Liz Loves Books.Com.

I was one of the fans of Maestra, for which I gave 5* and a good review, because Maestra, for all its faults, was one of the most fun books I read last year and had a main protagonist who I really engaged with, the murderous, witty, sexy Judith.

Well now Judith is living under an alias and for me in Domina lost all her pizzazz. It was relatively dull in places and the story this time didn't, for me anyway, have that edginess and full on feeling that Maestra had provided. I kind of enjoyed it in a very peripheral way but by the time I was heading into the last portions I was really just reading to find out where Ms Hilton would leave things prior to the finale. TO BE CONCLUDED screams the ending, granted in a way that will indeed ensure that I read the next book, but I'm hoping the author brings back the intense sparkle of the original.

If you liked Maestra you may well like Domina - it has the name dropping, sex scene thing going on that is going to be this series trademark but again the life in that seemed dulled to me too - the character doubted herself, maybe to try and add some layers, but that didn't work terribly well in my honest opinion.

The last novel felt sprawling, jet setting, maybe not completely original but loads of fun and frolics - whereas Domina for me had chronic second book syndrome - I didn't hate it and the writing is just as it was, its not a sudden drain of ability - but the plotting was annoyingly convoluted on occasion, Judith didn't engage me as she did before and I doubt I'll remember much about it moving forward apart from that very last moment.

I'll be very interested to see where the author takes book 3. The end here suggests that perhaps Judith will go out with a bang (yes yes had to be done) - I hope so. But sorry Domina just didn't have "it"