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shannon_cocktailsandbooks's review
4.0
I will admit I haven't read Connaghers 1 or 2, so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with Yours to Take, but I really enjoyed it.
Vicki Connagher was a defense attorney who left it all behind after one of her clients killed her cop boyfriend's partner. But leaving her job behind wasn't all that she lost that day. Her boyfriend, Elias, stopped seeing her, leaving her to believe he blamed her for what happened.
Now designing her own fashion line, Vicki run into another blast from her legal days in the form of the street artist she used to visit, Jesse. He finds her on a snowy night and she suddenly can't let him leave. She wants to protect him, nurture him and strangely, dominate him. And just as Jesse enters her life, Elias comes back to claim his woman.
If you ever want a study in how an very alpha male and dominate female, in a tenuous relationship, work a submissive male into their relationship, this book gives it to you. Elias is a true Alpha male. What's his is his and nobody else's....especially his woman. Elias and Vicki have an interesting relationship, because they both fought for dominance in the relationship. Elias may have thought Vicki's likes in bed were a spill over from the tough exterior she had to display at the law firm, but with her much more relaxed atmosphere as a designer, she still had that need to be "top dog".
On the flip side of that was Vicki and Jesse. Jesse knew he was in love with Vicki, part of the reason he sought her out. But when she saw him, it was as if her dominance switch got flipped on and all those Dom needs to take care of their sub came out. And while Jesse knew what he wanted, he never pushed Vicki into her role. He knew she had to come to grips with what she was with him before they could move forward. I applaud Vicki for insisting that she and Jesse both get counseling. It seemed to truly help her open up to what she was feeling.
Meshing the two sides of Vicki and her men into a happy unit was not easy and I'm guessing it never is when you have one person who is unsure of what their role is in the grand scheme of things. But what it came down to for Elias in the story was how much he needed Vicki and how willing he was to give her what she needed both from him and from Jesse.
Vicki Connagher was a defense attorney who left it all behind after one of her clients killed her cop boyfriend's partner. But leaving her job behind wasn't all that she lost that day. Her boyfriend, Elias, stopped seeing her, leaving her to believe he blamed her for what happened.
Now designing her own fashion line, Vicki run into another blast from her legal days in the form of the street artist she used to visit, Jesse. He finds her on a snowy night and she suddenly can't let him leave. She wants to protect him, nurture him and strangely, dominate him. And just as Jesse enters her life, Elias comes back to claim his woman.
If you ever want a study in how an very alpha male and dominate female, in a tenuous relationship, work a submissive male into their relationship, this book gives it to you. Elias is a true Alpha male. What's his is his and nobody else's....especially his woman. Elias and Vicki have an interesting relationship, because they both fought for dominance in the relationship. Elias may have thought Vicki's likes in bed were a spill over from the tough exterior she had to display at the law firm, but with her much more relaxed atmosphere as a designer, she still had that need to be "top dog".
On the flip side of that was Vicki and Jesse. Jesse knew he was in love with Vicki, part of the reason he sought her out. But when she saw him, it was as if her dominance switch got flipped on and all those Dom needs to take care of their sub came out. And while Jesse knew what he wanted, he never pushed Vicki into her role. He knew she had to come to grips with what she was with him before they could move forward. I applaud Vicki for insisting that she and Jesse both get counseling. It seemed to truly help her open up to what she was feeling.
Meshing the two sides of Vicki and her men into a happy unit was not easy and I'm guessing it never is when you have one person who is unsure of what their role is in the grand scheme of things. But what it came down to for Elias in the story was how much he needed Vicki and how willing he was to give her what she needed both from him and from Jesse.
yeriwithaj_'s review
4.0
This was a 3.95 star rating, so very close to a 4. Love triangles are always so very conflicting. They either work or they don't.
Elias made it kind of hard to work for me, I liked it him, loved him even, I just didn't understand him, and I tried.
Vicki and Elias' dynamic and relationship was explosive, it was tangible, and it was felt with every word on each page.
Vicki and Jesse's relationship was no different but 100% different. As an M/s relationship, which the author portrayed oh so well it was just easy to love them, to cheer for them and to have your heart swell with hope that all works out in their favor.
Elias frustrated me, he was, like Vicki, a dominant character, also entirely heterosexual (a bit disappointing, for me, L.O.L.). In this case, Vicki is the middle ground for these two, so very different, men.
In the end, Elias did not make me BELIEVE him nor his intentions. The ending did not satisfy me, even though it was unbelievably steamy and they all had me going gaga and I was sorts kinda hatin' on Vicki
The writing by Burkhart is incredible, it's vivid, beautiful, and unique. This story kept me up all night.
Elias made it kind of hard to work for me, I liked it him, loved him even, I just didn't understand him, and I tried.
