Review: I wish "Don't Leave Me This Way" had left me better than it did.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2014
I read Don't Leave Me This Way at the recommendation of a friend and was sadly disappointed. Sienna Mynx is one of her favorite authors so I had some hope for the read. Unfortunately, DLMTW left me cold. If a BDSM romance is what you're looking for, Don't Leave Me This Way is definitely not your joint of choice because despite what you may have heard, DLMTW is not a BDSM novel. It's an IR pseudo-romance with some vaguely BDSM-ish elements. Mynx's grasp of BDSM as a lifestyle and a literary genre is superficial at best. Crispin Alistair Maxwell is NOT a Dominant and Keturah Jones is not a Submissive. Alistair is a creepy, stalker weirdo with control issues. He's unlikeable, unsavory, morally corrupt, and controlling - straight from the Edward Cullen/Christian Grey school of how to be a creepy stalker weirdo. The relationship between Keturah and Alistair is about as far from a healthy relationship, let alone a healthy Dom/Sub relationship, as one can get. Trust is intrinsic and Keturah and Alistair never actually manage to develop trust of any real kind. Alistair is obsessed and Keturah is delusional. Their relationship never actually makes any sense.BDSM is only a fraction of the problems with the novel. The plot is rather haphazardly assembled and the plot development is inconsistent and abrupt. The copy editing is mostly sound, but the content editing leaves much to be desired. This novel is still in drafts and needs a lot more workshopping to smooth out the plot and execution of the plot. Mynx does a lot of telling rather than showing and it really doesn't work.If you're looking for a good BDSM romance, let me direct you towards Cherise Sinclair. If you're looking for a really good dark erotica-BDSM read, check out Kitty Thomas. If coming of age, sexual awakenings are your cup of tea, With My Body by Nikki Gemmell would be an excellent choice.Sadly, I cannot recommend this book.