Love hurts...if you're lucky.
Kaden knows he's dying, but before he goes, he has one problem he needs to solve - he must ask his oldest friend Seth to take over as his beloved wife's Dom and Master after his death. Seth has always seen himself as the perpetual screw-up and Kaden as the strong and steady one, so his friend's request rocks his world.
Now Seth finds himself immersed in a role he's far from comfortable with: inflicting pain to provide emotional comfort for the woman he's secretly loved for years. Can he deal with his crushing grief and learn the skills he must master in time to become THE RELUCTANT DOM?
One of the best things about being a writer is the networking with other writers. This opens you up to new authors in genres you never previously read.
This was the case with BDSM. I think I can count on one hand the BDSM themed books I've read in my lifetime. The genre just never really grabbed me and I found it difficult to get into that headspace where pain could be a good thing.
Enter The Reluctant Dom. In Tymber Dalton's world, the reasons for healing through pain make complete sense while seeming to the outside world to be a complete oxymoron.
Granted, there are some who play with BDSM for the purely sexual gratification but that's not the story Tymber is telling. In her world, the BDSM almost becomes it's own character. Someone to lean on, to listen, to cry to because we are never at our most vulnerable, most open and true than when we are in pain.
For Leah, that pain was used against as her a child, both physically, emotionally and sexually. So she closed off, shut down and began harming herself out of guilt and shame. She is a truly broken woman when our first hero, Kaden meets her. She keeps her self-harm a secret from him, but once he discovers what she's doing he's understandably horrified.
At the same time, Kaden has fallen so irrevocably in love with her by this point that he proposes what seems to be a conflicting idea. She needs to deal with the pain of her past and how it has skewed her ability to process emotions. Therapy has been exhausted and unsuccessful. Kaden will help her express those emotions through pain. It's the only way Leah's walls can ever come down because she trusts and loves Kaden. She knows she can use the pain to channel her emotions and he'll be there when the dust has settled.
It's a concept that takes some doing to get a reader's head around but Tymber weaves a spell that is so rich and so powerful that you get it. You get why Leah needs it and you get why Kaden gives it to her.
Then fate throws a horrible wrench in their 20 year marriage. There will be no happily ever after. Kaden discovers he has cancer. It's now a race against time to save his beloved from what he knows will be an irreversible break down if he dies and she is left without the love she's come to depend on as much as her own breath.
So Kaden makes a decision to replace that love...or at least replace his part in it. His replacement is their best friend Seth. An ex-army vet who's had horrible luck with women and has been as close to both of them as a brother.
He proposes that Seth take his place. Understandably, Seth is horrified and confused by what will be the loss of his best friend and the horror of being asked to take Kaden's place in all aspects of his relationship with Leah.
The three characters are so emotionally well developed that you're breathless watching them all navigate this completely foreign road and yet their devotion to each other never wavers. The love is there, the fear, the anger all of it is visceral and true to the complicated human experience.
There are moments of comedy woven through (thank God) and of course, moments of utter despair. With every passing chapter I found myself torn between wanting to devour every page and wanting to postpone the inevitable ending. In fact. I stopped reading for a few weeks just before the last chapter because I did NOT want the book to end.
I'm an unapologetic fangirl for this book. It touched me in a way I don't completely understand but isn't that the case with all great books?
