Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Behind Locked Doors 
AUTHOR: Nicholas Kinsley
PUBLISHER: Fantastic Fiction Publishing
LENGTH: 185 pages
BLURB:
Edward Taylor is a man torn between his honourable façade and his forbidden carnal desires. Outwardly a proper Victorian family man, Edward secretly craves pain and lusts after men. Isaac Sinclair is a struggling writer forced by poverty to supplement his income with less savory pursuits, including discreetly inflicting “professional punishments” upon wealthy gentlemen. When Edward catches Isaac in an act of petty theft, the chance meeting seems to offer an ideal opportunity for both men. Neither man, however, is prepared for the escalation of social and personal risk occasioned by falling in love. (M/M – For content labels and excerpt, see details on publisher’s site.)
REVIEW:
I was interested in this book when it came up for review, I like historical romance stories, and BDSM, so putting them together sounded perfect! Unfortunately it didn’t work for me as well as it could have.
I hate to say it but I didn’t like Edward, one of the main characters, at all. I can look past a lot with a book, and with a character, but Edward just annoyed me. He is from a questionable background, conceived on the wrong side of the bed as it were, but claimed by his father. This seems to have given him a bad attitude about everything in life. He inherits his fathers cotton factory and is to be a good boss, He pays his employees well and treats them well. He’s educated, and has spent some time in Paris. While in Paris he becomes friends with a brother and sister, and eventually decides he might as well marry the woman, Marie, since he’ll have to get married at some point and he likes her, so….. They get married and have a son, Peter. Edward is gay, and has known it for some time, he also likes pain. He’s been known to pay for both of those needs, but slows that down once he’s married. He likes his wife, but has no connection with his son.
One day he sees a man stealing bread from a bakery, stops him, pays for the bread, chats with him a moment, learns he is a man who is paid to hurt other men and give them some sexual gratification, and sets up a time to see him professionally. This man is Isaac, and I think I liked him ok. Isaac is creative, a writer, but is very poor, living in a basement room, providing his services to a handful of clients. He is not a prostitute, he won’t bugger his clients, but he does tie them up, cane them, humiliate them, and get them off. So Edward the submissive, starts to visit Isaac the dominant for pay, and they have some nice kinky sex. I did like that part very much.
But I did not like Edward. I kept waiting and hoping that I would, but I didn’t, even by the end of the book. He cheats on his wife the entire time, and is not very nice to her. He doesn’t seem to like his son, has no friends, until he barely manages to be civil to Isaac’s friends and hangs out with them a bit. He’s a good boss to his employees, but that is really his only redeeming quality. I didn’t like how the story played out between him and his wife, I won’t say what happens, it was a creative solution, but not something I really liked.
The story was good, I liked the plot and the concept of a Victorian man paying to get his ass caned. I liked Isaac just fine, and I liked how the relationship developed between Edward and Isaac. They do eventually have a nice emotional connection, as well as a physical one. And I do appreciate the time this book is set in, and I didn’t expect them both to come out and live happily ever after, holding hands, walking down the street wearing rainbow shirts. I just didn’t find the solution to the story particularly good. I wish Isaac had been developed a bit more, this book is all from Edward perspective, so we don’t get to know Isaac very well. I wanted a bit more depth to him.
I can see that this book had good bones, I liked the plot, the writing was good, the dialog worked, the author seemed to have done some research on the time period, the details were good, and the sex was good. Just a bit kinky but not over the top. I liked most of it, I just had a really hard time connecting with Edward. I’m not sure that is the fault of the author, I can’t even really say why I didn’t like Edward, but I didn’t, and it made this not as enjoyable of a reading experience for me. Overall it was a good book, but just not great.
RATING: 
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