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meags's review
4.0
tl;dr: fascinating setting for drawn out forbidden romantic tension
***
There was already plenty of buzz about this book by the time I got my hands on it. And for good reason. The premise is titillating and unique, and has a forbidden romance that promises lots of sexytimes. Andie Lincoln has decided to get submissive training at an exclusive BDSM school, which is so exclusive that there are only ten spots for students. Her Hollywood boyfriend had to pull strings to get her in. Of course, her professor is sexy as all get out and things heat up between them fast.
Under his tutelage, she begins to learn a lot about herself and what she actually wants. Her initial questions are answered (yes, being a submissive works for her, really really works), and she begins to question whether or not her Hollywood boyfriend is really the man for her, after all.
Master Fulton Matthews, the professor in question, seems to be able to read Andie in a way that is unnerving, and becomes the first chink in her defenses. She can’t help but compare the two men, since she and Fulton are paired for play during class after one of the students drops out, and one of the largest discrepancies appears to be how in sync she is with Fulton as compared to Terrence, aka, Mr. Hollywood. He can read her body language, and anticipate her nervousness and fear, and also what turns her on. He finds himself pushing past school-sanctioned boundaries, leading to both student and teacher feeling confused about their growing feelings.
The biggest drawback for me in this story was how it started. The story begins on her first day at the school, so we don’t get to meet Terrence and see how he interacts with her outside of phone calls and text messages until the final half of the book. That can be because the author doesn’t care about Terrence and Andie, and therefore, neither do we. So there is no conflict really; since we’ve only seen Andie and Fulton interact, it’s the only relationship we’re invested in. I do appreciate that Fulton himself questions why Andie comes to this training school rather than be trained by her boyfriend, and also why she opts to go at all, but her answers are unsatisfactory. The set up was not as solid as it could have been, introducing the relationship between Andie and Terrence more fully in the opening chapters would have set the scene for WHY she decided to go to this school. My personal thought is that the author thought the set up was so unique and great that she opted to dive straight in (which, I can sort of see: it’s a great premise!) but I want to know why Andie felt so strongly that she needed to submit to Terrence, why it was so important for her to get it right.
(And, side note, we never find out why or how Fulton become a professor at a BDSM training school. That could be an interesting tale!)
TECHNICAL ELEMENTS:
Aside from a few places wording was a little confusing, I found the prose to be very good. Sometimes it was too earnest and made the characters seem too perfect. In particular, during the end conflict, Andie acts hurt and confused, but her internal monologue states that she knows the hurtful things that Fulton has said isn’t how he really feels, but yet she’s still acting like she believes it. It’s a little off-putting. Does she believe him or not? She sounds too clinical in her assessment of his words. Is she sad and hurt, or calculating? The reason that Fulton says what he says also isn’t clear; I expected to get more explanation of the why there, too, but it never came.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
There’s a lot of story to be mined from the this premise; however, I hope that future books start more believably. This book series is sort of similar to many sports romance series that I’ve read, in that you have a particular institution (in this case, a BDSM training castle, but in others, a sports team) and each segment of the series addresses a different couple or aspect of it, so they all intertwine but from different viewpoints. I personally think that starting with the owner of the training school would have been the best choice, really giving a sense of history to the place. Obviously, there’s a story there, and I hope the next book addresses it (because heck yeah, I’ll be reading it!), but I think starting the series from the foundation would have been really great.
[read more at my review blog...]
***
There was already plenty of buzz about this book by the time I got my hands on it. And for good reason. The premise is titillating and unique, and has a forbidden romance that promises lots of sexytimes. Andie Lincoln has decided to get submissive training at an exclusive BDSM school, which is so exclusive that there are only ten spots for students. Her Hollywood boyfriend had to pull strings to get her in. Of course, her professor is sexy as all get out and things heat up between them fast.
Under his tutelage, she begins to learn a lot about herself and what she actually wants. Her initial questions are answered (yes, being a submissive works for her, really really works), and she begins to question whether or not her Hollywood boyfriend is really the man for her, after all.
Master Fulton Matthews, the professor in question, seems to be able to read Andie in a way that is unnerving, and becomes the first chink in her defenses. She can’t help but compare the two men, since she and Fulton are paired for play during class after one of the students drops out, and one of the largest discrepancies appears to be how in sync she is with Fulton as compared to Terrence, aka, Mr. Hollywood. He can read her body language, and anticipate her nervousness and fear, and also what turns her on. He finds himself pushing past school-sanctioned boundaries, leading to both student and teacher feeling confused about their growing feelings.
The biggest drawback for me in this story was how it started. The story begins on her first day at the school, so we don’t get to meet Terrence and see how he interacts with her outside of phone calls and text messages until the final half of the book. That can be because the author doesn’t care about Terrence and Andie, and therefore, neither do we. So there is no conflict really; since we’ve only seen Andie and Fulton interact, it’s the only relationship we’re invested in. I do appreciate that Fulton himself questions why Andie comes to this training school rather than be trained by her boyfriend, and also why she opts to go at all, but her answers are unsatisfactory. The set up was not as solid as it could have been, introducing the relationship between Andie and Terrence more fully in the opening chapters would have set the scene for WHY she decided to go to this school. My personal thought is that the author thought the set up was so unique and great that she opted to dive straight in (which, I can sort of see: it’s a great premise!) but I want to know why Andie felt so strongly that she needed to submit to Terrence, why it was so important for her to get it right.
