Review: My teeth hurt is was so sweet!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2013
All These Pieces of Me: It was sugar sweet, smokin' hot, tragically sad and the banter was sarcastically funny. All great and different emotions that in my opinion make for a good read.The idea of putting together such a tender love story intertwined with BDSM was an enigma to me. But it sort of, kind of, more than a little but not totally 100% worked.Our hero was no caveman-alpha-male, make you want to drop your pants the second he enters the picture. But he was in EVERY way a hero. Tender, chivalrous, attentive, caring, protective, who knows how to rock the bed...the kind of man that you wouldn't be ashamed to take home to momma (barring she never visits the Stables).Our heroine was broken. No doubt about that. Albeit cute as a button. The kind of character you want to stick in your pocket and carry with you. She was a little too accommodating for my tastes. Always the perfect little girlfriend and through most of the book it turned me off a little to her. But at the end when you finally learn her secret it makes a little more sense (just a little).The two of them together was...well...sweet.The author did a great job of setting up the supporting characters for their own books. And I'm looking forward to Ian's and hopefully even Austin's story.Why only 4 stars?I just plain "liked" it. I reserve 5 stars for books that leave me with a major hangover.I wish there would have been more of Emma's story in the beginning. More of an explanation to why she behaves like a little girl. It wasn't entirely explained and that left me to guess it has something to do with a mental lapse due to her tragedy. But even then her secret wasn't explained well enough. Maybe a few detailed flashbacks of her time "before" would have brought it together better. It almost seemed like the explanation of her time "BEFORE" was rushed and I was disappointed. I really wanted to connect with Emma and her pain but I was left with many questions.My second reason (and this is entirely my own preference) is that it was just barely the right side of unicorns and rainbows and I half expected our characters to go giddily skipping into the sunset. I prefer a little more drama. Perhaps a little more opposition. I'm afraid the only thing that kept me so interested was the anticipation of Emma's story (and the sexy parts).Third is I wish there had been a little more BDSM interaction. I mean if you're going to carry that theme in your book then CARRY IT, my friend. It wasn't bad or even a turn off (pun totally intended) it's just almost as if the BDSM lifestyle didn't entirely flow with our hero's character. He didn't really have a dominant personality, in fact the lifestyle didn't really suit him at all. It was almost as if the author had an agenda of bringing BDSM into a more realistic light but it almost seemed random in the book. I'm no expert, by ANY means and I'm sure FSOG totally shaped my opinion on how a dominant should behave, maybe even wrongly. With that said...I'm not sure I would have like it as much had that part been taken out.Would I recommend the book? Yes I would.Would I read it again? Probably not.Will I read another from this author? Yes. But if the second book is exactly like the first than I'd probably stop there. I wouldn't be opposed to an ARC if it headed my way (juuuust sayin')