Absolve Me by Morgaine Cameron
BDSM
Released: March 20, 2017
Carina Press
Reviewed by Mandi
I like the taboo nature of priest romance books (I recommend you check out Amber Belldene’s series) and this one throws in a few extra kinks. Liza is a sex therapist/surrogate. I had never heard of a sex surrogate before this book, and I learned that in some cases she actually has sex with her clients to help them through issues they may be having. She can also help couples who are having issues, for example she has a client where the husband has cerebral palsy and they needed help coming up with ways to be more intimate that fit within his limitations. Liza loves her job and feels good when she can help people.
When a fellow therapist calls her up and asks her to help a man looking to explore his sexual thoughts and needs in a safe space, Liza agrees to discuss this with him, and Dominic shows up in her office.
Dominic doesn’t tell her at first, but he is a priest. Celibate, having found his calling and giving himself to god, his church and his community to serve years ago. But recently his sexual desires and needs and wants have increased dramatically. He can’t stop thinking about sex and his more demanding desires, and seeks out professional help. Dominic’s goal in seeing Liza is to determine if his sexual needs override his desire to be a priest. With Liza, she offers a safe space for him to try out his sexual desires, giving him a chance to weigh the two before making a decision that could change the course of his life.
In her personal life, Liza is a submissive. She goes to the local BDSM club once in a while to fulfill those needs. When Dominic mentions he has fantasies involving spanking women, tying them up etc..Liza tries to keep the sessions of them having sex and Dominic trying out his sexual moves professional, but she starts having the best sex of her life, and the professional line starts to get real blurry.
I think they have sex in the professional setting, three, maybe four times in this book and it’s hot for sure. Dominic is starved for touch, and the sex is very intense because of that. Throw in the taboo nature of it, and you have yourself a dirty little book. Dominic loves to be in control in bed, but outside the bedroom, he is more lost and fumbles around unsure of himself. I liked both sides of him. I also liked Liza – she has a fun personality and it was believable that being a sex surrogate was her profession. I will say though that at times it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that she has sex with Dominic for her job. I had to remind myself that she was doing it to give Dominic a safe space to work out his sexual desires. It’s not like she was laying there having sex and taking notes for work. She was IN to it, and it was easy to forget she was providing a service to him. It became personal for Liza very quickly.
That all being said, it terms of an actual HEA….we get that in the epilogue. But the actual book, is quite short and they only see each other the three or four times in the sex sessions. There isn’t really a courtship. We don’t get to know Dominic really all that well. If I can’t picture the two of them making it through a Walmart shopping trip on a Saturday morning, I don’t think you’ve achieved solid relationship status, and I can’t quite picture them doing that by the end of the book.
I would have loved the book to be longer so we could dive into the more complex issues that giving up being a priest really means andd to have a more solid HEA
Grade: B-
Leave a Reply