#BookReview – “To Command and Collar” by Cherise Sinclair

Blurb

Working with the FBI to capture human traffickers, Master Raoul scores an invitation to a slave auction. To his surprise, one slave is the kidnapped friend of a Shadowlands submissive. Although Kim’s body is scarred, her spirit is unbroken, and he can't leave her behind. Ruining the FBI's plans, he buys her.

Kimberly's freedom has come at a devastating price: the other women are still imprisoned. Desperate to help the Feds locate the traffickers, she agrees to pose as Master Raoul's slave. Although wearing a collar again is terrifying, Kim starts to heal and then to blossom under the powerful Dominant’s care.

Submission. It’s what she's been drawn to--and fled from--her entire life. She has escaped the slavers who captured her body. Escaping the Master who has captured her heart will be far more difficult.

Review

In the sixth book in the Masters of the Shadowlands series, Raoul Sandoval infiltrates a human trafficking ring in Tampa, FL with the assistance of the FBI. While at a small sale, he intends to refuse the women available in order to get an invitation to a large auction, so the FBI can raid it. His plans are derailed when the vicious Overseer tries to sell him a beautiful, scarred woman.

Kimberly Moore enjoyed light BDSM before she was kidnapped, raped, and brutalized. When Kim finds herself as Master R’s slave, she intends to escape. Instead, he frees her and she’s soon reunited with her friend Gabi, another human trafficking victim who was saved a while back (in a previous book). Rescuing her, however, put a big dent into the FBI’s plan. To get the invitation to the auction, Raoul needs to train her as his slave to make the Overseer happy in his mandatory follow-up visit. Kim agrees in order to stop the slavers, but she never expected to enjoy her master’s touch or serving him as a slave, both in and out of the bedroom.

Kim is damaged but not broken. Even though she’s a natural submissive, she doesn’t want to surrender every bit of herself to a man, especially to a Dom, and she’s always felt empty inside as a result. Under Raoul’s care and training, she finally finds fulfillment. As they work together to become Master and slave, they soon learn each others’ fears and their trust in one another is put to the test.

There were a lot of side characters, couples from the previous books. Even though this book is a standalone, all the Shadowland books are interconnected, and I probably would’ve understood this story more if I’d read the other ones first.

I really like bondage, BDSM, Dominate/submission, erotic stories, but I haven’t read many with characters in a Master/slave relationship. I appreciate the characters’ consensual need to enter into such a relationship, but the full submission in this book was just too much for my taste.

The book is really long due to all the sex scenes, but it kept my attention for the most part. I found a few typos (missing words and quotation marks), but nothing that really distracted me. The story is predominately told in Kim’s and Raoul’s POV, and occasionally in the POV of side characters, but sometimes the narrative shifted without scene breaks.

All in all, Kim and Raoul are awesome people with a kinky dark side. I enjoyed reading about them falling in love.

4 Stars