Wrapped Up In Chains, Cindy Sutherland

Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: BDSM, Contemporary

Length: 250 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Dreamspinner Press, amazon.com

It’s not often that I can call a BDSM book sweet but Wrapped Up In Chains by Cindy Sutherland definitely falls into that category, but yet it’s also quite heartbreaking in many places.

The book starts out inside Mystique, a BDSM club owned by Devon West. On display for all the other patrons to see is a young sub being beaten bloody by a Dom. It’s obvious to all watching that the Dom is taking it too far but yet no one (including the manager of the club) is stepping in to stop it. What is being done to the young man is not acceptable in Devon’s club and he forces his way through the crowd and rescues the man, who is in a bad state physically. Apparently the sub was being punished (not by his own Dom) because he dared fight back when a friend of his Dom tried to force him to do something he wasn’t prepared for. After putting an end to the beating, Devon takes the man (whose name turns out to be Chase) back to the ‘recovery room’ in the club, brings in a doctor and commences to take care of him.

I fell in love with Chase from the first page. This love grew as his story unfolded. Chase had run away from a good home when he was sixteen because he was terrified to tell his conservative parents that he’s gay. He was picked up by James Kingston, who started out kind but later turned into a nightmare. For seven years Kingston held Chase in his large home as a slave. The effects of that seven years made Chase into a shell of the teen he once was and left him with zero self-worth. This changes little by little as Devon takes care of him.

Devon and James Kingston have a history. When Devon was eighteen and interested in becoming a Dom, he was required to be a sub for six months in order to prepare himself for the role as a Dom. Unfortunately, the person he chose to dominate him was Kingston. Kingston was (and is later) a brutal man who uses his power to cause pain and humiliation. No safe words are allowed and he gets off on leaving his subs bloody and in Devon’s case, severely beaten and almost killed. Devon managed to get away from the man then and move on to do what he knew he was meant to do – becoming a Dom and opening his own BDSM club. Kingston never got over the fact that Devon got away and has held a grudge for years. In Chase, he found what he was looking for – someone he could control both physically and emotionally – but yet he never got over wanting revenge on Devon West for not only humiliating him but for daring to walk away.

This book sucked me in immediately. I felt so much sadness for Chase and I couldn’t help but adore Devon for being so kind and showing Chase that not all Doms were like the one who kept him prisoner for so many years. Devon went beyond getting Chase back on his feet. He took him in and cared for him and allowed him to heal at his own pace. Along the way, Devon fell in love with Chase but Devon knew that Chase could be clinging to him simply because he had had very little kindness or compassion shown to him in his twenty-three years. He didn’t want to keep Chase if Chase was only with him because Devon was his rescuer.

Then there is James Kingston, who is always there in the background wanting Chase back and wanting to finish what he started with Devon years earlier. While I got the part about Kingston, I kind of felt that he (and what he had done to Chase for years) was pushed in the background a bit when more should have been elaborated on. He ultimately gets his (so to speak) when Chase becomes the rescuer instead of the rescued, but I wish the author would have added a few more details showing the reader why Chase was in such a bad state.

There are other characters who are introduced who are important to the story. From Devon’s friends and employees to Chase’s family. I won’t say more about Chase’s family because that would be giving a few things away, but I will say that I liked them for the most part, especially Chase’s brother.

Between the danger of Kingston and his powerful friends and Chase trying to find his way, quite a bit happens in this story, a lot of which broke my heart. I can’t imagine anyone reading about Chase and not getting a little teary a few times. Devon is perfect. That’s the only way to describe him. And no, I’m not saying that in a bad way. I love the way he was written and the author did a good job bringing out his feelings and his reasons for wanting to jump in and be Chase’s savior.

I did, however, have a few issues with this book and they are the only things keeping me from rating it higher than four stars. I can usually overlook an exclamation point here and there but they are used so much in this book that they are extremely distracting. Also, the words “young man” and “younger man” were sometimes used (to describe Chase) five or six times in only a page or so. That was also distracting. This might not have been much of an issue for me had I actually known Devon’s age. At no point in the story (unless I completely missed it) did I see where his age was mentioned. Chase, yes, but not Devon. We know he became interested in the BDSM lifestyle and got involved in it when he was eighteen, but I don’t remember seeing how many years had passed since that time. Also, at no time was I given a description of Chase other than he was tall and had longish hair that Devon loved to run his fingers through. I like getting a picture in my head of the characters I’m reading about and I had a very difficult time doing that with Chase, even with the cover that obviously shows him.

Then we get to the BDSM part. I’m not going to sit here and nitpick every part of the BDSM aspects because I enjoyed how the story was written. However, a couple of things stood out for me. Minor details that most probably wouldn’t even notice, but I did. They didn’t take away from the story (far from it) but they were noticed. This is a good book for those who are interested in reading a BDSM story but aren’t looking for anything hardcore. This is about as far from hardcore BDSM as you will find. If you are familiar with the lifestyle, you will have to suspend belief a bit, though I don’t see it taking away from your enjoyment of the story as a whole.

Overall, this is really a good book. I enjoyed watching Chase work through his fear and self-loathing in order to become a stronger man not only for himself but for Devon as well. He went from being pitiful to the reader to being a bit stronger and downright adorable. I couldn’t help but love him. Watching Devon, who had so much patience, care for him and do everything in his power to protect Chase, was a very nice thing to see. I like how the Kingston thing played out, even if it was more than a little rushed. Everything came together nicely in the end.

I love the cover.

This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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