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Nisey's Awakening

When a would be Dom takes advantage of Nisey's inexperience she is left bewildered and at odds with her own sexuality. Now scared of what she longs for she tries to hide from it until her best friend, Kalinda has had enough of waking to Nisey's screams and takes matters into her own hands and contacts her older brother, Caelan. She's had enough and wants her best friend back and thinks Caelan is the perfect man to guide Nisey back to what she longs for without traumatizing her friend any further. Caelan is an experienced Dom, who has trained many first time subs in during his time in the lifestyle, but his last experience with a newbie changed everything. When it blew up in his face, he decided to keep to the more experienced subs, so when his sister calls out of the blue with a request that he help her friend, he is intrigued but very leery. After all what could happen from answering a few questions?

278 pages, Paperback

Published February 12, 2010

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About the author

Dakota Trace

121 books247 followers
Hello, and welcome to my site. I'm Dakota, an author of erotic romance (think 50 Shades of Gray - but better) and paranormal erotica. And what exactly does that mean? Well, since I've always marched to the beat of different drum: it means that I get to take my unique life experiences - like putting around in the garage with my dad, or driving a train when I was ten, to create worlds where the heroines aren't necessarily June Clever, but are strong independent women who may stand on their own two feet, but long to submit to the right man. Whether it's two friends who realize there is more than friendship between them or the sexy alien who captures his unwilling slave's heart, sparks fly between them. My imagination has no bounds or at least none I've found yet!

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5 stars
80 (31%)
4 stars
101 (39%)
3 stars
49 (19%)
2 stars
16 (6%)
1 star
11 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for BookAddict  ✒ La Crimson Femme.
6,953 reviews1,453 followers
November 7, 2011
This book was hot. I liked Nisey quite a bit and I really liked Caelan. Ms. Trace created a great cast of characters, down to the evil shallow mother. Nisey is a newbie into the lifestyle. I'm a little surprised she never went online to search for information. This setting is contemporary so I feel as though this could be happening today. Even the tiniest search would be able to provide her with some information. I guess I have to give her some leeway as she's only 21. I guess this means she's still to young too help herself, yet it contradicts the personality showing through by her other actions. This was one of the things that rubbed me the wrong way.


Caelan on the other hand is what I'd like in a Dom. He's not perfect, but boy is he so dominating. Whew! I was heavily turned on by his actions and words. He's the perfect Dom for Nisey and I'm glad Ms. Trace paired them up. The things he did to guide her were fantastic. I'd really use this book as a way to introduce new to BDSM lifestyle readers how it could be. What I also enjoyed was the contrast of the would be Dom, Nisey's ex-boyfriend. This comparison was good for me because it is realistic that there are the wanna-bes that give the rest of the BDSM people a bad name. In addition, his concept of BDSM was way off base.


There are two items that bothered me. One is a pet peeve of mine; the other was brought to my attention because of something my friend Joellen mentioned at one time. First one, the SSC - safe sane and consensual phrase bothers me. It's not one that I prefer to use. I know it's bandied around by many as the "Golden Rule" and if people in BDSM don't endorse this rule, then they are "bad" people. My take on it is, the slightly more than vanilla people who want to get their kink on use this phrase to vanilla-ize BDSM to what they consider acceptable. Instead, I go with RACK which is Risk Aware Consensual Kink. Why do I make the distinction? Because after trying several of these scenes, we have to really question what it means to be sane. By definition sane is having or showing reason, sound judgment, or good sense. Right... this is just a tad bit subjective, isn't it? And don't even get me started on SAFE. Many of the stuff I've tried are not "safe". They can be made as safe as possible, but there is ALWAYS risk of harm. ALWAYS. The only thing I'm totally into is the consensual. If it isn't two consenting adults, it's a no go. This is why that SSC bothers me. For others, they could care less.


