Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Andrews Security is called in when someone attempts to kill the owner of Remedcon Phameaceuticals. When the board members also become targets, the team begins to look for skeletons in the closet at the company, but no one on the board wants to talk. Using the notes left at the crime scenes, they begin looking into the company’s abandoned vaccine trials in an attempt to find the culprit before someone dies.
Team member, Aaron, is still struggling to find himself after having immersed himself in the BDSM community on the last case. He is approached by Barry, an M-15 agent, who asks him to be his Dom. Seeking the advice and guidance of a fellow club dominant, Aaron enters into the fantasy world of torture and pain to please his sub.
This is the second book in the Aaron Jaycynth mystery series. Though I believe the author intended this to be a sequel to the first book, I think it could be read as a stand-alone since the author tends to recount many of the highlights of the previous book.
There are two different story lines running through this book. The first is Aaron’s professional life as he seeks to solve the mystery about who is targeting members of the board of directors for the pharmaceutical company; the second is Aaron’s personal life as he tries to figure out where he fits in the BDSM community.
The mystery part of the book is well written and keeps readers intrigued as to who is threatening the board members. Unlike the previous book in the series, the writing is much smoother and secondary characters remain primarily secondary characters. It kept me guessing until the end as to who was behind the threats and attempts on the board members’ lives.
Aaron’s personal life was a bit less clear as to where the author was going with this. The book starts out with Aaron and Justin, a man he picked up at a club the previous night. Inviting him back to his apartment, Aaron allows Justin to stay the night, something he rarely does. Readers begin to think maybe this might turn into something. The next thing you know, Aaron is approached by Barry, an M-15 agent, who asks him to be his dominant. Turning to his friend, Tom, for guidance and instruction in becoming a Dom, Aaron enters into the world of BDSM. Yet, at the same time, Justin is just hanging out there in the background.
Since this book is billed as an “erotic” mystery, one expects there to be hot, steamy sex scenes. While there are sex scenes and scenes from the BDSM club, in my opinion they never quite reach the “erotic” level. The potential was there, it just seemed almost clinical at times.
In this second book in the series the writing flowed much more smoothly. I also wasn’t confused as to who the main characters were. There were more sex scenes to at least meet the billing of being an erotic story. Unfortunately, the book still was a miss for me.
