Romance Witch's Reviews: ARC Mini-Review: Claimed

Presley Flynn is ripe to experience her secret fantasies . . . and Dmitri Pratt wants nothing more than to fulfill them. Once inside the elite Club Sin in Las Vegas, Presley is nervous but excited—and determined to surrender to her every desire. Dmitri is her Master, and his touch is like fire. With each careful, calculated caress, he unleashes her wildest inhibitions, giving her unimagined pleasure.

Presley is different than the other submissives Dimitri has mastered. The BDSM lifestyle is new to her, and so are the games they play at Club Sin. From the start, Presley stirs emotions in him far beyond the raw purity between a Dom and the perfect sub. For the ecstasy they share goes beyond the dungeon igniting a passion that claims the very depths of the heart.

Review:

Claimed, the first book in the Club Sin series was a fascinating study in the lifestyle of BDSM, though with a few important twists. Stacey Kennedy is s new author for me so I was thrilled to get to try her newest erotica novel. I’m certainly not new to the genre of Erotica specifically revolving around BDSM, but the twists of the lifestyles she gave the members of her club were enough to give the story a bit of a difference from many I’ve read.

Presley is a sweet, innocent, and fresh-faced young woman, recovering from a very bad relationship and beginning to understand that her true nature might be a bit more involved and kinky than she’s always thought. When she’s given the chance to enter a BDSM club and find out if her fantasies and desires make her a submissive, she doesn’t exactly jump at the chance but she’s willing to give herself the chance to find somewhere she feels comfortable. But the minute she meets club owner and Dom Master Dimitri her life is changed forever. His commanding personality and intense sexuality leave her panting in desire and willing to do whatever he desires so he can please him. Venturing into the world of BDSM with Dimitri as her guide, Presley begins to learn more about herself and the life she really desires—a life she’d love to share with Dimitri, even though she doesn’t think she can live up to his standards.

The club scenes are of course intense and often times dark, especially when viewed through the naive eyes of Presley. But Dimitri soon begins to show her the beauty and sexiness in the scenes around the club, gradually easing her fears and showing her that she’ll fit right in. When they have their scenes together the heat is unimaginable, but I certainly wish there had been more of them. Though the physical aspects of the scenes were certainly dark and intense, the emotional side of the challenges and issues that Dmitri helps her work through were even more profound.

My biggest issue was that though there were some very emotional instances, the entire relationship developed into love a bit faster than I would have expected. I know the story was kinda short overall so the speed was hard to overcome, but I could have used a bit more time between Presley and Dimitri; More time away from the dungeon so they could see how they would be able to work together not just in the bedroom, but also out of it as they made the extreme choice to become committed to each other and live their lives together.

Overall, not a bad story. There were of course the requisite sexy scenes in the dungeon and the training and punishment scenes you would expect from a good BDSM novel. There were also interesting glimpses into the man that Dimitri is outside of just his dominant nature. The love story seemed a bit secondary to the training and changes that Dimitri put Presley through in so short a time. I’m hoping that future stories in the series will delve a bit more into the love connections between the couples that are making lifelong commitments, as opposed to just the Dom/sub side of their relationship. I will definitely keep up with the series though, simply because we got to meet some very intriguing side characters that I would love to see get their own stories!