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littlebookterror's review
fast-paced
5.0
reread 2024: TFW you are craving a romance that hits all the right spots so you accidentally reread one of your favourites.
reread 2023: the first two chapters in this book live rent-free in my head.
original review:
Perfection.
reread 2023: the first two chapters in this book live rent-free in my head.
original review:
Perfection.
shu_long's review against another edition
5.0
Hottest, Bestest Cinnamon Roll with a Crop
Love it. Will reread. I believed the story as I read it. The kink was amazing, the falling in love even better
Love it. Will reread. I believed the story as I read it. The kink was amazing, the falling in love even better
sasreadsthings's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It contained such lovely thoughts about the nature of relationships and the value of friendship. And some fuck hot sex.
nicki_theoverflowingbookcase's review against another edition
4.0
The only thing that Max knows for sure is that Tom, the handsome lawyer that had caught his eye, has terrible taste and luck with men. After watching failed hook-ups at Bold Brew, Max and Tom finally get to sit down and have a conversation. But will Max be the right man for the job? Or will Tom's insecurities and love of pain be too much for Max to work through? With characters that are entertaining from the opening pages this was a great addition to the series.
wildfaeriecaps's review against another edition
5.0
I've been looking forward to Max's story since his first mention in this series. Was not disappointed at all. Could have easily read twice as many pages. Give me Tom and Max all day every day, thank you. Love how patient and kind Max was and that Tom found the strength to think things through rather than fall into old patterns.
ineffablebooks's review against another edition
2.0
*Reads friends’ shocked yet amused reactions as they realise this is NOT a bakery rom-com*
*Pikachu shocked face when I read it anyway and find that there is in fact, no baked goods or cute bakery shenanigans*
Can see why this series is so popular, it reads just like hot smutty fanfic, but this kind of book just isn’t for me at this time.
DNF 25%
*Pikachu shocked face when I read it anyway and find that there is in fact, no baked goods or cute bakery shenanigans*
Can see why this series is so popular, it reads just like hot smutty fanfic, but this kind of book just isn’t for me at this time.
DNF 25%
randalena's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the emotional growth Tom went through. My favorite part about this book though was the consent check-ins. Consent is so important.
ofbooksandromance's review against another edition
2.0
2 stars
“I want you under my hand in the throes of pleasure and pain, for me.” He paused. “I’m a tad selfish. Now that I’ve had a taste, I want your screams and cries, and your orgasms. I want my bruises on your skin and my toys on and inside you. And yes, my cock inside you.”
I am so sad about the fact that I didn’t enjoy this one. I wanted to love it so much. The blurb sounded so good and I love a good dom/sub relationship and I was sold on it because the dom is French Canadian but sadly, it just didn’t work for me. I kind of enjoyed the book, but I just never got into it. I never was able to lose myself in the story and the book felt so damn long, it felt like I would never finish it. Also, reading a book about a teacher in the final of finals is such a bad idea, it kept stressing me out because it often mentioned students doing their finals too, so that didn’t help my enjoyment of the book.
To be fair, I don’t think i’m the right audience for this book. I think this book would be perfect for you if you’re new to kink and you want to know how stuff is done and how to do BDSM in an healthy way. But for me, it just made me feel like I was reading a kink for beginners textbook instead of a novel I was reading for fun.
This book was more like a 3 stars for me, because I really did enjoy some of it. But I had to remove a star because of how the French Canadian character was portrayed in it, it really bothered me. We’ll come back to this, I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.
Brief summary: Maxime Demers is 39 years old and a teacher. He’s been to the munches in town for years and has always been attracted to Tom Cedric, who’s 36 and a lawyer, but he never approached him. Until one day Tom puts up an add on the billboard at Bold Brew saying he wants a dom for pain play and sex. They start spending time together because of kink after that and then they fall in love.
First, I quite enjoyed Tom’s character. He was flawed and had trust issues coming his fast and he felt really real and I really enjoyed his character. I had some problems with Max though. Tom kept saying how Max is perfect and Max said he wasn’t but we never actually got to see his character flaws. Max was so perfect, he was a really good guy and he was always so understanding of Tom and always there for him. The trope of a dom that is absolutely perfect and that is there to fix the not so perfect sub with the trust issues just really gets on my nerves, no one is this perfect in real. I would have loved to see Max have some flaws, it would have made him feel much more real.
