Imagine that you find out that your grandmother isn’t who you thought that she was. That’s what happens with Tess in Claire Thompson’s book, The Master and the Secretary.
You don’t want to think about your parents or grandparents having sex. I mean, we all know that it happened at least once or twice, or more, but we really don’t want to think about it.
When Tess’s Nana dies, she goes over to the house to help clean it out and get it ready to sell. When she’s in the attic, she finds a locked strongbox and tries everything she can to get into the box. When she finally finds a key to open the box, she finds out that there are some ledgers in the box, number 1-5. The books are handwritten journals from her grandmother, detailing her submissive journey with her boss, Mr. James Stevenson.
Shocked, Tess closes the first book, worried about invading her Nana’s privacy, but eventually, she can’t fight off the curiosity and starts to read the notebook again, getting a little hot under the… collar. Then she wishes she could talk to someone about it, but knows that her mother and sister would totally freak out about it. But maybe her new boyfriend, Ryan?
Ryan and Tess work together at a law office. Their relationship is pretty new, but she feels like she can tell him about what’s going on. They start reading the journals together, and it helps them figure things out.
OK, so it’s that time. The book is told between two viewpoints, that of Olivia’s journal in the ’60s and the modern day Tess and Ryan. I love the parallel between the two stories since Olivia was the secretary to a lawyer and Tess and Ryan are both lawyers. It creates a really interesting look at the fact that things are a lot different now to then. Not just in the whole BDSM practice bit but also in the sexual harrassment in the workplace thing. Just very interesting. The story is steamy. It’s not a dark story, it’s more of a book about journeys and self-discovery. I liked it.
I felt sorry for poor Olivia. She must’ve felt like she was torn in two, being subbie Olivia at work and Mommy/wife Livvie at home. That must’ve taken some real mental gymnastics to make it work for her in a way that didn’t completely make her brain melt. I think that I would have a hard time doing that. Too bad that there wasn’t a way that she could meld the two of her parts into one relationship.
Ok, that’s all I have to say on this one. Go check this out on Zon and look for other Claire Thompson books. Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 