A review by jackiehorne
Blue Steel Chain by Alex Beecroft

4.0

While this latest installment in Beecroft's Trowchester Blues series may be notable for featuring an asexual character, its true focus is dealing with the emotional trauma of abuse. At 16, Aidan was taken off the street by an older man, a man who gradually slipped from loving Aidan to physically abusing him. Because of his lover, Piers's, brainwashing, Aidan doesn't believe he has any rights, doesn't even believe that Piers is abusing him. Leaving the house and visiting the local museum, where he meets curator James, though, makes Aidan happier than he's been in many years. But when Piers gets wind of Aidan's disobedience (he's not supposed to leave the house), his anger gives him an excuse to beat Aidan. Still, Aidan can't stop visiting James, who is going through his own relationship difficulties, coming to terms with the fact that his once loving boyfriend, who has become a famous rock star, is now treating him like dirt.

The best part of the story was reading about how Aidan, with some help from James and the protagonists from book #1, escapes from Piers's hold and begins to build a life for himself. And begins to understand what it might mean to be a person who has no real desire for sex, but who still longs for a homo-romantic connection. Can James, who is decidedly not asexual, be the boyfriend he longs for?

Fav lines:
"But just because I don't particularly want to do this for me doesn't mean I don't want to do it at all."
.....
"Do you like fishing?'
James didn't know what to make of the non sequitur, but he put out his arms and gladly let Aidan slip back between them, holding him close. "Not really."
"But if I wanted you to come fishing with me, you'd still come, wouldn't you? It's like that." (Kindle Loc 179, 180)