It’s been a long time since I refused to get out of bed in
the morning on Sunday because I simply had to finish a book. This just
happened with Tenderly Wicked.
It might seem strange to review a book by talking about a
different book, but I would like to mention Lauren P. Burka’s short stories
Mate and Whip Hand, which have been for years and years my very favourite bits
of erotic writing. They are actually one story, in a way, featuring the same
characters, Terry and D’Shane, a S/M gay couple who find each other and
themselves when their sub/Dom relationship clicks into place. There was so much
emotion for me in that story, in the way these two beautifully flawed
characters discovered things about themselves through BDSM. The story had one
major defect…it was too short…
That is where Tenderly Wicked comes in for me. It has
something of the same emotional charge… but it goes into a much more articulate
exploration of the two characters’ journey, which is as much psychological as
physical (maybe more).
I have been swept away into this book since the very start.
The moment Vadim made an entrance, actually. Vadim, whose point of view is
never explored in the story. I know some Romance readers have an issue with
this, but isn’t it how real life is? You fall in love with someone, and you
never have the luxury of being into their heads. They are an unknowable mystery
you can only explore day by day, skirting disaster, hoping to get the hang of
them at some point. And that is what Max needs to do, as a Dom and as a friend,
to make sense of this incredibly beautiful, strangely damaged,
self-destructive, sweet riddle that Vadim is. I have been deeply moved and
shaken by this character. And his final dramatic act… well, no spoilers, but,
it completely blew me away.
And I loved the Russian setting of the book. I enjoyed Max’s
explorations of the Moscow streets and attractions as much as I enjoyed his
explorations of Vadim’s slim, gorgeous body.
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