Tavarr's Mate

This was a non con Master/slave story. Katrina had experienced emotional abuse from her human husband and life threating physical abuse from her Kleaxian husband. Not only was she traumatized, she was actually broken down. Katrina received justice and sympathy from Prince Kenan who wanted to give Katrina one year to recover before remarrying. But Tavarr legally forced Katrina to marry him immediately. <br /><br />Tavarr didn't physically beat her like his brother Vonn (who almost killed her), but he didn't create a M/s relationship that was sensitive to her previous abuse. He did not create trust. He did not communicate. He was reactive and illogical. Tavarr missed the perfect opportunity to build Katrina back up and shape her into his model slave. <br /><br />Surprisingly, Katrina's mental issues were instantly erased by her Kleaxian mating bond to Tavarr. This lazy plot device was a contradiction to the story line. If a mating bond to a new husband would cure Katrina, then why did Prince Kenan want her to wait a year? <br /><br />The D/s was boring with bratty sub routines and a lame excuse for punishment.There was no relationship development. The sex was mechanical. The story was flat with an incongruous external conflict. <br /><br />Recommend <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/26023272.Duck___Avian_Shifters___1_" title="Duck! (Avian Shifters, #1) by Kim Dare" rel="noopener">Duck!</a> for non con hurt/comfort D/s and <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/6941225.Demon_s_Captive__War_Tribe___1_" title="Demon's Captive (War Tribe, #1) by Stephanie Snow" rel="noopener">Demon's Captive</a> and <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/18626685.Breeder__Breeder___1_" title="Breeder (Breeder, #1) by Cara Bristol" rel="noopener">Breeder</a> for non con alien D/s.

I like the first 54% of this book. It was fast paced and thrilling an everything. But then by the snap of a finger an abused woman enjoy something that that she prior to this moment found as mistreament!!!! It was just too pink and too happy ever after for me. More then once I thought to drop the book, but I started reading a section on every 2.nd page instead.

Katrina was on planet Tallia with the human who she thought was a good guy at first but he turns out to be a horribly controlling man. He's a scientist and shows her awful pictures of how he and his colleagues are experimenting on the Kleaxians on the planet and think they'll get away with it because they don't think the aliens are all that smart or can fight back. But boy were they wrong. <br /><br />On the day that Katrina is ready to escape her horrible life on Tallia and board a ship back to Earth, the Kleaxians choose that day to attack the Earthlings on Tallia. But they also destroy the wormhole and the ship Katrina was about to board. Now she has no way to get back to Earth so she runs back to the man she was trying to escape, only the Kleaxians find the lab and kill all the men including the guy she was with. <br /><br />When Vonn spots her, he can smell the scientist's scent who killed his mate on her and mistakenly thinks she is the scientists mate. So he takes her as a mate in order to get revenge for his mate dying. She finds out later that the Kleaxians only killed the male humans and are keeping the females as slaves and mates. Vonn is very abusive to her and almost kills her. But one of the slaves next door tells his master what's going on and they save her. Not all the Kleaxians are as abusive and awful as Vonn was. And because of his actions, Vonn is killed. Katrina has time to heal and is told she won't be given to another mate for a year but then Vonn's brother comes to town and because of some cultural law, he is able to take Katrina as his mate. <br /><br />He's promised not to be abusive but Katrina doesn't trust him after the ordeal she's been through. I almost put this book down but I wanted to wait until Tavarr made an appearance to see what he was like and he ended up being a great hero. I loved him even though some of the customs of his people are really weird. Like the woman have to walk on leashes behind their mates. But Tavarr ends up making Katrina happy and they form the mate bond which she never had with Vonn. I realize that she's attracted to Tavarr and that makes being taken as his mate a little easier but it seemed like she would be more skittish and scared of him after what she had already endured by one of the aliens who just happened to be his brother. That was the only thing that gave me pause while I read this book. <br />

I barely made it through 1/3 of this stinkburger before I had to give up. <br /><br />This book should have a warning in the description for presence of rape, violence, and degradation. "Dark" as a descriptor is too vague and does not scratch the surface of what lies within. False advertising, too: there is no "power exchange", there is just male domination and female subjugation. The women are led about on leashes after being abducted, Stockholm syndrome abounds, and rape is used as a plot device to ramp up the tragedy before being easily discarded by the victim, who resists for about 30 seconds before she's got the hots for her rapist's brother. I've worked with victims of violent rape; believe me when I say that it takes more than a month or two of recuperation before they're all hot and bothered for a new romantic partner. <br /><br />Those issues aside, however: this is written in first-person present tense, which is a damned clunky way of writing. The characters are all shallow and poorly fleshed out. The dialogue is overwrought. The roof scene is what broke me: Katrina's emotional trauma of being brutally raped, humiliated, and tortured for months before finally being savagely beaten to the brink of death are all magically forgotten in the wake of Tavarr's sooper-sexy pheremones or some crap like that, and I just couldn't take any more, because I knew HAWT SEXX was coming and honestly, the thought of it turned my stomach.

Nope. Nope. Nope. This woman goes from abuse to more abuse and then there is no transition at all into the next guy. I was sticking thru the book to watch this brave woman rise up and find her strength and was so completely disappointed. I did not finish this book but i felt so strongly about how horribly this subject was handled, even in a romance book. Especially in a romance book. I was disgusted, upset and disappointed in the author for her callousness.

