Reviews - His Cocky Cellist

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83 reviews for:

3.5 stars. I liked the second half more than the first half. In the first half the kink took over the romance (Ash and Brand's story was more balanced in this regard) and I was a bit surprised how easily Vic slid into his bisexuality immediately. The issue with his brother fizzled out in the end and the way both Ash and Vic worked themselves to the bone out of some misguided notion of responsibility baffled me. Still, the second half was lovely and romantic and anything to do with classical musicians always gets bonus points from me. Book 3 doesn't sound like it's up my alley, so I'll skip that one.

duchessmerry's review

4.0

Amani & Vic.

I love them. I love this series the more I read of it.

I love how their relationship was forged over music and the gift it is.

natcatsbookishcafe's review

4.0

I really enjoyed this story and the discussions that these characters had, they were really raw and honest. Sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary and I really appreciated that. I loved the descriptions of Amani beautiful clothing and how he was secure in being male, while also loving and embracing his more feminine side.
I enjoyed Vic's character development, he came to terms with his new found sexuality and desire to be submissive rather quickly, but it took him some time to release control, to let go and truly live his own life.
The sex scenes were really great. This is only my second BDSM book, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I would say this is a comfortable level for me ( a newbie)
It did take me over 50% of the book before I really started feeling strongly for these characters, which is why I could only give it 4 stars.

TW: author lists them at the start of the book, but here are a few that stood out: Pain for pleasure, hypertensive crisis, mention of past sexual assault/drugging that ended in pregnancy, mention of death of a parent

cocoabearcupcake's review

4.5

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nic55's review against another edition

5.0

What do you get when you have a romance between a rich “straight” white submissive man and a Black femme dominant man who doesn’t take his shit? This GEM of a book.

I ate this shit UP! Both Victor and Amani are gonna live in my head rent mf free. The TENSION?! The back and forth?? Victor being literally obsessed from the beginning?? So so good. I’m not even a BDSM girlie tbh but this story balanced that dynamic with their relationship outside of the bedroom so well. So, every steamy scene seemed to simultaneously build up their character & relationship development, which is the kinda shit I live for. I already want to reread

I also love that Amani was very straight up with how he felt about Victor’s wealth, didn’t make excuses for him, and that Victor came to terms with what he was saying in a way that didn’t feel “white savior”-ish. I just recognized that a lot of care was put into that aspect of the relationship in a way that didn’t feel gross.

Yeaaaah this is a new fave, much better than the first (which I liked!). Also it has become clear that I need to read Cole McCade’s entire backlist :)

aimora's review

4.0

I love Cole's descriptions of people. I kept visualizing Amani and his gorgeous clothing. The one scene that made me cringe was when he came in to Vic's apartment wearing sandals and trailing some gauzy fabric on the ground. Please tell me he held up the fabric off the ground while traveling the streets of New York.

mweis's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I didn’t love His Cocky Valet as much as I wanted to, but I wanted a romance so picked up the next book in the series and maybe it’s because I went in with lower expectations but this was pleasantly surprising. I liked both Vic and Amani and I really liked the discussions of power dynamics and the way Amani challenges gender norms.

I really enjoy Cole McCade’s writing and will continue to read his backlist while I’m waiting for the Criminal Intentions to continue.