Tag Archives: Lessons from the Rack

Review: Headmaster (Lessons from the RACK #2) by Tara Sue Me

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Title: Headmaster
Author: Tara Sue Me
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Group Publishing 1/16/18
Length:   197 Pages
Series:  Lessons from the RACK #2

Overview

Lennox MacLure, owner of the RACK Academy, has sworn off the Dominant/submissive lifestyle. Years ago, his submissive, Winnie, died in a car accident following a heated argument for which he blames himself. Guilt-ridden and emotionally closed off, Lennox sees the academy as both his punishment and penance for her death.

Mariela, a dance instructor and a natural submissive, was Winnie’s best friend and longs to help Lennox move past his grief. She’s accepted that he will never see her as anything more than a friend, but she still wants to help him acknowledge what he needs. Mariela comes up with a plan of seduction, guaranteed to unleash the Dominant he’s willfully buried—but the passion they unleash could prove to be stronger than they are ready to handle.

My Thoughts

Well i’ll be honest, it’s been a while since i read the first installment to this series so i wasn’t entirely sure what the plot line from book 1 was, however i quickly rectified that getting into the flow of this story at the mention of Andie and Fulton from book 1.  So in this second installment, we have the story of Lennox, the man who created the RACK Academy and Marie, the woman that he’s hired to run the dance portion of things, and also a woman that he’s got a complicated history with.

Throughout this story, what we get is a mix of emotions with the most robust highs and lows that you can expect.  We know that there’s tension between them, we felt it in book 1 (yes i remembered that finally) but as expected from our amazing author, there’s a huge obstacle in the form of a ghost that keeps them even further than arms length apart.

Lennox’s history is that he was with a woman named Winnie for a few years, she was his love and his world revolved around her.  They didn’t have the easiest relationship of course, but they had a good one for a while.  There was an amazing attraction between them, but the challenge was that Winnie wasn’t part of the lifestyle before him and wasn’t truly interested in it after she met him, but she was so drawn to him that she made herself pretend.

Then there’s Marie – who ironically was like a sister to Winnie.  They knew each other from when they were young, and the painful thing here is that Marie saw Lennox first and she was actually part of the lifestyle and truly belonged there, but that didn’t matter to the couple.  she had to grin and bear it while her friend got the life and man that she wanted.

Of course it came crashing down when Winnie and Lennox had to admit to each other that they weren’t right for each other, resulting in Winnie getting into a fatal car accident.  So that leads us to where we are today in the story – seeing how these two have the same ghost in different context and it keeps them from truly holding on and living with their attraction for one another, and instead they have to live with the pain and the fact that they won’t allow their feelings to come to life.

It’s a sweet story though as you read through it.  Both of these main characters are so strong that we know that they have to have a happy ending, but the forces of nature (literally in one chapter) are pushing the apart and the question becomes what will it take to get them together, and will it be enough to hold them?

True to form with Tara Sue Me, we get angst, we get hot sexy romance and we get another near fatal car crash – and similar to book one where there was a boat situation, it takes catastrophe for people to realize that maybe they need to let their baggage go.  What happens here in this story is that it’s not a happy ending for everyone, not in the classic sense, and that sets up the next installment nicely since we get to see how it’s not one of the main characters from the academy that gets a plotline, but someone from the peripheral. Anyhow – it’s hot, it’s steamy and it’s really a well written story.  so i hope you guys check it out and then wait for book 3 i suppose.  Enjoy!

Review: Master Professor (Lessons from the Rack Series #1) by Tara Sue Me

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Title: Master Professor
Author: Tara Sue Me
Publisher/Year: Penguin Publishing 4/4/17
Length:   304 Pages
Series:  Lessons from the Rack #1

Overview

Students are begging to be held after class…

Andie Lincoln is madly in love with Terrence Knight—her childhood friend-turned-Hollywood’s newest golden boy. But he’s a Dominant and wants her trained as a submissive before he’ll consider a relationship with her. He enrolls her at the RACK Academy with strict instructions for her teachers: Do whatever you need to, but don’t take her virginity.

Fulton Matthews, the director of incoming students, is enthralled by Andie. Though he questioned her enrollment at first, watching her discover her submissive nature is hotter than his most intense fantasy. Under his control, her sexual awakening brings him to his knees.

Yet they can go only so far. Andie belongs to another, and Fulton is bound by a contract that strictly forbids relationships between teachers and students. But when Terrence comes to collect his prize, Fulton discovers it’s not easy to let Andie go. . .

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of the other series that introduced me to our author and of course that means when a new one rolls around, i have to pick it up.  Like the intro to this story says, sometimes it’s both a blessing and a curse to start something new because you have all new characters to write about and intertwine yet you don’t have any of that continuity that sometimes helps a story along.

So in this first installment on a completely new journey, we meet Andie who is in a relationship with a guy who has been her best friend for years and is now something more.  As part of that more, she learns that he’s got a Dom side to him and that’s part of his life that she’s interested in learning about and exploring to see how she fits.  As part of that, she’s been granted entry into the best BDSM academy for the summer to learn about being a sub and if it’s who she is at the core.

It’s always interesting to me to see the dynamics of relationships with D/s characters.  we know for the most part that Doms Do Not share yet in this case, Terrance, Andie’s boyfriend is an actor and is on set filming so he’s ok sending her to the academy.  For me, i knew that it would scream Danger and of course that’s what we get from the moment go.

Enter Fulton – the professor that has been designated the instructor for the summer, and who has to write up the plan for Andie upon her arrival.  There’s animosity there of course and that means that there’s going to be some under lying chemistry to deal with.  So from the minute they meet, you can see that there’s something there – and it’s just a matter of time until we see how that something manifests.

Throughout this first book, we get to see Andie learn about the basics of being a sub and what the lifestyle includes.  There are some rather steamy scenes where she gets pushed beyond her limits but all in all rather PG 13 since she’s a virgin and has told the school that it will stay that way upon graduation.

What throws me of course is that we often see a lot more playing and kink when we have series that have ‘lessons’ in them – sub training schools and the like.  But in this case, in the style of our author, we get more of the character story and the emotions behind their actions.  It’s a nice change, since it makes this book less about the BDSM life persay and more about the relationships that these characters are building.

The twist of course comes when there’s a proposal, a stolen boat ending up with a hospital visit and a suspension.  All that need to happen in order to get us to a point of closure and discussion towards the end.

The nice thing that Tara Sue Me does for us, is that she sets up the whole sense of the next story in the book.  We know that there’s a dark and painful past for Lennox (the headmaster) and Mariela (another instructor) and we see that there’s something keeping them together while pushing them apart too.  (or vice versa).  personally i’m really desperate to find out what that means for them since it’s so complicated and complicated often means hot and steamy!!! Enjoy!