★★★★ ½ @authorlexiblake #TheDomIdentity #mustread @jennw23
This is a must read book. The foreword in this book is particularly meaningful and provides great insight into the characters in this book. I want to thank Ms. Blake for bringing awareness to a detrimental bias against women's body. I loved Vanessa and she is the bomb.
This book contains everything I love about romance, suspense and kink. We have two characters with hot chemistry - Vanessa and Michael. We have perception issues that cause hurtful conflict. We have an entitled jerk who feels perpetrates malicious rumours and horrible character defamation as well as commits acts of violence. We have urber Doms making guest appearances.
For those who haven't read the Texas Sirens series, you are missing out. This is a delicious kinky series with Julian as the owner of club in this story. It isn't a required reading but it will help give more insight into the secondary characters showing up in this book. Michael works for Ian Taggart who has his own BDSM club. For the purposes of this book, the crossover between the two worlds is a fantasy come true to most kinky readers. For Michael, maybe not so much a dream come true because now he has to contend with two dominants looking out for submissives - Julian and Ian. As a side note, I love the interplay between Ian and Julian. Just as I love the entire team at Taggart prepping and treating Julian as a VIP.
For me, the reason why I loved this story so much is Vanessa's character. She is a person who has been unjustly painted because of people's perception of her. Honestly, I think she needed a better PR firm which is very expensive, to help her image out. She's been maligned in both gossip rags and big name news media. Although let's be real, now a days, most of the big networks are no different than the gossip rags they look down upon.
There is one thing I really liked having pointed out in this story. Vanessa got her boobs done. It is nobody's business why she got her boobs done. When the reader finds out the reason, is it maybe a frivolous thing to do? Maybe. What is bad or wrong that it wasn't exactly her idea? Maybe. But what difference does it make? Because Vanessa is a woman who deserves to be treated with respect regardless of her body parts. To only focus on her fake boobs and call attention to it, why do we do this?
Vanessa is an amazing person with a giving heart. She's been burned several times and she still tries to do her best to help people and minimize the craziness that surrounds her. Her strong will to pave the way for other females and her unapologetic attitude for being different should be applauded. I love how Ms. Blake shows how Vanessa's strengths are marginalized by those who want to control her. In the end, I feel that not all the wrongs to Vanessa have be righted. I am still a bit blood thirsty and wish there was more vengeance meted out.
Whilst Vanessa comes out smelling like roses, Michael... not so much. I liked his flaws and how he learns from them over the course of this story. He always seemed a bit more wooden in the previous books. With him as the male lead, it is good to see him from his own perspective. Ms. Blake humanizes him.
The kinky scenes in this story are sweet. This is lite BDSM for me and since it is in an exclusive upscale club filled with gorgeous people and beautiful bodies... I did classify it as glitterkink. I didn't read this story for the kink. I read it for Ms. Blake's character development. This romance suspense is recommended to readers who want to see more than just skin deep characters. This kinky book is also recommended as a Gateway to BDSM.