Vicki and Elias' dynamic and relationship was explosive, it was tangible, and it was felt with every word on each page.
Vicki and Jesse's relationship was no different but 100% different. As an M/s relationship, which the author portrayed oh so well it was just easy to love them, to cheer for them and to have your heart swell with hope that all works out in their favor.
Elias frustrated me, he was, like Vicki, a dominant character, also entirely heterosexual (a bit disappointing, for me, L.O.L.). In this case, Vicki is the middle ground for these two, so very different, men.
In the end, Elias did not make me BELIEVE him nor his intentions. The ending did not satisfy me, even though it was unbelievably steamy and they all had me going gaga and I was sorts kinda hatin' on Vicki
The writing by Burkhart is incredible, it's vivid, beautiful, and unique. This story kept me up all night.
shantastic's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this one. I hadn't read any of the other books in the series, but I intend to after this. Vicki, Elias and Jesse are so real that their struggles are sometimes far too heart-wrenching, but I loved them.
There's a tendency in romances to not consider the implications that would arise in a relationship between more than two people. I thought Ms. Burkhart did a good job establishing that there were things these people would have to work out. Elias has a lot of jealousy to work through, all of which is understandable considering the fact that the relationship Vicki has with Jesse is quite different than the one he has with her. But it's also obvious that Jesse brings something out in Vicki that tempers her a little… with him she gets to be nurturing as well as the one to give orders, and with Elias she's always fought. The two of them are passionate, both in and out of bed, so Jesse as a calming influence is a good thing. And it was refreshing to see characters who had distinguishable personalities, something I don't always find in erotic romances.
If I have any quibbles, it's that there were points at which I wondered if Jesse wasn't getting a bit of a raw deal. In the end, I know he's where he wants to be, but I guessI'd have liked to have gotten a better sense of commitment from Vicki toward him. That said, though, what I got was lovely, and has made me want to find other books with similar themes.
schomj's review
5.0
Sweet, romantic, tender and fierce as needed. Emotionally satisfying; I like watching characters get stronger and help each other get stronger in the process.
scorchingnix's review
5.0
Really 4.5 Stars
Vicki Connagher gave up life as she knew it the day one of the scumbags she got off criminal charges shot a well respected police officer. A lawyer because of the prestige, she made a very lucrative career keeping drug-dealers and murderers out of jail. When the police officer died, a man who was also the partner of the man she had fallen in love with, she realised that the life choices that she was making had led her down an undesirable path. Isolated, she runs into the park and cries in the arms of the homeless street artist who had captured her affections.
Weeks later, she takes that same homeless man into her home, feeding and clothing him even though she barely knows him. She has started a new life, a life without a man and without the stability of the career that paid for her lavish lifestyle. It seems that she is making all kinds of impulsive decisions, but the safety conscious side of her steps in and makes her contact her ex-lover to run a background check on her new lodger.
Elias drops everything to try to talk some sense into Vicki. Able to see past his grief, he accepts that blaming the woman he loves for his friend’s death is bringing him even more misery. Upon arrival at her house, it becomes clear to Elias that Jesse wants to be more than just a new lodger. The man worships the ground Vicki walks on, willing to do anything she asks for a bit of attention. His obvious submissive side seems to bring out a side to Vicki that no one prepared for; a Dominant side that she was unaware existed. Vicki and Elias together are explosive, wresting for Dominance and unable to give an inch in their mutual demands for pleasure. Vicki and Jesse together are something entirely different, a relationship based purely on Dominance and submission.
Both relationships hold equal desire in Vicki’s mind. Can she ask find a way to let the alpha dog share her with her willing slave?
I was hooked by this book, but I will warn you that it does not make for comfortable reading. For great chunks of this book, I was uncomfortable with my interpretation of the relationship in this book. It seemed that the whole scenario was based upon the men’s mutual love for this woman, that neither of them was happy. This mean’t I couldn’t quite be happy, because it seemed the two men were unhappy because they shared her. You know me, I want a HEA for everyone, and I couldn’t help but feel that these two men had settled. This doesn’t change the fact that this is an incredibly well written and emotionally engaging book. I was very excited when I was asked to review this one and I was not disappointed at all.
I’m not sure I can classify Vicki into a BDSM role, but if I was pushed, I think I’d class her as a switch. I have never been quite able to grasp the interpretation of a switch as someone who can slip quite happily into either a Dominant or submissive role. This feels much more comfortable to me, as she is Dominant in both relationships; Elias is just more Dominant. He is a big alpha man who has a dangerous job with crappy hours and unreliable shift patterns. He could never be anyone’s Master, as he could never give anyone that kind of attention, but hot damn he manages to master Vicki in the bedroom. The scenes between them are awesome but they sometimes border on violent as Vicki makes him fight for the right to Dominate her. I liked him and understood his attitude towards “the cabana boy”, but it did make the whole story that slightly more uncomfortable.
