Review: BDSM Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2013
I thought I'd read quite a few Annabel Joseph books but when I look back, I've only read Club Mephisto which I very much enjoyed to so I was looking forward to this one. The circus and BDSM sounds like such a mouth-watering combination - all those incredibly fit athletes performing together in perfect harmony in more ways than one.Kelsey is an ex aspiring American Olympic gymnast who has never quite achieved her aim and has now joined the Cirque du Monde in Paris. She's mesmerised by Theo, a gypsy king, and his partner Minya, trapeze artists, who she accidentally witnesses induging in some spanking and D/s activity backstage one day. Theo invites her to join them but she runs away, deeply embarrassed. Kelsey cannot keep her eyes off Theo until one day tragedy strikes, their routine goes wrong and Minya plummets to her death right out of Theo's hands.Theo holes himself up in booze and grief but Kelsey persistently pursues him and they become lovers and, despite his now tarnished reputation for `bad hands', they decide to move to Cirque du Minuit (The Midnight Circus) in Marseille to perform an aerial silks act. Pictures below as I wasn't too sure I even knew what that was and had to google it.Theo tells Kelsey (or Kelzee as he says it in his sinfully sexy French accent) that submission runs deep in her but she must learn to truly submit and she embarks on D/s 101. He ruthlessly teaches her everything he knows and then some and they embark on the Marseille BDSM club scene with the owner of the circus (Le Maitre) and it sure is no Shadowlands but it's all good.At first, I wasn't convinced that I liked either of them. Kelsey is bolshy, outspoken, pushy - not all attributes I'd associate with a sub and Theo had a careless disdain, treated Kelsey with emotional detachment and a Gallic shrug of this shoulders. But they really do grow on you. Their aerial silk act is supposed to be Theo watching Kelsey, a beautiful butterfly, desperate to possess her, to make her his but in doing so he crushes her wings and now he possesses her but he has utterly destroyed her. Will real life mimic their art? In the end it is Kelsey's incredible strength of character and determination and un-sub like behaviour that rescues their relationship when all seems lost and the last chapter and the epilogue really did reduce me to a puddle.It's all good - not very heavy on the BDSM. One club scene, a ménage scene , a little m/m action with Le Maitre and his pets but it's mostly very romantic BDSM between Theo and Kelsey.4 stars BDSM erotic romance