My Reads: My Body-His (Marcello) by Blakely Bennett

When I picked up Blakely Bennett’s first book in the My Body series, I was hooked – so hooked, in fact, that I went ahead and bought the other two, then spent the entire weekend reading them. A few weeks ago I told you about My Body-His. Now I’ll tell you about the second book, My Body-His (Marcello).

First, let me just say that if you know me, you know how I feel about Italian male protagonists – love ‘em. And this book just fed that passion. We go back to visit Jane and Luke, and watch as the relationship becomes more and more dysfunctional, if that’s even possible. There’s a push and pull as Jane both tries to be the submissive Luke wants and tries to keep some of herself. Unfortunately, she fails on both accounts. After she’s disobeyed at a party, Luke sends her to Marcello as discipline. She doesn’t want to go, and when she stands up to him, the beating he gives her forces her to do the one thing that pushes him past the point of no return.

Having nowhere to go, she winds up at Marcello’s anyway. Marcello is one of those characters, not the ones you love to hate, but the ones you hate to love. For all his harshness and abusiveness, he also has a tender side, and uses some common sense in his use of Jane and the handling of her emotional fragility. Marcello had told her early on that she would be his, and due to her own actions, that winds up being the case. But exactly what that means is unclear, and she’s subjected to yet more pain and degradation under his tutelage. Problem is, even bound to a whipping horse and used as a toy by every man in attendance, something about the sex and the unsteadiness in her love of being used by men brings great instability and yet great peace to Jane’s life.

When this book ends, Jane has become Marcello’s, even if only through attrition. But Marcello may be one of the better things that’s happened to Jane. Or may not. That’s left to be seen.

I loved this book. Once again, Blakely took me into a world of extreme BDSM with enough mind fucks to turn the strongest submissive into a blathering fool. Luke’s behavior made me hate him even more, while Marcello’s understanding, patience, and temperance gave him the human touch he’d lacked before and helped me both like and appreciate him. I also loved Blakely’s exploration of Jane’s relationship, or lack of, with her father, a clue that let me see into the reason Jane could so easily allow herself to fall for Luke and be totally controlled and manipulated by him.

These books are must-reads. I can’t say enough good things about them, and in a few weeks I’ll bring you the final one, My Body-Mine. Until then, grab these two and get caught up on the series. Once you start reading, you won’t be able to put it down.