Book Talk Review; Unfettered

Beau and Heath are perfect

How can Heath find happiness again when he's terrified of the things he loves?

After a reckless scene gone wrong, Heath is floating alone though life, unable to trust anyone enough give up control. Everything changes when he accepts a dinner invitation from a handsome younger man.

Beau is a twenty-four year old student with a strong personality who he knows exactly what he wants in life. And right now, he wants Heath. It doesn't matter that Heath has a traumatic past, and it definitely doesn't matter when they find out Heath is one of his professors.

The reemergence of someone Heath used to know sends their relationship into a tailspin, and leaves Beau questioning everything he thought he knew about himself. To save his relationship with Heath, he has to turn to the support system he's never had before...his long lost brothers.

Heath has finally rediscovered the liberation in restraint, but now Beau needs to find the freedom promised from being truly unfettered.

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We already know that I loved this book. It's a Kate Hawthorne story, she's The Evil Word Magician, she knows how to build me up then rip me apart. 

There's nothing I can really say except that this book is perfect. So perfect I could have died happy reading it. The relationship between Beau and Heath isn't easy, not with Heath having been hurt once before and then turning out to be Beau's professor, but there's a connection there from the start. They don't need each other, but everything makes more sense when they're together. 

Heath was hurt once before. A reckless scene that broke his trust in himself, in the lifestyle, and in any other man calling himself a dominant. It's not until he meets Beau that he starts to get that part of himself back. Beau is firm, but patience and though he pushes Heath it's never more than he can handle. He might hurt him but he never harms him, that not only secures Heath's trust, but it secures my heart as well. 

I loved Beau from the moment we met him. He's confident but not cocky. He's assertive and exacting in how he wants Heath but it's not domineering. He's pretty much perfect and if I had to design a Dom for myself it would be Beau. He not only respects Heath's limits, but pushes through them without taking more than Heath can handle or is willing to give. 

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop if I'm being honest. They were so perfect, they were in love, they were laying together on their terms and learning about one another. I know better when it comes to the Evil Word Magician. If things look too good to be true then they probably are. I was right of course. While riding the high of having these two great characters the bottom drops out. Not only does the bottom drop out from beneath them but in a big way that I did not see coming. When Kate Hawthrone throws shit at her characters she throws a lot of it. My heart hurt for them both but especially for Beau. 

Though they got their world turned upside down, they were both adult enough to stand by their relationship. Beau was hurt and though he was shaky after having everything he knew blow up, he had Heath to help him. And he had his brothers. His brothers who need stories because there are interesting dynamics at play there. It's a visit with them and a long-overdue discussion that Beau not only understands what it's like to have a family in your corner, but he also found his confidence again. It broke my heart to see him so unsure, both Heath and I were so happy to see the spark back in Beau. 

One of the best things about Unfettered is that even though it's a student/teacher book there's not a lot of back and forth that you usually find. The characters are mature enough to know that they want each other and even though they probably shouldn't be together they take the chance anyway. That's hard to find in this trope and I am so glad that this didn't follow the formula that so many do. That's always been something that stood out about Kate Hawthorne's books, they don't follow the usual trope formulas, and that is something I wholeheartedly appreciate. Because when you're reading 200+ books in a year and they all look the same it can get boring. Heath and Beau are anything but boring. 

Unfettered takes us back to the kinky roots that started it all for the Evil Word Magician. There's an intense scene that involves a tawse, there's orgasm control, nipple play, and a beautiful balance of submission and Dominance between these two that made me swoon. 

*Quote-

"I don't need all this pomp and circumstance. You respect me whether you're at my feet or by my side and, to be terribly honest, Heath if you didn't respect me by my side, you'd never be at my feet." 

"These were the moments Heath loved, when there was still no question in his mind how the dynamic between them existed, but it existed in a natural state. Heath would have called Beau Sir every time they spoke if he would have allowed it, because he deserved that respect. But it was these moments, this afterglow, when everything was soft and rea; and the outside world didn't exist. It was Heath and Beau. Teacher and student. Submissive and dominant."

"He was filled with a renewed hope for the future. Not that he's ever been less than optimistic, but it was a nice reminder that, together, he and Heath were two halves of a whole." 

"You can't hold yourself accountable for other people's actions, Beau. That's no way to live your life. Everyone is responsible for their own decisions. It's how they react in the fallout that counts."