Reviewed by: Taylor
TITLE: Demons Within
SERIES: For Love of Authority #1
AUTHOR: Rhiannon Ayers
PUBLISHER: Siren-BookStrand
LENGTH: 283 pages
BLURB:
Allen Heras just landed his dream job, and he’s determined to make the most of this chance for a new life. Only there’s a problem: he can’t seem to stop lusting after his bosses. After suppressing his bisexuality his whole life, he can’t afford to let his hormones ruin his chances for success. Now, if he could just get his big head to convince the little one of that, he’d be just fine.
Sidri McKenna and Tatum McAlister have always known there was something missing between them: another man, one who could bear the love of two Doms. And they’ve chosen Allen to be that man. They’d always known it would be an uphill battle, convincing Allen that three people could make it in a long-term triad. But when the demons from Allen’s horrible past threaten their relationship, they realize that the real battle isn’t convincing Allen to love them—it’s convincing him he’s worth loving in the first place.
REVIEW:
I think many people will love this ménage novel, as it is high on the smut level, and examines the lives of all three characters as separates and how they work together as a triad. However, there were several aspects that prevented me from personally loving it.
Allen is recruited by MM&M, the top advertising agency in the country as a photographer. Untrained and unsure of his worth, not only in his talent, but even as a functioning adult. He places a lot of blame on himself and anything wrong in his life; he believes he’s at fault completely. His two bosses, Tatum and Sidri, have been lifelong friends and eventually lovers. While Tatum and Sidri love each other as friends first, and on a soul mate level, they’ve always felt that something was missing between the two of them to ever fully commit. What they come to realize is both of them are Dominants and they need a third to be the Submissive in their relationship. And they believe fully that the third should be a man. When they find Allen, and are awed not just by his beautiful Columbian looks, but by his talent, his grace and kindness, they are determined to make him theirs. They wait two long years to approach him, and what unfolds is making Allen comfortable with both his bisexuality and with the idea of a permanent threesome, peeling back the layers to his hidden pain, and showing him that they love him unconditionally, whatever may be lying in his closet.
Some of the issues I had about all of this are while Sidri, and Tatum at times, explain to Allen the idea of dominants and submissives often it came across as one long-winded lecture or textbook explanation. They were the teachers and Allen the wide-eyed student, which I understand fits the plot, but very quickly it grew tiresome for me. In addition, while all three had been in love on some level for the past two years, the reader didn’t get to ‘witness’ any of it, so the quickly thrown out “I love yous” and instant “baby’s” appeared quick to me and in some ways trite.
Also, this is just me, but I’ve grown a little weary of all the angst-y backstories that pile one issue after the other onto a character that cause one dramatic display of emotion after the other.
And the issues just kept building in drama – first a fight, past abuse, genetic issues, public scandal, etc. And bookending each dramatic moment was sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. I just…didn’t need all that. Like I said, some will LOVE this. Just personally, I’d preferred if everything had been dialed way back. I would have loved a simple story of these three people coming together and finding love and what works for them. I knew reading the blurb that wasn’t going to be this case, so I’m not necessarily faulting the book, but it just ended up not being exactly what I was hoping.
That said, the sex was hot and Tatum was the star of this book completely. Also while Allen and Sidri were hot, and the three of them even better, truly the best parts of this book were Tatum and Allen’s relationship and alone times.
Overall, I think if you want a hot and angst-y (very angst-y) ménage book, you might really enjoy this one. However, if you don’t have a high tolerance for broken men with sad backstories, I’m not sure this would be the book for you.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Thx for being honest! I’m also getting fed up with broke men and long winded back stories. It’s almost like these authors are trying to bring over what they think is working in the MF world to the MM world. Well for me thats one of the reasons I left the MF world!
Thank you for your comment. 🙂 I really am tired of this trend in m/m. Of course, some people have these tramautic lives or backstories, but when I find myself reading it in every book for almost a month straight I start to wonder what’s going on. It begins to feel like manipulation. Meh. I’m speaking in general terms, of course. Although…this is really high on the angst meter.