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ninabubblygum's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
evethingiread's review against another edition
5.0
This is everything. I just read it again 2 years later and I still love Eli! Fav character
Eli is one of my favorite characters. Perfectly flawed and so very good. The angst was a lot but I think there was enough love to make up for it. Their chemistry was off the charts. The writing here was way better than book 1. I’m blown away!
The separation was so hard to swallow. Eli and Justin are so perfect for each other, and it made me incredibly sad when they weren’t communicating.
The epilogue made me sob from start to finish. They deserved that ending and it pretty much ruined other books for me.
Eli is one of my favorite characters. Perfectly flawed and so very good. The angst was a lot but I think there was enough love to make up for it. Their chemistry was off the charts. The writing here was way better than book 1. I’m blown away!
The separation was so hard to swallow. Eli and Justin are so perfect for each other, and it made me incredibly sad when they weren’t communicating.
The epilogue made me sob from start to finish. They deserved that ending and it pretty much ruined other books for me.
unusablebooklore's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
4.0
K!nky
So much hurt - Ex abusive partner / Death of a partner
Work place
#MiddleLifeRomance
Justin is a mature grad student looking to learn from the best. Eli is a CFO who's working for the best. These two start off tiptoeing around each other and the second they come together it's sizzling.
So much hurt - Ex abusive partner / Death of a partner
Work place
#MiddleLifeRomance
Justin is a mature grad student looking to learn from the best. Eli is a CFO who's working for the best. These two start off tiptoeing around each other and the second they come together it's sizzling.
Justin and Eli are brothers broken in their own ways.
Justin was burnt by a bad dom. It's messed up his head in a huge way.
Eli lost his first partner young and it seriously impacted his life.
They seem perfect, until they aren't and it takes a half a second for them to come back together.
Justin was burnt by a bad dom. It's messed up his head in a huge way.
Eli lost his first partner young and it seriously impacted his life.
They seem perfect, until they aren't and it takes a half a second for them to come back together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death
Minor: Physical abuse and Homophobia
abreese's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
latoinombra's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lezreadalot's review
3.0
There wasn't much left in him but love. Love and hope. That's what remained.
This was okay. It came pretty close to being a complete miss for me, but luckily it pulled back from that edge in the end. It's an office romance between a CFO and a new employee, and it deals heavily with both these men's past traumas, and it's also a BDSM romance. The first two things on that list are great, but the last... eh. I'm so very picky about BDSM stuff, it would probably be better if I avoided it, because it seldom works very well for me, and I often end up bored. This couple was cute but I didn't feel their chemistry much, and the relationship felt like it moved at lightning speed, and that wasn't very satisfying. I might have felt that way because the book did the thing where it would do little micro timeskips of a few weeks, and then tell us that the characters have been dating during that time, and getting closer, etc. It just didn't feel organic.
My least favourite thing was the conflict, and how very very manufactured it felt. Not that it wasn't understandable; they both have a lot of past trauma, and Justin's has to do with abuse, and he never dealt with that trauma properly, so it's not unthinkable that he'd have reacted the way he did in that situation. But everything about the way it was written felt so forced. Justin admits to himself that Eli doesn't have the characteristics of his abuser, but then goes into this circular argument in his head and convinces himself that actually yeah Eli is just like his abuser. It just felt like the author needed to slot in the conflict, and did so in the clumsiest way possible. It did lead to some good conversations down the line, but I never really recovered from my annoyance at that. But the last third of the book had a lot of cute moments, and heartfelt moments, and I really felt for both of them. I also really enjoyed how much emphasis Eli put on reciprocity and sharing control.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Iggy Toma, who is always great to listen to. Somehow, I always find that I like his voices for side characters more than I like his main character voices, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this. This was overall really good, even though it didn't land super well for me.
