Judith’s review of Safeword Davenport (Safewords #4) by Candace Blevins
Dana has never submitted to anyone but her husband — he trained her, taught her to submit. He’s been dead a year and a half though, and she’s beginning to consider the possibility of dating again. She sticks to vanilla at first, but quickly realizes she’s going to need more. As she’s considering the idea of finding someone who would enjoy hurting her without requiring her submission, her life is complicated by a Dom who pushes all of her buttons.
Safeword: Davenport is the first half of Dana’s story, it’s the personal part of her journey, and has a Happy for Now ending.
I have read quite a number of BDSM books in the recent months and found this one to be quite different in its tone and emphasis. The fact that the heroine is the widow of her one and only Dom, a very successful interior decorator who is working very hard to move on with her life. Yet she has come to recognize that there are aspects of her personality, her sexuality that are not going to be satisfied with a “vanilla” relationship. So her first few forays into the dating scene are very unexceptional and highly dissatisfying. Now she has met a man whose wife has died just about the same time as her husband. Both spouses’ deaths were accidental and therefore have been even harder to accept. Yet she knows that her much loved but dead husband would not want her to be “stuck” without finding happiness and a person who can meet her needs. She only has one problem: she doesn’t want to be in a usual D/s relationship. She needs the stress of the kink but she is fearful of submitting to someone new. It is a unique and difficult problem.
This story does indeed contain some very overt BDSM action and is filled with discussions of what that lifestyle means to its participants and how it meets their needs. It is first and foremost the story of a woman’s effort to find a new path in a world that has gone awry and dealing with the aftermath of her loss. She is dealing honestly with her needs but her fears are very much a part of the process. Only one man has ever been a part of her BDSM adventure and she is not sure that she can ever have that kind of relationship with another.
Those who are troubled by the BDSM lifestyle and way of looking at life and love might find this book helpful. It is definitely open and doesn’t back away from what that lifestyle means to those who find themselves involved and who need what it offers. This story, however, is one where two people are really working to find their way toward each other, are needing to come to honest understanding and compromise, whose discussions may be good in helping readers understand that those needing this kind of kink aren’t perverts. They do indulge in a very hidden way because general society has put the “taboo” label on anyone who seeks to live “outside” the box with their lifestyle and especially their sexuality.
I found this book to be a compelling and introspective read. It was looking at the BDSM way of life through Dana’s eyes, walking her life journey with her, and becoming emotionally involved in her struggles to understand herself and how she and her new lover can structure their lives and relationship. I think it is really worth reading and many will find it helpful, even entertaining. It is a very good love story.
I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.
The Series:
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Excessica Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book as well. I got very engrossed in following her journey. There is a sequel with the same characters that is an interesting continuation.