Read the full review on Bookaholics Not-So-Anonymous.

Note: This ARC was provided by RockStar Lit PR in exchange for an honest review.

Here we have two broken people--a forty-four-year-old Harvard law professor, widower, father to a twenty-two-year-old grad student, and Dominant, Jack Archer, and a twenty-eight-year-old law school graduate who has yet to take the bar and current paralegal nursing a broken heart and a far more broken spirit, Lilly Sterling. Jack is still mourning the loss of his wife, and the only woman he ever practiced BDSM with, but his attention is snagged by Lilly the second he sees her outside a bar. There's an instant connection between them, but neither feels absolutely read to do anything about their mutual attraction.

One of the things I liked best about this love story was that the main characters took a completely different route in dealing with their attraction and their respective needs for BDSM partners. Neither of them were looking into finding replacements for the people they were involved with, and so when they do come across each other, the emotions that are evoked spark a chain reaction that neither of them could have really avoided, even if they strove to keep denying themselves what, and who, they wanted. There's a journey they take where trust and respect are earned. Along the way, they develop feelings for each other.

The bonus to the romance is the case that Lilly is researching for her law firm. It's really quite intriguing and you know that the one clue that's mentioned when she first tries to tackle the date involved in the case is the one that will crack the whole thing wide open. While being with Jack provides Lilly the opportunity to regain the confidence she once lost, it is her work on the case and the belief of Jack and those closest to her that bolsters her own belief that she is good at what she does. Lilly becoming a stronger and more put-together woman inside and outside of the playroom highlights that this was more than a story about sex.

I've read Rebecca Grace Allen's two previous novels and a short story that was part of a recent anthology, and each new work I come across makes me even more of a believer of her writing talent. But, without a shadow of a doubt, this latest series starter of hers is her best work to date. She's come up with a story that breaks your heart a couple of times but mends it each time and she's given us characters that you become emotionally invested in, wishing you could hold their hands each time they stumble. I'm unequivocally giving Legally Bound's His Contract five-plus stars because this is how erotic romance should be written. ♥