Review: Take Me, Break Me by Cari Silverwood

Book: Take Me, Break Me

Pierced Hearts #1

Author: Cari Silverwood

Erotic Romance, BDSM

Accolade? I think that's a yes.

Blurb:

Jodie is scraping the barrel trying to stay afloat. An idea arrives that could rescue her finances and bring her together in a kinky way with a man she never gave up on. She's terrified and fascinated, and tempted as hell.

Capture fantasies rule her eBook. Re-enacting one in a documentary would surely be irresistible viewing to millions of women?

But Jodie and Klaus discover that underneath an ordinary man dark desires may lurk. What will win in the end? The man and lover, or the monster?

Warning: Capture fantasy; dubious consent; anal play; M/f as well as one m/f/f/m scene; BDSM themes including caning, spanking, bondage, and needle play. Also contains one beginner Dom who is exploring sadism but is still working out how and when to stop.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I enjoy this. You might be in trouble."

Wow, okay. So that was intense. I had to take a few days to process before writing this review.

This was definitely one of those books that you cannot put down once you get into it. The beginning took a bit of developing before it got intense, but that made sense because Klaus, the hero of the story, took some time getting into the swing of things. He was dragged into this capture fantasy venture by Jodie, just about kicking and screaming. It took him some time to switch gears. But once he switched gears, ladies, the gloves came off and so did the panties (and the laundry did not get done... why does that sound so dirty? you know, what I meant, right? that I couldn't put the book down? yeah? okay, I know it gets ruined when I have to explain the punch line. blah blah blah).

"My libido was sitting up and panting with its ass in the air." (see, that's what I meant)

So the concept was a capture fantasy for a documentary Jodie was hoping to make. It was kind of a backward capture fantasy. It all started out so civilized. Usually capture fantasies start out with non consent, mystery, and fear that evolve into trust and maybe affection as we get to know the characters. This goes the other way. We started out with trust and progressed to uncertainty and fear.

"This was like chess with her mind, and the wrong move on her part meant I got to do things I could never do out there in the normal world."

It was so unexpected, but Klaus was HOT. I love a dominant man. I do. But when you pair dominant with deviant sadist... I can't resist. It's probably the hottest combination ever. AND factor in the hot judo moves. We didn't stand a chance, ladies. Well, I didn't stand a chance and neither did Jodie.

"When the going gets tough the tough get kinky."

Okay, let's address the basics - the writing was great. The storyline was well developed and flowed smoothly. Well, as smoothly as a mind fuck is supposed to flow. There were definitely moments where I wondered who was being mind fucked, Jodie, Klaus or me? ... The BDSM was creative, realistic and (again) well written. There was a whole lot of sexy here and a whole lot of kinky. Mind fuck? Check. Sadomasochism? Check. Menage? Check. Girl on girl? Check. Needles? Yes, please. I mean... check.

On a serious note, I want to say that reading Cari Silverwood's BDSM is always refreshing because she always mentions safety, proper research, practice, mentorship options, importance of community support... Her characters are not perfect and sometimes make mistakes, because there's a self discovery and learning phase. But they're self aware, questioning, learning. It makes the whole situation feel more authentic.

I really enjoyed Klaus and Jodie's story. Klaus might have started off reluctant, but once he discovered that there's a part of him that enjoys kink it all came naturally to him. Like the flood gates opened up and he stepped into his real persona. Jodie also uncovered a new world and found that what she once thought was degrading just might be empowering. It was a backwards love story. Unexpected and suspenseful, yet fulfilling. I can't wait to see what Cari Silverwood has in store for Klaus and Jodie in the sequel. 

Purchase Link:

amazon

My First Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

Book: Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy
Author: E. L. James
Contemporary Romance, BDSM

Okay, I'm changing my previous 3 Star rating to a Book Burning.
Upon further consideration and closer scrutiny I have come to the conclusion that Fifty Shades of Grey is one big rip off from other authors. We already knew that it was Twilight without the fangs and sparkles, but now I have come to see that E.L. James has also ripped off BDSM Erotic Romance authors who are not as well known and hence the rip off wasn't immediately noticed. Now that I see it, though, it's so obvious and I can't give E.L. James credit. She just won the lottery jackpot of luck and cashed out. It's not deserved. I won't deny, however, that the success of Fifty Shades has trickled down to other authors in the form of new readers, who otherwise would not have known about this genre. So, there, not all is awful, but I just don't think this author is deserving.

