Saturday 5 November 2016

Review ~ Marriage Games (The Games Duet #1) by CD Reiss


Book Description:

THIRTY DAYS
That’s all Adam Steinbeck demands of his wife.
Thirty days in a remote cottage, doing everything he demands. After that, he’ll sign her divorce papers and give her complete ownership of their company.

THIRTY DAYS
That’s how long he has to rediscover the man he once was. The Dominant Master he hid when he fell in love with her five years ago. 

THIRTY DAYS
She wants the business they built badly enough to go to the cottage for a month. Cut off ties to the world and do his bidding. She can submit to him with her body, but her heart will never yield.

She thinks this is his pathetic attempt to repair their marriage.

She’s wrong.

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Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 stars


“I love my wife, even if she doesn’t love me.”


There is no doubt in my mind that this woman knows how to write. Every CD Reiss book I have read is more of an experience, a journey, no matter its subject it is raw and tangible and it always leaves a mark and Marriage Games is no exception. This book was so much more than a run of the mill BDSM book, this book was about a marriage and the lengths to which someone would go to, to change, to get something they never knew they wanted until they did.


“I needed to love you more than I wanted to dominate you. Don’t doubt for a second that I chose to love you.”


Adam Steinbeck was a Dom, well respected in the field, but it was a means to an end, an itch to scratch and he never ever got emotionally involved with a sub. There was no love, just an agreement between two consenting adults. When the lines began to the blur the sub was changed. Adam was more than content with this lifestyle until one business meeting rocked his world in more ways than one.


“Not loving him hurt me. I didn’t leave to find someone else. I left because he was there, every day, reminding me I’d lost something I cherished.”


Diana was trying to save her families company and Adam was the shark that was circling to take it over. In a meeting of high power and even higher emotions Diana and Adam go head to head and its more than just business. Adam was completely enamoured with Diana, an emotion that was both alien and frightening in its manifestation. An emotion that makes Adam consider everything he thought he knew about himself and what he wanted. Being that he has never loved a sub, he decides that to pursue what he wants with Diana, he needs to give it up, suppress the urges and give romance a go.


“Her enthusiasm infected me. She was light, life, energy. Everything. What wouldn't I do for her, when she gave me so much? I would have married her in an instant. So I did.”


Four years into their marriage Diana wants a divorce, she knows that something is wrong and she feels that Adam’s heart is no longer in it. Adam is mortified and so begins the biggest battle and the most incredible voyage of discovery as secrets and revelations come to the surface and both of them discover things they never knew about each other and themselves.


“I wanted her to go. I wanted her to stay. I wanted her on my terms. I wanted her on any terms. I wanted to be cured of the disease of love. I wanted to be cured of want.”


CD Reiss really makes you think as Adam and Diana’s story comes to life. Can you really supress base instincts in the name of happiness or at least a perceived happiness? Can you really keep a part of you that is so fundamental and intrinsic in your being hidden in the name of love? The constant battle of being someone else, without letting it show? Mood swings, aloofness, withdrawal can be indicative of many things none of which are good, marriages thrive on honesty, but how can you be honest when one of the biggest parts of you is in hiding?


“Spread me like a sheet of paper. Write your life on mine. Fold past and present together like a letter. I am yours.”


Adam made this book for me, he was so desperate to keep his marriage alive, his angst and his passion were tangible and every single emotion that radiated out of him I felt deep within. My heart bled for his desperation to keep hold of the one thing he never knew he wanted until he had it. He was a man on the edge and would do anything, anything to keep Diana, even if that meant going against everything he believed in. Diana was his one weakness and she used that to get under his skin and make him question everything and force his hand on actions he would have never before considered. Her heart was in the right place though, but would this turn of events bring them closer together or drive them further apart?


“Do you hate your husband?” “I never hated him.” “You’re about to.”


I am desperate for part two, I need it. CD Reiss knows how to keep you hanging and when characters like these embed themselves under your skin you cannot help but want their conclusion. This is a book that will be at the top of my TBR pile and I for one will be itching for release day.


“I loved her. Wanted to love her. Needed to love her, and the second she kneeled, she’d be nothing to me.”


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