Judith’s review of My Liege of Dark Haven (Mountain Masters #3) by Cherise Sinclair
Threatened by university cutbacks, Professor Abigail Bern’s only hope is to publish a provocative research paper–soon. Planning to covertly observe behavior in the notorious Dark Haven BDSM club, she takes a receptionist job. When the owner calls upon her to assist in a demonstration, she’s appalled. Then fascinated. Under the unyielding hands of the master known as my Liege, she discovers a need to be more than an observer.
His late wife had been the center of his life, and Xavier Leduc wants no other. But when his new receptionist does her utmost to keep an emotional distance from him, he’s intrigued and digs deeper. She’s adorable. Intriguingly intelligent, beautifully submissive, sweetly vulnerable. He soon realizes her defenses are keeping her on the fringe of her sexuality–and her life. As he draws her into fuller participation, she unconsciously does the same for him. She begins to fill his world.
Ever since the night she met my Liege Xavier, Abby has questioned everything she believes about herself. She’s falling for the stern owner of Dark Haven and thinks he’s beginning to care for her…until the day he learns why she’s in his club.
Let me start by stating that I have read every single book that this author has released. She writes with a deft hand, telling the stories of these characters in a way that brings them alive on the page, making the reader so aware of them as people that one would like to meet them someday. It is apparent from the author’s website that this characteristic of her writing grows out of the fact that they are indeed alive in her mind. Fascinating.
This characters is taken from the novellas that appeared in two previous anthologies about Dark Haven, a BDSM club in San Francisco. In both previous stories, Master Xavier, or My Liege as he is called by all who are a part of his club’s membership, exudes a natural dominance, a sense of personal power that not only is apparent to the members of his club but which is also evident in his dealings with people in his everyday profession. But wrapped in this dominant human being beats a heart that is compassionate, caring, and empathetic. He has built his Leduc Industries around the desire to help women who have been abused, abandoned, burdened with children they can’t support, with no employment skills, lacking the simple skills of reading and writing. All his businesses are designed to employ these women and give them an opportunity to excel and find a better life for themselves and their children.
But all this is unknown to Abigail Bern when she tentatively enters Dark Haven, the club where her now-ex boyfriend was a member, a place where she is hoping to observe the relational dynamics of the individuals who are finding what they need in the BDSM community. What starts out as a scientific journey of observation gradually turns into a new kind of potential relationship for both Abby and Master Xavier, a man who is still grieving the loss of his wife and D/s partner. Now he is training submissives, dating multiple women, and committed to none. Yet Abby manages to worm her way into his consciousness to a degree that is uncomfortable and in ways he has not experienced since before his wife died. On Abby’s part, she was terribly opposed to any kind of D/s interaction with her former boyfriend and it was her refusal to play any kind of BDSM games in the bedroom that was at the root of his breaking up with her. Yet when Master Xavier begins to exert dominance in his gentle but non-negotiable style, Abby finds that she can submit without the feelings of unease she felt when Nathan wanted to dominate her.
Written with her characteristic realism, this author brings us the back story and on-going life journey of a man who needs to move beyond his wife’s death, whose own heart is needing the love of a good woman, whose needs for commitment and security and trust go far deeper than he is even willing to confront. For Abby, she must deal with a destructive and self-centered stepsister, with her own insecurities about her future as an academic, and her feelings of inadequacy as a woman, especially one who has been continually called “fat” by her cruel stepsister. Her journey toward claiming the inner strength she possesses but has never actualized is a very important part of this story. The road to true love does not run smooth for these two, and involved in this story are some of the updates of characters who appeared in the first two books in this series as well as the Dark Haven anthology novellas. Readers who are Sinclair fans as well as those who enjoyed the Dark Haven anthologies will be pleased to have Master Xavier’s story expanded and see him struggle with life issues as he is falling deeper and deeper under the spell of this gentle but demanding woman.
I loved this book and have already read it twice. There is a lot to learn about human nature as we vicariously see something of ourselves in the men and women in fiction. Those of us who have never had model-perfect bodies can empathize with heroines like Abby Bern, with her worries about her shape, her weight, her appeal to a man as worldly-wise and sexy and Xavier. But like Abby, growing beyond those insecurities is what maturity is made of and yet we can feel Abby’s worry as if it were revisiting our own. This is another compelling look at the BDSM lifestyle set in a club setting that is probably styled like one that exists in San Francisco and written by an author who knows what she is talking about–who is terribly concerned that anyone who considers this lifestyle remember the watchwords of “safe, sane, and consensual.” Her author remarks are directed toward the safety and well-being of her readers. If you have read other Sinclair books, you will probably love this one, too. If you are new to this author, I urge you to read this and others she has penned. You will gain a new and probably far more positive view of the BDSM community and lifestyle than you have had in the past.
I give this book a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
The Series: 
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Loose ID. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
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