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A review by colossal
All or Nothing by Helena Stone
4.0
Hector Kelly has returned to Dublin after ten years in London. On a night out at the Dark Cellar, a BDSM club that he used to frequent, he meets Amber, a young woman on her first visit to the place. He's captivated by her, and she's intrigued, both by the reality of what she's seeing in the club and the older man that shows her around. After they encounter each other again Hector and Amber start a relationship, but Hector is overly concerned about the nearly twenty year age difference between him and 21-year old Amber.
It's been a while since I've read a straight-up BDSM romance between a female submissive and a male dominant. The genre can reinforce some fairly toxic romance tropes (female infantalization, male infallibility), but even in a relatively short novel this dodges most of that. It's Amber that knows what she wants, and Hector that's busy stuffing up the relationship, and overall the whole BDSM thing seems to be treated fairly well without ignoring the potential of its darker side.
I enjoyed this and will probably try the next in the series as well.
It's been a while since I've read a straight-up BDSM romance between a female submissive and a male dominant. The genre can reinforce some fairly toxic romance tropes (female infantalization, male infallibility), but even in a relatively short novel this dodges most of that. It's Amber that knows what she wants, and Hector that's busy stuffing up the relationship, and overall the whole BDSM thing seems to be treated fairly well without ignoring the potential of its darker side.
I enjoyed this and will probably try the next in the series as well.