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A review by booksafety
Bad Dogs by Riley Nash
4.0
Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.
Roman is another one of those characters I just want to wrap up, hug tight and keep safe for all eternity. He can live in my closet with all the other characters that make me cry every time they utter a single sentence or think about how they'll just have to live a shitty situation because there's nothing better on the horizon for them. Those characters have a direct line to my tear ducts, and they yank on it fucking constantly. I know I cry easily, but damn. He's just the sweetest muscled teddy bear that goes absolutely feral when cornered, and has a habit of biting while angry, stressed, horny or happy. I think we can just say 'he has a habit of biting' after laying it out like that, lol. I still love him though. And I super enjoyed his interactions with Tubs (I think that's the dogs name, anyway), as well as Becks and Dallas. Their blossoming friendship and their acceptance of Roman and everything about him was some of my favorite bits.
“He saw it as soon as he looked at me. I let people do whatever they want to me while I just kneel down and take it. It doesn’t matter that I have a strong body when it’s my head that’s weak.”
This friend group is amazing. None of them have all that much when it comes to material possessions, they're involved in gangs, they live in falling-apart-at-the-seams trailers, they steal and vandalize cars, but they are nothing if not loyal to each other. There's just a blanket acceptance of all that they are. It just goes to show that it doesn't cost a damn thing to be nice, accepting and tolerant of others. it did take me a little while to connect with Scout, but we got there in the end. Even though he's new to the D/s lifestyle and made some (quite serious) mistakes along the way in the scenes with Roman, he wasn't a bad person at all. Just young and inexperienced.
I'm constantly going back and forth with my thoughts on the D/s dynamic with Roman and Scout in this book. One of my thoughts is that these boys shouldn't partake in a power exchange relationship at all. Lack of aftercare, the submissive pushing himself way past the threshold for safewording, etc. If this was done because of a lack of knowledge or understanding by the author, this would either be a DNF or extremely low rating, but I know it's done this way on purpose. These boys are inexperienced, and they make mistakes. That's the point. It's just highly uncomfortable reading it at times. Their D/s relationship, especially the sexual parts, is executed badly, but written well. I honestly confuse myself trying to explain it all. On the other side of this highly confusing coin, I do appreciate reading about a BDSM relationship that isn't based in some rich-person-only kink club. Kink should be for everyone.
I really enjoyed the underlying theme of being willing to do just about anything in order to better your situation. Scout had a really tragic backstory, but he was determined to make it a better one, and he wanted to take his friends with him as he did. Maybe he wasn't quite polished on the outside, but his soul was without a doubt really pure and sweet.
In fear of ending up with a several pages long review, I'll end with this: I love D/s dynamics that fall outside of the 'norm' in terms of perception. In this case, the size difference is reversed from what we often see in these kinds of relationships. Roman is a submissive, as well as being a large man. Scout is a dom, and he's smaller than Roman. Love it. Oh, and I loved the audiobook. Highly recommend.
⚠️ Spoiler alert ⚠️
Book safety
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
MC age: 20 and 21
TW/CW
Violence
Drug dealing
Grief
BDSM
Restraints
Impact play
Safewording
Online sex work
Stealing
Poverty
Food insecurity
Vomiting
Physical and verbal abuse
Bullying of a neurodivergent character
Death of a family member (off page)
Mentions of a neglected animal
Tropes & tags
Trailer park
Reverse size difference
Smaller dom, bigger sub
Neurodivergent MC
Online sex work
Found family
Poverty
BDSM
Secret relationship
Power exchange
Pet dog
Abusive family
Hurt/comfort
Roman is another one of those characters I just want to wrap up, hug tight and keep safe for all eternity. He can live in my closet with all the other characters that make me cry every time they utter a single sentence or think about how they'll just have to live a shitty situation because there's nothing better on the horizon for them. Those characters have a direct line to my tear ducts, and they yank on it fucking constantly. I know I cry easily, but damn. He's just the sweetest muscled teddy bear that goes absolutely feral when cornered, and has a habit of biting while angry, stressed, horny or happy. I think we can just say 'he has a habit of biting' after laying it out like that, lol. I still love him though. And I super enjoyed his interactions with Tubs (I think that's the dogs name, anyway), as well as Becks and Dallas. Their blossoming friendship and their acceptance of Roman and everything about him was some of my favorite bits.
“He saw it as soon as he looked at me. I let people do whatever they want to me while I just kneel down and take it. It doesn’t matter that I have a strong body when it’s my head that’s weak.”
This friend group is amazing. None of them have all that much when it comes to material possessions, they're involved in gangs, they live in falling-apart-at-the-seams trailers, they steal and vandalize cars, but they are nothing if not loyal to each other. There's just a blanket acceptance of all that they are. It just goes to show that it doesn't cost a damn thing to be nice, accepting and tolerant of others. it did take me a little while to connect with Scout, but we got there in the end. Even though he's new to the D/s lifestyle and made some (quite serious) mistakes along the way in the scenes with Roman, he wasn't a bad person at all. Just young and inexperienced.
I'm constantly going back and forth with my thoughts on the D/s dynamic with Roman and Scout in this book. One of my thoughts is that these boys shouldn't partake in a power exchange relationship at all. Lack of aftercare, the submissive pushing himself way past the threshold for safewording, etc. If this was done because of a lack of knowledge or understanding by the author, this would either be a DNF or extremely low rating, but I know it's done this way on purpose. These boys are inexperienced, and they make mistakes. That's the point. It's just highly uncomfortable reading it at times. Their D/s relationship, especially the sexual parts, is executed badly, but written well. I honestly confuse myself trying to explain it all. On the other side of this highly confusing coin, I do appreciate reading about a BDSM relationship that isn't based in some rich-person-only kink club. Kink should be for everyone.
I really enjoyed the underlying theme of being willing to do just about anything in order to better your situation. Scout had a really tragic backstory, but he was determined to make it a better one, and he wanted to take his friends with him as he did. Maybe he wasn't quite polished on the outside, but his soul was without a doubt really pure and sweet.
In fear of ending up with a several pages long review, I'll end with this: I love D/s dynamics that fall outside of the 'norm' in terms of perception. In this case, the size difference is reversed from what we often see in these kinds of relationships. Roman is a submissive, as well as being a large man. Scout is a dom, and he's smaller than Roman. Love it. Oh, and I loved the audiobook. Highly recommend.
⚠️ Spoiler alert ⚠️
Book safety
Cheating: No
OM/OW drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Genre: Contemporary romance, M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
MC age: 20 and 21
TW/CW
Violence
Drug dealing
Grief
BDSM
Restraints
Impact play
Safewording
Online sex work
Stealing
Poverty
Food insecurity
Vomiting
Physical and verbal abuse
Bullying of a neurodivergent character
Death of a family member (off page)
Mentions of a neglected animal
Tropes & tags
Trailer park
Reverse size difference
Smaller dom, bigger sub
Neurodivergent MC
Online sex work
Found family
Poverty
BDSM
Secret relationship
Power exchange
Pet dog
Abusive family
Hurt/comfort