Reviewed by Paul
TITLE: It’s like this
AUTHOR: Anne O’Gleadra
PUBLISHER: Beaten Track Publishing
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB:
A brave and funny love story about the anxieties, insecurities, and heartaches that drive people apart and bring them back together, It’s Like This is the journey of Niles and Rylan, as they learn to communicate in the shadow of a life-changing illness.
Niles and Rylan have been together a long time. They have great sex, they are deeply intimate, and Rylan never holds back on displaying his affection. As far as their family and friends are concerned, they’re an established couple, and yet, after three years of being “together”, Niles is still unsure if they’re actually in a relationship.
As their sexual intensity reaches a dangerous tipping point, Niles must find the courage to articulate how he feels in order to try and keep the only thing he has ever wanted. Emotional and compelling, It’s Like This is a must-read for true romantics.
REVIEW:
A lovely novel by Anne O’Gleadra, using a free online version (by Orbiting Jupiter), but it has been promoted to a full published version. Although I haven’t read the free version, which was a bit more extreme, I loved the way this book took me into the mind of Niles. The fact that this book is told from a first-person-perspective might put people off, but to me it felt really natural and I could relate to his feelings.
Being good boyfriends in normal everyday life, Niles and Rylan change to extreme bottom and top during the very hot sex-scenes, but communication is absent at all times. This only makes those scenes hotter and it makes them very real. To me BDSM shouldn’t all be about attributes and rooms full of leather and swings. To me this felt like the real thing and kudos to Anne for depicting them in their natural habitat. The first half of the book made me feel a part of their flawed relationship.
The second half of the book focusses on Niles family and the drama going on there, with Rylan, even though still being an intrusive top, more caring for Niles than expected. With witty characters the author forges an image of a loving family. Although I feel that she should have taken a little more time to have the characters adapt to the new situation, changes in the second half felt natural enough to be believable. And as I am a sucker for a happy ending, combined with the angst that was projected in the first half, the novel ends on a high.
Being in a BDSM-relationship isn’t always easy. Communication is of the essence. O’Gleadra shows us that in this novel. Both partners end up being happy and so is this reader. I’d recommend this book to all that want to take their first plunge into the BDSM-world, nothing extreme, yet well captivating the doubts that might surface one day.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Great review, I enjoyed this book so very much. One of the few times that it felt real when characters didn’t communicate with each other as well