Review by Sid Love
TITLE: Behind The Scene
SERIES: Directors’s Cut (Book #1)
AUTHORS: Liz Borino & Michelle Stevens
PUBLISHER: Lazy Day Publishing
BLURB: New beginnings are exciting, but we can rarely outrun our pasts. Steve Michaels and Zack Greene pack up their newly extended family and move to New York City with their nanny, Drew, and his two kids. Having recently been hired to write for a BDSM show, Steve and Zack use their loving Dom/sub relationship for some experience with the lifestyle, but they need a consultant to fill in the blanks. Alex a local Dom/club owner, can do just that. Everything is going smoothly until Rich, a ex-producer from Ben’s Life and the man who tried to ruin Zack, tries to get a job on the same show. And that’s only the beginning of it.
Zack and Steve offered Drew an opportunity of a lifetime working for them. When Alex shows up for the first meeting with Zack and Steve, Drew realizes he didn’t leave his past behind after all. This becomes more true when his ex comes back wanting to see the kids.
Can Drew trust Alex to help him get over his past? Can Steve manage to keep Zack safe from the man who has haunted him for so long? Find out what happens Behind the Scenes!
REVIEW:
Personally, I am not usually very keen on reading BDSM stories but I have read some and liked them a lot. The main reason why I like a certain book is because of how well the storyline is sketched by the authors. Behind the Scenes was exactly to my liking and it did quench the reader’s thirst in me!
Steve and Zach are happily married and have been together for quite a few years now. Their relationship has been built on trust – Steve being a Dom takes care of his husband in a way no one ever can and Zach trusts him with his life! They don’t do safeword, they don’t need safewords… so you can imagine how well-developed their relationship must be!
“Steve, you are my safeword, place, everything. I don’t need a safeword. We communicate well enough that you’d know if I was in legitimate distress. You wouldn’t go too far …”
Those are the words Zach uses when for ritual’s sake his husband asks him what his safe word is gonna be! That was the first connection I felt to both these characters!
There’s another storyline running parallel to Zach and Steve’s story. Drew – who lives with the couple and works as a nanny for Steve’s teenaged sister – and Alex – a Dom who owns a local BDSM club in New York and is also helping out Steve and Zach with conceptualization for their show on HBO. As it turns out, the two have had a past affair which was abruptly ceased due to circumstances. However, now as the fate brings them together, they get a second chance to make it work and rekindle their broken relationship.
But!
Yes, there’s a big but here … two bad guys with the names Rich and Darren won’t stop until they have devastated their lives and it almost even gets to it. I won’t say more about them, you can go read and find out. I would say this, though, all turns out to be quite okay by the end but I must warn you, this book is part of a series so you can expect a sort-of cliffhanger-y end!
If anyone asks me which pair, out of the two in the story, did I like the most, I would without any hesitation say it was Alex and Drew! They story was told very patiently and very skilfully by the authors. My most favorite character, Drew, has suffered in the past and that rules his present. Alex is such a sweetheart. The way he helps him open up to him is very tender and loving. He is nothing but patient with him throughout the development of their relationship. So I wasn’t surprised when their love for each other grew as the story progressed. You could tell, there was something special going on!
I am going to be honest and will say that after the first chapter and till about sixty percent of the book, I hadn’t felt any interest in reading Zach and Steve’s story. They would be either having sex with each other (which was steamy, I wouldn’t deny) or they were running into Rich from time to time. It got exasperating after that and they began to seem to me like they were the barriers between me and Alex & Drew. It had me almost skipping through parts when they appeared.
Another thing that rated this story down in my opinion was in the whole story, the authors have made a habit of introducing first and explaining later. It had me lost for sometime and then gradually it would get cleared. The prologue was a mess because of the same reason because the authors kept adding names after names and I didn’t have a single clue who was who! I didn’t even realize Drew was a nanny to the kids or that Sunni was Steve’s sister for a long time. I hope the authors would handle things well in Book 2.
Behind the Scenes is the first book of Liz & Michelle’s series “Director’s Cut”. But, as I have discovered, this is not where Zach and Steve’s story begins. The author Liz Borino has written books on the two of them and this series is a continuation of her previous books. Behind the Scenes is the first book that I have read from her but the authors have managed to structure this one in such a way that there might not be a need for you to have read those books.
Even with my preferences leaning more towards one couple than the other, it did keep the pages turning. I can’t claim to have read it in one go, but even when I wasn’t reading I constantly had the jitters to find out what was to come next with the characters’ lives. So, yes, it was good and it has me looking forward to finding out what is awaiting us in the second installment of this series.
People, who are into kinky, naughty romance novels and those who also look for some sensible stories surrounding it, will definitely enjoy Behind the Scenes!
Sid’s Rating: 
BUY LINKS: AMAZON