Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Links:  Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

After his wife left him, John has been trying to move on with his life. Things weren’t great in the end with Ava and he hasn’t felt much of a spark with anyone else either. That is until he overhears his new tenant engaged in some kinky sex in the garage apartment. Suddenly John finds himself way more interested in sex than he has been for a while and looking at his handsome tenant in a whole new way.

Logan has a variety of play partners, but nothing serious. When he meets John, Logan senses that there is a submissive side just waiting to come out. With an attraction simmering between them, Logan approaches John about it and the two begin to explore dominance and submission together. John has never even considered himself as a sub, but he finds that it is exactly what he needs and enjoys.

Things are going great between the men. The sex is hot, John has finally found what he has been looking for, and Logan is finding himself with a new spark at having a sub that he is growing to really care about. The relationship seems to be going strong, until John’s past rears back up. Now John must make a choice between the new life he is building and the past that was hard to leave behind.

I am a big fan of authors Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow so I was really excited to give this book a try. And on paper, it was totally my taste, with a newbie sub learning all about BDSM, combined with an age gap that has the younger Dom training the older sub. And I think there were some elements here that worked well. John is engaging as a man who has been stagnating sexually and is still recovering emotionally from his wife’s departure. I enjoyed seeing him find this outlet that suddenly gives him a new spark. There are also some sexy scenes where John and Logan explore his submission for the first time. And I particularly liked a section where Logan experiences a loss and in his grief the men switch Dom/sub roles temporarily to help Logan work through it.

However, I did have some issues here, particularly with the way these guys just jump into things and the lack of development in the characters and storyline. Like I said, John has never even considered himself anything but vanilla and has only a basic understanding of BDSM. I was looking forward to watching John as he begins to learn more about himself, the world of BDSM, etc, but it happens so quickly that it was hard to believe the speed of the transition from totally unaware to full on submissive. For Logan’s part, he meets John, decides he is really an undiscovered sub, and then sort of just starts treating him like his sub even before discussing it with John. Not in a sexual way, but giving him Dom orders. I found it kind of rude and presumptuous and it was honestly very off putting. These guys move so quickly from zero to 100 that we never get to explore their feelings or see John learn more about the world of BDSM. They are just all in almost immediately.

This speed made it hard for me to really connect with these guys either individually or as a couple. I just never felt the chemistry between them and never felt particularly engaged with either of them. Things just felt kind of flat. Just as an example, the Dom/sub role switching could have been a really interesting way for each of these men to explore themselves and their roles, think about how to relate to one another differently, etc. But it happens and then it is over and there is little to no self reflection or character development that comes out of it. I just felt like the story reads kind of flat the whole way through with things staying very much on the surface and never delving too deeply into either the characters or the BDSM elements.

So I think there are some enjoyable parts here and Davitt and Snow are entertaining writers. However, I think the speed with which the story starts off really affected my overall enjoyment and I never quite got engaged in this one the way I had hoped.

P.S. I am not quite sure what is up with this cover. It is not ugly or anything, but I am unclear how it relates to the book. Maybe because Logan is a professor? There is never a scene of signing a contract, or John writing lines or anything like that in the book so I have no idea what this is all about.