Giving in (Surrender Trilogy (Maya Banks), #2) (Surrender, #2)

by Maya Banks

[EBookObsessed]

Since Jensen Tucker became Dash’s new partner, he has been enjoying all the perks of his new job, including the view. He has had his eye on the office manager, Kylie Breckenridge, since he walked in the door, but he has to be very careful if he wants Kylie in his life. First of all, as the new partner, he has taken her deceased brother’s position in the company, which already doesn’t make Jensen her favorite person. Secondly, Kylie and her brother Carson were abused by their father as children. Jensen’s nature is to be aggressive and dominant in his relationships. He knows without question that if he wants to be with Kylie, he is going to have to surrender control to Kylie until she understands that not every man will hurt her.

But having a plan is one thing, convincing Kylie to give him a chance is another. He almost thwarts his own plans when he sees that Kylie is working herself into a state of exhaustion and his dominant nature takes over. He forces Kylie to go home and stays with her to make sure she gets into bed for the rest of the afternoon.

Jensen also has plans for Kylie out of the bedroom. He believes Kylie’s brain and her degree are being wasted as an office manager. She knows the business as well as he and Dash, and he wants her to come in as a third partner. Now his plans include building her confidence in the office as well as the bedroom.

THOUGHTS:
I was not a fan of Book #1 of the trilogy. I thought Dash was an ass and was very degrading in his treatment of Josslyn. I couldn’t even finish it.

But I couldn’t wait to get to Book #2 since I was intrigued by how Maya Bank was going to write a bondage book that included a woman who was abused as a child. Kylie was very fearful when her sister-in-law Josslyn wanted to explore bondage and want getting into a relationship with Dash that included spankings and tying up. Like her brother, Carson, Kylie feared the line between dominance and abuse. I am not 100 percent certain, but I believe Kylie was a virgin in this story because I can’t imagine after what Jensen goes through to have a sexual relationship with Kylie, that she would have ever reached that level of trust before in a relationship.

Jensen is also a member of the sex club that Dash and Josslyn and Chessy and Tate belong to, so we knew he has an interest in bondage and dominance. So how to you play tie-me-up-and-spank-me with a woman who deep down is afraid of a man one again harming her?

I loved that the twist she gives this story in that Jensen doesn’t teach Kylie to accept his dominance over her, he allows her to tie him up and dominate him until she learns to trust him and trust that he won’t hurt her like her father did. I enjoyed watching how Jensen helps Kylie through her fears and helps build her confidence so she can blossom at work as well and show she is more valuable as a partner than as an office manager.

The story line becomes a bit contrived at the end so that we have a break up and this allows Kylie to show her new found confidence to assert herself over their relationship to bring them back together. It wasn’t so awful and eye-rolling that it took away from the overall enjoyment of the story but I did have that moment of “really?”

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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