The other thing that isn't a pet peeve but came across as odd was Nisey referring to herself in 3rd person. "This slave...". I'm not opposed to this protocol. In fact, I find it hot, given the right circumstances. In this story, to me it felt odd and forced because it wasn't inherently Nisey's personality make up. Nor was it really Caelan's style. From what I can tell, they are more the loving erotic couple. She isn't into objectification or humiliation. By using the 3rd person, it is a method to sort of dehumanize and objectify a sub. It's a type of play which can involve humiliation which can be very hot. Neither Nisey nor Caelan come across as lifestylers who enjoy this. Now if I saw Mistress Olivia requiring her sub to refer to themselves in 3rd person, I could see this happening.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to both new and old to BDSM. This is one hot erotic book.
Profile Image for Michael Dune.
202 reviews74 followers
May 8, 2012
This was a really odd book for me. I liked Nisey and Caelan so I enjoyed it but it had some really strange moments. It almost felt like it was set in an alternate reality. Derrick gets my award for being one of the lamest wanna-bes ever.

The whole non-interference between a Dom and Sub went way overboard. It is one thing in the middle of a club scene, but after she and Derrick broke up, there was no reason to act like it was still a factor. The conversation between Caelan and Olivia about Derrick's attack was just plain weird.

I guess everyone has their own style but the whole master/slave/third person bit was a little too far too fast. I realize the book was skipping ahead but I think it really takes a mental switch to start doing that.

If I had read Caelan use the word "training" one more time, I would have stopped reading the book. Give it a rest already.

And finally, the part where her parents referred to Caelan as her Master was one of the oddest things I have ever read. It is one thing for them to know - it was just wacky to see them refer to him that way when they could have simply called him her boyfriend.

Profile Image for Charlie.
869 reviews158 followers
January 9, 2015
2.5 stars.

I had a lot of issues with this that stopped me from enjoying it, the first being that all of the male characters were assholes apart from Nisey's dad, including her so called Dom.

Within the first half of the book the phrases 'I don't train newbies' and 'he doesn't train newbies' were uttered every bloody paragraph, sometimes several times. We get it, he doesn't train newbies anymore, shut up.

The whole 'we don't interfere with someone else's sub' is bullshit. If one of your friends is being abused you get them the hell out of there, it doesn't matter if that person is in a relationship which is vanilla or kinky. Christ, use some fucking common sense.

Nisey's Dom was just a bit of a dick. There was no negotiation of limits and he just expected her to be okay with multiple partners without consulting her. He goes on and on at Nisey about expressing herself but he's the one that needs to learn to say how he feels. He completely gave her the run around.

The kink also felt cringy and not very authentic. Nisey was apparently a slave but it seemed to me her D/s was far from 24/7 and there was no TPE. So she's a sub that occasionally lapses into high protocol and refers to herself in the thirst person, thengoes back to first in the same sentence. It was odd and didn't work for me.

I honestly don't see what Nisey saw in him, he was the first man that was nice to her after her dickhead ex so she just imprinted on him.

And then there's Josh. He was going to seduce Nisey just to take her away from his best friend when all the time claiming he wanted Kalinda. What the actual fuck. It's not okay to play with people like that, grow the fuck up.

There was also the part about Nisey's parents referring to her boyfriend as her Master. That was very odd. Even if they knew about her sexual preferences, there's no rational reason for then to be involved in their daughter's kink or refer to her partner as anything other than boyfriend, partner etc. It was just another thing about this that weirded me out.

