Review of "Mercy"

Had to get one last read in before the end of the month, putting my total number of books finished in June at 9!!! 19th read of the year, 11 away from my goal, let's get into another Sara Cate story!

Mercy is the fourth book of the Salacious Players Club series, focusing on the only woman owner of the club, Maggie, and...drum roll...Emerson's son!!! I mentioned in my review for Praise, where Beau is a big part of the story, seeing as he is Charlie's ex-boyfriend and Emerson's son, he had a big roll, however, he was a huge piece of shit. And while he still kind of was in this book, it really shines the light on the fact that he's just lost in a society that shames men that aren't masculine.

Now, that doesn't excuse him cheating on Charlie, punching people, and shaming his dad and others for participating in a lifestyle that has no affect on him, but as I will get to, he definitely gets his punishment (wink wink). It made me happy to see that Beau still has a relationship with Charlie's little sister Sophie, which I think plays a pivotal role in him changing to be a better person.

Maggie is co-owner of the club and someone who has a bad history with sex in general. She's led to believe that maybe she just doesn't like anything and isn't into anything, but when the girls kind of push her to take the BDSM quiz on the club's matching app, she finds herself to be quite surprised that she's a Domme, and more importantly, a brat tamer. We love!!!

Sure enough, as fate will have it, the app matches her with a submissive brat, whose profile is anonymous. And of course, we see that this person that she's matched to is none other than Beau. Which makes it so forbidden because he's her best friend's son, it would be a major betrayal. You know, nothing like Beau's father dating his ex-girlfriend level of betrayal. Said sarcastically, if you couldn't tell.

I do love how they immediately have a connection once they both give in to the roles they have been told they match well with, and they fall into the Domme/Sub space so perfectly together, of course with some hesitation because both are new to this whole thing, and Maggie has a rough history with her view of sex. I think it was empowering to see her overcome that and deconstruct all that she's learned and realize that she's allowed to feel good and like things out of the ordinary. Watching as she slipped into the Domme role so easily because she takes control of things in her every day life, but doing so in a much different way was amazing, and her not being shy after seeing just how good it made her feel made me so happy for her.

The same goes for Beau, who comes to terms with the fact that he likes not being on control and giving that power to a woman, especially since he was raised with the idea that all men should take care of things and be strong and never let their guard down. Seeing him slowly come out of his shell and give his trust to Maggie was so hot. And of course, him begging for punishments simply because he thinks he's screwed up so many things...wow.

Don't get me started on when she suggests fucking him after seeing a strap-on in the club's shop, and him silently telling her that he's more than okay with it. WHEW!!! That chapter where they finally take that step was doing something to me!!!! Beau being so...submissive and willing to give himself fully to her after the time they've spent together was something.

I do love how it was a little deeper with him in terms of figuring out what makes him feel this way and struggling to give into the desires that he's kept down for so long. The scene where things go a bit too far for him and he breaks down and crashes out was incredibly emotional, and him begging for pain and punishment because he thinks he deserves it...oh god.

As much as I did enjoy their dynamic and story, this book fell a little flat for me. I do love the forbidden aspect, the sneaking around was so good, but things just didn't feel very...fluffy. Everything, for the most part, was surface level, and I really wish there was more begging from Beau during the spicy scenes. It felt so underwhelming that his beg was a single sentence after being told exactly what she wants him to say. Which, sure, he is a sub so of course he is going to do that, but I wish there would have been just a little more oomph to it. Throw in a whimper, throw in him not knowing what to say and rambling on and on, just...more would have been great.

OH!!! And towards the ending, when they're in Arizona together and things are fine with their club, which I also was LIVING FOR, him coming around to the idea enough to become part owner of the new place, anyways. Him referring to her as Mags just did something to me. The whole book, she was Maggie, or Ma'am, but Mags is just such a cute and sweet nickname, I wish we would have seen it in a scene where they were still hiding their relationship and sneaking around and he accidentally calls her that in public. I don't know.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, I absolutely LOVED the scenes at the club, as I did with the previous book, and I love Maggie and Beau's storyline so much. But as much as I want to rate it higher, things just didn't feel thick enough for me with the story, I don't exactly know how to describe what is missing from it, but I'm also recovering from a pretty rough day today so maybe this isn't the best time to write. Oh well. Below is my overall rating.