(WARNING: SPOILERS)

I've debated a few titles for this one.. Fifty Shades of Bad, etc. I'm sure we've heard it all from the BDSM community about how E. L. James butchered her attempt at good BDSM erotica. And I agree. However, I don't think it's all bad, which is why I gave her 3 stars.

If you're looking for a good plot, great writing, great erotica and good BDSM this is not the book for you. The book is clearly based on Twilight. It's very reminiscent of fan fiction. The main heroine, Anna Steele, is klutzy, innocent, and unaware of her beauty (Bella Swan anyone?) and Christian Grey is the mysterious hero who is so drawn to her, yet he's trying to fight the attraction, albeit not very hard and quite unsuccessfully. He even tries to warn her off just like Edward in Twilight. Except his reason isn't that he might suck her dry or turn her into a bloodsucker, hence destroying her soul (Edward's concern). Christian Grey's reason is that he's a sadist and wants to paddle her ass... I'm still not sure why that's a bad thing, so I never understood trying to warn Anna off. 

Also, E. L. James based the book in Washington, just like Twilight, but for some odd reason she didn't research the local lingo and has Anna Steele "phoning" and "ringing" people, going "on holiday" and using a "smart rucksack." I'm not  expecting Dickens' ability to bring characters to life by using the dialect specific to their station and location, but a reasonable understanding the local slang would have been nice.  

My biggest issue with Fifty Shades of Grey is that it's clear that E. L. James did just about as much research on BDSM as she did on the local American slang. That's pretty irresponsbile, especially with how popular this book is. She portrays Christian Grey as an experienced Dominant and Sadist. Anna Steele is a complete innocent. She's a virgin and doesn't even know that kink exists until she sees Christian's "red room of pain," as she dubs it. That's all fine and good, for a natural submissive and/or masochist that wouldn't matter... It's sometimes nice to see how a character develops while struggling through accepting a darker part of themselves, such as reconciling being a submissive woman in a society where we're taught that we shouldn't let men "subjugate" us, etc.

However, Anna really isn't submissive and she's not a masochist. She enjoys fun bedroom games and she's okay with submitting sexually with very minimal pain involved... which, again, is perfectly fine. To each their own. The issue I have is that E. L. James doesn't let it be a discovery of fun bedroom games, she makes it into a big mental health issue for Christian Grey... She portrays his sadistic tendencies as a deep-rooted mental health issue that started in his childhood and put it on par with Edward Cullen's dilemma in Twilight - turn Bella into a vampire and destroy her soul or kill her by accident or let her go. Come on now... that's a bit dramatic. So Christian wants to beat Anna's ass. He's kinky, not a psychopath and not a vampire in danger of losing control and killing her by accident. Can I roll my eyes? Cause I did. A lot.

Though, really, I don't think that E. L. James knows what a good Dominant is like... cause Christian is way more domineering than just plain dominant. But whatever. Otherwise, he's your fairy tale prince with lots of $$$, class, generosity, ability to dance and the ability to be in the right place at the right time whenever you need him in that right place... cause maybe it was the wrong place for you and you needed him there to make it right. Yeah, cliche. Also, did I mention it's Twilight with a BDSM twist and no vampires? In case, I didn't mention it, let me just reaffirm that it is. Down to the part where the hero buys the heroine a new car because her old car wasn't up to his snuff.

Okay, so the book takes us through their journey together - Anna coming to terms with her devious bedroom desires and learning to deal with Christian's domineering ways, while Christian learns to rein in his sadistic and domineering tendencies to keep Anna from running the other way. There was a bad guy, as most of these types of romance books have. There were some hardships they needed to overcome, a little bit of heartbreak. And, of course, there's a happily ever after with lots of love. The sex scenes are pretty steamy, the BDSM is pretty mild, but creative - the scenes did not repeat themselves (unlike some other books I've read since). So, it was pretty readable. However, Anna was pretty annoying and there were quite a few times I wanted to slap her or choke her a little, or maybe a lot.

Overall, I liked the book, even with all the issues. I enjoyed reading it. But then, I enjoyed reading Twilight, not to be confused with enjoying the movies.. cause those were vomit-worthy. Whoever said that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have chemistry is not the brightest crayon and their acting is awful on so many levels I can rant about them for a while. So, lucky you, this isn't a Twilight movie review. Anyway, it's a good gateway book. Before reading FSOG I had no idea that there was a whole world of erotica romance out there. I discovered some awesome authors after this revelation, hence I give Fifty Shades of Grey 3 stars and dub it The Gateway Book.

Purchase Link:

amazon