Nikki ღ Navareus's Reviews > Taking It All

I'm so torn on this story. I usually adore Maya Banks. I read the sample of this story and I was immediately sucked into it, so I went ahead and DL'd it. To be fair, I totally skipped the first two books in this series, so that's on me, but I didn't realize this was a BDSM themed story going in. Nothing wrong with a BDSM story, but this story felt confused, like it couldn't decide if it wanted to just be an angstly romance or a BDSM story, and every once in a while MB would remember it was supposed to have BDSM in it and she'd sprinkle little sayings about Tate being dominant. It didn't feel real. Chessy's heartbreak at being mostly ignored by her husband for two years while he steadily climbed the ranks of his business felt very genuine and had some fantastic angst. (view spoiler)[And when Tate doesn't show up for their anniversary dinner and she catches him with another woman trying to get her digs into him, the angst was phenomenal.

But here's where the story took a turn for the worst. Chessy is heartbroken and lonely and dying for the attention of her husband again. She's terrified their marriage is crumbling away and that he perhaps is cheating on her. She finally expresses to Tate how lonely and unhappy she's been with their relationship, basically being abandoned by him for the past couple of years. So the first thing Tate decides to do is take her to a sex club to let another dude fuck her???? That's his idea of giving her the much needed attention she's craving from her husband??? This scene was so out of place in this story, but then gigantic moron Tate decides to walk off and take a work phone call while the other dude proceeds to rape Chessy against her will...
(hide spoiler)]
But then the story turned great again. The break up of that unfolds from this scene created some spectacular angst. I really dug the heartbreak that both Chessy and Tate went through after she left him and was kicking around getting divorce. Chessy's friends and their "dominant" men supported Chessy in a wonderful way while she was licking her wounds. But the men (trying to be badass talking smack about Tate) sounded like women talking. Dash's and Jensen's dialogue distracted a lot from this awesome angstiness.

This was a tough one. I really loved some parts of it and I really loathed other parts. So bummed that this wasn't a total winner coming from Maya Banks.