Joey W. Hill: Natural Law

Dear Author’s Review of Natural Law

If there was one thing I could point to in all straight BDSM romances and say “enough already, you bitches!” it would have to be the highly suspect excuses for the characters actions. You know the excuses… The numerous times I have read the love interest wanted to bottom because she was raised by overbearing parents or was abused as a child is staggering. The number of times I have read that the hero wanted to be a Top because he was used to having control in his job as CEO or he was raised to be this distant emotionally stunted person and this was the only way he could open up… BLAH BLAH BLAH, WAH WAH WAH. Would people please cut the pop psychology crap on something they do not understand?

Thank you Joey W. Hill. Thank you for not making excuses or over analyzing why some people find the BDSM lifestyle to their liking. Thank you for not smacking my intelligence around and destroying the spell your story weaves while allowing romance readers a brief glimpse of the emotions and romantic power of a real BDSM relationship.

Thank you Joey W. Hill!

Natural Law the second book in the Nature Of Desire series takes us to the city of Tampa. A serial killer is on the loose and Mac Nighthorse with his homicide investigations department has figured out the connection. The victims were all male, straight, BDSM bottoms that went to a local BDSM club called The Zone. Mac goes to his boss immediately and convinces her to let him work this case undercover and join the club and place himself in danger to find this monster.

To the shock of Mac Nighthorse’s boss we find out our stud muffin Mac is not the controlling, strong, Alpha male, Top she thinks he is but that he enjoys bottoming to a Dominatrix in the dungeon.

Mac begins his investigation into The Zone and runs into our love interest Violet Siemanski who is just starting out in the scene as a Mistress but she is damn good at it. Mac and Violet end up doing a scene together that first night and from there the sparks fly. They both have dark secrets they are keeping. What will happen if and when Mac gives into Violet’s demand to serve her?

“It doesn’t surprise me to hear that. You like to test yourself. That’s what you’ve used your Mistresses for. They’re just an extension of your workout, testing your skills to resist weakness.” She kept her tone neutral, but he stiffened up under her touch.
“No. It’s not like that.”
“This is like going to the gym for you, Mac,” she continued, ignoring the protest. “Go to the gym, do twenty reps, go to the D/s hangout, get jerked off by some accommodating Mistress. You’re not invested. You’re high-power, so high-power you’ve never been topped. Because nobody sees those shields you maintain in such a charming way. Nobody has tried to go beyond using that beautiful body of yours and reveal what’s underneath. I’m going to make you beg.”
“I don’t beg. I serve.”
“Well, it serves me to have you beg. You won’t use me or survive me, Mackenzie.”

Damn, just damn! The conversations in this book are nothing one would expect to happen in real BDSM but they are right on the money in giving the reader the motives and underlying emotions happening in the scene. Joey W. Hill makes dang sure that a whipping scene is not just another whipping scene. That electro torture is not just another butt plug stuck in the ass.

Every reaction is planned for a reason. Every action has a purpose. Every character remains firmly set on their need to either serve or dominate.

“Nice try. I should give your ass a good beating, trying to give orders to a Mistress.” She gave his face a light swat with her nails, was not surprised a bit when his eyes shot fire at her.
“No, Mackenzie,” she said, her lips thinning into a straight line. “You don’t want to fuck me for the right reasons. You just want to erode my control, make me lose my senses so I’ll go easier on you next time. But I’m keeping the reins. I’m not giving up a bit of it, and I’m going to keep pushing you until I have all of you, not just the cock you’re so free with. It’s time you start realizing that having a Mistress means everything is hers, as I said before. Your heart, your mind, your soul and your body. Cock, ass, whatever I want of you is what you give me, and if you can’t get that through your thick skull, it’s going to get way rougher before it gets easier.”

Mac is in for a rough ride here. He gives as much back talk and unwillingness to cooperate as a bottom as she gives him in appropriate punishment as a Top.

I know this sounds twisted but there were moments here that may, for a vanilla mindset reader, look like they are overly abusive and maybe even wrong. But… not for me, I kept reading because it warmed my cold cold Leather bottom heart to see a Mistress so concerned about Mac and his needs as a bottom that she would spend the time and effort to break him. To me every scene here was romantic and powerful.

I know I am a sick fuck.

The most romantic scene comes about halfway through the book…

She placed a hand on his shoulder, leaned forward to put her parted lips against his ear. “This is going to be a hard ride, Mackenzie,” she whispered. “Everything that happens to you here is my will, for your pleasure and my own. I’m going to fuck you hard, and there’s going to be nothing left for you to hold onto except me. I’m tearing everything away. From this moment forward, you’ll always know who your Mistress is, who holds the bit in your teeth.”
“Give it your best shot, sugar,” he said, that spasmodic quiver rippling through his tense muscles. He was scared, she could tell. Scared that she was right.
She knew she was.

Oh fuck! You go girl! Take him down! Make him or break him it’s all the same.

I love love love, this book for this reason alone. It maps out the motivations so well and not one minute, not one second, not one moment of any of these scenes broke that spell for me or made me question the experience or the understanding of BDSM of the author.

Joey W. Hill, you rock!

There was one problem though I did have with this book and it’s simply my experience informing my preference as a reader. Joey, you did so well with the BDSM scenes, why did you have to go back to that detective thing? Why did you take us out of the dungeon that I so enjoyed and make me feel like you had to re-orient on their relationship and it had to be kept separate from their roles in the dungeon? I did not live this separate life. I learned to interweave BDSM (or what I was taught as Leather) and it’s protocols and my role into my day to day life with my Top right there to guide me.

Why did you give both these characters backgrounds that implied they had made good friends and acquaintances in the scene but then seem to isolate them at the end of the book. I felt cheated that you did not show their buddies congratulating them and responding to their coming together in a positive way and show how they handled the BDSM club scene together as a loving caring couple. I wanted to see that. Not the negative villains you showed us putting them down for it and trying to… well you know… or the vanilla crowd giving us their uninformed opinion which meant nothing to me.

I hope you do write a book that changes some of that some day because I feel like you know me, that you understand sick fucks like me, and you describe this balancing act and these BDSM roles and interactions so well. I will not even point to the parts of this book that told me “you knew”. The old Leather protocol you relayed without much fanfare rocked. Those will remain between us because I want the option to use those same attributes, those same indicators, in other reviews with authors that fuck this shit up constantly.

The other differences you dabbled in are minor but did not get fully described for the readers but I understood you were working in a Romance format and had to live by it’s “limitations”.

For those of you wanting to know what “limitations” I am talking about…

Monogamy or non-monogamy, is not strictly defined in BDSM. (BDSM is not about relationships or emotions, it is about roles and needs.) But… typically monogamy and typically possessive childish games have no place with those Tops who are really into the lifestyle. Now I am talking from a Gay perspective here but I have met a few straight couples and well…

Most people who are in BDSM do not do 24/7 roles. Joey shows this but does not explain how rare and difficult it is to find people who need or want to bring this into their day to day life and relationships. Most people play at this stuff, not live it. There is a difference and a defined separation between those who are considered “Players” and those who are considered “Real” or a valid part of the BDSM community. It’s not snobbery, it just is.

This book is available at Ellora’s Cave. Get it now damn it!

Anyway, the fact I can talk about these differences and describe them while reviewing this book means you have hit the nail on the head, Joey W. Hill. You made a fictional story real and that is very very special to me. Thank you again… Grade A

Tags: BDSM, BDSM Romance, Ellora's Cave, Grade A, Joey W. Hill, Straight