Review: An Unlocked Mind by KC Wells and Parker Williams

Title: An Unlocked Mind (Secrets: Book Two

Authors: KC Wells and Parker Williams

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Length: 316 Pages

Category: Contemporary, BDSM

At a Glance: I definitely recommend this installment in the new Secrets series, and can’t wait for the next one. I’m enjoying seeing old friends and experiencing how they intertwine with new ones!

Reviewed By: Carrie

Blurb: Rob Daniels is determined to prove to himself that his brother Alex got it wrong. Alex believes he found love through BDSM; Rob is certain that’s not possible. He even makes several visits to a London club to prove his point. But when he attends the grand opening of Secrets, Rob gets a shock, one that has him fleeing, vowing never to return—until he does… and runs into the brick wall that is Dom Vic Prentiss. As first meetings go, theirs is a disaster.

The more time he spends around Rob, the more convinced Vic becomes of two things—one, something is eating away at Rob, and two, he’s looking for something. Every instinct tells Vic to help him, but trying to unlock the secrets hidden in Rob’s mind requires a key. All Vic has to do is find it. Because maybe then he’ll get to see the real Rob, the man who’s scared to let go….

Review: This is book two in the Secrets series from KC Wells. The Secrets series is a spinoff from her wildly popular Collars and Cuffs series, and has crossover characters from the original. In this book two, we get cameos from the very first Collars and Cuffs couple, Leo and Alex.

Rob Daniels is a mess, torn between who he is, who he used to be, and who he wants to be. If you read the book An Unlocked Heart (Collars and Cuffs #1), you will remember Rob and how he treated his brother Alex in that book. For some reason, the authors thought that Rob needed redeeming, and that we as readers needed to see more of his character and understand his motivations. I’ll be honest here, didn’t think they could do it … but they did. While this is a standalone in the Secrets series, you may want to read An Unlocked Heart first, just so you know how far Rob has to come to be redeemed. But true to Wells’ and Williams’ storytelling, we get a picture of a Rob that has hidden depths and is a highly complicated, conflicted man—a victim of his upbringing and circumstance, but willing to admit to his sins. This book will go down, undoubtedly, as one of my favorites in this new series because I enjoy a storyline that has characterizations which push the plot forward, and this one has that in spades.

Rob Daniels hates himself. The hate he spews on those around him stems from the level of self-loathing he heaps on himself. He wants, oh, how he wants what his brother found. A home, friends, a family. But he knows he doesn’t deserve those things. Not with the way he has acted, the things he has said, the people he has hung around with. Rob will break your heart. He’s literally hanging onto life with his fingernails. He’s lost. So, he begins looking for what Alex found in one of the places that Alex found it—a BDSM club. He longs to just let it all go: the hate, the recriminations, the internal rebuke. But he has to get over himself first, to allow himself to have it.

Vic Prentiss is a well of patience. He practices it and searches for inner peace regularly. He’s a landscape designer who finds his solace in plants, the earth and the outdoors. Vic has also been a student of human nature; it’s what makes him such a good dom. He likes to know what makes a man tick, what his motivations are for his actions, and why a man will react to stimuli the way he does. Running into Rob at Secrets, literally, he’s concerned about the man and can see the inner turmoil behind Rob’s eyes. Getting to the bottom of what is eating away at Rob takes every bit of patience Vic has, and then some. Vic is the yin to Rob’s yang. Vic almost tends to Rob like he does his plants, letting the man grow and helping him to find his own inner strength. Vic understands that Rob has to love himself first, and for Rob, that could be next to impossible.

I do wish that the story could have moved forward in time just a hair. We don’t get a lot of the BDSM elements in this storyline besides the sensory deprivation that Vic puts Rob under. But we keep hearing from Vic about all the different things he wants to do with Rob in the future, and I wish I could have been a part of that. I also had a niggle about Jarod. Why, when Rob was mentioning making a subs club, did he act like he had never heard of one when he was a part of all those puppy piles at Collars & Cuffs? Hmmm? This series is gearing up to cover some pretty heady topics just like the other series did. The “unlocking” of Rob’s mind, and his journey, is an emotional one. Rob does end up redeemed, and he and Vic find their way to their own HEA.

I loved the cover on this book. Kudos to Reese Dante once again for a spot-on illustration mirroring the content of the novel. The pacing is a little slow on this one, but it worked with the storyline and how much introspection is involved in Rob’s journey.

There was that frisson of fear again, but this time interlaced with overwhelming sadness. “You… I just… I’m sorry, okay? You don’t have to be nice to me. After what I did, I don’t deserve it.”
 
Vic didn’t loosen his grip. He tugged Rob closer, then said softly, “Sometimes those who feel they don’t deserve something are the ones who need it the most.”

I definitely recommend this installment in the new Secrets series, and can’t wait for the next one. I’m enjoying seeing old friends and experiencing how they intertwine with new ones!

You can buy An Unlocked Mind here:
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