ARC Review: The Flirtation by Tara Sue Me

I know I've been saying this about this series for awhile but I mean it this time, this is my last book in the series. There were a couple of books about this BDSM group that I really liked. I kept reading the series hoping to recapture what I loved but I finally see that it's just not going to happen.

The premise of this book is that Lynn started BDSM training with Simon. Simon abruptly broke off their relationship but neither of them has been able to forget the other. Simon gave Lynn some BS excuse for ending their first relationship. He told her she was not truly submissive. In reality, Simon just thinks what he wants is too much for someone so new. He doesn't think Lynn can handle what he really wants so he just ends the relationship with her completely. What Simon does not realize is that even though Lynn was new to the life, she didn't need or want Simon to go easy on her. She really wanted what Simon wanted that he was afraid to tell her he wanted...wow, I just got dizzy writing that.

Lynn hatches this kind of crazy idea to reconnect with Simon online. It works. In fact it works so well, Simon wants to move things off the internet and in to the real world. Lynn hatches this completely crazy scheme to hide her identity. You can guess how that turns out. Simon then has to decide if maybe he was all wrong about Lynn and she's exactly what he wants. In the background there's a crazy subplot that is a little tired because the same thing happens in every one of these books. I was completely uninterested in the subplot. It neither added to the story of Lynn and Simon or took away from it. It was wholly unnecessary.  

I don't know what it was about this book but it just felt very ho-hum to me. I didn't care at all. I didn't care about Lynn or Simon or the crazy sub-plot chick. I walked away from this and I had no feelings about any of it. Something about the way these books are written alienates the reader. You don't feel like you are a part of the story. You also don't feel grabbed by the chemistry of the characters. We're just all kind of along for the ride. I don't want to write another one of these meh reviews about this series so I'm done reading books in it. 

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: The Exposure by Tara Sue Me

This is the 9th book in the submissive series and I had been waiting for this.We meet the two characters in this book in other books in the series and they both seem really compelling. By way of background, you don't have to read the other books in the series to read this one. I haven't read any of the books in this series in order. I really liked a couple of the books and I was sort of meh about others, So now you know my personal history with the series. I can tell you that no matter how I've felt about specific books in the series, I have always, this book included, found Tara Sue Me to be an above average writer with a skill for delivering superior erotic content and great character driven stories.

In this book, we finally get the story of Meagan and Luke. We find out pretty quickly that the two have a history together. They first met during a whirlwind weekend relationship in their early 20s. Meagan was a model and Luke was her photographer, both were up and coming in the industry. The first thing that I thought was interesting was the reason the relationship did not last past the first weekend the two were together. The reason Luke walked away seemed very real life to me. There was no melodrama or angst, it was just one of those grown up choices people sometimes make. I liked that Luke was honest and Meagan was too. The two weren't stunted by their relationship or their separation, both went on to live full lives apart but never forgot each other.

The author brings the characters together by using Luke's desire to rekindle the relationship in tandem with Meagan's personal crisis. Meagan is being blackmailed by somebody regarding something involving her brother from her past. Meagan doesn't really want to get involved with Luke again (that changes quickly) but she kind of has no choice. I loved that after reconnecting with Luke, Meagan can't stop her feelings for him. The connection quickly becomes real and overshadows whatever vague threat is lurking.

Of course the sex in any Tara Sue Me book is smoking hot and kinky. But in addition, Meagan and Luke have a real connection that kind of comes off the pages at you. I thought it was really interesting to see how the sexual relationship between the two changed as they both matured. They had been together years ago but they got to know their bodies. Luke got to know is dominant side and Meagan became totally at ease with her submissive side. Seeing how their interactions changed was just refreshing to me for some reason. If I had a criticism of this book it would be that some of it was a little off pace and the suspense was kind of mediocre. All in all, these are minor criticisms that did not stop me from enjoying this one.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: The Master by Tara Sue Me

The Master is part of the erotic Submissive Series, it's the story of Sasha and Cole. Prior to this installment, I read two other books in the series which focuses on a group of play partners. I really liked one of the books, The Collar, but this book reminded me more of the The Exhibitionist which I did not like as much.