Second, I did really enjoy these two together. They complimented each other very well. And they had such good communication. They were so open with each other and they talked about everything and it was refreshing to read about.
Third, I loved seeing Tom’s character progression, it was so well done. I loved how he went from not really knowing what he wants to being really settled and happy in his role as Max’s sub and lover. It was so lovely to see.
Fourth, the BDSM, god the BDSM, the sex in general really. I really appreciated the level of kink in this book, that was to my liking. What wasn’t to my liking was how the kink was done. Some sex scenes were hot but mostly everything just felt really clinical. For example, during the fogging scenes, it felt like I was reading an article about how to safely flog someone instead of something was supposed to be hot and fun to read. Everything about the sex scenes was so procedural, it just didn’t work for me. I understand that consent is the most important thing ever but man was there a lot of talk about consent in this book. It just all felt too much like a warning on how to have safe sex. I just wasn’t entertained by any of the sex scenes. I will give it some points for the dirty talk, that was really hot. Dirty talk is not often enough present in books and it was really enjoyable here. But, some sex scenes dragged out for ages and some went on really fast and at some point there was some fade to black scenes and it felt like there was no balance between them.
Fifth, there is was much telling about how they were perfect for each other and how they fit perfectly together but we never really got to see these parts, I really would have loved to see them.
Sixth, and as mentioned before, my biggest issues. If you’re going to include a character that isn’t an American, can you please do your research and portray that character in a believable way? Max is French Canadian and from Quebec and guess what? So am I and I was so damn disapointed by his portrayal. Max didn’t sound French Canadian, he sounded like an American who happens to speak some French. All that Max had to make him seem French Canadian was that he likes hockey and keeps maple syrup in his house, thats it. He had no other distinctive traits or anything that would tell you he’s French Canadian, just the two most generic Canadian stereotypes. Should have went for the hat trick and made him a big fan of Poutine, at least it would have been something more. Also, seriously, if you’re going to make your main character speak a language that the book isn’t writen in, please write down what he says in that language, in that language. We were told that Max was speaking French by being told by sentences like this: He took in Max’s state and that of Tom, and continued in French. “We had no idea you’d be joining us tonight. Please tell us what you and your companion need.” It took me out of the story so much. If you’re going to tell me that he’s speaking French, just write it in French and if thats not do-able then make him speak in English, please and thank you. Max said three words of French this entire book, he once yelled “oui” during sex, he said “merci” and he used the word “Québécois”. Couldn’t we do any better? I’m positive even a quick google search could have told you more on this matter, French is a very popular language and Quebec isn’t very small, it would have been easy to find some pre-made sentences online.
The entire time I was writing this review I kept telling myself it sounds like i’m trying to convince myself that I enjoyed this and I think I might be, a little at least. I just wanted to love it, so much, I can’t believe it wasn’t a hit for me.
I received an ARC of this book, and this is my honest review.
“I want you under my hand in the throes of pleasure and pain, for me.” He paused. “I’m a tad selfish. Now that I’ve had a taste, I want your screams and cries, and your orgasms. I want my bruises on your skin and my toys on and inside you. And yes, my cock inside you.”
I am so sad about the fact that I didn’t enjoy this one. I wanted to love it so much. The blurb sounded so good and I love a good dom/sub relationship and I was sold on it because the dom is French Canadian but sadly, it just didn’t work for me. I kind of enjoyed the book, but I just never got into it. I never was able to lose myself in the story and the book felt so damn long, it felt like I would never finish it. Also, reading a book about a teacher in the final of finals is such a bad idea, it kept stressing me out because it often mentioned students doing their finals too, so that didn’t help my enjoyment of the book.
To be fair, I don’t think i’m the right audience for this book. I think this book would be perfect for you if you’re new to kink and you want to know how stuff is done and how to do BDSM in an healthy way. But for me, it just made me feel like I was reading a kink for beginners textbook instead of a novel I was reading for fun.
