The Shame In You Reviewed

a review of The Shame In You by Chapparita

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book at NovelReviewers.com in exchange for an honest review.

Are you familiar with the frustration of needing to sneeze, but not being able to do so? Do you know what I'm talking about- that tickling sensation in your noise and maybe your throat, that never brings relief? That's the sensation I felt while reading this book. I still need to sneeze, and I know I'll feel better once I do.

Yves, without letting Eli know beforehand, discloses information about Eli sexual preferences, and about her relationship with him, to her sister. What she didn't seem to recognize before divulging such intimacies was that not only might Eli not have been ready for such disclosures, but their relationship may also not have been ready to handle the impact of them. The biggest overlooked item was that Yves was not even ready to explain something to someone else which she hadn't finished internally processing and, therefore, couldn't yet explain for or to herself.

I am new to this series, and I think it'll be a favorite of mine. However, I'm sure this book will not be one of my favorites within the series. Before I delve into my disappointments, let me say that the dialogue is clever, humorous, and erotic. The writing, characters, and plot are engaging. And, I can't wait to read book 2 (Everything She Never Wanted). Having said that...

I previously saw Eli as a nuanced alpha hero or, at least a gamma hero, which I lauded in my review of In Her Closet (book 1 of the Lust Diaries series) because alpha heroes are so often written as overwhelmingly extreme characters, which I find rather one-note and headache inducing. Whether in D/s relationships or not, they are written as these omniscient, omnipotent, and infallible beings. I thought, based on book 1, that Eli's character wouldn't fall into such a trap, but this book causes me alarm because he appears to be evolving into one of them...

I understand that in this story, Eli is the character introducing Yves into the BDSM world, and that given her recent tumultuous departure from her ex, her views on relationships and even her own needs might be a bit warped, skewed, unhealthy, etc. However, Eli's approach to explaining Yves' mistake of prematurely revealing intimacies and intricacies of their relationship and of helping her better understand and reconcile her own desires, took on the tone of that familiar omniscient and infallible alpha romance hero.

Given what Yves has recently been through, and given her newness to BDSM and being a sexual submissive, her mistake and confusion seemed understandable and believable to me. As such, I would have been more comfortable with the plot if Eli had walked her through her feelings, and her mistake and its possible impacts without introducing punishment into the scenario. Such an approach would have been more believable for me largely because it would have been a more natural extension of Eli's approach from Book 1.

If, for example, Eli understood why Yves made such a mistake, which he says he does, and he recognizes that she still has some mixed feelings about this new venture into her sexuality, and their privacy wasn't something they'd previously discussed, how does spanking Yves until she's in tears and begging for him to stop help her resolve those feelings of confusion and bring clarity to their relationship? I found this especially boggling since he was introduced to Yves via her blog where she openly and creatively wrote about her sexual exploits and shared those experiences with the world. So, if she were to make a mistake, it's not surprising to me that this is the one she made, and if Eli knows and understands so much, then why is he surprised? Why would he assume that she'd no longer continue to process her feelings, especially feelings about her sexuality in a similar fashion? And, why would she be punished for it?

From what I read and understood, Yves realized her mistake once Eli simply explained it to her, and while his spanking brought emphasis to his points, it wasn't needed for her to understand them. So I just didn't get the purpose of unleashing such a punishment on her. She seemed to get more from his explanation of how and why she'd erred, and from the passion infused into their resulting love making, which I'm sure could have included a sensual spanking (since that seems to be related to passionate love making for her), instead of from the brutal spanking where his hand felt like a "wooden paddle" and where she sobbed and pleaded for him to stop.

This scene also confused me because I thought the nature of their relationship wasn't as a full-time D/s, but that they were only sexually Dominant and submissive. If I'm correct, then I don't understand why he'd be meting out punishments outside of established BDSM scenes. Maybe my impression of the inappropriate timing is due to my own ignorance of BDSM lifestyle and the many facets of D/s relationships. It's just that I'm sure Eli will also make mistakes within the relationship, related to their D/s dynamic and otherwise, but will he have to seek reconciliation within their D/s dynamic, or will be allowed to seek resolution outside those boundaries? It's those kind of unfair things that upset me about how these omniscient, unapologetic, and infallible alpha heroes are typically written. I view that behavior as really being an extension of their egos, where they can whip out their dominant selves whenever it's convenient for them to do so, and which is later justified by their omniscient super human capabilities.

My 2nd biggest disappointment was that the story only made up 24% of the book. Since I was so frustrated with the punishment Eli dished out, I wanted there to be more to the story. My irritation with this, however, is only testament to my growing interest in the series. In fact, I can't wait to read Everything She Never Wanted (book 2) to see if Eli returns to his more nuanced alpha self, and to see how the dynamics of their relationship continues to evolve.

I Need to Sneeze!