Tara Sue Me is an incredibly talented writer in the erotic genre. She really excels at character building and conveying the connection between the main couple.In this book, Sasha (who appears in other books in the series) has suffered a serious trauma during a play session that got out of hand. Sasha's prior incident put her in the hospital and left her with acute PTSD. Despite her history, Sasha still desires sexual domination and wants to veer back into a Dominant/submissive relationship. Enter Cole. Cole is the "bad ass" Dom who knows how to deliver both pain and pleasure on levels that have become the stuff of legends in the play group. Cole is more than just a Dom, he is accustomed to a Master-Slave relationship.

The play group decides that Cole is the perfect person to transition Sasha from the traumatized sub who had a bad experience back into the proud submissive that she was on the road to becoming. I'm not entirely sure why the group thought that Cole was the best match for Sasha but hey, I just kind of went with it. My issue with the book is that because of Sasha's trauma, Cole decides that he can't have sex with her. So a lot of the book is Cole teaching Sasha how to be a submissive and how to trust a Dom. And that's ok but it got to be kind of tedious and went on for just too long. A subtext develops between Sasha and Cole as Sasha gets to know Cole more and their relationship moves past physical training to something more emotional. Sasha decides that she wants to try being Cole's slave and a new training process starts (lucky for us, that one involves sex).

My problem with the whole book is that it is very very mid-tempo. It's not fast or slow, it just kind of goes along somewhere in between. The issue is that there isn't any real extrinsic conflict in the plot. All of the conflict is internal to the characters. It is about their mental struggle to accept their relationship beyond the time boundary they put on it. This is a book that it would be really hard to spoil because not a whole lot happens beyond what you could read in the synopsis. The weird thing is, I'm not saying the book is bad, it wasn't. It just wasn't compelling and I was disappointed because both Cole and Sasha had the capacity to give us so much more. Despite the fact that these books continue to be a little low energy for me, I will keep up with the series just because the writing and erotic content is so good.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: The Exhibitionist by Tara Sue Me

The Exhibitionist is the 6th book in the submissive series and the 2nd book I've read in the series. I also read the immediate preceding novel "The Collar." Just by way of background I really enjoyed "The Collar" and recommend that you read it. This author is very talented and knows her way around erotica very well. That being said, there was one very prominent problem with this installment in the series- there was almost no conflict whatsoever. I'll explain.

This book is about Nathaniel and Abigail. Both of these characters have appeared in previous novels in this series. In fact the story of Abigail and Nathaniel meeting and getting together are the first four out of the six novels in this series (I haven't yet read those yet). I assume that the first four books depicting Abigail and Nathaniel getting together read more like a traditional romance with a chase, the couple getting together, some major conflict and the couple reuniting. That's pretty much the romance formula right? Well as much as we see that formula repeated, it's what we love and expect in our romance novels, even the BDSM erotic novels. But there is none of that in this book. The couple is already married with two children. They've already endured all of the initial couple conflicts (four books worth apparently) and they've been married for like 10 years. So this book is really just about the day to day life of a married couple who have a master-slave side to their relationship and are members of a large kink club.

I think what the author was trying to do was build a conflict around the fact that for the first time in their relationship Abby is discovering and exploring her need for public sex play. Even though Nathaniel is on board with giving Abigail what she wants, it makes him insecure that she gets off on other men watching her and he starts to wonder if it might be more than just wanting to be watched. For Abby's part, she is insecure about one of Nathaniel's employees and Nathaniel doesn't handle the insecurity well. Those were interesting sources of conflict but the problem is that they take up almost no pages in the book. The total amount of time spent on those conflicts is probably about 20-30 pages of the entire book and most of those pages don't appear until after the 70% mark of the book. So that means this is an entire novel about the everyday lives of a married couple with some very well depicted, tantalizing kinky sex interspersed in the pages.

