This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Jillian Boyd. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Erotic Romance category.

Here is Jillian Boyd's review:

Y’all, this book made me do something very, very bad indeed. 10 pm at night and I had promised myself one more chapter (I had a good chunk of the latter half to go before I finished – and work the next day) before I went to bed.

This was not what happened.

What happened was that by 2 am I had turned the page on the epilogue, eyes leaden with sleep but with zero regrets because this is That Kind Of Book.

The Master is part of Tara Sue Me’s Submissive series, but enough context is provided that you don’t need to read the other books if you’re not keen (I am *so* going to, though). For example, you don’t need to go and frantically look for what happened to Sasha to get her to the point where this book starts – it is explained.

And Sasha Blake, it’s safe to say, has had a lot happen to her. Several months prior to the events in this book, a BDSM play scene went horridly wrong for her, leaving her with scars both emotional and physical. She has spent some time away from the scene (and from the Partners in Play group, which is run by Abby and Nathaniel West, who are the lynchpin couple of this series), recovering, but wants to come back to the group and retrain as a submissive to overcome her fears.

She is assigned to experienced and stern Dominant Cole Johnson, who takes her on for retraining with the caveat that their relationship remain just that – a temporary training one.

This does not happen. What happens is that, slowly but surely, Sasha and Cole end up healing each other.

Cole’s previous partner, Kate, was in a long term 24/7 Master/slave relationship with him. Cole is still a bit adrift after having her walk out of a dynamic that has lasted for several years – he’s not sure what he wants, and even though the relationship between him and Sasha blossoms, he’s not convinced he’s the right Dominant for her. But is he really looking for another dynamic like the one he had with Kate?

Sasha’s journey of healing is wonderfully handled. It is clear from the start that she has an immense strength to her, evidenced by her coming back into a community after experiencing something terrifying and traumatizing. Even though she’s initially taken aback by Abby and Nathaniel assigning Cole to her retraining, the two grow to complement each other beautifully. Cole’s awe at seeing Sasha open up again, under his tutelage, is nothing short of adorably sweet.

And having that connection between the two characters makes any scene where they’re getting down and dirty spark all the more. Seriously, the play scenes are not only well-written, but also hot to the point that I would advocate not making the same mistake I did and reading them on a packed London Underground train.

Or, you know, other more local to you forms of public transport that might question why you’re blushing red like a traffic light (“Oh, you know, just reading a little anal sex, as you do…”)

Anyway. I loved this book, and I am definitely going to seek out the other books in the series. (Speaking of which, there’s some set up for the next book – The Exposure – in the series within both the latter half of the book and the epilogue. So if the brief glimpse of the dynamic between the two characters involved has you wanting more, that one’s available now.)