Blurb:
Honestly, I’m ready to take a step back from the Subs Club. Making the kink world a safer place for subs is the sort of bandwagon I’d have boarded as an idealist in my early twenties, but now I’m a pragmatist in my late twenties. I prefer to focus on adopting and raising a child.
But unexpected factors inevitably derail my plans. Like Drix Seger—attractive and the first genuine sadist I’ve encountered. If I were not in the process of renouncing my masochistic ways and becoming the normal, responsible potential father the adoption agency wants to see, Drix and I might do well together.
But he has a foolish name and belongs to a cult of vampyres, and I am quitting kink. So why does Drix’s infatuation with blood and biting make me so hot I can’t think straight? And why, when he looks at me, does he seem to see something beyond a basket case with a stick up my ass?
Can I start a new phase in my life without leaving part of myself behind? Please send help.
—Miles
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Riptide Publishing
Contemporary, BDSM, M/M, GLBT+
320 e-book pages
1st person
Series, book 2 of The Subs Club
January 30-31, 2016
Kindle Edition
Rating: ????????
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Review:
Ouch.
Wait.
That doesn’t quite cut it.
HOLYMOTHERFUCKINGOHMYGODOWWWWCH
That’s better.
Book Two of the Subs Club is ummmm pretty graphic. And, ahhh, the title says it. This was intense.
Miles, the toppy bottomish masochist, is, by far, the most hard-core masochist I believe I’ve ever read.
He’s also geeky in his Mr. Rogers cardigans and French quips.
There was a lot about Miles that resonated. I’m kinda the same with careful planning, feeling like I need to follow some arbitrary order of operations before going after things I want. Also, sometimes having to check my judgment at the door when others don’t want to follow my grand plan or behave outside of social constructs. It’s hard sometimes broaden focus or live in the moment or just go for gold and let chips fall. In those ways…I got him.
Miles’ love interest, Drix, is, well, kind of a weirdo–a lovely weirdo–immersed in the subculture of vampyrism. Before I started the book, and only had a blurb, I was side-eyeing the fuck out of him. But, he’s adorable. His weirdness is endearing and really not so weird. He comes across as shy-ish, very kind, and a perfect counterpoint to Miles, who is reserved and a very focused planner.
I read a goodly amount of kink–and about kink in non-fiction–because it fascinates me. I have a little more than a clue, but I’m not an expert–by far. Personally, I don’t give two shits about what willing folks do–I just hope they’re using a safeword and are knowledgeable about what they’re doing. And have a first-aid kit and fire extinguisher nearby.
Pain play and masochism…I don’t even know. I kind of get it. Kind of. I have a super-high pain threshold…there have been a lot of times I’ve done something incredibly stupid and seriously hurt myself (accidently) at times where I could not scream, cry, or raise a ruckus whatsoever and had to just breathe through the pain, absorb it, deal with it. Also, because I’m suuuper stubborn and would laugh at my parents when I got spanked as a child–those rubber spatulas stung like the devil. I guess I’ve just taught myself to manage. I know that’s entirely different from wanting or needing to submit to someone who’s going to cause hurt on purpose. And knowing it’s going to happen is a different headspace altogether.
And geez-oh-god there were parts of the kink that were ass-clenching, wincing, reading-between-fingers-covering-my-eyes uncomfortable. WOWZA. I added to my list (I didn’t know I had) of things one can do with saline solution. And cinnamon oil. And staples. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
But at the same time, I think it was beautifully written.
The kink part.
And we dive right on into it with the kink like a shot out of a cannon.
Now the rest…because there’s definitely more to this than scene after scene of kink and pain.
The rest I felt was a little disjointed, a lot scattered, and it all ended far too abruptly.
The first book had me rolling in its hiariousity and trying not to crack a rib while laughing out loud.
This one didn’t have the same level of humor. I don’t think it was meant to as it’s told in first-person with Miles as our narrator. He’s way more serious than Dave. But he’s still cute and had a few moments of being mildly humorous–especially when he’s hanging out with his best friends.
I think my problems with the disjointedness was that I felt a lot was left unresolved with Drix–it reads as more of a Happy-For-Now. And with his mother (who’s kind of a shrew). And with the adoption stuff. And with Miles fully accepting that he’s not mentally ill for what he needs regarding pain.
There was a lot going on that needed to be resolved that I think an epilogue would have been a welcome closure leading us into the next book.
The first book of the Subs Club eeked itself in as an eleventh-hour addition to my top books of 2015. This one isn’t getting such high praise.
But, overall, I really liked it and can’t wait for the next books.
This review also posted on GoodReads.