Review: Really good prequel story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 6, 2013
I have been looking forward to this book and this series ever since reading a sample excert in the back of Angel of Hawkhaven. On her blog, the author mentioned Holding Hannah would be short and only a prequel to the Master of the Castle series, so I was prepared for this to be just a taste of the story to come. What I wasn't prepared for was the edginess, since I have never seen that from this author before. I was surprised, and it was a pleasant surprise at that.Hannah is a broken girl. Caught by her parents while exercising a blood attraction, the whole of her sheltered world comes crashing down around her. Her parents, not knowing what to make of what they've seen, send her to live with an uncle, who puts her to work in his office under another inspector, who seems to be power-tripping as little men in big positions of power in little towns (heck, any town) will sometimes do. This is where the story starts to get interesting.The inspector takes her out to the castle, a real castle currently being built in the middle of a wheat field, and there she meets Master Sam. As they tour the soon-to-be BDSM vacation resort, what starts out as a Master playing with a mouse very quickly grows into a powerful attraction between the two. Before the inspector can whisk her back to his office and safety, Master Sam slips her his business card with an invitation to a play party later that night. And Hannah, poor broken Hannah, having just experienced a taste of a world she finds very forbidden and very appealing, goes.In this short, 5-chapter story, the author does what she does best: she builds a believable world with two characters you can't wait to get to know better. According to Maren Smith's blog, Master Sam and Hannah will get their own book later on in the series and I can't wait to read it. If all this story was intended to do was whet my appetite for the rest of the series, then it was very successful. I enjoyed it and can't wait for the next to come out.