Shattered Trust

Bailey’s trend-chasing erotic romance places a BDSM overlay over the classic romance story of the attractive drifter charmed into settling down by a small-town woman with a tough exterior and a wounded heart. Bluebird Saloon owner Kathryn Landry returns to Trustworthy, Tex., from vacation, and is displeased to discover that her daughter has hired charismatic Liam St. James as the new bartender. When Liam’s teasing of his uptight new boss leads to a revelation about her unhappy past, he hopes to show her what healthy domination looks like. Bailey meticulously contrasts the behavior of Kathryn’s abusive ex, Ramon, with Liam’s fancy cooking, consent talk, and careful caretaking, but she still falls into the problematic model of top as savior, explicitly framing BDSM play as a cheap, effective substitute for psychotherapy. Bailey (Battle-Tested Love) is solid on the basics of safe words and checking in, but she lacks an intuitive sense of where the excitement of a scene lies, creating character interactions that are both emotionally shallow and wildly inconsistent. [em](BookLife) [/em]