Review: Awesome thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2012
This is a very well-written book with a great plot. I kept turning the pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen next and who the killer was. There were a number of great twists and the answer surprised me in the end, although I got it partially right.Kris became a professional dominatrix as a way of regaining control over her life after a brutal attack. It was her psychiatrist's suggestion and the good doctor also refers clients to her -- men who need some form of control or discipline. In a word, it's therapy for both domme and sub. She meets each client once a week for an hour, and is paid handsomely for it. It's a strictly professional relationship, and her rule is: never have sex with a client.She has a soft spot for some of her clients, while she's wary of others. Her best friend and martial arts trainer, Felix, accompanies her when she visits those clients she doesn't feel completely safe with. He is the only one, other than her therapist, who knows all her secrets and accepts her as she is.Kris's latest client, Nick, is somehow different from the rest and during her third session with him, her professional, aloof demeanour starts to crumble. After that, she finds it harder to stay absolutely detached and in control even when she is with her other clients. But due to her past, she is not ready to abandon the safe place that her job gives her or to let Nick past her boundaries.When her clients start dying one by one in scenes related to their kink with her collar fastened around their necks, Kris finds out that Nick is a police detective. Assigned to the case, he wants nothing more than to keep her safe, but she is annoyed with his aggressive, overbearing ways. She tries to ignore him, and when she can't, she defies him, fights back or simply walks away. No matter how many times she rejects him, though, Nick just can't get her out of his mind.Contentwise, there are no explicit BDSM scenes. There are a handful of graphic sex scenes between Kris and her man but those come very late in the book.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others.**Mild spoilers**There were a lot of men in this story and in the beginning I was trying to guess which one Kris would end up with. I was disappointed that she ended up with Nick. I really wanted her to be with Felix instead because it seemed to me that Felix was a lot more understanding and caring and gentle with her, which she needed. He had been patient and waited for her, given her time to heal, let her learn to trust him; he deserved to have her. Even Garrett would have been great but Nick... I just could not feel much sympathy for him at all. He was always thinking about what he wanted, not about what she needed (although he did want to protect her, I'll give him that). He made assumptions and kept telling her what to do and was too in-your-face -- it would have put my back up too, if I were Kris. I especially did not like that he knew about her history, yet he wasn't more careful or gentle in coming on to her and he didn't seem to ever take into account how the incident might have affected her.I also did not like the ending. It's the ending that caused me to give the book four instead of five stars. (Explained below)**Major spoiler**I did not like the way that, when Nick finally does manage to rescue her, Kris suddenly seemed to have an 180-degree personality change from the strong, independent woman she was before the personal attack to a clingy, fearful wimp.I also did not like that she suddenly found herself in love with Nick at the end. She had only just admitted her love for Felix a few days ago and had just lost him. Her love for Felix had had years to grow, and was rooted in friendship, so it must go deep. It's impossible that she would recover from the loss so quickly and suddenly fall in love with Nick instead, especially since she doesn't have the history with Nick that she had with Felix. Even if she does love Nick, how can she not even struggle with guilt over this? It would make her fickle, that she could fall in love with another man within days of her sweetheart being killed. This ending felt rushed, like the author felt pressured to give Kris and Nick their happily-ever-after, and since the case was solved, this was the fastest way so that the book could end.Also, the ending was totally implausible. If Nick were to try to take the rap, forensic evidence wouldn't back up his claim because the angle of the bullet as it entered the body would be completely wrong. He would never have been in a physical position to fire from that angle. Even I, who know nothing about firearms, can figure that out.None of these grouses substantially marred the enjoyment of the story for me. I guess most of them are personal preference about how I would've liked the story to go, but the one about the bullet -- that was just ridiculous.