Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: At the Office : A BDSM Story Collection

AUTHOR: Sean Michael

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 231 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 3, 2017

BLURB:

They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so it’s a good thing all the men in this collection of BDSM stories play as hard as they work.

At the Office brings together three BDSM stories that focus on working men. Opening with Office Hours, the anthology begins with tenure bound professor Thad Wells. When Thad literally runs into Jay, his head says no, his body says yes. Will his heart be safe as things heat up between them?

In Full Disclosure, Samuel needs a new personal assistant, but maybe new hire Jarrod is getting a little too personal. When Jarrod is sent in to investigate Samuel, he’s immediately attracted. Can he do his job and fulfill his own and Samuel’s fantasies at the same time?

Lastly, Working to Win finds power couple Jason and Bryan struggling. Together for six years, Jason and Bryan have lost their spark. Will some power play games at a winter cabin relight their fire?

Office Hours, Full Disclosure, and Working to Win were all previously published as individual stories by Amber Quill Press.

ANTHOLOGY REVIEW:

While all three stories in this collection feature men who do some sort of ‘office work’, I was pleased to see that the stories were all unique with very different characters in each.  The level of BDSM present also varied some so while there was a bit of overlap as far as what took place within each story, things were different enough that I wasn’t bored by the end of the book.  If you enjoy a bit of kink with your books and like reading about a hard working man in a suit, this could be the collection for you.  I rate the collection at a 3.4* but rounded it up to 3.5* to work with our rating system.

Office Hours 4*

This was the longest story in the anthology and also my favorite; despite acting like a total jerk, Thad was such a sweet man underneath all the bull he projected at others.  I really enjoyed seeing as the layers were slowly peeled away and Jay was given a chance to really know/see who Thad was under the protections he put up around himself.  The chemistry was also just fantastic between these two; I found their relationship believable and it was easy to believe that they fell in love by the end.  Add in some drama/angst revolving around Thad’s past and this story was just a winner in my opinion.

Full Disclosure 3*

While the writing and overall story was good, I just didn’t connect with this story the way I’d been hoping to.  I’ve read several stories with the same basic premise, and usually enjoy them, but while I didn’t have a problem with the overall plot, I just didn’t connect with the characters at all.  I think part of my problem was that I found Jarrod’s coming on to Samuel to just be too strong and pushy for my tastes.  In this instance I would’ve preferred the plot to have been more front and center and the interactions between the main characters more in the background.

Working to Win 3.5*

This was a nice way to end the book; Jason and Bryan have been together for years but have drifted apart mainly due to work.  Taking a weekend away, they both learn something about the other that they didn’t know before and begin working towards fixing their relationship.  I really enjoyed that this was an established relationship; it was easy to see the familiarity they had for one another as well as the progress made towards healing the rift that had come up between them.  Despite some minor setbacks along the way, I was gifted with a nice happy ending to both the story and the collection as a whole so I was able to put the book down smiling.

RATING:

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