail’s.  Nathaniel had a much more engaging character arc and much more dramatic problems.  His issues were ones that had to be overcome, as opposed to Abby, who didn’t struggle with anything at all.  Nathaniel’s thoughts were sweet and deliciously angsty.  Over the top emotionality, but in such a fun way.  It made the book a lot more readable than the previous offering.

It took a nose-dive on the BDSM front.  I said in my review of The Submissive that I thought it’s greatest boon was that the negotiations happened off-page and therefore we were free to assume that they were both open and thoroughly satisfactory.  Unfortunately, Nathaniel fills us in on a lot of that process, and finding out exactly how unsatisfactory those negotiations were detracted a lot from any enjoyment to be had in the sex scenes.

A lot of what we hear from Nathaniel on the subject of BDSM simply doesn’t jive.  His greatest hangup throughout the novel stems from a basic misunderstanding of how BDSM works, when he assumes from the get-go that a submissive would not want an affectionate relationship.  He takes it as basic fact.  There’s points in the novel where he devoutly wishes for a way to openly talk to Abigail, without realizing that he can openly talk to Abigail, there’s nothing stopping him.  Although these issues get addressed, it’s just so bizarre to see them brought up this way in the first place from a character that supposedly is well-informed with ten years experience.  Nathaniel comes off, not as an experienced Dom who is part of an established community, but instead as an isolated play boy who’s getting all his information from a couple of porn sites.  He’s got a laundry list of facts that are right, but he acts like the scene itself is all he knows about, and he’s consistently surprised by what many would consider normal to the relationship part of BDSM.

He even has very narrow attitudes towards the practice, going so far as to assume that it’s a set lifestyle that can’t be altered or tweaked.  He gets upset at the idea of punishing Abigail without even a hint of recognition of the fact that he doesn’t have to.  There’s no rulebook to BDSM.  He could make up non-physical punishments or just ignore that aspect entirely, but instead he forces both of them through an act they don’t like because he believes it to be required. He comes off as very new and very uninformed, which would be fine if we were reading the story of a new Dom and his sub, but he’s supposed to be the expert here.

Overall, it was an improvement on the character front, but a downgrade on the BDSM.  It shared in all the pacing and consent problems of the first book, but it provided a much more entertaining bang for your buck.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Series:

This title is available from NAL.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Whitley’s review of The Submissive (The Submissive Trilogy #1) by Tara Sue Me

Abby King has a secret fantasy.

New York knows Nathaniel West as the brilliant and handsome CEO of West Industries, but Abby knows he’s more: a sexy and skilled dominant who is looking for a new submissive. Yearning to experience a world of pleasure beyond her simple life as a librarian, Abby offers herself to Nathaniel, to fulfill her most hidden desires.

After only one weekend with the Master, Abby knows she needs more, and fully submits to Nathaniel’s terms. But despite the pleasure he takes in Abby’s willing spirit, the Nathaniel hidden behind the rules remains cold and distant.

As Abby falls deeper into his tantalizing world of power and passion, she fears that Nathaniel’s heart may be beyond her reach—and that her own might be beyond saving…

In The Submissive, the cover summary tells you exactly what to expect.  Abby King becomes infatuated with a rich businessman named Nathaniel West, and when she pursues him, he offers her only kinky sex in return.  As they boink their way through every available flat surface in sight, Abby learns about her untapped unorthodox desires, and Nathaniel develops emotions that he doesn’t know how to deal with.  If all that sounds oddly familiar, it should.

This book, like many others these days in the post-Fifty Shades of Grey world, started out as Twilight fanfiction.  This book actually inspired FSOG, so it came first.  The similarities between the two works are obvious, both in the set-up, the various relations of each of the characters, and the progression of the story.  It’s almost impossible for me to read this book after reading FSOG and not compare the two.

This book circumvents a lot of the problems many people had with FSOG by being vague.  Where the other book failed by attempting to show the negotiation process and bungling it terribly, The Submissive allows that all to happen off-page, before the story even starts, so one can assume that all parties were properly informed and all issues properly discussed.  Abby shows up in the book already knowing about the kinky proclivities of her beaux, already curious about them, and already eager for them.  In many respects, it’s a well done form of fantasy: a man who knows all your desires instinctively, who can circumvent awkward and difficult conversations by just knowing what you want before you even know it yourself.  Bad news if something like that happens in real life, but a nice escapist fantasy now and then.  It was set up just vague enough to work.

That’s not to say it was without problems, however, and the problems were doozies.  Such as when Nathanial completely ignores Abby’s “soft” limits and treating them as mere suggestions that he can dismiss.  The fact that he admittedly uses safeword blackmail, telling her that using her safeword will put a halt to the relationship entirely and not just the scene.  The treatment of safewords in this book in general is pretty sketchy, such as when Nathanial claims he’s never had a sub use one before, as if having that happen would count as some sort of personal failing on his part.  (Word to the wise: leg cramps exist, safewords aren’t just used for when you decide you don’t like BDSM anymore, and any Dom that views safewords as a personal failing is not a Dom you want to play with.)  Also, also, they weren’t roleplaying; there’s never a point in any of their scenes where “no” or “hold up a tick, these shackles are cutting off my circulation” would be taken at anything other than face-value.  It’s like the whole safeword issue was stuck in for drama’s sake, not because of any of the reasons people actually use safewords.

The biggest red flag, for me, came when they were renegotiating their relationship and discussing how often Abby would wear her collar.

“if I want to have sex on a [non-collar day] and you’re not in the mood, I want you to feel free to say so.”

Implying that she can’t say so on their weekend, scene-having days?  Not what I would call Safe, Sane, and Consensual.

On the whole, the BDSM was presented…better than average, but still a fantasy more than realistic and not without its red flags.

On every other level, however, the book failed pretty hard.  The first sex scene came on page 15.  15!  It’s like having your partner ask if you want a sexy evening together, and as soon as you say yes, he’s trying to pork through your pants.  I did not have enough time in this book to get teased, titillated, seduced, or even interested.  Then the sex scenes simply didn’t stop coming.  I didn’t have a chance to get to know anyone involved, because they were too busy boinking on every available surface, leaving little page time for any relationships to be set up.  Now, I like sex.  I like reading about sex.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have picked up an erotica.  But if I just wanted to experience flat, soulless, nearly nameless characters bumping uglies over and over, I can easily find that visual on the internet.  I expect my written porn to get me a bit more emotionally invested.

The ‘romance’ aspect of the book failed pretty hard as well.  I didn’t get the feeling that Nathanial was ‘damaged’ or ‘broken’ or anything of the sort, because he was too blunt and robotic to display any personality at all.  I didn’t understand how Abby was supposed to be ‘breaking down his walls’ because she didn’t do anything around him except spread her legs, and they barely had any conversations at all until the end.  After the complication and subsequent turning point, things did a complete 180.  Nathanial didn’t just realize his issues and promise to be better; he turned into a different character.  It was like a switch was flipped, and suddenly they were in a (mostly) healthy relationship.  A pretty cute one, at that.  Still, it was disappointing to not get to see some actual drama in this story.

Rating: 2 out of 5

This title is available from NAL Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format.