I'm not exaggerating about the sex scenes, they are really really well done. The sex scenes basically carry the book because there just isn't much else going on in terms of the romance in the book. The non-sex scenes are about the business aspects of the "play group" that the couple are a part of. The business of the group is depicted in great detail with a lot of information about new security protocols the group is putting in place to increase safety for the players. I found that information to be really mundane and frankly boring. It didn't do anything for me in terms of giving me the romance I was craving from the book and it didn't infuse any excitement in to the story line. There is also a lot of detail given about some of the other club members and their stories. That's ok if you've read some of the other books and are interested in following up on some of the characters. For me, I don't really want that much information about non-main characters.

The question I kept asking myself as I was reading this book was 'what is this book about?' The only answer I could come up with is that it's about Nathaniel and Abigail's marriage and I just don't know if that's an actual plot that can hold a reader's attention. I appreciate Tara's adeptness at erotic writing so much that I still feel like it was worthwhile for me to read this book but I think there's potential for you to be disappointed by the lack of a clear plot. I think I would recommend reading the first 4 books in the series before you read this one. I think I would've gotten more out of this installment if I was already invested in the relationship between Nathaniel and Abigail.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: The Collar by Tara Sue Me

The Collar is my first book in the Submissive Series and my first Tara Sue book. This book is a part of a series but it’s a standalone and can be read out of order. This is Jeff and Dena’s story. Jeff and Dena are a second chance romance deal. They were together for three years before breaking up because neither of them knew how to deal with life’s inevitable bad sh!t. While together Dena wore Jeff’s “collar” and was his exclusive submissive. I’m not really that entrenched in the whole BDSM scene, all I know is being collared involved some feet kissing, candle wax dripping, rope and a whole lot of “yessir.” Even if you’re like me and you’re not a BDSM enthusiast, the depiction of the relationship in this book is much deeper than the trappings of the lifestyle practiced by the characters. When the book begins Dena is being stalked/harassed by some crazy creep and Jeff agrees to protect her despite the fact that they have unresolved issues the size of the Grand Canyon between them. As the book progresses Dena and Jeff travel down the road to understanding themselves and what went wrong in their relationship.

If you have a book called "The Collar" that is about BDSM relationships, there is a tendency to be biased into thinking the book is going to be one long kink fest. That is not the case here at all. I was totally shocked by how genuine and deep the depiction of the connection between Jeff and Dena was. This book is an emotional journey that describes what happens when people shut each other out in a relationship to protect themselves and to protect each other. The sex scenes, instead of being the central focus, serve only to further describe and enhance the connection between Jeff and Dena.

I'm not normally a fan of second chance romance but this is the second book I've read that is making me more of a believer. The history between Jeff and Dena provided a much richer foundation upon which the present day relationship was built. The past relationship is conveyed to the reader in a series of flashbacks that fit well in the context of the story. The book is told in the 3rd person POV but alternates between Jeff and Dena. I have grown to need dual POVs. I’m nosy and I want to know what everybody is thinking.

My only criticism of the book is regarding the mystery/suspense thread that is woven in the book. Throughout the book everyone is trying to figure out who is stalking and harassing Dena. I figured it out pretty easily and when everyone in the book discovered the truth, it was completely anticlimactic. First of all the stalkers intentions and motivations were absurd, and then the handling of the situation also fell really flat. For so much to be made of how serious the threat to Dena was, the resolution of that issue left me feeling very meh. The fact that the rest of the book was so emotionally excruciating made this one part of it seem particularly incongruous.

Beyond my one criticism, this book is well written and brilliantly executed, I highly recommend it.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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Guest Post with Author Tara Sue Me

Today I would like to welcome author Tara Sue Me to RFTC. Tara along with a few of the characters from The Submissive have stopped by to chat. Please give them all a warm welcome.

Tara Sue Me wrote her first novel at the age of twelve. It would be twenty years before she picked up her pen to write the second.

After completing several traditional romances, she decided to try her hand at something spicier and started The Submissive. What began as a writing exercise quickly took on a life of its own. An avid reader of all types of fiction, she soon discovered she enjoyed writing a variety as well.

Tara lives in the Southeastern United States with her family, two dogs, and a cat.

Places to find Tara Sue: 

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