A review by peachtale
Top to Bottom by Delphine Dryden

emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I feel like the blurb here makes you think that a lot of this book is in Dru's side of things, it's not, most of it in fact is from Amie's.  Which would be fine,  except she's not that engaging as a character, we learn about the issues she had when she was younger and thrown out of her religious family's home when she was still a teenager and how that issue hasn't left, which of course it wouldn't because she was made to go through so much from her family to make her straight.  The only issue is, aside from the few moments Amie thought about her family, there wasn't really much to make that a real conflict in her life currently.  Not saying that it wasn't part of the plot but it felt a bit weak, considering that she has been going to therapy - although that had only been brought up a few times within the book and I kind of felt that maybe it should have been made clearer if she was still going? Surely she should be because such family rejection at a young age would mess with your head?

Then we have Dru, a woman who moved on from Amie, who got further involved in the BDSM club scene, and who went through her own trauma when she lived on the other side of the country from Amie.  Although I do wish we got to know more about Padma and Trip, that we learned more about who they were with people and how well Dru connected with them, the conflict between them all and how Dru and Trip deal with the aftermath.

Then we also have the saboteur, which kind of felt like a weak conflict compared to Dru and Amie getting together again, or at least possibly getting together again.  The tension that it was meant to create seemed a bit weak and lacklustre as it was clear to the reader who was behind it, and honestly it just didn't need to be there, the conflict between Dru and Amie and their own personal baggage's would have made this book engaging and interesting on it's own without something that just seemed to be misplaced and not really fit in with the whole concept that the book was going for.

However it is a good book with plenty of kink, erotica and f/f main characters, it also shows how a good partner would make sure to question the other about what they are wanting from a scene, what they want done to them, do's and don't's and it's not just the bottom/sub who is asked but the top/dominant too.  It's a delightful, quick read if you want to read something that isn't too heavy but also has a bit of kink with two women leads.