Content warnings:
Spoiler
domestic abuse within BDSM relationship, accidents, PTSDlifeand100books's review
5.0
The first third of this book confused me a bit - I felt like I had missed a book somewhere. But then the second third of the book happened and it just totally ripped my heart apart. The conflict that occurs between Eli and Justin is heart wrenching. Eli's despair is SO palpable. I found myself clutching my heart several times while listening. The willingness to illustrate how much therapy helped both characters deal with their mental health issues as well is top notch. This turned out to be such a great book.
kp_khera's review
3.0
So, this was cute. Kind of cheesy by the time I was done with it.
I guess you don't expect that kind of reaction when you've read a BDSM book, and truthfully this is only the third such book (that I remember) reading of said variety. I'm not familiar with "the Scene", not particularly enthusiastic about it either but Ms. Zabo did have a way of describing in her book that even those unfamiliar (such as myself) with the ongoings could see that: okay. To each his own, and I guess I can understand why they have this particular one.
Did i love this book?
No. Not really. But then again it takes quite a lot more to blow me out of my mind, and since this book has been read in the wake of another book that was able to achieve such state within me... Well, that's that.
Would i recommend it? If so, who?
Depends. To open-minded people; to those into BDSM; to those yet unfamiliar with BDSM. To those who go in thinking "wtf am i doing" and are pleasantly surprised, don't mind being so due to sugar overload.
Why use the words "cute" and "cheesy" to describe a book that should be anything but?
Don't let my feelings put you down the wrong path. Some very serious issues are dealt with in this book.
A sub traumatised by their last dom. A subject that is addressed, though at the point of resolution it felt a bit too easy.
Survivor's guilt. Eli lives with this every day of his life, ever since the accident, his leg a reminder he can't ignore. 1) He lost his first boyfriend - Noah - in said accident. 2) As well as two of his friends, he was the only survivor. 3) Said accident subsequently lead to him being outed to his parents, who might as well have disowned him for all the bs he had to go through. 4) Blood money
So, yes. Very serious issues.
Yet, when I started writing this review I thought of the words "cute" and "cheesy".
Perhaps, sentimental would have been a better word than the latter?
What I'm trying to convey is that regardless of these very serious issues, for the majority of the book I wasn't exactly truly aware of them. All I was seeing for the most part was two people falling in love, rather quickly. The L-word being put into circulation within one of the MCs made me wonder. The lack of a proper foundation of the relationship, because it was moving too fast, made me frown. And the MCs, thus having to suffer the consequences of said quickness when the inevitable "hitting-rock-bottom" happened was just the cherry on top.
Fairly predictable. Very easy to figure out.
And then the rather idyllic end.
Don't get me wrong, if it wasn't very clear so far, I liked this book. I truly did. It just didn't blow me away. It was cute in its "person-haunted-by-their-past" meets another "person-haunted-by-their-past" and together they work on being "haunted-by-their-past" but not before one of the MC's past causes a huge rift in their relationship, but their the other MC's past brings them both together and sets them on the path to their HEA.
So, yes. That's basically it. A formula that's out there already. Nothing new. But, one that works.
It's a quick read, even an enjoyable one, though it might bring you down because of its attempted angst. Oh! And there's lots of sex. Can't forget about that. So, yes. There's that. Oh! Very important - it's all consensual. I also appreciate. So, yay :)
Okay, hope that helped. Don't know. Wrote this immediately after finishing it.
Bye bye.
I guess you don't expect that kind of reaction when you've read a BDSM book, and truthfully this is only the third such book (that I remember) reading of said variety. I'm not familiar with "the Scene", not particularly enthusiastic about it either but Ms. Zabo did have a way of describing in her book that even those unfamiliar (such as myself) with the ongoings could see that: okay. To each his own, and I guess I can understand why they have this particular one.
Did i love this book?
No. Not really. But then again it takes quite a lot more to blow me out of my mind, and since this book has been read in the wake of another book that was able to achieve such state within me... Well, that's that.
Would i recommend it? If so, who?
