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booksthatburn's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read FOR REAL compulsively, staying up far too late and getting up unreasonably early the next morning, pushing myself to read the whole thing in less than a day. It grabbed me, insistent and captivating. I needed to know how things would play out between Laurence and Toby, and I was not disappointed.
Laurie is almost forty, he needs to submit like he needs air, but playing with strangers feels like going through the motions and his ex-boyfriend moves in the same kink party circles as his friends. Toby is nineteen and desperate to be taken seriously. He knows what he wants, he just needs someone who will believe him and give themselves to him. A single night turns into a weekly arrangement, then transforms into something neither of them can bear to lose. They don't quite know how to bridge the gaps caused as much by the idea of the years between them as any actual misunderstandings caused by the gulf in experience. Both characters are adults, and while this age-gap scenario isn't something I'm generally into, part of what I appreciate is that it rides that edge of acknowledging and incorporating Toby's youth without trying to play up ideas of him being a child (since he's absolutely not one). That dynamic won't be for everyone, but I like how it plays out here.
One of the things Alexis Hall captures so perfectly is that people always are the oldest they've ever been, and dismissing someone's attempts to get the very experiences they lack just denies them agency to little purpose. If Toby is a dom who's ever going to experience consensual kink then someone has to be his first sub. Laurie has complicated feelings about this, what it means for either of them. He thinks that Toby will leave him someday, sooner rather than later, and keeps trying to push him away before that happens. Toby is frustrated by the way Laurie gives himself wholly over during sex, but holds himself back emotionally, erratically.
This is the first Spires book that's felt even a little bit like a sequel, but I think it actually takes place a year or so before the events of WAITING FOR THE FLOOD. Toby is related to a minor character from that book, and both Edwin and Marius have brief appearances here (my guess at the timeline is based on Marius's reaction to the barest whisper of news about Edwin). I'm generally a fan of reading books in order, but it doesn't really seem to matter where the Spires books are read in relation to each other (at least not so far). This is a self-contained storyline which has its own events and themes, not really wrapping up anything from a previous book, but providing an emotional prelude to some of WAITING FOR THE FLOOD. I like it as the third book, it needs the emotional context of the previous books' tangled relationships and emphasis on the need for both intent and action when caring for someone else. Part of what's happening here is that Laurie starts out thinking he can survive on just action, but Toby can't help but bring love and intent into it, and Laurie doesn't want to admit that he wants that too.
I love the Spires series and this is an excellent addition to it.
Laurie is almost forty, he needs to submit like he needs air, but playing with strangers feels like going through the motions and his ex-boyfriend moves in the same kink party circles as his friends. Toby is nineteen and desperate to be taken seriously. He knows what he wants, he just needs someone who will believe him and give themselves to him. A single night turns into a weekly arrangement, then transforms into something neither of them can bear to lose. They don't quite know how to bridge the gaps caused as much by the idea of the years between them as any actual misunderstandings caused by the gulf in experience. Both characters are adults, and while this age-gap scenario isn't something I'm generally into, part of what I appreciate is that it rides that edge of acknowledging and incorporating Toby's youth without trying to play up ideas of him being a child (since he's absolutely not one). That dynamic won't be for everyone, but I like how it plays out here.
One of the things Alexis Hall captures so perfectly is that people always are the oldest they've ever been, and dismissing someone's attempts to get the very experiences they lack just denies them agency to little purpose. If Toby is a dom who's ever going to experience consensual kink then someone has to be his first sub. Laurie has complicated feelings about this, what it means for either of them. He thinks that Toby will leave him someday, sooner rather than later, and keeps trying to push him away before that happens. Toby is frustrated by the way Laurie gives himself wholly over during sex, but holds himself back emotionally, erratically.
This is the first Spires book that's felt even a little bit like a sequel, but I think it actually takes place a year or so before the events of WAITING FOR THE FLOOD. Toby is related to a minor character from that book, and both Edwin and Marius have brief appearances here (my guess at the timeline is based on Marius's reaction to the barest whisper of news about Edwin). I'm generally a fan of reading books in order, but it doesn't really seem to matter where the Spires books are read in relation to each other (at least not so far). This is a self-contained storyline which has its own events and themes, not really wrapping up anything from a previous book, but providing an emotional prelude to some of WAITING FOR THE FLOOD. I like it as the third book, it needs the emotional context of the previous books' tangled relationships and emphasis on the need for both intent and action when caring for someone else. Part of what's happening here is that Laurie starts out thinking he can survive on just action, but Toby can't help but bring love and intent into it, and Laurie doesn't want to admit that he wants that too.
