Novel Review: Embracing My Submission (The Doms of Genesis, #1) by Jenna Jacob

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Genre: Erotica/Adult Contemporary Romance; D/s, BDSM

Publisher: Dream Words

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Haunted for years by dreams of a savage, amber eyed Dominant with lips so enticing my soul ached in frustration and lust. None of the Dominants at Genesis, my local BDSM club ever stirred me in such blistering ways. While I tried to fill my submissive desires vicariously through interactions at the club, I attempted to convince myself it was enough. But it wasn’t. My dream Dom made certain I hungered for more.

Forced beyond what I could bear, my passion and frustration exploded. I threw in the towel, determined to stop chasing a dream and gave up completely on finding submissive surrender. But fate intervened when two gunshots split the night. Forced to confront my desires and insecurities, I was shocked to realize that my dreams may have held a deeper meaning. Were they compelling me to finally embrace my submission?

The Cover:

I love this cover. I think the blue is very pretty, and the bright contrast of the red is so nice. The image is so pretty, and I think it represents at least the lifestyle very well. I just wish that the book was as nice as the cover is.

Review:

I had a lot of hope for this book. I thought it would be an enjoyable D/s smutty novel. And I was disappointed.

Throughout the entire first half of the book, I wanted to DNF it. All we get for that whole part is a huge pity party for Julianna, and I just wanted throw the book away. Julianna feels unwanted, that no dom is interested and will ever be. And this was completely understandable. She’s never had a real dom, was in an abusive relationship, and is only getting teased and watching other couples have fun while she gets nothing, barely even an orgasm. But she was hating on herself constantly, never telling anyone, and with no one seeing it. She finally finds a potential dominant, after a mishap, only for him to push her away.

And during this, her dom friends are bossing her around, punishing her, trying to help, only they’re not actually seeing her or what she needs, so they’re only making it worse. I didn’t understand their methods. Especially when they threaten to punish her while she’s saying she doesn’t want to go back, then forcing her to stand in a hallway all night long, with no reason or idea why, refusing to talk to her, to tell her why she’s being punished, to tell her that she might be getting a dom out of it. Everything they did seemed to make it worse.

And then Julianna finally “understands” it, she “sees the light” or whatever. After one night, from a dream, not even the punishment. That didn’t make any sense to me, and was way too fast.

I hated the first half. And sadly, the second half was only slightly better.

She finally gets to be with the guy, but then he pushes her in different ways, and she’s completely trusting of him after only being together for, like, a week. I didn’t like her sudden change in perspective of the titles. If she identifies as a sub and has a bad connotation with the word slave, (one) don’t force her to take on the title slave, and (two) she isn’t going to change her mind after a few hours. That just didn’t work for me.

I’m okay with their building a relationship and love for each other, but not having a ceremony after about a month. That just didn’t work for me, either.

I had a lot of problems with this. I liked some of the things, like their discussion on titles, some of the ideas and uses of the bdsm and D/s lifestyle. I liked that Mika grew up in a D/s household, with his parents practicing the lifestyle and being open about it. I liked Julianna’s friends, at least when they weren’t trying to control her.

But overall this book left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m glad to be done with it.