This book was more like a 3 stars for me, because I really did enjoy some of it. But I had to remove a star because of how the French Canadian character was portrayed in it, it really bothered me. We’ll come back to this, I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.
Brief summary: Maxime Demers is 39 years old and a teacher. He’s been to the munches in town for years and has always been attracted to Tom Cedric, who’s 36 and a lawyer, but he never approached him. Until one day Tom puts up an add on the billboard at Bold Brew saying he wants a dom for pain play and sex. They start spending time together because of kink after that and then they fall in love.
First, I quite enjoyed Tom’s character. He was flawed and had trust issues coming his fast and he felt really real and I really enjoyed his character. I had some problems with Max though. Tom kept saying how Max is perfect and Max said he wasn’t but we never actually got to see his character flaws. Max was so perfect, he was a really good guy and he was always so understanding of Tom and always there for him. The trope of a dom that is absolutely perfect and that is there to fix the not so perfect sub with the trust issues just really gets on my nerves, no one is this perfect in real. I would have loved to see Max have some flaws, it would have made him feel much more real.
Second, I did really enjoy these two together. They complimented each other very well. And they had such good communication. They were so open with each other and they talked about everything and it was refreshing to read about.
Third, I loved seeing Tom’s character progression, it was so well done. I loved how he went from not really knowing what he wants to being really settled and happy in his role as Max’s sub and lover. It was so lovely to see.
Fourth, the BDSM, god the BDSM, the sex in general really. I really appreciated the level of kink in this book, that was to my liking. What wasn’t to my liking was how the kink was done. Some sex scenes were hot but mostly everything just felt really clinical. For example, during the fogging scenes, it felt like I was reading an article about how to safely flog someone instead of something was supposed to be hot and fun to read. Everything about the sex scenes was so procedural, it just didn’t work for me. I understand that consent is the most important thing ever but man was there a lot of talk about consent in this book. It just all felt too much like a warning on how to have safe sex. I just wasn’t entertained by any of the sex scenes. I will give it some points for the dirty talk, that was really hot. Dirty talk is not often enough present in books and it was really enjoyable here. But, some sex scenes dragged out for ages and some went on really fast and at some point there was some fade to black scenes and it felt like there was no balance between them.
Fifth, there is was much telling about how they were perfect for each other and how they fit perfectly together but we never really got to see these parts, I really would have loved to see them.
Sixth, and as mentioned before, my biggest issues. If you’re going to include a character that isn’t an American, can you please do your research and portray that character in a believable way? Max is French Canadian and from Quebec and guess what? So am I and I was so damn disapointed by his portrayal. Max didn’t sound French Canadian, he sounded like an American who happens to speak some French. All that Max had to make him seem French Canadian was that he likes hockey and keeps maple syrup in his house, thats it. He had no other distinctive traits or anything that would tell you he’s French Canadian, just the two most generic Canadian stereotypes. Should have went for the hat trick and made him a big fan of Poutine, at least it would have been something more. Also, seriously, if you’re going to make your main character speak a language that the book isn’t writen in, please write down what he says in that language, in that language. We were told that Max was speaking French by being told by sentences like this: He took in Max’s state and that of Tom, and continued in French. “We had no idea you’d be joining us tonight. Please tell us what you and your companion need.” It took me out of the story so much. If you’re going to tell me that he’s speaking French, just write it in French and if thats not do-able then make him speak in English, please and thank you. Max said three words of French this entire book, he once yelled “oui” during sex, he said “merci” and he used the word “Québécois”. Couldn’t we do any better? I’m positive even a quick google search could have told you more on this matter, French is a very popular language and Quebec isn’t very small, it would have been easy to find some pre-made sentences online.
The entire time I was writing this review I kept telling myself it sounds like i’m trying to convince myself that I enjoyed this and I think I might be, a little at least. I just wanted to love it, so much, I can’t believe it wasn’t a hit for me.
I received an ARC of this book, and this is my honest review.
weweresotired's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyable and also very hot. I liked the dynamic between Max and Tom as they navigated their relationship. The supporting cast was interesting and makes me want to check out other books in this series to get their stories too.