Shaded Chains

in which I once again acknowledge my bad choicesSo [a:Jack L. Pyke 6691397 Jack L. Pyke https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379852719p2/6691397.jpg] is one of those authors I regularly mean to read but somehow keep putting off for later. I'm a fool. This story about a long time couple going through a rough patch was all kinds of perfect. Also apparently I dwell in darkness and don't know it. To me the story was sweet, gritty enough to cleanse my palette. I loved the author's writing style. Her MC are decidedly Scottish & Brit and you can hear it in how they speak. She respects the reader enough not to spoon feed us a backstory but rather lets us piece it together. It isn't hard. Ross & Alex have a firmly established D/s relationship and the author doesn't sugarcoat the details. She also doesn't flinch from showing how the everyday stresses inevitably bleed into every relationship and how we must find a way to muddle through because RL doesn't disappear because we're in love. The story runs about 100 pages but felt longer in scope. I was happy.I won't get into the details save to say that if you only do BDSM lite you may clutch your pearls a bit. It wasn't a 5 star read for me because I'm greedy, wanted more, and I think Ross could've/should've handled things differently but I'm not surprised. IMO Doms are always weaklings at heart feeding off the strength of their subs.