Review: A Lovely Shade of Ouch


A Lovely Shade of Ouch
A Lovely Shade of Ouch by Tymber Dalton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Romance Review

Smart-ass, bratty subs are not my cup of tea. When Ms. Dalton announced a new book in this series is focused on Gilo, the annoying male submissive, I couldn't think of how this would be a good read. Boy, was I wrong. I loved this book. It is moving and as we learn more about Gilo, I understand better. And once again, I'm reminded that every story has two sides.

Gilo is short for John Gilomen. John's day job is a highly stressful one where he's in a position of authority. He's dependable and the one whom everyone relies upon. In his vanilla personal life, he's the same. For a strong man who supports all his friends and workers, when does someone provide the caring and support he needs? So far, John's fine because he's come through a lot in his younger years so he's used to going it alone. This carefully crafted world comes crumbling down when his only best friend from his youth suddenly dies.

How do people deal with grief? I'm starting to wonder how many times Ms. Dalton has lost loved ones in her life. Because every few books she writes, someone is trying to deal with the grief of a loved one passing away. The different ways people deal with it are all written in respectful ways and helps open my eyes to how some people's response to death is a way to silence their pain. And yet, their body language screams of loss and tragedy. Ms. Dalton showcases sadness and disbelief in a beautiful and understandable way, even if it is completely different than how I would respond.

This new perspective into Gilo's life really makes me like him. He's a wonderful man and a loving serving submissive. He derives pleasure from service and I can completely relate to this desire. I'm much more engaged in this story because I like and admire Gilo. With the introduction of Abbey, I'm enjoying this book even more. Abbey is a person who thinks everything is fine in her life, then a life changing setback shows her who really loves her and who her real friends are. This is demonstrated so well that I even wanted to find this woman and help her out.

Ms. Dalton's forte is writing likeable characters who are so realistic. I feel as though I know these people and better yet, if they were real, I'd want to be their friends. They aren't perfect. They are human and they do the best they can to help when needed. Needless to say, the BDSM in this story is great as expected. It's nice to see the service side of a submissive as well as seeing how there is no "one true way". Gilo may be a submissive, but he can also top. He's a Switch! Switches unite!

What is nice about the BDSM in here is how Abbey's sadistic dominance is not in conflict with Gilo's top tendencies. The power exchange here is fluid and wonderful to witness. It's all about communication and making it work for the couple involved.

Fabulous! This BDSM romance is highly recommended to kinky readers who want to see how labels can be broken.


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