Beautifully Wicked

Well this was a surprise, in a good way. I've only tentatively dipped my feet (eyes) into the more gritty and I imagine realistic world of BDSM (Kyle Moon's “Beyond Eden”) and am pleased to say that in spite of the fact that this lifestyle has zero appeal to me in real life, I was able to really go on the voyage of discovery & falling in love with the reluctant D/s.
The plot synopsis fairly tells you what the story is about but what will really win you over is the character of Genevieve or Gen as she prefers to be known. She's quirky, artsy and lonely but open and willing to love in spite of having been dealt some tough blows in life and that's what makes her the heroine of the story. Brian has also had trauma in his life (who doesn't in fiction nowadays???) but whereas Gen has tried to make the best with what she has such as going to the local community college for art classes, working and creating family out of friends where she finds them, he has chosen to close down emotions so as to not get hurt. And so they embark on a no-love, just-for-kink Dom/sub relationship we all know will fail, because otherwise this wouldn't be a romance. The kicker is in the writing and in how Fallon Blake shows and doesn't tell us how they are both affected & changed by each encounter and how she doesn't rush the time but rather has the relationship develop over quite a few months. Time enough for people to actually get to know one another and reassess assumptions and feelings, make mistakes, feel regret and atone for what they can and move one to a well deserved HEA.

I particularly liked that there weren't any big misunderstandings, except in the Dom/H's heart.
So even if you're not going to run out to join FetLife I think you would enjoy this well told story, which is a love story at heart (with some intense, but consensual, punishment scenes) of two people falling for each other and coming to the happy realization that true love has found them. What's not to love???

BTW: Does anyone know what's happened to this author? Is she writing under another name? Or is she mired in the whole Ellora's Cave legal debacle? It be great to have the the third story that is clearly meant to follow this (Sophia & Jared ... two Doms! OMG.)