1883

Unhappy with her guardian uncle, Laura heads west to find her Aunt Faith. Naive, selfish, and immature, she soon finds herself in a heap of trouble. But when ranch owner, Dalton Garrison saves her, he won't put up with her shenanigans any more than her uncle did. In fact, he's even more strict than she had ever imagined. Laura is full of stubborn pride, but how long can she last with the almost daily corporal punishment he deals out? Contains mature themes - for adults only. 107,606 words

Laura grew up spoiled in her parents’ house, which left her completely unprepared for the real world when they suddenly passed away when she was just sixteen. Believing she could manage much better on her own than under her uncle’s abuse, she decided to go West. Laura’s trip was quickly derailed and turned into a nightmare until she was rescued by Dalton and his brothers. Dalton Garrison brought her home where his family accepted her with open arms. Laura’s initial bratty and childish ways earned her too many trips across Dalton’s knees to count. Eventually however, Laura blossomed under Dalton’s guidance. She studied hard and developed interests in science and ranching. Determined to broaden the horizons of other women, she started a social group to discuss the latest scientific advances. Laura even had aspirations of creating a ranched based orphanage once she was old enough to have a ranch of her own. In time, her relationship with Dalton also blossomed. I have found that my opinion of a book is sometimes contingent on how well I can identify with the main character. Many spanking novels that have amazing spanking scenes leave me unsatisfied because the damsel in distress is entirely too immature and bratty. Initially, that is how I thought Reesa Roberts’ “1883” was going to be. Laura starts out incredibly obnoxious and annoyingly juvenile. Her antics were childish and her punishments were frequent. I have to admit, I did not have high hopes for “1883” at first because I found Laura’s behavior to be that of a child and not of a young adult. I am so very glad I stuck with it though as this turned out to be one of my favorite spanking novels. Reesa Roberts managed to do something that is not common in the spanking book world. She allowed Laura to grow and mature right before the reader’s eyes. Laura’s character developed into an amazing woman who was smart, thoughtful, caring, and just a bit naughty (which in my opinion is the best a woman can be and one whom I can definitely relate to). Here is one of the numerous spanking scenes in “1883:” **************************** “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” was his only response, and Laura was suddenly transported to the family table nearly a year ago, when he’d tried to teach her better table manners. She felt the same urge now to be a brat. With a challenging grin, she took another big bite. “Why mot?” she said, laughing at his suddenly angry glare. “Don’t push me, Laura, it’s still your birthday, and you haven’t gotten your birthday spankings yet.” His tone was deadly calm, with full expectation of her obedience. Nevertheless, Laura was long out of practice at heeding his warnings, and the hilarity rose higher inside her. “Whush wrong wish talking wish your mouf full?!” She snorted in laughter, and suddenly her face turned red as she inhaled a bit of food that stuck in her windpipe. She spat onto her plate what was left in her mouth, and struggled to breath in, to no avail. Dalton jumped up and ran around the table, jerked her to her feet, put his arm around her waist, and hit her with the heel of his hand very hard between the shoulder blades. The air whooshed out and a bit of ham flew onto the table as Laura took in a wheezing breath of air. “Oh my God,” she gasped, breathing out and coughing. “I can’t believe… that just happened!” It took another minute for her to recover, and as soon as she appeared to be breathing normally, he whirled her around to face him. He was furious. “That’s what’s wrong with talking with your mouth full, besides the fact that it’s disgusting and impolite!” His voice was very loud, and Laura stood frozen in place, shocked by his emotional outburst. Where was his calm and rational tone? She’d never seen him so angry, and his eyes glinted like steel as he glared down at her. Then he took her elbow and pulled her toward the sofa. Her feet moved across the room behind him of their own accord, and her mind didn’t register what was happening until he sat down and pushed her over his lap. Laura felt a jolt of alarm as he jerked her robe up above her bottom, but she didn’t resist, couldn’t resist, knowing it would be useless. She started to cry even before the first slap landed. She tried to stay still as his hand burned fire across her buttocks, but Dalton held nothing back and it was quickly too much to bear. Laura cried out, “Please, Dalton! Please stop, it hurts too much!” and kicked her feet up, but he didn’t even slow down the pace. She knew that he’d never spanked her this hard before, and then she could no longer think about anything but the terrible pain. Her feet kicked wildly, and her fists pounded the arm of the sofa as he continued with full armed, punishing strokes. Finally, he stopped, resting his hand against her brightly reddened bottom for a moment before Laura scrambled up, sobbing in pain. She caught a glimpse of his sorrowful expression through her tears, and then he pulled her down into his arms. She slid to her knees on the hard wooden floor and buried her face into his shirt. He was breathing hard and fast, and she could feel his heart pounding beneath her cheek against his chest. Her bottom was on fire, the sharp pain lasting much longer than usual. “I’m sorry, Laura, I know that was a little harsh,” he said, his tone rough but regretful. “I didn’t control myself very well. I was so afraid when you almost choked to death just now.” “I was afraid, too,” she cried, “I was really afraid, so why did you have to spank me, too? The choking was bad enough!” Dalton’s arms tensed around her. “You have to learn to obey me. I’d told you stop talking with your mouth full, and you deliberately ignored me.” His now calm tone was reassuring, and a small twinge of guilt registered as she remembered her actions prior to the awful choking. However, the fact that he’d blistered her now throbbing bottom right afterwards made her more resentful than repentant. “Well…well, I didn’t know it could make me choke!” she sniffled. “Laura, please, we’ve been through this before. I don’t give you orders just to hear myself speak. I don’t enjoy bossing you around, I only do it when I have to.” This was a revelation, and she stopped crying. “You don’t like to tell me what to do?” “No, I don’t. I expect you to be an adult, and to control your own impulses. I expect you to have some common sense, but when you don’t, when you do something dangerous, then I expect you to listen to me.” “But I didn’t know it was dangerous!” “Laura, that’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you.” He patted her bottom and she winced. “That’s why you have to obey me when I tell you to do something, or not to do something.” “I thought you just didn’t want to hear me talk with food in my mouth.” “I know that’s what you thought,” he continued, and she heard the note of impatience in his tone, “but I expect you to obey no matter what you think at the time.” Laura understood what he was saying, but she still didn’t want to give in. “What if I’m just teasing you, and you don’t like it? Why should I have to stop then, if you told me to?” He took her by the shoulders and gently pushed her back to face him. She stared apprehensively into his stern gray eyes as he replied, “Why would you want to tease me if I didn’t like it?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s just fun.” “You think it’s fun to upset me?” She dropped her eyes to his chest. “Sometimes,” she mumbled, already regretting her impulsive words. “Look at me.” She lifted her eyes to his intense gaze, wanting to jump up and run from the room. “If you think your bottom can handle the consequences, then you just go right ahead and do as you please.” **************************** I enjoyed this scene as much for the conversation Dalton and Laura had after he set her bottom on fire as I did for the spanking itself. Laura’s eagerness to understand Dalton’s motives and his desire for her to learn are both admirable qualities. It’s these interactions that allow the reader to fully understand how much Laura has grown since the beginning of the novel. Reesa Roberts is an amazing author. She uses wonderfully descriptive language in such a way that the reader actually becomes a part of the characters’ world. She is detailed and poetic. Her writing style is of the caliber of mainstream best sellers, but includes the added bonus of spanking. Her books are also the length of vanilla novels, which is easily twice as long as the average spanking novel, giving the reader the opportunity to lose herself in this fictitious world for more than just an hour or two. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any and all spanking enthusiasts. I personally can’t wait to read another one of Reesa Roberts’ novels.