I love the Spires series and this is an excellent addition to it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Medical content, Alcohol, Gore, Medical trauma, Grief, and Cursing
Minor: Child abuse, Sexism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Cancer, Infidelity, Dementia, Drug use, Racism, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Blood
Contains brief Harry Potter references.galleytrot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
FIRST READ: Aug 2022 (originally reviewed as 4.5 ⭐)
SECOND READ: Feb 2023
FORMAT: Digital, then Audio + Digital
SECOND READ: Feb 2023
FORMAT: Digital, then Audio + Digital
BRIEF SUMMARY:
In this contemporary romance set in London, Laurie has grown unfulfilled by the Scene, having lost the only connection that ever felt meaningful and real to him. Going through the motions and growing more and more empty inside, it isn’t until he finds Toby – young, lost, inexperienced, intense, vibrant, and completely certain of what he wants – that Laurie can once again feel what he’s longed for.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 5 / 5⭐
I first read this book five months ago, and I have never forgotten it since, nor gone very long without thinking of it. After reading a complete disaster of a ‘young daddy/mature boy’ book, the urge to come back and revisit ”For Real“ grew so strong that I couldn’t ignore it any longer. From the moment I started my re-read, every vivid beat and plot point came rushing back to me like the most precious memory and I felt like coming home. These characters are both so important to me, so well-realized, so intense, so heartbreakingly honest.
Laurie is struggling with the culture of the BDSM Scene. Submission, to him, means so much more than a word like “play” could ever adequately portray. What he needs is a deeper connection that he could never find through his past six years of endless one-off encounters. He had that connection once, for many long years, until things went wrong and he was left in the settled dust – completely and devastatingly alone.
Toby is a young and wild thing, so full of heart and passion and intensity but also so new to exploring his true passions. He’s more than a little lost in his love life and his schooling and his career, but he isn’t looking for someone to hold his hand and parent him through it. What he needs is a partner, an equal, who will support him and never ridicule him for being exactly who he is meant to be – even if he’s still figuring out precisely what that means.
Together, the two harmonize shockingly well. I wish I had more to say, something a bit more eloquent, but I honestly can’t know where to begin without somehow just writing out the entire book.
TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 4.75 / 5⭐
For all of Hall’s works that I’ve read so far, “For Real” is easily my favourite and the one I most strongly connected with. It is a starkly compelling portrayal of not just what submission is, but what it means. This book is thorough, passionate, sensitive, educational, cultured, beautiful, and just so well-written that it has a permanent place in my heart and on my bookshelf.
On my second read-through, I picked up the audiobook to play alongside my digital copy, and this was my first exposure to both Paul Berton and John Hartley as narrators. They both did an absolutely magnificent job with their performances, with both nailing the energy of the main characters dead-on. Toby’s animated stream-of-consciousness lends itself to a chaotic liveliness, with Laurie’s more peaceful and steadier inner-monologue acting as a steadying counterpoint, and each narrator handled this balance quite beautifully.
I guess my only complaint is in Berton’s incorrect and inconsistent pronunciation of Dalziel. It’s mildly distracting, but can easily be forgiven. It’s one of those names that is pronounced nothing like how it’s spelled. I get it.
FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 5 / 5⭐
Read this book. Read this. Read it, read it, read it. If you’re into bondage and kink, read this book. If you’re not, read this book. If you aren’t really certain and maybe a bit nervous about it, absolutely read the heck out of this book. The SM part of the equation is never pushed into an uncomfortable territory; this book isn’t about that. It’s much more about the meaning than it is about the act.
This book has representation for gay and bi sexualities. There is non-binary representation, with a character with they/them pronouns. There is no noteworthy diversity otherwise.
The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Grief, Cancer, Death, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Dementia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Homophobia, Abandonment, Infidelity, Outing, and Medical trauma
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