Rating: 3
Steam: 3
PoV: single, 1st person
Series: Jared & Kieran #1
Genre: contemporary romance, BDSM, MM
Tropes / tags: age gap, Daddy kink, past abuse
“I want you to help calm my storm. I want you to make me better. I want your structure. Your control. I want to be a good boy for you. I want to be your good boy.”
I recently reread Finding Finley and loved it, so I figured I’d reread these two as well as they’re part of the same collection. I ended up with quite a lot of conflicted feelings through, and their dynamic didn’t sit right with me.
Kiernan came across as rather cold and distanced, and while I suspect he had his reasons for it, I didn’t love the approach he had with Jared. Jared was completely new to kink and submission, and instead of communicating and getting to know each other in an organic way, I felt like Kiernan manipulated his way into Jared’s life.
I don’t think it necessarily helped Kiernan that the whole story was told from Jared’s PoV either, I assume there was a reason for it and that it will become clearer in the second book, but I barely felt like I got to know Kiernan at all here. Even if it was more of a kink arrangement than a romance, Jared was supposed to trust Kiernan and his intentions without Kiernan ever opening up or communicating? It just didn’t sit right with me, and the kink ended up feeling stilted and almost clinical at times.
There were things I liked though, especially how Jared’s internal struggle was portrayed, the expectations and norms from society in conflict with how he was feeling and how he wanted to submit. I wish he had more support and people around him while going through everything, his loneliness was a lot at times. His thoughts and feelings were well written, and I look forward to see him find himself and coming into his own as a submissive.
Even if the dynamic between Jared and Kiernan felt off for me, I’m still going to pick up Jared’s Fulfillment to see if it aligns with some of my thoughts from his one, and I have to admit that I’m feeling quite invested in Jared and I want to see his HEA.
I gasped in frustrated relief. I wanted to come, but I knew Kieran didn’t want me to, at least not yet. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
“You’re going to drive me crazy, aren’t you?”
Kieran smiled. “That’s the point, boy.”
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
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