Publisher:
Carina
Press
Published: June 16, 2014
ISBN: 978 1 42689 848 8
Genre: Contemporary Romance / BDSM
Book
Format: E-book
Obtained
via: Publisher
Reviewed
by: Helena Stone, helenastone63@gmail.com
Rating:
4.5
‘Bonds
of Courage’ is the sixth title in the ‘Wicked Play’ series and more than lived
up to the expectations I had based on those earlier books. Over the course of
six books I have gotten very attached to The Den, the people who own the place
and their partners.
This
instalment features Vanessa Delcour – full-time rep for professional athletes,
partner in The Den, an exclusive sex club, and known as Mistress V an
experienced Domme. For years she has successfully kept all the threads of her
life separated and she is determined to keep it that way. Vanessa is in control
of her life and doesn’t allow anyone to breach her carefully set boundaries or
anything to control her. It is a balancing act but a successful one until
Holden Hauke applies for membership at The Den.
Holdon
Hauke is a professional hockey player. He has kept his sexual needs and desires
buried, especially after one indiscrete photo of him tied to a spanking bench
nearly cost him his career and forced a mid-season transfer. With the summer
break on his hands Holden turns to The Den in the hope of finding a discrete
Mistress. One look at Vanessa is enough to tell Holden he’s found what he’s
been looking for.
With
their first encounter going off to a bad start because of Holden’s lie on his
application to The Den and Vanessa’s reluctance to let anyone in to her life
never mind her heart a relationship between these two seems doomed from the
start. Holden is not prepared to give up though. He may be submissive, he is
determined to do whatever it takes to show Vanessa that they belong together.
For
the sixth consecutive time Lynda Aicher has brought her readers two characters
who are interesting, easy to root for yet realistic and flawed. I fell in love
with Holden the moment he made his first appearance. I loved the ease with
which he surrendered to his needs despite the risks involved and Vanessa’s
attempts to push him away, and delighted in the release he found in bondage.
“The
firm clasp of the thick bands of leather was his freedom.”
Vanessa
was a little bit harder to like. She was so determined to be independent, to
keep all the different threads in her life separate and avoid all attachments,
that it was almost too easy to believe she really was the hard bitch she
portrait herself as. That image made the rare occasion on which her hard shell
cracked all the more beautiful though.
“It
made no sense, but he was under her skin, burning through her as no other sub
ever had.”
This
story is a reversal of the BDSM story we usually read. In this book it isn’t
the sub who needs to be convinced of his needs, it isn’t the sub running away
from something new and scary. This time we are dealing with a sub who knows
exactly what he wants and has a job on his hands convincing his Domme that his
needs happen to mirror hers.
“He
could make her happy. Please her. He got everything he needed by giving her
what she needed. It was a perfect combination that.”
I
loved Holden for getting Vanessa, for taking his time and for reading her well
enough to know what all her small sign and gestures meant. I loved the moment
he gave her a pair of flip-flops.
“The
only time she wasn’t in heels was when she let her shields down, and he wanted
that all the time with him.”
I’m
very grateful that although there is lots of angst and conflict in this book I
didn’t have to read my way through a lengthy split between the protagonists
based on fear or a misunderstanding. I’m equally happy that the author kept
things real; the resolution of issues was organic and believable.
Overall
this was a wonderful, smooth, very sexy and fascinating read. The descriptions
of Vanessa’s sessions with Holden were captivating as were the occasions when
the two of them gave into their feelings without any play involved.
I
discovered that there is one more Wicked Play story to come in September 2014.
While I’m delighted to have another book in this series to look forward to I am
already sad that book will also mean I’ll have to say goodbye to The Den and
all who play and love there.
“I’m yours. In every way. Beyond the playroom. Beyond
the spankings and bondage and play – I belong to you.”
This is an objective review
and not an endorsement of this book.
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