I don’t do reviews often, but Ben Boswell’s latest, The Surrogate Master, is definitely worthy of one.

Full disclosure: My wife edited this book. I formatted it. It’s published under KW Publishing. I may be biased, but I like to think I’m more objective than not.

So as the name suggests, The Surrogate Master touches on themes of Dominance and submission. Fans of 50 Shades of Grey should enjoy this. There’s some mild BDSM play, spanking, restraints, etc. As with all his books, this one touches on wife-sharing elements that flirt with a harder cuckold edge (in the way Ben does so well). But at the heart of all of that, there’s a love story. The couple is going through a rough patch—one that could very well end them. Instead, they deal with their issues in the most unconventional of ways—you guessed it, with the Master—and end up learning a lot about who they are, both individually and as husband and wife. I’ve made no secret that when I write, the couple is practically its own character. Max and Rachel definitely qualify.

I’m not going to give the plot away beyond that, though. It’s delightful and engaging enough that I encourage all of you to check it out. Instead, I want to address my particular experience with it, one of my initial hesitations.

Neither my wife nor I are “into” the Dom-sub scene. I have a number of kinks (as readers are aware of), but being a Master (or a sub) isn’t one of them. In fact, power play in general hadn’t entered my fantasy landscape until I began to take writing out my fantasies seriously and I had to confront the reasons why my characters (and ultimately myself) like what we like. All that’s to say that when I see terms like BDSM, D/s, and even male-dom and fem-dom, I typically translate that as: not for me.

But I’ll read anything Ben writes, and I’m glad that I did. Those elements were all there, but the story was told through the lens of someone just like me. We got to take a slow dip into this strange new world together, and with that guidance, I was hooked. The writing wasn’t bad, either! One scene had me laughing out loud—not something most erotica can do.

My wife had similar feelings as she read it. She went in thinking she’d just edit the story like it was a job. She finished because she wanted to see how it ended. That takes a delicacy that’s not easy to do, but Ben seems to do it with each book he writes.

Not that either of us will be breaking out the handcuffs any time soon (or bringing in a surrogate master of our own), but it’s a good reminder to keep an open mind about all things in life—including our sexual fantasies.

Pre-order The Surrogate Master today from Amazon, or pick it up when it hits shelves on November 7.

(And while you’re at it, go ahead and pre-order my next book, Nothing Forbidden!)