Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Separation Games, the conclusion of CD Reiss' ground breaking Games Duet, is a heart wrenching, soaring elegy for the disintegration of a marriage so full of love that it refuses to die. This story is beyond amazing - more than I dared to hope for in my wildest dreams (and I'm pretty daring/demanding). It is one of the most beautiful, painful things I have ever read. Adam and Diana have finally stripped their masks away and have to decide whether they like what they see in the mirror and each other. It's a poignant, frustrating, joyous and devastating journey I didn't want to end. Adam and Diana have been taking up space in my heart since I turned the first page of Marriage Games and they just don't want to leave. Adam, a closer, fails for the first time. He rouses Diana's submission from its slumber, but that doesn't exactly kill his love for her. He's in this limbo, clinging to his belief he can't love a sub, but not willing to let Diana go. Complicating matters further, Diana's love for him (at least for "Montauk Adam") comes raging to life like a three alarm blaze, ignited by Adam's Dominance and the new connection it forges. Separation Games opens with Diana, her mask in tatters, left to wrestle with her submission as her emotional universe crumbles around her. The tables are turned - it's up to Diana to be the closer for the first time ever. Can she do it? The sense of ennui as Diana was trying to figure out the how of her plan perfectly reflects the onslaught of emotions she was dealing with. But once she shook that feeling, the pace and emotional weight of all she was trying to do kept steadily building - so much fear and trepidation. Could she forge a new path for them and convince Adam he could love her - submission and all - in the fourteen days left in their deal? Adam tries to use sex to keep Diana at arm's length while Diana uses sex to communicate where her words fail. The sex (and there's a lot of it) is electric, inventive and off the charts hot. You'll never look at legos the same way again. The writing, as always, is impeccable. It's poetic, hypnotic, and enticing. As always, Ms. Reiss seduces you with her words. You're invested in every step of the Steinbeck's journey. In Separation Games, she creates these stunning mirror images with the moments of Adam's and Diana's emotional breakthroughs - which occur in their childhood beds. They're achingly beautiful and woven through with so much subtle symbolism. She conveys so much in those scenes that I'm still thinking about them. Diana and Adam are so REAL, it makes the story so much richer. They're that couple we all have as friends who you adore - but you're exhausted by their indecision and inability to recognize the emotional connection that's obvious to everyone else. They're characters who frustrate the hell out of you but you never want to stop rooting for them. They are so well drawn that we can't help but see bits and pieces of ourselves and feel empathy for them. The ride isn't wild as much as it is unrelenting. The emotions are a lot for a reader to wrap their head around - and the result is more haunting that Marriage Games. I was holding my breath for them both, and then my heart cracked open like a damn egg and all these feelings just poured out. I was just spent. The end of Adam and Diana's journey is almost like a drop after sub space as you process everything. Aftercare is a must! 5 sparkling stars