Title:  This is Who I Am
Author: Cherise Sinclair
Publisher/Year:  Loose Id LLC 5/28/12
Length:  298 pages
Series: Masters of the Shadowlands #7

Overview

When trying to save a woman from slavers, Sam screwed up. Royally. Now Linda wants nothing to do with him. Or with BDSM. She won’t even admit she’s a masochist. As a dominant and sadist, he can give her what she needs, and when an opportunity arises, he slips into her life, intending to make amends. She’s everything he knew she would be…except for her bullheaded determination to be ‘normal’.

Now the horrible time is past, Linda just wants to return to her small conservative town, pick up her quiet life, and be normal. But how can someone who likes pain be ‘normal’? To her dismay, when someone spray-paints her home with obscenities, Sam shows up to rescue her. Again. Doesn’t he understand that the last thing she needs in her life is a sadist? He’s amused by her objections. But his dry sense of humor doesn’t disguise that he’s tough as nails and dominant and stubborn. He’s not going to let her drive him off this time. All too soon, she realizes she wants him to stay.

When he takes her to the Shadowlands, she finds a new home…until she hears a voice from out of her nightmares.

My Thoughts

It seemed like a pretty long wait for me to finally be able to get my hands on this next installment in the series, and it almost made me forget about where things were left off.  So, as a refresher,  in the last story, we encountered the Harvest Association which is an organization that kidnaps women who are involved in the BDSM lifestyle and enslaves them to be tortured and sold.   A few of the women that we’ve come to love in past books (Kim especially) was kidnapped and Jessica and Beth were being scoped out by the association to be kidnapped as well.

We met Linda back in the previous story when Sam came in to help the FBI arrest the Overseer and slavers, and Kim had gotten Sam to protect her and free her.  At the beginning of this book 7, Linda is testifying against the overseer and the organization in the hopes that it’ll stop what’s going on.  She’s somewhat successful since the overseer is put into jail and the organization is shut down in the South Florida area.

Where that takes us next?  Linda is trying to get back to life, however the rumors of her interests in the BDSM lifestyle and what hse’s into comes to the forefront because her small town isn’t so accepting and one of the guys that she had dated who was too ‘vanilla’ for her doesn’t take rejection well and happens to be a reporter for the local newspaper and wants to paint her in a horrible light.

This is when Sam comes in to try to help.  I acknowledges that there’s a strong connection between them and wants to protect her.  This is how their relationship grows – Sam who’s a Sadist shows Linda that her need for pain isn’t wrong and that he can show her how ‘Right’ it is! they get hot and steamy in a way that the other masters stories never did.

This is where i have to commend Cherise Sinclair.  I don’t know how she does it, but each time we read a new master’s story, we get a completely different POV on the lifestyle and what their kink is.  it’s never dull and it’s never the same and i can say that i have an even deeper appreciation for all things BDSM.  We not only get some incredibly hot scenes here, we get a strong emotional connection which is something that doesn’t always appear to be the case in books like this.  We’re rooting for things to work out between Sam and Linda and know that it can’t be easy.

The other great thing here is that throughout the story, there’s an underlying threat that the association may not be gone completely and there’s a Spotter in the club that recognizes Linda and wants to figure out a way to get his hands on her again, while trying to satiate his ugly need for raping and killing women in the lifestyle (or if not submissive, then prostitutes).  So while we’re holding our breath to see how long it’ll take for Sam and Linda to come to terms with their needs, we also worry about what’s going to happen to Linda, and who the Spotter is and what will happen there.

So, all in all, quite enjoyable and a good read.  I can’t wait until the next installment comes out since i think that we’ll get the stories of the FBI agents (which should be hot since they are a duo and seems like they like to do things together).  i would also love to get a sense of Master Anne’s story too so i’m looking forward to that one too.