Title: Sweet Persuasion
Author:  Maya Banks
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Group USA  12/31/12
Length:  352 Pages
Series: Sweet #2

Overview

The man of her dreams would give the orders. For him, she had two words that satisfied them both…“Take me.”

For five years, Serena has run Fantasy Incorporated and has devoted her time to fulfilling her clients’ fantasies. Never her own. Until now…

Her most secret desire is to give ownership of her body to a man. Someone who will command her, pleasure her, and have complete authority over her. So she seeks out Damon Roche, owner of an exclusive sex club and a man strong enough to make her do anything he wants. Anything.

Together they’ll journey into a world she’s only dreamed of. She’s given the opportunity to immerse herself in a different life while her normal one waits for her to return whenever she wishes. Damon has no desire to let her go, however. Serena is the woman he’s long searched for, and it’s up to him to convince her to stay when the game is all over with. He wants their fantasy to become their reality and for Serena to remain his pampered, cherished submissive.

My Thoughts

I have to admit that it took me the better part of the week to get through this book, and while i can’t fully blame it on the story, i feel like i might party do so.  This week has gotten away from me so apologies to all of you that missed seeing anything from me this week.

In any event, it’s been a while since i started this series, so i had even forgot a bit about what made it so good.  We had met Faith and Grey in their own story and it was hot and tension filled that i knew that there was something good to be said about the others that we met – Serena and Julie and even Damon, Micah and Nathan.  In this 2nd installment, we get  to become much better acquainted with Serena and Damon, and start to see what’s next for Julie and maybe Nathan….

This all starts when Serena who has a company that’s job is to fulfill people’s fantasies (on the clean side that is) and she realizes that she has her own fantasy – one that’s a bit more naughty.  She goes to Faith for help and the outcome is so much more than she ever expected.  Serena wants to be someone’s sex slave and she’s directed to Damon who owns ‘The House’ a BDSM club and someone who’s well versed and capable of finding her a partner.

That partner turns out to be none other than himself since she’s exactly what he needs, and his job to role play with her turns quite real. The issue of course in this story is that the lines become blurred between reality and fantasy for Serena while for Damon it’s always real.

What i liked about this story is that Ms. Maya Banks, our lovely author stays very true to her writing style in the sense that we get great back stories on the characters and very good scening.  I think that the downfall for me is that at times they were really predictable and i felt like i could have just fast forwarded a bit to get on with the story.  again though, i think more my problem than a problem with the book.

What keeps the story going is that we see Serena challenged by what Damon wants her to do and what she admits to herself that she wants, and it’s hot.  It’s always intriguing to me to see a strong woman acknowledge herself as a submissive and then to see what happens when the power is handed over to someone else.  Damon clearly knows his way around a woman and around domination and that’s really amazing to see here.

The best bits start to happen towards the end when you’re not sure who is going to compromise on what – and what will happen.  we see that a death becomes the downfall of things for Serena and it means that things will become so much more challenging.  She feels like she has to walk away from everything that she has and knows, and it becomes a fight for her to keep going.

I’m really excited now to see who’s next in the series and how it will play out since it seems like Julie has a plan for how to get her man, or to get another man, and it’s nice to see that they are all stretching themselves past boundaries that had been set up to see how sexual and passionate they can be when someone else is in control.  Enjoy!