Intriguing mix of romance, angst, non-impact-play bdsm, severe impact-play bdsm (in one scene), 30-day slavery for goodwill causes, deception, straight-for-you, insta-love, a.o. There's other elements, such as the lifestyle of the filthy rich, the kinky club, the here-pussy-pussy-kink, the very vanilla sex, the I-had-this-ever-since-I-was-a-child, the religious element, the madman out to get you, the conversation they coulda woulda shoulda had, and probably more. Stuff that usually makes me DNF a novel before being halfway through..
There's something of a cliffhanger at the end. It is part 1 in a series after all. The setup for that one seems to point in an unusual direction however. Again, intriguing choice.
In short, it has all the hallmarks of a tap-into-the-hype novel.

But. The writing style is pretty good. What I would really like to know is what this writer could do with a non-bdsm theme novel in terms of character and story development. ( )

Reviewed by: Victoria
Book provided by: the publisher for review
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

: Sacred Secrets is the first book in the Chronicles of Surrender by Roxy Harte. I chose this book because the summary peaked my interest. An undercover fetish reporter bought at a auction by a gay Dom. What could go wrong?

This book explores the darker side of the BDSM lifestyle. The subs or slaves dress and act like cats or dogs. They use human litter boxes. This got me. I get the dressing up and acting like either dogs or cats, but the human litter boxes or communal litter boxes? Ewww!

Celia is a undercover reporter wanting to write a story. She is auctioned off for thirty days to a Dom. She is frightened of everything around her. She has never participated in anything like this but yet she jumps head first into the role of Kitten. That seems a bit odd to me.

I did not like that she is repeatedly punished. Garrett does not spend the time to explain her role to her or his expectations. She is to only eat or drink form Garrett’s hand. This seemed to get her in a lot of trouble. The author did not get into her being fed. The only thing the author did go into was Garrett eating and Celia being ignored and not fed.

Garrett is a predominate gay Dom who is captivated by Celia and buys her at the auction. He is struggling to accept that he bought a female slave. He is also still recovering from his partner’s death. He gets death threats and now they are threatening Celia. I did not like that he does not share the threats with her. In addition, if Garrett is such a good Dom why did he keep forgetting Celia for hours at a time. The author does not go into him feeding her only him eating and forgetting her.

I did not like the ending. It was very confusing and Celia acted like a stalker. The sex in the book was vanilla there was no kinky sex. There did not seem to be any chemistry between Celia and Garrett.

I am not sure what would have made this story better other than a more attentive Dom and chemistry between Celia. The book did get my attention and I do want to know what happens next. I hope that the series gets better as it goes along. ( )