3 stars if this is not your cup of tea...

I have this thing where, if a book is part of a collection, I have to read all of the books. I don’t mean it’s a series per se. Of course if the stories are meant to piggy-back off one another you should read them all. What I mean is a collection where there are cross over characters but they can truly be read without reading the others. I just have to read from the very first book, even if the first book isn’t necessarily my cup of tea. That’s what happened here. Let me explain.

I am by far not a prude and have read my share of BDSM type books. Enough that I know what I like and what I don’t. One of the things I know I am not a fan of is the Master/slave dynamic. It doesn’t offend me really. It just puzzles me I guess. I have no problem with the Dom/sub dynamic so I’m not sure why there’s something that keeps me from crossing that thin line. It’s something about the words Master and slave I think. But I’m no psychologist so who knows. Well if you read the blurb for this book (short story, really) it’s obvious it may not be the story for me. But I am interested in the next book in the collection, The Awakening: A Master and His Submissive. So I decided I should read this story first.

Just because this isn’t exactly to my taste doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good writing. I found the story to be really well written. It is often (very, very often) the case that books in the Erotica genre, especially those with a Master/slave theme, are rife with spelling and grammar errors. I didn’t have that issue with this book and I am grateful for that. This is actually a great “starter” book for those that want to delve into this aspect of the Erotica genre. Ms. Edwards really helps the reader to understand what the Master/slave relationship is really about and how such things work.

Now I really hate when I read bad reviews and it turns out that the reviewer either hadn’t actually read beyond the first chapter (example: I don’t like swearing in books and didn’t read beyond the first chapter so I’m only giving one star) or they already know they’re not a fan of the genre (example: I hate erotic fiction and find it offensive, once I realized what I had purchased I didn’t even read the book – one star). Both of these examples are not fair to the author or future readers. I’m not going to order liver and onions at a restaurant and them go on Yelp! and give them a one star rating because I hate liver and onions. That’s stupid. So although for me personally this would be a 3 star book (based on the writing), I’m giving it 4 stars when actually recording my ratings because I think fans of this type of erotica will really enjoy the story.

https://allingoodtimeblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/the-gift-a-sadist-and-his-slave-book-review/