Review: Tacked on and Cheesy BDSM Play Gets a Pass (C Grade)
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
Megan Connors has it bad for youngest partner at the law firm, lawyer hottie, Adam Wentworth. Megan decides she'll seduce the alleged playboy and have one night of hot sex with him in order to help her get over her trust issues with men, and with sex in general because of being raped when she was a teenager. She literally bumps into Adam and flirts with him, which he finds strange because Megan has always been the quiet type and never went out of her way to be too friendly with him before. They share a kiss, and now Adam is more than intrigued by this seductress. After offering to drive her home, she asks him up to her place for the sole purpose of having a one night stand with him. Adam accepts, not realizing it's for one night, and after a hot session of sex, he wants to date Megan, to her shock and dismay.Adam is frustrated that Megan holds back emotionally from him, but is more than willing to act on their physical attraction for one another although she refuses to have sex in her bed or even allows him to sleep over in her bed. Megan has bed issues when it comes to being intimate with a man that's explained as the story progresses. He takes his time with Megan and courts her, as well as pushes her limits sexually by trying a few BDSM techniques with her that has always interested him. Megan is soon falling for Adam, and she wants more from him, but she's still uncertain how to proceed because he doesn't just want her her body at his beck and call but her heart and soul.The premise behind Exceeding Boundaries by Mia Downing has a lot of merit. We have an emotionally scarred heroine who looks to the hero to help her embrace her sexual side and help her heal because of a horrible trauma in her past. The way Megan gets Adam to notice her is cute, as well as sexy, and when Adam falls for it, it leads to some hot sex between the two. The sex here is borderline scorching, but then out of nowhere Adam decides, "hey, I'm dominant on the inside and I want Megan to be my submissive. Let's create some BDSM fun times together which will enable Megan to get over her rape when she was a teenager". At that point I could help but roll my eyes and it pushed me out of the story. The BDSM section seems so tacked on and ridiculous. Adam goes on and on about being a Dom, which based on his personality, and how he was introduced, doesn't make any sense. It comes across as cheesy and silly and really ruins the entire story.I also felt at times the dialogue was silted and canned, and even though the love scenes did the job, they felt a bit off in a way that makes me think of the good old "Slot A" into "Slot B" and you have "C" scenario.With a story like this, there should be something deeper to hit the reader hard in the gut because of the heavy emotions shared between Adam and Megan. But by the end there was no connection between this couple and everything came across as one-dimensional, down to Megan's trust issues and Adam's sudden BDSM craving that made me laugh, but not in a good way.Exceeding Boundaries has a great cover, but other than that this gets a pass from me.Katiebabs