Gut-wrenching emotion with a side dish of panty-dripping sex.
I received a free copy of this book from the author and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
I had high hopes for this book, having read other works by the author, including her blog, and having also seen snippets of this book in development. I am a fan of the D/S genre, but I usually avoid Daddy Dom books; however, I was eager to see Ms Lewel’s take on the genre, especially given the luscious cover.
Ms Lewel has a way of making her readers feel as if they are a part of the world that she is painting with her words, and so I was drawn into that world from the start. The story begins with a funeral, and from there, we experience an emotional rollercoaster as Charlie deals with the loss of a beloved parent, an uncertain future, and being shoved back into close quarters with Sam; her childhood friend and former boyfriend.
While Claiming his Brat features a lot of hot and steamy sex, and stiff punishment, there is a lot more to story than just a quick, dirty romp in the barn. This is a romance, through and through. Charlie and Sam must navigate their shared loss, their shared baggage, and their individual baggage, as they learn to work together on the ranch that that they both love. This not the burgeoning romance of two teenagers, exploring their sexual boundaries, but the complicated mature relationship of two adults that are deeply in love, but needing to find a suitable way to bridge the distance that they find between them.
Sam and Charlie are not two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs; they have character, history, baggage, and this shapes their relationship with one another. Sam is not the stereotypical cowboy of past romance books; he is not the strong, silent type, grunting his way through the book, and looking for damsels to rescue. We see that he is human; he is far from perfect and makes mistakes, but he is not cruel, cock-sure, or emotionally stunted.
Charlie is the brat, and a very likeable one. Like Sam, she is not written as a caricature, but as a complex human; prone to mistakes, as she deals with trauma that has shaped her from a young age. Charlie is careless with Sam’s feelings, but she is not malicious and spiteful. She is lost, and working hard to find her way, when she hasn’t had much control over her life.
While the sex scenes are panty-dripping hot, I think it’s the emotional scenes that Ms Lewel excels at writing. Ms Lewel shows that she has a deep understanding of anxiety, mental health in general, therapy, and trauma. As someone that has experienced trauma, depression, and anxiety I found these scenes to be authentically written; many a time I found myself in Charlie’s shoes, experiencing her emotions as my own. It was cathartic.
Ms Lewel takes great pains to show how a healthy Daddy Dom/Little Girl relationship should work. It is not about hurting the other person, cruelly humiliating them, or losing yourself in them. It is about respect, and boundaries, and asking for what you need the most, from the person that you trust to give it to you. And speaking up when they fail to do so. Sometimes when reading a D/S story, I cannot picture the relationship lasting, as there is no mutual trust and respect, and the dominant character is often ill-equipped to deal with the mental health of their sub. Charlie’s trauma could be a tool to hurt her in the wrong hands, but in the right hands, Sam’s hands, I think that she will continue to heal. And much of the groundwork was already achieved prior to rekindling her relationship; Charlie is not a damsel in distress, and Sam is not grooming her for a life of abuse.
I had high hopes for this book, and I was not disappointed. That Claiming His Brat caused me to shed tears, was totally unexpected. Fantastic work. Thank you.