Title:  Master of the Abyss
Author: Cherise Sinclair
Publisher/Year:  Loose id LLC 9/28/11
Length:  314 pages
Series: Mountain Masters #2

Overview

On the mountain, the watcher seeks out evil women. And then they die.

Two years ago, when Jake Hunt uncollared his slave, she committed suicide. Guilt-ridden, he will commit to a woman for one night only, devoting his energy to a mountain lodge that caters to a BDSM crowd.

Kallie Masterson is tough. Unwanted as a child, she worked hard to become a wilderness guide. She’s proud of who she is, and hurt that Jake frowns on her for acting like a man.

After rescuing the macho guide from a bar fight, Jake is stunned that the ugly men’s clothing hides a warm, responsive woman. A submissive woman. When guide business brings her to the lodge on BDSM night, and she is obviously aroused by the play, Jake takes the little sub right into his world of pain and pleasure. He warns her: one night only. But she responds so beautifully — so joyously — under his command, that one night soon becomes two, then three…

Then a missing hiker reminds Jake of his past lover, and he realizes he’s become too involved. He pulls back.

Meanwhile, the watcher on the mountain has rendered his verdict: Kallie Masterson is evil. The sentence: Death.

My Thoughts

Thank goodness the second installment of this series was readily available to me.  i don’t know what i would have done if i couldn’t just download it and read on since i really wanted to know what was going to happen next for the Mountain Masters and for Jake specifically.  This is the trait of a GREAT author – that’s for sure – one that keeps me so engrossed into a series or a set of series that i have to keep on reading.

Without spoiling what happens in the book, i can honestly admit that Cherise Sinclair not only hit the nail on the head with the sex and emotional connections, machismo, and family bonds, but she managed to throw me for a loop with some of the twists that the story took.

We first met Jake in Master of the Mountain, and started to learn more about him and how he’s protective like Logan, but just a bit more gentle.  He’s a great guy but had such a bad thing happen in a past relationship that he’s afraid to open up to anyone new.  He is the kind of BDSM master that wanted a full time slave – or so he thought, and fell in love with that person. When he realized that he likes to be a dom but not a full time 24/7 Dom, he tried to do the right thing and ‘uncollar’ her, and that ended with a bad result.  The girl threw herself from a mountain and died – leaving Jake with all the guilt that surrounds that.
You can’t blame the guy for becoming a player and king of the one night stands can you?

We then meet Kallie (Kalinda – which is a GREAT name i must say) who is a tomboy to the extreme.  I get the sense from her that if she was left to her own devices that she could be quite girlie however given her living situation and how she grew up, i’m not at all surprised that she felt like the best way to be accepted by her family was to be more of a guy.  I love how when we meet her though, it’s at a bar with her friends who are all googlie eyed over Jake, and she even finds herself melting a little to him.  Then a fight ensues, she defends all the girls, he comes to her aid, and even more melting happens – which she’s not sure that she wants.

Fast forward a little bit to the agreement that Kallie’s family has made for their guide company to partner with Serenity Lodge (the Brother’s place), meaning that everyone would be spending a LOT more time together.  Kallie’s cousins with whom she lives know of the reputation of Serenity Lodge and how they cater to a much more diverse crowd are fearful of letting Kallie get into that environment at all, but since she’s so macho and wants to be equal, she manages to get them to give in and let her take her rightful place.  She goes to the Lodge on a night that a BDSM club is there (The brother’s friends from a club in San Fran actually – where thankfully we get to see Simon again – cause i really like him based on how he was with Rebecca in Book 1).  Unwillingly at first, she allows herself to absorb what’s going on in the lodge and even manages to let Jake get his hands on her (literally and figuratively) to participate.  All things go downhill from there for her because she finds that she’s much more attached than she should be or wants to be, and doesn’t know what that means for Jake since he continues to use his mantra of ‘this is just for this night only’

well, Jake manages to break his rule a little by convincing himself that as long as he prefaces every encounter with her as ‘just for this night only’ it makes it ok and he won’t get attached.  We all know how well that works when there’s a lot of hot sex involved.

aside from all the sweating and action that we see between this couple, there’s also a bit of a dark side weaving itself into the plot.  there’s a guy who thinks that he sees ‘demons’ in women and feels that he has the job to exorcise them, and kill the women to make sure that all the evil is gone.  He prays on women in the area, and that’s just a domed thing for sure!  The question is – who is this guy and who is his next target?  all great questions that lead to an even better climactic ending!