This book just really wasn't for me.
Profile Image for  Sara .
590 reviews69 followers
December 20, 2011
200 pages before they ever have sex? And that annoying third-person-speak: "this slave wants..." argh! Plus there were really two stories going on here and I just found the whole josh and Malinda thing distracting. Caelin was appealing if over protective. Nisey's mom felt like a plot device, not believable. And Nisey was so dang tentative. Frustrating.
Profile Image for carol .
663 reviews149 followers
January 1, 2012
I really enjoyed the storyline and characters in Dakota Trace's, Nisey's Awakening. The bad experience with Derrick at the start leaves you with the knowledge that the horrible protagonist will return....yet I didn't feel he was the worst character but Nisey's mother...what a hard assed bitch. Nisey and Caelan' relationship as Maister and slave though a little predictable in it's development was still individual and beautifully told. The Gaelic endearments I loved, having mixed with folk from the emerald isle and heard such terms as Gra, which when said makes a person feel special; though the other terms were knew to me. Some beautifully tense scenes were described where release is postponed or withheld plus equally erotic scenes of build and release for both characters and it was obvious the relationship was meant to be. The on off potential relationship between Josh and Kalindra left me wondering if they would be the main characters for a future novel as their situation is unresolved.
One thing that annoyed me is the amount of grammatical errors, word additions or omissions throughout the story...I was itching to edit it from beginning to end. I hope Dakota realizes this can annoy and put off readers and has her future work properly edited. That withstanding I have still given it 4 stars for a lovely story.
Profile Image for Jen.
1,655 reviews1,185 followers
September 3, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. The BDSM element in it was on the lite side but it was a good introduction into the basics of the lifstyle. It didn't go into depth with punishments and even some of the more hard core aspects of BDSM. It was a nice light romance in my opinion.
Nisey starts off having a bad experience from a boyfriend who insists he is her "Dom". He gives her a punishment that ends up embarrassing her and giving her consequences of having to leave her parents house. She moves in with her friend and ends up being taking under Caelan's wing. Caelen is Nisey's friends brother and he is a Dom who becomes willing to train Nisey in the lifestyle.
Caelan is a very loving Dom and sometimes I think he is too soft. He ends up falling for Nisey very hard and very fast.
THis book for me, kept me entertained and has me looking forward to checking out the rest of the books in the series. Some of the other characters in the books were really appealing to me and I look forward to seeing their stories in the books to come.
Profile Image for Beck.
900 reviews49 followers
July 8, 2012
This book was disappointing to read because it had the potential to be great. The biggest let-down was the inconsistencies in the story. The 'voice' of Nisey & Kalinda changed in the latter part of the book. A year-long feud is fixed in an hour long conversation. A hate-filled Hillary suddenly stopped hating. Nisey started using high protocol before starting her training yet was ignorant about a safe-word. Nisey had been trained by a highly respected senior Dom for 1 year yet didn't know how to talk to other Doms. And who has parents that refer to their daughters boyfriend as her 'Master'?????? The whole book had weird inconsistencies like these which detracted from the story. Another annoyance for me was the amount of angst in the story. It was like reading a soap opera with kink.

Originally posted on Amazon.com
Profile Image for Becca.
521 reviews63 followers
March 10, 2012
I did very much enjoy this story and the characters of Nisey, Kalinda, and Caelen. The further away from reading it (finished yesterdy) the more I remember inconsistencies in the story that start to rub. The D/s or M/s relationship between Caelen and Nisey felt inconsistent from the personalities written.

Transitions were jarringly distracting. For example, from one paragraph to another the story would shift from Caelen's house to Nisey's work or perhaps from one day to another. There were times I wasn't sure which character was being referenced and wondered if the author had mixed up Kalinda's and Nisey's names. There were quite a few grammatical errors, but the quick switches just made me dizzy.

All that said, Nisey's Awakening was a beautiful story of a growing relationship and growing self awareness that felt (for the most part) realistic.
Profile Image for Judith.
1,226 reviews
May 8, 2011
A serious BDSM book about a woman who is serious about investigating this lifestyle and is seeking a caring and considerate Dom to "train" her and help her realize her deeper desires. Add in a Dom who has sworn never to train a "newbie" again because of a negative situation with a newbie in the past, and you have the push/pull between Nisey and her potential Dom. It is a very romantic love story and Dakota Trace develops this relationship with knowledge and insight into the BDSM lifestyle as well as the workings of the human heart and emotions. And as a full-length novel, it is long enough that both the story and the characters are well-developed before it is all over. This is the first book in a two-novel series, and it would be wise to read this one first before moving on to the second. While both are stand alone books, the second novel will make so much sense if the two are read in sequence.
Profile Image for Melissa .
52 reviews2 followers
June 10, 2012
I really loved this book. Plain and simple. I actually found this book on complete accident. I loved it so much I will read the next part to this 'Taming Kalinda' and the rest included in the Chicago Doms. A part of me wished Nisey would have had more backbone, but you get why she doesn't. Being a mother myself I was appalled at her own mother.

