Reviewed by Amber
TITLE: Building Bonds
SERIES: Kiss of Leather #1
AUTHOR: Morticia Knight
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 182 pages
BLURB:
Kyle’s a natural sub who builds dungeon furniture, yet has no interest in BDSM. It takes a hunky Dom to show him just what he’s been missing.
After Kyle’s partner of five years leaves him for another man on the night of their housewarming party, the shy, early-thirties carpenter needs to do a major reassessment of his life in addition to raising some serious cash. With no one to help him pay the lease on his Los Angeles condo, he worries how he’ll survive. His best friend sets up a meeting with one of the Doms and partners at Kiss of Leather, a gay BDSM club being built as a premier destination for those who want the best of the best.
Master Gavin not only wants the best—he demands it. When he meets Kyle, he assumes that part of the builder’s reticence to share anything personal with him must be due to his experiences with an abusive former Master. Not one to back down from a challenge, Gavin determines to break through the walls surrounding the beautiful man he can’t get out of his mind. He’s hopeful that once he convinces Kyle to sign an initial contract, Kyle might be the first sub to open up his heart.
Misunderstandings and accusations almost destroy everything between them before they have a real chance to begin. However, the true obstacle becomes not only whether Kyle will embrace BDSM as a lifestyle, but also whether he can handle a full-time D/s relationship with a big, bad, scary Dom who’s as sexy as hell.
REVIEW:
Hmmm…well this was interesting. I don’t really know how I feel in regards to how this story was told. It almost read like a “How to…” guide. It was very mechanical. I wasn’t really able to see or feel any real emotion coming from either character. It’s not that I completely hated this story, I didn’t. It was well written and even though at times it got pretty slow the pace was bearable. It was just overall, “blah” I got bored so many different times and I had to fight with myself just to finish it. I was looking forward to so much with this story so in that sense it was a major let down.
Gavin James is a mega rich entrepreneur, BDSM club owner, and full time Dom. He enjoys working hard, being successful and training a myriad of submissive. His newest venture, Kiss of Leather will be an ultra exclusive BDSM club he is creating with his two best friends. During planning someone suggested a local man to build the furniture that would be in the club. Upon seeing some examples of the things he can create Gavin and his partners jumped at the opportunity to hire Kyle as their employee.
Kyle is just recently out of an emotionally unfulfilling relationship. He gets stuck with a crazy high rent that he has to pay all on his own. The one good thing is the fact that his friend recommended him to the owners of a club to build the furniture. Kyle is very confident when it comes to what he can build with his own hands. It’s just people who he has a hard time connecting with.
When Gavin and Kyle meet, Kyle shifts back into his natural submissive tendencies and that sparks incredible interest in Gavin. Beyond that Gavin is physically attracted to Kyle as well but he sense a need to tread carefully, he just doesn’t know why yet.
They embark on a tentative D/s relationship due to the fact that there was some withholding of information from their initial meeting. It was a little exhausting to go through every scenario with Kyle and Gavin. Like I said things were explained so heavily the sexiness factor was lost a lot of the time. Also, if Kyle was a “natural sub” why did he struggle so much with the concept? There were just so many things that left me scratching my head.
Like I side, good writing but overall just didn’t work for me.
RATING: 
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