It's amazing to see how ppl reacted differently to this book. First of all, it's not for everyone, it isn't something that you have read before, that's for sure Second, I thought it was amazing. It's not the same chance encounter with a naive woman and a Dom that gets her off her feet and into a world that different from what she has known. It's about the main character rediscovering herself and actually seeing how as time passed she had let her true self go dormant and hid dent under layers of protection. Jeremy isn't your average guy either, he is what he is and he also is who Alex has always loved and fell for. Which is why she never doubted himThere were never need for save words and no one was doing anything against their will. If you actually read the book you should have noticed that. Anyways, I liked it and I can't wait to start reading the second one. My problems: the book didn't have nearly enough in terms of prior-to-kink discussion. That's a problem in a lot of these stories that try to explore BDSM without making it clear that the people inside of the romance understand the seriousness of it. Especially with how this book works out, I think it's a freaking shame that the story took the path that it did - a great concept left me a little unconvinced because of how much the hero did not tell the heroine about the kink beforehand, and it's always important to tell someone about your intentions as a Dom and to make sure that consent is totally understood. Consenting to one action (in this case: being blinded) is not consenting to any other potential activity within BDSM. There are also no safe-words to substitute the lack of in-depth discussion beforehand, which is another problem because the sub is supposed to have that level of power. Bloome briefly recognizes that but then turns it away, and that's a part of BDSM psychology that's totally lost in the narrative as a result.There is also a huge gap in the heroine's acknowledgement of her stagnant marriage and family. I think that needed more direct discussion, too, and the ending was a cop-out to me in how it attempted to make the cheating "okay" when I didn't feel like the heroine's emotions were strong enough to justify it happening without a lot of internal conflict. My praises: the writing was intriguing with the first-person narrative. The character is a little formal and uses more exclamation points than the average person, but not an excess of them. It's a writing style that works well for this type of story and is fittingly intellectual considering the heroine's place in academia. The heroine and the hero had a unique history coupled with periodic moments of backstory that served to give the narrative a kinkiness to it, and the story itself had as much pampering of the heroine as it did hot sex. Some of the erotic language left me cold, but other times it was really sexy and got me going. I think the ending explores a level of kink that actually surprised me in how effective it was at engaging the reader in the heroine's pleasure, and the author's connections to sexual pleasure, depression, and sensory perception were worth the characters long dialogues about said topics. Frankly, the story was also just addictive. I kept reading even when I was bored. I flew through the pages. I have no proper explanation for this save for the knowledge that the book hooked me because of the way it tried to connect all of these things, and I'm curious to see how the author continues to explore the erotica/academia balance that she's started. The ending is a cliffhanger - totally not an epilogue to read if you decide you don't want to read on in the series - and promises a story that could fall into the suspense category, but this first book is squarely the hero and the heroine interacting, renewing their lover-and-friend relationship, and exploring BDSM play. It is one I would give to readers just coming off of 50-Shades or a similar work, but I don't think longtime erotica readers will find the kink amazing enough to plod through some of the other aspects. I'm new enough to it that I will probably read the other two books, as my curiosity is piqued.
What do You think about Oyuna Var Mısın? (2012)?
Did not finish - too far out there for me.
—MelonEttie
