A review by shandra
Donnie and the Maid by Selena Kitt

5.0

Yes, Sir, I would like some more!

Power Play in general fascinates me, but I'm especially attracted to the idea of Dominance and submission. All of Selena Kitt's work reads like the best kind of adult fantasy to me; I love the costumes, theatrics, and even the pure sexual nature of her stories. The concept of the submissive maid with the wildly creative writer recluse? Absolutely did it for me.

Don was a wholly believably male lead. He's got insecurities left over from his divorce from his frigid wife along with issues relating to his work as a writer since he's a poet who now sells mid-level sci-fi for the pay-out. With the angle that he's also a father desperately trying to make himself a good enough male role model for his daughter on her visitations, I loved getting to see Don as a man with his own issues rather than as some untouchable, power-hungry Alpha who sexually dominates his women as if they're prey to his predator.

There's this great distinction between how Anne -the ex-wife- lay claim to him by calling him "Donnie" rather than "Don" whereas Elena remembers him as the man he was before that woman, that marriage, that life.

She remembers where he came from and she reminds him of that man, that place, and that time.

Elena is a complex character in some ways while being wholly simple in others. She's a woman who dated a lot of "bad boys" because her desires led her to believe those were the only types of men who could give her what she needed. Her divorce was worse than Don's in some ways, but they share that sense of loss and failure and heartbreak which only people who have lived through the dissolution of a marriage can truly understand. When she gives in to tell him how she wants to be owned by someone? I felt for her deeply. There's so much trust in telling someone the most intimate secrets one has it's hard to imagine giving that level of power to anyone again much less after losing a marriage.

It was refreshing to watch their relationship bloom together while never neglecting who they were as people.

Passionate, heady, and powerful, Donnie and the Maid is my favorite Power Play story to date. I couldn't recommend it more! Thanks for the trip, Selena, and thanks for having Don do the smart thing and listen to Jeannie Christo! That's one smart lady!