Criminal profiler Sadie Bonds knows blood. Her affair with the gruesome, dark world of killers began long before she started applying her analytical skills to investigate gory crime scenes. She gets inside the killers’ heads, breaks them down, relates to them on an arcane level. She prefers it this way–because it’s safer to ally herself with the villain than the victim. At least, that’s how she’s coped ever since she was abducted and tortured as a teen.
She will never be a victim again.
Now, she’s honed her skills in order to bring justice to these ritualistic offenders. Working alongside her colleagues, armed with sharp wit and a SIG, Sadie always catches her sadist. Until one ruthless serial killer gets inside Sadie’s head, turning the tables. He knows her secrets. Her obsessions. The darkest, most deviant part of her soul.
When she meets Colton Reed, dangerous stakes are raised as he threatens to unravel her control and reveal her darkest fantasies. The sexy-as-sin bondage rigger at an exclusive BDSM club pushes her boundaries, forcing her to acknowledge that side of herself she fears. Plunged into a realm of torture and suffering, pain and pleasure, Sadie balances on the razor-sharp edge of two intersecting worlds threatening to swallow her.
This book took me by surprise. How can I explain this… It doesn’t do anything new. It doesn’t do anything unique. Usually when I read works like that I end up disliking them. But this one takes those familiar tropes and mixes them well.
I enjoyed being in Sadie’s head, though there are certain things I think are unrealistic. She is a former victim of one of those dungeon slave guys you see on 20/20 or Criminal Minds. Part of her enjoyed a specific aspect of the torture she was inflicted (or was conditioned to enjoy it; it’s not elaborated on in this novel) and she is both appalled and scared of the reasons why she wants and enjoys that flavor in the bedroom.
Specifically in the book, it is binding. Shibari, the Japanese term for rope binding, plays a role. There are several steamy scenes featuring it, in fact, all of them. They are also very well done, on that note. 
The torture Sadie endured plays out as psychologically scarring, in fact, debilitating at times. Yet, at the end of the first part she’s okay with who is essentially a stranger (but the love interest) doing Shibari-type binds on her. I know the sort of book this is requires certain love scenes, however, I feel like it was done way too soon with the relationship, especially considering how scarred she is. 
Colton, the love interest, is ever the perfect man. He’s sensitive, he’s there for her, he puts aside his needs for hers, and he tells her exactly what she needs to hear.
He is perfect for her in this book, however, I hope he has some secrets making him more complex because as it is he’s a little boring.
Well, I suppose that’s not a bad thing in the end, after all, we have Sadie and the Killer’s POV to read through as well.
The Killer. Sadie’s day job is a profiler and she’s tracking down a serial killer that seems to have a connection to her past. We get treated to his POV and its fairly standard obsessive sort of stuff. I mean, there’s nothing in particular I find interesting about him that I haven’t seen played out in over 1,000 movies or novels before. 
There’s not more to comment on. As the first in a series, nothing is solved. I guess Sadie goes from wanting to do the binds to doing them, that’s the only thing that moves forward. I’m reading the second book, but in small bursts because the second book isn’t really grabbing me.
This first book, however, was a decent read and I think if you enjoy these types of stories you are going to adore this.
My heart scale is defined as follows – 5 hearts = a story everyone will fall in love with, regardless of preferences; 4 hearts = a well-done story that people who love the concept will adore, and people who don’t may end up liking it; 3 hearts = if you like this type of story or this type of hero, then you will enjoy this, but those who do not like either of those things will probably not; 2 hearts = it had potential, it squandered it; 1 heart = just a waste of time from the get-go; 0 hearts = why was this made?