(And, side note, we never find out why or how Fulton become a professor at a BDSM training school. That could be an interesting tale!)
TECHNICAL ELEMENTS:
Aside from a few places wording was a little confusing, I found the prose to be very good. Sometimes it was too earnest and made the characters seem too perfect. In particular, during the end conflict, Andie acts hurt and confused, but her internal monologue states that she knows the hurtful things that Fulton has said isn’t how he really feels, but yet she’s still acting like she believes it. It’s a little off-putting. Does she believe him or not? She sounds too clinical in her assessment of his words. Is she sad and hurt, or calculating? The reason that Fulton says what he says also isn’t clear; I expected to get more explanation of the why there, too, but it never came.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
There’s a lot of story to be mined from the this premise; however, I hope that future books start more believably. This book series is sort of similar to many sports romance series that I’ve read, in that you have a particular institution (in this case, a BDSM training castle, but in others, a sports team) and each segment of the series addresses a different couple or aspect of it, so they all intertwine but from different viewpoints. I personally think that starting with the owner of the training school would have been the best choice, really giving a sense of history to the place. Obviously, there’s a story there, and I hope the next book addresses it (because heck yeah, I’ll be reading it!), but I think starting the series from the foundation would have been really great.
[read more at my review blog...]
piepieb's review
4.0
I really liked this book! I saw pieces of myself in Andie. My favorite parts were the dock and lighthouse scenes after the graduation celebration. I can't wait to read Lennox and Mariela's story!
dk_d1337d's review against another edition
4.0
Great if your kink is BDSM, informed enthusiastic consent, and respecting your partner.
alyp01's review against another edition
2.0
I really struggled with this book. From the description, I thought it would be full of dirty, sexy scenes and have a good romance story. Instead, there was only a few scenes and most it was at the end. The romance was lackluster and the story took way too long to get to the point.
I will say the narration was pretty good and what steamy scenes were in this were well done.
I will say the narration was pretty good and what steamy scenes were in this were well done.
thecosynook's review against another edition
4.0
*Received as an ARC from the publisher*
I have reviewed a few books by Tara Sue Me now however this is a completely new series that she is coming out with! So of course I immediately had to pick it up and read about all new characters!
Once again Tara manages to pull off a steamy romance effortlessly. In this book we follow Andie as she is enrolled into the academy to be trained as a submissive for her boyfriend. However once there she is instantly smitten with her teacher, however teacher/student relationships are definitely against the rules. Will Andie stay with her boyfriend or will she break all the rules and sleep with the hot teacher?
Another brilliant novel, this time we learn all about the basics of being a submissive, how it is not just about the submission but learning how to trust that your Dom will only test your limits however in the end you have control. I think the majority of BDSM books nowadays seem to forget the trust aspect of the relationship. They seem to be all about the romance and the sex scenes and yet don't actually care about teaching the reader the basics of the relationship. This is one of the main reasons why I like Tara Sue Me's books, they are definitely steamy and yet still manage to show you that you are still in control even as a submissive and you need to trust your Dom.
We follow the story set in a castle on an island, of course it is a beautiful island and just a little bit creepy. However I think the added sense of being cut off from the mainland added a bit of tension to the story because you knew that if something did happen between the two characters it would be very difficult to hide it on such a small island.
I also liked that it wasn't your typical multimillionaire wants the girl and she has to do exactly what he says and she will have no mind for herself but will follow his every command and have no actual opinions. Here the main character is sassy and if she doesn't want to do something she won't do it. She can think for herself and is independent, I liked this refreshing change and it really made the story more realistic as the main character wasn't a mindless sex slave like so many other BDSM books.
Read more on my blog at: https://bookgeek2015.wordpress.com/
I have reviewed a few books by Tara Sue Me now however this is a completely new series that she is coming out with! So of course I immediately had to pick it up and read about all new characters!
Once again Tara manages to pull off a steamy romance effortlessly. In this book we follow Andie as she is enrolled into the academy to be trained as a submissive for her boyfriend. However once there she is instantly smitten with her teacher, however teacher/student relationships are definitely against the rules. Will Andie stay with her boyfriend or will she break all the rules and sleep with the hot teacher?
Another brilliant novel, this time we learn all about the basics of being a submissive, how it is not just about the submission but learning how to trust that your Dom will only test your limits however in the end you have control. I think the majority of BDSM books nowadays seem to forget the trust aspect of the relationship. They seem to be all about the romance and the sex scenes and yet don't actually care about teaching the reader the basics of the relationship. This is one of the main reasons why I like Tara Sue Me's books, they are definitely steamy and yet still manage to show you that you are still in control even as a submissive and you need to trust your Dom.
We follow the story set in a castle on an island, of course it is a beautiful island and just a little bit creepy. However I think the added sense of being cut off from the mainland added a bit of tension to the story because you knew that if something did happen between the two characters it would be very difficult to hide it on such a small island.
I also liked that it wasn't your typical multimillionaire wants the girl and she has to do exactly what he says and she will have no mind for herself but will follow his every command and have no actual opinions. Here the main character is sassy and if she doesn't want to do something she won't do it. She can think for herself and is independent, I liked this refreshing change and it really made the story more realistic as the main character wasn't a mindless sex slave like so many other BDSM books.
Read more on my blog at: https://bookgeek2015.wordpress.com/
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