Book Review: Lord and Master by Kait Jagger

Hey readers!!

I was browsing through Netgalley on Tuesday night and I came across this book, Lord and Master by Kait Jagger. The cover and title attracted me and when I checked the blurb I knew I had found my next read!!

Lord and Master is part of a trilogy and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon. It’ll be released tomorrow, May 1st.

Luna Gregory has everything she needs. A dream job as personal assistant to the Marchioness of Lionsbridge, and a home on the 500-year-old Arborage Estate. But her encounter with Swedish entrepreneur Stefan Lundgren, charismatic, devastatingly attractive-and third in line to inherit the estate-leaves her irresistibly captivated. What Stefan doesn’t know is that he and Luna have met before, that he is drawn by more than just her English reserve and quiet beauty. Luna has her reasons for concealing the truth from him-she’s built an entire life for herself based on keeping the past in the past.

Stefan initiates Luna into a world of sexual exploration where they push the boundaries of pleasure and control, the ties that bind them,literally, in desire. Not content with possessing Luna physically, Stefan wants all of her. But he is keeping his own secrets, secrets that could drive them apart.

MY RATING: 5 – PERFECT STORY- stars

MY REVIEW:

***ARC received from Negalley in exchange of an honest opinion***

As I said, I discovered this book on Netgalley and I believe it’s Kait Jagger’s first book. I was blown away by the level of professionalism in her writing. Lord and Master doesn’t even look like it’s her first book!

I was intrigued by the blurb and I had a feeling I might like the story, but I wasn’t prepared to be so immersed inside this book and to love it as much as I did!

The story revolves around the romance between Stefan Lundgren and Luna Gregory, but it goes beyond it. My favorite kind of stories are the ones where we can see there’s an actual story besides the romance. This was one of those. That singular quality in some books, makes them feel like a movie for the reader. It didn’t even notice I was reading the story, it was so alive!

Stefan is Swedish, intelligent, rich. A Nordic God. What’s not to love? Oh, did I mention he is dominant and knows his way through a woman’s body? This story doesn’t really deal with BDSM, but both Stefan and Luna have (different) control issues, so they both benefit by his dominance.

Luna Gregory works as a PA to a Marchioness, she studied in the same girl’s school as the Marchioness daughter and there’s a mystery I didn’t see coming about her past. She and Stefan had had a brief encounter in the past, an encounter that marked both of them. For different reasons. It helped Stefan be who he was and Luna be who she wanted to be.

Their romance start when Stefan goes to the Marchioness state, Arborage Estate after her ladyship asks him for help in managing it. Luna is her PA and they start interacting and their mutual attraction is inevitable.

But it isn’t all roses and rainbows. There’s a boiling family intrigue. Stefan is the son of the Marchess’s cousin, and there are other relatives, including the Marchioess daughters, invested in wanting the Estate out of Stefan’s managing hands. The Marchess and Marchioness live apart, she in Arborage Estate and he in Venice, but no matter their differences, they have the managing Arborage in common. The Marchioness wants to make some changes, specially because the Marchess’ brother is the first in line to inherit the Estate someday and he is a cruel, disgusting man. But he is canny. He has his nieces in the palm of his hand, specially because Stefan is the third in line to inherit it (his father is alive and is the second in line).

You might be asking yourself it this is a historical romance…No it isn’t. It’s as contemporary as they come.

But what about our heroine in the middle of all this? Stefan and Luna keep their relationship in secret, but not for any reason in particular as I gathered.

They first started with a night of passion, when even though Luna didn’t trust Stefan yet, they shared so much lust and Stefan showed her how he could help her let go. Luna is a serious girl, almost stuck up, when she wasn’t with her group of friends.

After their night, Luna wasn’t expecting anything from Stefan, specially because he left her after they were had their night. But Stefan had other ideas. He didn’t let go of her. No matter his reputation (and filmed prove, after his one season starring a reality show of sorts) of a player, he seemed really into her. At first he seemed more invested than her.

While their romance built, Luna bloomed. She became less stuck on her past. She had reasons to be, as we discover later on. Stefan really isn’t a player, he proves his worth to her (and he made me swoon so MUCH while doing it). But then in the middle of it, things escalate in the family drama and Luna is caught up in the middle of it and her relationship with Stefan doens’t help calm her down.

Lord and Master is a long-ish book, which I LOVE! By 50% there was already so much story going on and that always make me happy, because I hate seeing a (good) book ending.

There’s a web of secrets and intrigue in the story and although it has nothing to do with Luna, she gets caught up in the middle of it and has some choices to make. Specially after finding out that no one was who she thought they were.

Does it end in a cliffy? Well, I might not be a good reference to answer that, because I feel cliffies differently than most people. The story isn’t done, in the end, we see there’s more to come and I was left satisfied with that knowledge, so for me there isn’t a cliffy.

Now, for me there is a feeling whenever I find a book that I just know will be a success. It’s weird, because every time I find one of these I also feel afraid, because I might be crazy and loved the book but people might not. It was the same with some of my favorite books like Degradation, Rainfall and Breach.

And when I recommend them I feel the pressure, but I absolutely know they are amazing.

Lord and Master is the first one I felt like that in the last months. I felt that way about My Time in the Affair too, but whenever the book is by an author I don’t know yet, this feeling gets bigger.

You might think the story in Lord and Master starts slow, but after a few pages only I was already hooked, until I was so immersed I just wanted to keep reading it. I really lived this story and that’s the best part of a good book that is a long one. You have the time to really enjoy it.

And the writing…I fond Kait’s writing style is FANTASTIC. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s not easy to make us readers forget we are reading a book. Even when a book is really, really good, sometimes we still don’t live the story, like we are watching a movie.

This book is filled with good story, passion, good writing and real characters. Nothing feels forced, the story flows flawlessly. Kait has done a GREAT job giving her characters life. It was almost like a punch in the face when I finished it and couldn’t stop thinking about it. At first you think it’s just a common story, with family drama and romance and very well-built characters. But then as the story progresses you realize, it’s such a GREAT story, that is uncommon exactly for being so AMAZING as a “common” story. At first you might think, what’s so special about it? Well, besides Kait’s incredible talent, it’s the characters and how right they fit in their places.It’s the setting. And it’s Luna and Stefan…

Stefan is my newest book boyfriend, and I want one of my own!!

This story is one of those that is so complete, that the romance, the background story and the characters, either they are the main ones or the supporting ones, all fit right into their places and so perfectly timed that we can hardly belive it is really fiction, that it was made up by someone.

Coming up with an story that good is no easy feature, but putting it into words and giving it life and justice, is even harder and I can say Kait Jagger did it perfectly.

Lord and Master is definitely one of my Favorite Books of 2015 and I can’t wait for more of Kait’s writing in the sequel (coming this year)!! She gives us a small excerpt of the second book and it was so intriguing it left me curious to know how did that happen!! haha

It’s hard to explain exactly how I felt about this book, because it was different than others, obviously, but at the same time it wasn’t “different”. There isn’t anything particular about it that made it stand up from the other books I’ve been reading. It’s not angsty (the type that usually stands out for me), dark, sweet… There isn’t anything too sad, it didn’t make me ugly cry (or cry at all), no tortured past…It’s so fresh to discover a story that doesn’t have anything specifically different that makes it special, yet it’s so special you can’t stop praising it!