This review originally appeared at BDSM Book Reviews.
Blurb:
How much can a Dom ask of his submissive? And how much of himself?
For Derek and Tyler, Dominance and submission have been part of their love right from the first hello. But now Derek wants his submissive to go as deep as he is physically and emotionally able to. During two days and two nights, there are no safety words and very few limits. This is their chance to demonstrate their love for one another through the most extreme scenes they’ve ever played.
There is, however, one rule to trump all others for Tyler—to protect Sir’s most loved possession, even if it means disobedience or going against his own need to submit to his Master without question or complaint.
This weekend will open up levels of their relationship they’ve never dreamed of before.
Review:
Perhaps the first thing you’ll want to know about “A Weekend Unbound” is that the two main characters aren’t as insanely reckless as the blurb might make them out to be. While it’s true that Tyler can’t use a safeword to stop a particular activity, he is free to stop at any time, although that does mean a complete halt to the weekend’s experiment, which is, in effect, a test for both men to see if they can move their relationship from one of Dom and submissive to Master and slave. Derek also promises to respect Tyler’s hard limits, so there’s unlikely to be anything he can’t handle, even if it’s something he doesn’t like. This is all discussed, albeit in very stiff dialog, in the first few pages.
Once the formalities are taken care of and Tyler agrees to wear Derek’s collar for the whole weekend, the fun truly begins. Derek has made some rather meticulous plans for his sub, including quite a few things he knows Tyler won’t like. The experiment is as much about Derek finding out if he can cope with being a full-time Dom/Master as it is about testing Tyler’s limits. He has planned out the scenes in great detail, done extensive research, and developed contingencies, but he’s still nervous.
Over the course of the two days, sessions in the mens’ playroom are interspersed with less intense but no less important domestic scenes. Tyler spends a lot of this time kneeling at Derek’s feet, waiting for his master to feed him, pet him, or simply pay attention to him. He has to learn to give up complete control of his body to Derek for them to fully realize their goal.
The scenes in the playroom are very hot, and will probably make you squirm as well now and then. Although the focus is certainly on pain, and Derek does return more than once to the toys that he knows Tyler doesn’t like, the action doesn’t get repetitious. There are a wide variety of scenes played out over the course of the weekend. Beyond that, there’s even an explicit acknowledgement of when Tyler’s body has had enough of any given kind of punishment and needs to recover. This is very unlike what you find in a lot of BDSM fiction, where people are subjected to an unrealistic amount of abuse, and enjoying it. Derek and Tyler may be testing their limits, but contrary to what the blurb might suggest, they’re trying to do it in a very safe and sane way.
There’s very little to the story outside of the weekend they spend testing themselves, so we don’t get to know much of their individual backstory or even the course of their relationship that has led them to this point. However, Tyler and Derek do come across as real people with real emotions, so you will almost certainly come to care for one or both of them as they go through their ordeal.
“A Weekend Unbound” is available from Amazon