On the flip side, Jesse is the most submissive man that I’ve ever read in a MF story. At frequent points in the story the characters express surprise that he has managed to stay alive so long and I admit to joining them in this; he is just so needy. It made it hard to like him as an individual character, but I did like him in a relationship with Vicki. He is willing to do anything for her, willing to be a model for her new career venture or stand in front of her mother for her, but he can’t imagine living without her. It was an interesting situation. Again, the scenes between the two of them were massively hot. It is probably wise to mention that Vicki is a very inexperienced Domme; she wouldn’t be a convincing Domme to anyone other than a sub like Jesse.
The overall product is a sexy book which is though provoking, emotive and compelling. It wasn’t wholly comfortable, it did show all parties in a bad light at points, but it was more interesting for it. I enjoyed watching them try to wangle three very individual and strong personalities into one relationship. A recommended read.
Vicki Connagher gave up life as she knew it the day one of the scumbags she got off criminal charges shot a well respected police officer. A lawyer because of the prestige, she made a very lucrative career keeping drug-dealers and murderers out of jail. When the police officer died, a man who was also the partner of the man she had fallen in love with, she realised that the life choices that she was making had led her down an undesirable path. Isolated, she runs into the park and cries in the arms of the homeless street artist who had captured her affections.
Weeks later, she takes that same homeless man into her home, feeding and clothing him even though she barely knows him. She has started a new life, a life without a man and without the stability of the career that paid for her lavish lifestyle. It seems that she is making all kinds of impulsive decisions, but the safety conscious side of her steps in and makes her contact her ex-lover to run a background check on her new lodger.
Elias drops everything to try to talk some sense into Vicki. Able to see past his grief, he accepts that blaming the woman he loves for his friend’s death is bringing him even more misery. Upon arrival at her house, it becomes clear to Elias that Jesse wants to be more than just a new lodger. The man worships the ground Vicki walks on, willing to do anything she asks for a bit of attention. His obvious submissive side seems to bring out a side to Vicki that no one prepared for; a Dominant side that she was unaware existed. Vicki and Elias together are explosive, wresting for Dominance and unable to give an inch in their mutual demands for pleasure. Vicki and Jesse together are something entirely different, a relationship based purely on Dominance and submission.
Both relationships hold equal desire in Vicki’s mind. Can she ask find a way to let the alpha dog share her with her willing slave?
I was hooked by this book, but I will warn you that it does not make for comfortable reading. For great chunks of this book, I was uncomfortable with my interpretation of the relationship in this book. It seemed that the whole scenario was based upon the men’s mutual love for this woman, that neither of them was happy. This mean’t I couldn’t quite be happy, because it seemed the two men were unhappy because they shared her. You know me, I want a HEA for everyone, and I couldn’t help but feel that these two men had settled. This doesn’t change the fact that this is an incredibly well written and emotionally engaging book. I was very excited when I was asked to review this one and I was not disappointed at all.
I’m not sure I can classify Vicki into a BDSM role, but if I was pushed, I think I’d class her as a switch. I have never been quite able to grasp the interpretation of a switch as someone who can slip quite happily into either a Dominant or submissive role. This feels much more comfortable to me, as she is Dominant in both relationships; Elias is just more Dominant. He is a big alpha man who has a dangerous job with crappy hours and unreliable shift patterns. He could never be anyone’s Master, as he could never give anyone that kind of attention, but hot damn he manages to master Vicki in the bedroom. The scenes between them are awesome but they sometimes border on violent as Vicki makes him fight for the right to Dominate her. I liked him and understood his attitude towards “the cabana boy”, but it did make the whole story that slightly more uncomfortable.
On the flip side, Jesse is the most submissive man that I’ve ever read in a MF story. At frequent points in the story the characters express surprise that he has managed to stay alive so long and I admit to joining them in this; he is just so needy. It made it hard to like him as an individual character, but I did like him in a relationship with Vicki. He is willing to do anything for her, willing to be a model for her new career venture or stand in front of her mother for her, but he can’t imagine living without her. It was an interesting situation. Again, the scenes between the two of them were massively hot. It is probably wise to mention that Vicki is a very inexperienced Domme; she wouldn’t be a convincing Domme to anyone other than a sub like Jesse.
The overall product is a sexy book which is though provoking, emotive and compelling. It wasn’t wholly comfortable, it did show all parties in a bad light at points, but it was more interesting for it. I enjoyed watching them try to wangle three very individual and strong personalities into one relationship. A recommended read.
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