Her father, wow, such a great man. I can't put this book into so many words because I completely fell in love with this story and it brought back such great and sad memories of my time in Ireland when I was younger. Caelen was sexy and I've got nothing... At times the man rendered me speechless and bothered. Dakota wrote him amazingly well.

I definitely recommend reading this. I for sure will be checking out more from her. She wrote fantastic!
Profile Image for ~Mel :)~.
356 reviews
November 4, 2011
Nisey's awakening was absolutely AMAZING! I think I'm in LOVE with Caelan. He was just freakin YUMMY, and Irish to boot! *shivers* I adore accents. I think I may be able to cum just by listening to certain accents. Irish being my FAVORITE!!! It was a wonderful storie. Thank you Tigerlilly for picking it for me.

The only things I did not care for about it were: 1. some parts seemed rushed. Nisey would be having a convo with Caelan*************POOF she is at work*********Poof she's talking to her BFF. Just seemed choppy. Then my other pev of the book was the author using the "told a story of its own" phrase over and over and over once back to back.

Other then theses two things, which weren't that hard to overlook and do NOT ruin my overall enjoyment of the book I will give it 4 stars:)
Profile Image for Julie.
143 reviews8 followers
April 12, 2013
I enjoyed reading this book. Nisey's story went from heartbreaking to uplifting. I love the way her best friend steps up and is there for her, and see's that she needs someone with BDSM knowledge to help her with her questions and gets her older brother to step in and answer Nisey's questions. The BDSM scenes were intense and beautiful, but I think that there should have been more discussion about their limits before getting as involved as they did so quick with Nisey not having much knowledge about BDSM. I fell in love with the characters. I cried, laughed and felt emotionally connected to the story.
777 reviews14 followers
September 29, 2012
Awesome Read! Demonstrates the prejudice that people in the culture may experience

I loved this book. It shows the struggles of a young woman who was taught that sex wasn't for pleasure but duty. She faces conflict after conflict and always overcomes it. I believe Nisey is one of the strongest subs I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Cudos Dakota!
298 reviews3 followers
May 19, 2010
I presume you know what the book is about. I'm letting you know what I liked or disliked about it.

This was my first BDSM romance (yes, there is such a thing) and I really enjoyed the story and the thrill of "newness" of a new favored genre.
Profile Image for Bonnie.
978 reviews
August 17, 2011
I liked this story and its sequel "Taming Kalinda" very much, I rated it three stars due to the destruction of the English language throughout both books. For example, edition used instead of addition. It was sometimes hard to read because of frequent use of inappropriate words.
Profile Image for Emily.
87 reviews25 followers
January 28, 2013
I received this book from Dakota Trace as I was a winner of a blog hop.

This was a nice romance with a hint of d/s relationship. I enjoyed reading about the relationship between the two main characters.
Profile Image for Sylvia.
175 reviews3 followers
September 19, 2012
See "Beck" and "Sara's" review. They pretty much sum it up for me. Will try one more book in the series and will then decide to continue.
Profile Image for Dar.
4,841 reviews96 followers
z-dnf-or-forgettable
April 6, 2015
I picked up and put down this book three times and after moving onto to other books I realized I just wasn't going to get into this so it was time to dnf
Profile Image for Jie Hao.
106 reviews
November 4, 2014
01-16-17
The first time I read this book, I had fallen in love with it so much that I searched everywhere for the sequel for this one. I love it so much that every time I reread books, this always end up on the list. Just like every book I ever loved, I'm jealous of the character that has characteristics that I could only dream of. Nancy is brave to still going for what she wanted even after all that she has faced. I admired her strength and willingness to see and try more despite how scary and embarrassing things may be for her. Seriously, I can't wait till the next time I reread this book again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews