Publisher: Carina Press
Where did you get the book: e-ARC from Netgalley
Release date: Out now
Her needs are dark. His are dangerous.
Charlie MacNiall has been bringing his beautiful king shepherd to the vet clinic where Ranay Killian works for the better part of a year. She doesn’t realize he’s been slowly wooing her. She certainly has no idea that he picked her deliberately—that she is to become his. A broken heart and a desperate desire to be dominated make her the perfect victim.
His perfect victim.
Charlie fixes Ranay, testing her emotional limits while pushing her sexual boundaries past anything she’d imagined possible. Pain is their shared pleasure…until Charlie disappears and Ranay is all but destroyed.
The FBI says the man she loves is a serial killer. Ranay can’t deny there’s a darkness in Charlie, a monstrous hunger that drives him to the brink. She even believes he could kill. But Charlie’s hunger is what bonds them—it’s the foundation of their love. Would he actually kill her?
*blurb taken from Goodreads*
Oh boy. Writing this review is hard because the book itself left me wanting to run back to my warm and not so scary romances. One Cut Deeper is a very dark romance that took me out of my comfort zone with its BDSM play. I had numerous moments of almost quitting but I couldn’t put the book down–no matter my shouty email I sent to someone because of what was happening. One Cut Deeper was so engaging and a total mind-fuck. I had to know how the story would end, and how Ranay would find her HEA because I had no clue what sort of HEA she would find because of Charlie. Holy fuck balls, Charlie.
Ranay annoyed me at the beginning of the book. Her sheer neediness was so overwhelming. Her last partner and master couldn’t deal with her unbearable need, and she ended up having a breakdown because her partner split up with her. Since Ranay’s’s breakdown, she avoided relationships and concentrated on building a life for herself. Charlie meets Ranay at the veterinary practice and once he decides to make a move on her, everything Ranay held back, her desire and need to be dominated, comes rising back and consumes her. Instead of a partner who backs away, Charlie steps forwards and claims Ranay. He doesn’t discourage but encourages her. He tells Ranay he doesn’t want, or has the time, for a 24 slave because of his job and Charlie reacts poorly to this but throughout the book, Ranay grows stronger. Her deep rooted need to be dominated and to serve a master never, ever leaves her. What Ranay craves from Charlie and what he gives in return is a match made in heaven between the two.
Charlie and Ranay jump into a heavy relationship instantly. There’s no working their way up. It’s wham bam. The BDSM play left me uncomfortable. So very uncomfortable. There is blood play and Charlie scared me because he relies on Ranay to stop him going too far. I’m not going to reveal more of Charlie’s character because despite how disturbing some aspects of the book were to me, finding out who Charlie is and learning more about him is part of the major appeal of the book. The suspense is well done and you’re left completely confused like Ranay at times because Charlie’s identity and his motivations are not revealed until the end.
I don’t know if I would re-read this book again. I’ll have to work up my nerve to read the sequel whenever it comes out.
I give One Cut Deeper a B
Um, you got the names mixed up in the review. Charlie is the guy.
@Michelle in Colorado: Yikes! Thanks for pointing it out to me.