Sandra @ My Fiction Nook

Boy, I had issues with this book, especially with Aidan, as you can tell from my status updates.

 

There's also some editing that should have been done better. Names were messed up, spelling, punctuation, etc (I've got them highlighted, so I'll be posting examples).

 

Lucas is a bar tender, together with his friend Ben, who is in a D/s relationship with his Dom William, a local club owner. Lucas is not into the scene, as he repeatedly says to Ben, to William and to Aidan, another Dom. 

 

Aidan is the one who caused me to rage a few times while reading this book. 

 

We initially meet Lucas at William's house, helping Ben get ready for a party. Lucas ends up tending bar for the night, and is drawn into a poker game in which he loses a bet with Aidan, and then ends up going home with him. 

 

Aidan has a reputation for never getting into a relationship with a sub, and only doing one scene per sub, ever. He promises Lucas a night he'll never forget and certainly delivers on that part - the first scene is very hawt (*fans self*). 

 

Then Aidan does a stupid, cruel thing. He does this because he panics, and because he's scared.

 

 

"In the end, he hadn't done anything, almost paralyzed by indecision, embarrassment and regret for the way he'd treated him."

 

Aidan does a lot of stupid things in this book, and repeatedly made me mad. There were instances that could be considered dub con, there were moments when I asked myself whether Lucas was a doormat on purpose, and there were moments when the plot veered off to the side. 

 

Lucas is portrayed as being sort of intrigued by the D/s lifestyle, but not enough to want to try it with just anyone. He actually puts this into words, except Aidan doesn't listen the first ten times. He's also confused by these new desires, but not enough to let Aidan run roughshot over him, and I appreciated that part of his personality. He appeared more realistic than the rest of the cast, and I rooted for him throughout. 

 

Aidan is partly too cocky and partly a dumbass who won't take no for an answer. His continuous insistence that Lucas is a natural sub, who just doesn't know it yet, became old quickly, and sort of creepy. I didn't feel comfortable with his assertion, and the novel veered slightly into dub-con at that point.

 

The subplot with Aidan's stalker, and the eventual reveal as to who it is - meh. I didn't get the point of it, to be honest, and it detracted from the book for me. I also didn't believe the way it came about, nor did it seem realistic that the punishment for the perpetrator would be as lax as it was portrayed. 

 

I would have liked the relationship between Aidan and Lucas to be a bit more developed, instead of being what seemed like Aidan almost forcing himself into a position as Lucas' Dom.

 

The ending was good though, and I liked that Aidan finally listened for a change. And that he 'got' it, because it was high time he did.

 

 

The practice of BDSM wasn't described with complete accuracy. While Aidan provided safewords for Lucas even for the first night they played, he did not provide adequate aftercare for the spanking, nor did he provide adequate aftercare for the next spanking. His cruelty at night's end was also not the behavior of a good Dominant, and his continuous insistence that he simply "knew what Lucas wanted" was ludicrous at best. Coercion is not the same as consensual. 

 

I also didn't appreciate William suggesting that Aidan "try to find out" if he was permanently relationship-damaged by using Lucas as a guinea pig. No good Dom would suggest that to another, especially if the person in question hasn't actually asked to be dominated. The whole thing was a little skeevy to me. 

 

There were editing issues throughout that a good copy editor should have caught. The MCs' names were transposed on at least one occasion, commas were missing where they should have been and words were misspelled in some instances. As this was an ARC, I presume this will be fixed prior to publication.

 

As my first exposure to this author, it wasn't a bad read, and I'm certainly willing to see more.  

 

I received a free ARC from the publisher. A positive review was not promised in return.