Depends. To open-minded people; to those into BDSM; to those yet unfamiliar with BDSM. To those who go in thinking "wtf am i doing" and are pleasantly surprised, don't mind being so due to sugar overload.
Why use the words "cute" and "cheesy" to describe a book that should be anything but?
Don't let my feelings put you down the wrong path. Some very serious issues are dealt with in this book.
A sub traumatised by their last dom. A subject that is addressed, though at the point of resolution it felt a bit too easy.
Survivor's guilt. Eli lives with this every day of his life, ever since the accident, his leg a reminder he can't ignore. 1) He lost his first boyfriend - Noah - in said accident. 2) As well as two of his friends, he was the only survivor. 3) Said accident subsequently lead to him being outed to his parents, who might as well have disowned him for all the bs he had to go through. 4) Blood money
Spoiler
his parents sued Noah's parents because Noah had just turned 18, and Eli had been 15 (for a few more days) making this into something it wasn't. Noah hadn't even been buried yetSo, yes. Very serious issues.
Yet, when I started writing this review I thought of the words "cute" and "cheesy".
Perhaps, sentimental would have been a better word than the latter?
What I'm trying to convey is that regardless of these very serious issues, for the majority of the book I wasn't exactly truly aware of them. All I was seeing for the most part was two people falling in love, rather quickly. The L-word being put into circulation within one of the MCs made me wonder. The lack of a proper foundation of the relationship, because it was moving too fast, made me frown. And the MCs, thus having to suffer the consequences of said quickness when the inevitable "hitting-rock-bottom" happened was just the cherry on top.
Fairly predictable. Very easy to figure out.
And then the rather idyllic end.
Don't get me wrong, if it wasn't very clear so far, I liked this book. I truly did. It just didn't blow me away. It was cute in its "person-haunted-by-their-past" meets another "person-haunted-by-their-past" and together they work on being "haunted-by-their-past" but not before one of the MC's past causes a huge rift in their relationship, but their the other MC's past brings them both together and sets them on the path to their HEA.
So, yes. That's basically it. A formula that's out there already. Nothing new. But, one that works.
It's a quick read, even an enjoyable one, though it might bring you down because of its attempted angst. Oh! And there's lots of sex. Can't forget about that. So, yes. There's that. Oh! Very important - it's all consensual. I also appreciate
Spoiler
Ms. Zabo not getting Francis to physically appear. That would have been way too melodramatic. I was expecting it, by not delivering Ms. Zabo chose well, because it would have just made me roll my eyes and bang my head against whatever surface within my vicinity.Okay, hope that helped. Don't know. Wrote this immediately after finishing it.
Bye bye.
tellingetienne's review
5.0
This book blew me out of the water. I ran across the author for the first time in an anthology, and when I saw a full length novel pop up on NetGalley I requested without even reading the blurb. I wasn’t even a 1/3rd of the way through before I bought the first book in the series (although this one stands alone).
It was extremely hot, with absolutely beautifully written pain play scenes. The kink was extremely well written, lots of consent talk and enough negotiation to make me more than happy. I know a lot of people shy away from kink because it’s all take and no give, and is not the case in this story.
Just Business was very much a character/relationship driven story, and I for one, really loved how it worked. The relationship between Justin and Eli was tense from the start and just blossomed out from there with sexual tension. It was quick moving, but I don’t feel like it was in any way unnatural. Both of them had their demons to deal with, and I really appreciated how their struggles and self-negotiations played out on the page.
It was extremely hot, with absolutely beautifully written pain play scenes. The kink was extremely well written, lots of consent talk and enough negotiation to make me more than happy. I know a lot of people shy away from kink because it’s all take and no give, and is not the case in this story.
Just Business was very much a character/relationship driven story, and I for one, really loved how it worked. The relationship between Justin and Eli was tense from the start and just blossomed out from there with sexual tension. It was quick moving, but I don’t feel like it was in any way unnatural. Both of them had their demons to deal with, and I really appreciated how their struggles and self-negotiations played out on the page.