<strong>I tried...</strong><br /><br />I tried, but I couldn't even finish it. This woman was emotionally abused, then physically abused and brutally raped...but within a few short weeks she can have rough sex and take a spanking. Even for a fantasy...that was too much for me. We wonder why men treat us like mindless men.

Whereas I had some trouble with Kenan's Mate, this book more than made up for my disappointment with Prince Kenan's behavior from the first book. Katrina is the abused girl from Kenan's Mate and after Prince Kenan executed Vonn for his crimes, Kenan has declared that she will have a year to recover and then he will pick a considerate mate for her, but several weeks into her recovery, Tavarr (Vonn's Brother) shows up. In Kleaxian custom, if a mated male dies and he has an unmated adult brother, the brother must claim the widow and this strikes fear in Katrina's soul. She was abused by Vonn as punishment for the death of one of his loved ones and she fears Tavarr will punish her for her role in Vonn's death. Tavarr is nothing compared to Vonn or Kenan. Tavarr shows his depth of caring with his treatment of Katrina. I loved the inclusion of Tavarr's extended family as we were given lots of background on Katrina's life on Earth and Tallia before her fateful meeting with Vonn. The story is well written and does include descriptions of some of Katrina's abuse by Vonn. The story flowed so effortlessly that I could not put it down. I truly enjoy this story of recovery and finding acceptance and family. <br /><br />I received a copy from the author and I voluntarily reviewed this book.

Trigger warning for rape.<br /><br />Stopping right now because of this nonsense: telling a rape victim "I will claim you whenever I wish. If you try to refuse me access to your body, you can expect a punishment."<br />Boy bye. And author too. Don't get how in the world the author thought that's how readers would like a mate to act. Don't get how the heroine didn't say a thing to that either. Oh yeah probably because the author sees zero wrong with it and is writing the story as though the heroine were never raped or something. Sorry but you can't ignore trauma like that.<br /><br />Oh also, he took her back to the house she was abused in to live. He remodeled and stuff but still, that was weird. It wasn't long after she escaped. And she just had zero problem with it! They even mated for the first time in one of the few rooms (master bedroom) she had actually been in (so where she was beaten and raped). This is mind boggling to me.

<strong>Take a Chance on ?Love</strong><br /><br />Katrina?, a young third grade teacher, takes a chance on ?love and goes through the wormhole to a human outpost/resort on a jungle planet? called Tallia. Her fiance, Harry is working there in a lab, studying the native, huge, red, alien warrior race known as Kleaxians???.. The humans think the Kleaxians??? are fairly primitive and have no spaceships.? How wrong this assumption turns out to be.<br />Kat?? is tired of her overbearing controlling fiance after a few months, and decides to go back to earth? when the human spaceship Stargazer? arrives that night. She is sneaking out on him so he can't stop her.<br />The Stargazer? is almost landing and suddenly the wormhole, which was visible from the planet, implodes?. A minute later, the Stargazer? explodes? and crashes near Kat??.<br /> Suddenly, hordes of Kleaxian??? warriors are arriving in hovercraft, grabbing only the women? and killing all the human men. <br />Kat?? flees, racing to the lab where Harry works. She finds him examining a Kleaxian?? woman who is dead and he's unaware of the invasion outside. The door is broken down and the alien woman's mate? bursts through and slays Harry in a rage. The alien, Vonn,??? grabs his dead mate and Kat?? too. She will pay for the loss of his mate by becoming his slave, mate, and whipping girl.✋ <br />The abuse she endures is constant and unrelenting. She is broken. Kat doesn't know what he is doing to her is highly against Kleaxian? law.<br />When she gets a chance to escape, he catches her outside his house and her screaming finally alerts the neighbors and she is rescued, nursed back to health, and kept safe. Vonn? is executed by the Prince?? who rules the area.<br />But the Kleaxians? male dominated society dictates she be given to another warrior??? because she is of child bearing age.<br />Per Kleaxian law, Vonn's? brother has presidence to take her.. He is the huge, red, ?hot and naaasssty warrior, Tavarr????✋, and he definitely wants Kat. He has the full blown mating fever for her and won't wait long! <br />Kat?? feels waves of desire for him too, but she is afraid she will be abused again. <br />The Kleaxian? men rule their society and are into bdsm✋✋ in every facet of their lives. She will wear his collar and be led around in public on a leash. She may even have to sleep in a cage and put up with spankings and other punishments that Tavarr???✋?? deems necessary. <br />It doesn't seem she has any choice. With the wormhole gone, she will never get back to earth?.<br />Tavarr???✋?? is a master spankster, ✋✋he's hung like a horse? , he's a binder, an he's totally gone on Kat?? and she gets lost in his big purple eyes..... She just has to take a chance on ?love again.<br />YEHAW! Ride em Bareback?, Cowgirl!?????<br /><br />Read with KINDLE UNLIMITED, for an honest review! I paid for this!

<strong>After surviving a brutal and vengeful mating to a Kleaxian, human captive Katrina is horrified to learn his brother, Tavarr, intends to claim her as his mate under Kleaxian law. KCato oak </strong><br /><br />Katrina, a young human woman, is taken as a mate by a widowed Kleaxian warrior. He is eager to punish her for her connection to the cruel scientist responsible for his beloved first mate's death. After surviving his brutal treatment, she is terrified to learn that Kleaxian law compels her mating his brother, Tavarr. This book explores domestic discipline as intended to work. as well as the perversion of it. The romance is satisfying although focusing on the female 's perceptions and emotions. The story might be even better if equal details of Tavarr's internal reactions and motivations were part of it. Very enjoyable.<br /><br /><br />Line<br />