Roni is the head
bartender at the Tampa nightclub Shadows. All she wants is to date
normal humans as she brings enough baggage to the table as a changer.
However, when her past comes calling and she kills her tormentor once
and for all, what she thought she knew about her new lovers turns out to
be a lie. Surviving the punishment for her crime is the easy part but
can she accept what her lovers are? Author Note: Contains adult
sexual content, including m/m and BDSM practices.
Yet
another awesome installment in the Shadows series. In Barely Restrained we are treated to Roni’s story. Because this is
the third book and Roni is a bartender at Shadows and has been in the previous
books, I knew what she was and what it meant for her to be a changer as we have
met her preferred male and female forms before. But knowing that Roni is a
changer doesn’t mean that Roni wasn’t a mystery because she has been a woman of
few words despite her constant presence and we find out rather quickly, that
there’s a lot about her that she hasn’t told her Shadows family about.
Despite
the happiness of the couplings of her friends and co-workers, Roni only dates
norms and by all indications, date is a rather generous term for those
relationships. So when Zac happens to take notice of her and catch her eye
while she’s bartending the Swingers’ Night event at Shadows, she’s relieved
that he’s human. However, upon learning that he’s not unattached, she’s not
sure that she wants to see where the mutual interest leads. When Zac returns
not once, but twice and refuses to be dissuaded by the way she treats him in
two of her alternate forms, she gives in to her curiosity and goes home with
him. Because she recently accompanied Nick on an undercover venture – in yet
another form – she was aware that Zac was in the kink lifestyle, even if she
didn’t actually know what that meant. I appreciated that not only did Roni ask
questions about Zac and Hunter’s lifestyle throughout the entire book, but also
that they encouraged her questions, answered them, and made sure that she
understood the information they gave her. This helped to forge a bond of trust
between the three that was apparent during their play scenes – scenes that I
must say were freaking hot.
There
was more of a suspense element in Barely
Restrained than in the previous books because Roni’s past was literally
stalking her – and while she knew who it was, her refusal to think about it in
order to preserve her sanity meant the reader was kept in the dark for quite a
while. But when her stalker puts Zac’s life in danger, he learns that Roni is
not the same scared pet he controlled years ago and I will only say that Roni
proved just how big and bad she could be. As much as I hated the punishment
that she was dealt because she thwarted her attacker permanently, it did set
the occasion for Zac and Hunter to take care of her and prove to her just how
important she was to them – especially when they saw her true form (which
sounded pretty creepy when she described it) and did not reject her as she
feared they would. Their acceptance of her made it easier for Roni to accept
their offer to start a life together – one I expect to hear more about in the
next book in the series, Embracing Sin.
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