GRR Review: Slave by Sherri Hayes

Slave by Sherri Hayes is hard to rate for me. I have a problem with general non-con and clearly a "slave" is well beyond the pale, and the story of Brianna that had her life shattered and basically beaten into submission was a very very sad one.

Stefan is a dominant in private with consensual women. But a meeting with Darren, a fellow dom, somehow led him down a path into buying a slave named Brianna. Brianna had been broken by an abusive dom and all of her thoughts go to "must please master" and "no more pain". Stefan's gentle touches and firm demands for her to have her voice again made her quiver as to what her next punishment will be.  Can Stefan's gentle coaxing bring some life back into Brianna's eyes?

Stefan's will to "rescue" her is noble, if misguided, as he is, by definition, playing God. By taking over ownership of a slave and trying to "liberate" her, but keeping her be a submissive in a D/s relationship, Stefan is basically trying to play psychiatrist / rape counselor / cult deprogrammer / crisis counselor all by himself without guidance or expertise. That is about as dangerous as as a pre-med student doing a major surgery. Only literary license can explain how did he "succeed", but we don't know how well he succeeded because the book ended on a bit of cliffhanger.

On the other hand, that's "reality" of D/s relationship speaking. If you ignore all that, this is basically the fairy tale of the gentle dom liberating a slave by weaning her off the total 24/7 power exchange and abuse and exchange it for a "voluntary" gentler D/s relationship... because that's the way he plays. It is both noble and selfish at the same time, and perhaps that's the reason I will want to read the next chapter... can Brianna be put back together?

Category:  Contemporary

WARNING: BDSM theme, victim of mental and physical abuse, ends on cliffhanger

Primary Plot:  Gentle dom bought a slave to deprogram her

Overall Rating:  4/5