Liquid Silver Books, $3.99, ISBN 978-1-59578-843-6
Contemporary Erotica, 2011

The Master unfortunately finds the wrong audience in me. It seems to be an exploration of the psychology of characters formerly involved in a “bad” kind of BDSM lifestyle. Not wanting to be stuck in that lifestyle, our heroine Madison Pearce walked away from that life and her Master, Anderson Chokol, years ago to reinvent herself as the owner of a fashionable interior decorator company. When the story opens, she discovers that her mysterious client is no other than… ta-da, Anthony himself. Can he convince her that he wants a second chance with her, only this time in a new and improved BDSM lifestyle?

Madison is a pretty decent heroine in that she doesn’t let anyone walk over her despite her role as a submissive, and this is actually a good thing because a doormat heroine would have made this story a positively infuriating read. I don’t understand Anthony at all. If he wants her back, why not cut all this deception nonsense and just woo her with diamonds and wine? It’s not like he can’t afford those things. Instead, he kicks into action this convoluted circle of pretense and deception that ends up biting him in the rear end. Is this kind of nonsense some kind of BDSM Master proclivity? You know, the whole “slave can’t get the upper hand” thing even if it will make his life so much easier to just woo her like a sane very rich man would?

Ultimately, I find The Master a head-scratcher of a read. I just don’t get the hero at all.