Title: Unsure
Author: Ashe Barker
Publisher/Year: Totally Bound Publishing 11/22/13
Length: 216 pages
Series: Sure Mastery #1
Overview
He’s hurt her once, and terrified her. He holds her future in his hands. Can she trust him with her body too?
Desperate to escape her past and start over, Ashley McAllister cuts her ties with her old life and heads for the wild landscape of West Yorkshire, the perfect place to reinvent herself. And her carefully laid plans are working, until she encounters her nemesis—the one man she’d hoped never to see again. Tom Shore, the man she and a gang of thugs attacked and robbed, and who swore he’d make her pay. He owns the cottage she now lives in and adores, and now he wants his pound of flesh. So he takes it.
Intimidated, beaten and dismayed by her sexy and dominant landlord, and totally confused by her intense physical response to him, Ashley needs Tom to guard her secrets. But will he, and his enigmatic and terrifying friend Nathan Darke, allow her to leave her past behind and start again? Having survived her first explosive and humiliating encounter with Tom, Ashley struggles to get her new life back on track. But Tom wants her. His demanding, persuasive, sensual charm is almost irresistible, his mastery of her assured.
But—can she submit to Tom’s dominance? Should she? Ashley has escaped one violent and abusive relationship. Is she about to be sucked into an even more dark and dangerous liaison?
My Thoughts
Who would have thought that a well off guy would get beat up by a bunch of street thugs, one of which was a ‘little bit of a thing who’s 6 months preggo’ and then fast forward about a year to encounter that girl again? Well, in the realm of reality in books, we knew that it would happen here. Granted, it’s been a rough go at it for Shaz aka Sharon aka Ashley, so it’s more about getting to understand what took her to live where she was to really see who she’s become.
Ashley has reinveted herself as a result of turning her life around, as well as hoping that a new identity would keep Kenny away from finding her. He’s the guy that was part of the gang that beat Tom up, and for any number of other reasons, she knows that he’s bad news for her and wants a lot of distance. On top of that, she’s lost the baby that she was preggo with, gone to jail, lost her mom, and well, has just about nothing left to hold onto. Aside from Sadie – her moms cat.
So we’re now in the English countryside where Ashley is trying to start her life again, as a photographer and just when things seem to be going ok, she meets the man who owns the property and it’s none other than Tom,….the man she mugged. it doesn’t take very long for him to realize that it’s her and well….doles out quite the punishment – a stern spanking and a way for her to make amends – as his maid.
Between you and me, for anyone who knows the genre, a man who loves to give a good spanking is quite the dom usually and well, i think that we’re just starting to see under the hood so to speak.
From here on out, it’s really an interesting plot line. We meet Nathan, the man who’s Tom’s partner and owner of a few other businesses in town. Nathan’s clearly a Dom as well and HATES Ashley on site. So that makes things interesting – especially when he realizes that Tom has a thing for Ashley (meaning that he wants to sleep with her in very kinky ways) and that makes things all that more complicated.
Where the story goes from there is a bunch of games, a test of patience and the beginnings of an education. We don’t see anyone do more than Google BDSM for a bit, but there are services offered up and well, it’ll be interesting to see the reason why and if anything comes to fruition. You know that it’s inevitable that Tom and Ashley will get together, but will it be ‘vanilla’ because of her past or will she open up and allow Tom to do with her what he wants. That’s really the twist and question since i get the sense that Tom would just about give anything of his kink up to be with her.
As promised though, there’s a bit of a cliffhanger, and we see that things continue to get worse for Ashley. She’s out and about in the mountains when a migraine takes her by surprise,and you know that when a hiker is left alone, on a trial, at night and in winter, well….that means that there’s going to be drama. So – it’s now a task for me to find the 2nd book in nook book form since i can’t seem to find it in my first go spaces, but i’ll sort it out since i already have book 3.
I’m quite new to this author and i have to say that i like how Ashe writes in these characters and the story line. Although i have to say that there’s a LOT of UK verbiage and language that i’m not familiar with at all – so that’s a learning curve, but the dynamic between Tom and Ashley is enough to get me going, and i’m even warming up to Nathan and would love to see what he’s about. so on that note – i’ll enjoy and i hope you do too!