REVIEWED BY CINDY

TITLE: The Slave

SERIES: Free Men Series Book 1

AUTHOR: Kate Aaron

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 194 Pages

Blurb:

At twenty-seven, Tamelik has been a slave more than half his life, having witnessed his family being murdered in front of him when he was just a child. Naturally submissive, although with a petulant streak, he can’t help but fall in love with the master who treats him kindly.

Tam’s dreams come true when his mistress walks out, leaving her husband behind. For six glorious months, he and his master get to be together. Then Tam is ordered to purchase another slave.

He wants to hate Kai for being unruly and ungrateful. For being of the same race as the men who murdered his family. For being his eventual replacement in their master’s bed. But it’s hard to hate a man who cries himself to sleep, flinches at the slightest touch, and blushes beautifully when he’s kissed.

Seducing Kai has suddenly become more challenge than chore, and with his master’s encouragement, Tam finds himself falling for his new companion. Except… nobody can be in love with two people at once, can they?

Review:

I have to admit, picking up a slave story is always fraught with angst for me. I love dominant men and a little manhandling, but I have a big aversion to humiliation and with a slave fic, it’s always a possibility.

But this story? Oh my goodness! I started reading and got totally swept away by Tam, Kai and their Master and the world that Kate Aaron created for them to live in.

Tam is a slave who has not only accepted his status but has embraced it. We meet him as he is fulfilling a task set before him by his Master Lysander, to purchase a new slave. He goes to the market and takes his job very seriously, even though he’s reluctant to complete the errand because he’s worried about being replaced in his Master’s affections.

When he first sets eyes on Kai, however, he can’t stop himself from rescuing the enemy soldier from the malicious hands of the other men at the auction, even though Kai’s people are the reason Tam is a slave in the first place.

Watching the interactions between Tam and Kai made me smile. They both try so hard to resist the pull they feel toward each other, but Tam’s sweet nature and Kai’s need for affection make it impossible to hold out for long.

Kai is a man who finds out that everything he knew about the world isn’t really what it seemed to be and it leaves him looking for something…and someone…to believe in. It doesn’t take him long to connect with Tam but connecting with the Master is a little harder because of the preconceived notions he has about how a slave/Master relationship should be.

I loved Tam’s resilience and spirit. The Master is a good man in a difficult situation and he has done is best by Tam. The love and affection between them is wonderfully crafted, with both of them trying so hard to do their best even though the rules of society force them to hold back from having what they really want.

Kai’s confusion about the caring he can see on the part of both Tam and Lysander is both endearing and heartbreaking as he realizes how little he really had in his previous “free” life.

I could see where this story was going quite early on but to be honest, the journey it takes to get there is totally worth it. I love the attention to detail shown by the author both in the relationship between the three men and the world where they live. I saw it as an ancient world, very much like the Greek or Roman Empires, but with a few twists that spiced things up.

I fell in love with all three characters in this book, all for different reasons that were perfectly interwoven and it soon becomes impossible to imagine one of them without the other two.

This is the first book of three and I usually avoid these kind of series because I like my happy endings and waiting for the next book to find out what happened to my favorite people is too aggravating for me! But I was lucky enough to get all three very close together so the wait wasn’t too horrible.

This story is all about introducing us to Tam, Kai and Lysander and making us fall in love with them and it does it’s job well. It’s told from Tam’s POV and by the end I was besotted with all the men and that made the inevitable angsty cliff-hanger all the more frustrating and it didn’t take me long to go looking for the second book in this series.

Intriguing characters, a fascinating world for them to live in and a storyline that grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let me go pushed this story to the top of my favorites list and it’s one I will read more than once.

Rating:

Buy Links:

Amazon

Amazon.UK

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