Her Secret Dom by Samantha Cote

 When Pam accepts a romantic date with a coworker, she “forgets” to share her dinner plans with her lover, Jared. Pam has no interest in anyone else, but she’s so devastated by Jared's emotional abandonment she'll do anything to forget that at one time, she meant something to him.

Jared's been preoccupied with his growing security company, and after deflowering Pam six weeks ago, he's neglected her. Jared’s suppressed his Dominant side in order to protect Pam from his dark desires, but the Dom in him knows it’s still his duty to tend to her needs. Well, as soon as his workload eases...

But someone tips off Jared and he shows up at the restaurant unannounced. Pam’s mortified when her sweet-tempered boyfriend goes Neanderthal on her and drags her back to his cave. Pam’s bratty behavior has unleashed the possessive Dom in him, so the secret's out. But as Jared gives Pam a taste of his Dominance, other secrets threaten to surface and destroy their new beginning.

By disclosing his true self, will he end up losing the woman he loves?

The synopsis really tells you the story better than the actual book which is why I could only give this a 3 star.  The plot would have been interesting but the writing style took a turn that left me feeling frustrated.  The lack of communication about the real issues between these two left me wanting to scream.  SEX and BDSM does NOT solve all problems in a relationship.  When the secrets that they were keeping from each other were revealed I didn’t feel like they were solved or even addressed in a realistic way.  As for the writing style, while I am all for a well-developed scene being played out, I think the amount of detail in this book was a bit much.  From cleaning the refrigerator at work to what he was doing to her, it was all written out in great detail, missing the emotions and thoughts of the characters.

We had scenes with Pam and her job, which I might add she felt more robotic than human in some.  She was great at what she did, but she was a fixer and took care of issues that came up.  I can see why that was one reason she had to be treated like she did by Jared when it came to being his submissive, but somewhere along the lines, the emotions fell flat for me and I was bored more than entertained. He took his Dom role and made it read more as a father role to a young child than teaching Pam about his preferred life style.  I felt on more than one occasion he was telling her how to view things in life and how to feel rather than trying to learn more about her.  I am not in the life style but I have friends who are and I have read many BDSM books in the past and my understanding is communication and respect are two of the biggest aspects to BDSM.  I felt both were lacking severely in this book. 

A few of the sex scenes felt more of a power struggle than a BDSM scene or actual love.  I was uncomfortable with one in particular where he kept pushing and pushing her only to bring her back to calm just to prove he was in charge.  Once she gave up and just lay there, it was then that he pleased her.  That felt more of a school yard bullying trick to win the advantage than a BDSM scene where the Dom takes the power that the sub freely offers.

As with all reviews, this is my personal opinion.  I felt the plot was a great idea on paper, it could have really been closer to my liking had the communication between the characters been developed and we had more emotion and development of scenes and characters and less mundane details. 

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