Review: One Gold Heart by Sadie Haller

Book Description

Mac Wallis agrees to join the wind quintet, Dominant Cord, for the Christmas concert season as a favour to an old friend. It's her first step towards recovery after a vicious attack more than a decade before. However, sparks fly when Dominant Cord's unofficial leader, flutist, Finn Taylor takes issue with Mac's reliance on medication in order to perform.

Mac can't understand why the asshole who so completely humiliated her at their first rehearsal keeps showing up in her late-night fantasies as the Dom of her dreams. It's not even like he's the good kind of bad boy.

After his marriage ended in disaster, Finn tries to steer clear of damaged women, but as a Dom, he feels compelled to put aside his own hang-up to help Mac reclaim her independence and her former life.

All titles in the Dominant Cord series can be read as standalone, but are best read in order.

My Review

This book was mentioned in a book club I belong to and it sounded really good so I bought to to read later. I was getting ready to go to bed and thought I would just read the first few pages to see how I felt about it...an hour later and I had stayed up until 1am to finish the entire book! Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It turned out to be the best book I've read all week.

Mac agrees to step in for an old friend and play in a wind quintet after her friend breaks a couple of ribs and can't play. Mac has high performance anxiety and takes Beta Blockers in order to perform in public. That wouldn't be much of a problem if Finn didn't blow up at the mention of anyone taking medication. He seems to view all medication as drugs and if you take them, that makes you a drug addict. 

Finn starts out really unlikable and I didn't think he could turn it around but he did and after finding out why he feels the way he does, it makes much more sense. 

Mac is a little hellion, she was quick with a come back when she first met Finn and he was being Mr. Grumpy Pants. And even though she has some serious hang ups, she trusts her best friend and Finn to help her get past them. 

I really enjoyed this realistic look into a BDSM relationship that required a Dom to show compassion, patience and empathy with a sub that has serious emotional baggage. 

While this book does have some graphic sex scenes and a recounting of the rape that happened to Mac, it's done in the right way and made for a emotional, sexy read. 

If you'd like to read this book, you can buy it here. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.