Candace Blevins

I almost DNF'ed this book because the heroine was getting to be tstl. I hate it when authors make up stupid reasons why couples in books have "break-ups", and this one was on the top of the list for "Really?" Simply put, the heroine decided to break it off with the Hero, who is an MC Club President because he surreptitiously rubbed her back while hugging her to confirm that she wasn't wearing a gun into the club. This seemed to piss the heroine off because she took it to mean that he didn't trust that she would follow the club rules about not allowing guns inside. So because of this she throat punches him, kicks him in the back of the knee and storms out, ready to end it with him. When he tries to make things right and comes over to her home she lies about something to get him out of her room and then sneaks off to her panic room to wait him out. This was when I put the book down and realized that I wasn't going any further.

BUT....I ended up picking it back up within the next day and finishing it. Although the heroine still had her moments it seemed that the worst parts were over. There were no more tantrums and OTT drama. So for that I was grateful because the story was good, and I wanted to continue with the series.

So what did I think? Aside from the BS during Act 1, it was a good read. The main characters were realistic and the fact that they were Werewolves was pretty much on the back-burner the whole story through. I enjoyed reading about the relationships between the people rather than the more often tropes involving shifters that puts the "wolf" in the main role.

I also enjoyed reading a bit about the characters from other series in Candace Blevins' Chattanooga Supernatural universe. Although I haven't read the Safeword series yet, I suspect that I should have started on that before this series. I read the Only Human series and the first of the Chattanooga Supernaturals, but when I got to this one I realized that there was heavy exposition and retelling of the relationships between some of the secondary characters that have now been spoiled. So, if you have the Safeword series on your TBR list, I would suggest starting with that because this book basically gave the entire plot spanning what I suspect is a couple of books away within the first two chapters. Also, the characters being discussed were pretty involved in this story.


… (mais)

I got an ARC of Wrench which I very much appreciated. I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy this one - I've often said that I can appreciate a well-written story, even if the characters' tastes are different from mine. But the Daddy/little dynamic actually makes me uncomfortable in some ways, so it's a bit stronger than just "not to my taste." However, for a Candace Blevins story, I was willing to give it a try.

The first thing to note is that although Wrench (and Khan) are in the Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham series, they are both a bit lighter on actual MC activity in the plots. Not missing, but not as central as some of the other stories. I'd describe these as BDSM with a side of MC.

Although the specific kink isn't my thing, I always appreciate Candace's approach to writing the Dom/sub relationships, which includes a lot of the psychological interaction, along with smoking hot physical play time. Wrench puts such care into learning what Tori both wants and needs, and tailoring their interactions, that I can love him just for that.

This will never be my favourite in the series, but as part of the landscape in the universe and representing the variety of the real world, it works very well indeed.… (mais)

If you've read my posts before, you know that I'm a fan of Candace Blevin's writing, so when she was concerned that one of her new books might be too extreme, my curiosity was engaged. She kindly sent me a beta copy and here's my review. And my disclaimer: this book is full of trigger-potential material and thus so is the review. If anything is the realm of sadomasochistic sex is uncomfortable to you, I strongly suggest you skip the review and the book.

It never would have occurred to me that I'd describe a book with extremely sadomasochistic BDSM scenes as comforting, but I sort of found it that way. The majority of this book focuses on the development of the relationship between the sadist who spends of a lot of energy reining himself in and the maso-slut who continually walks the line between her needs and her safety. There is enough external drama to set them up to meet, but it doesn't drag out. In the development of their relationship, they are both very self-aware and what could be fraught with craziness is relatively smooth.

They talk; they have crazy, filthy sex; and they figure out what works. And when I say crazy, filthy... I genuinely mean it. This is a TPE relationship with consensual rape (which I know is a disputed term, but it gets the point across), water play, edge play, blood play, basically all the physical extremes and intentionally high levels of damage. Which isn't completely out of the norm for Candace's books, but it stands out because the masochist is human and not able to repair damage like a paranormal creature would.

Khan is, in fact, an evil genius. I love fictional Doms, who lean hard into the psychological aspects of BDSM, in a way that's sadly lacking from most IRL. When Tempe feels the shaved scalp I actually groan-laughed out loud, because it was the perfect touch.

I've said it before, if a scene is well-written, I can get into it, even if the specific activities are outside my personal interests. I love self-aware characters and although this relationship is full of situations that could easily lead to drama explosions, it doesn't. That's why I found it a comforting read - there were no artificial moments of craziness just to expand the plot. The adrenaline all comes from the high-stakes sex.… (mais)