ARC Review: The Dominant by Tara Sue Me

“I was shocked at the depth of it!” ~Under the Covers

Nathaniel West, successful CEO and Dominant, does not lose control. He has a plan for everyone and everything and that’s where Abigail King enters the picture. She wants to be Nathaniel’s submissive. The problem is she has no experience or training whatsoever.

The second book in The Submissive Trilogy is told solely through Nathaniel’s POV and hopefully you’ve read The Submissive so you know there was something Nathaniel wasn’t up front about. I think that was my favorite part…reading all his reasoning’s why, his insecurities and his humanity because he came off being very cold most of the time in the first book. That’s definitely not a problem in this book. And who knew he could be sooo funny? It really made me laugh when he was typing to himself!

I did miss Abigail (Abby) even though I had read her story and knew what had happened. There were even some scenes that it felt like I was missing something and realized it was just her. On the other hand, we get sooo much more of Nathaniel that I guess it evens things out.

I really enjoyed the times when Nathaniel was sweating things out. There was a particular punishment that I thought was really hard to read from Abby’s POV. That was until I read Nathaniel’s…his was sheer torture! And when he suspected her of doing something she wasn’t, to read about him deciding what to do or not to do was sooo stressful. But I did like when he worried if she cared for him or not.

It was great getting to read about the closeness of Nathaniel’s relationships especially with Jackson and Todd. You could definitely feel how close they were and how much they cared about each other. I was glad that Nathaniel had that because their friendships are really needed towards the end.

I loved finding out the “whys” of certain things that we didn’t get in the first book: how Nathaniel came up with the safe word, about his parent’s rings and the rose….especially the rose. I just loved that.

The sex is still as steamy but again, I loved it even more reading how Abby affected him. The kissing rule still bothered me even with Nathaniel’s reason but at least it was more understandable.

A few of my favorite things were Apollo…my heart went out to him when he could smell Abby on Nathaniel; the poetry…the poetry! As Nathaniel said, “Who knew poetry could be such a turn- on?”; the cooking…I really enjoyed when they would cook for each other and especially when they ‘cooked’ together; and the library/piano…the best parts…almost.

The big drama was even more heart breaking if that’s possible. I thought Abby’s POV was bad but Nathaniel’s killed me. I was shocked at the depth of it!

I have to say I’m nervous about The Training. I enjoyed reading the excerpt at the end but I’m hoping it’s so much more than just BDSM. And I have sooo many more questions that I want answered. *fingers crossed*

Favorite quotes:

♥ “But I send you a cream-white rosebud….With a flush on its petal tips.”

♥ “I love the way you feel in- side me.”

Holy f*cking shit. She was talking dirty.

♥ “I’ve never felt this way before,” she said. “Only you. Only you can do this to me.”

♥ “Abby. My one percent.”

 

*ARC provided by publisher

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[about-author author=”Tara Sue Me”]