Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Let the Wrong Light In
AUTHOR: Avon Gale
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 210 pages
BLURB:
Avery Hextall, a junior architect at a prestigious firm, is thrilled when his design is chosen for a new performing-arts center—even if it means working closely with his insufferably uptight project manager, Malin Lacroix. When a chance encounter in the boss’s office proves that Lacroix is anything but cold, Avery is determined to learn more about the real man beneath the aloof veneer.
Despite their growing attraction and their increasingly kinky encounters, the enigmatic Malin remains as emotionally distant as ever. Worse, Avery’s friends are convinced Malin thinks of Avery as a dirty secret and nothing more—a secret that might destroy both of their careers.
But the real secret is a single moment in time that haunts Malin and keeps him from committing to the life he wants with Avery. In order to move on, Avery must help Malin come to terms with the tragedy in his past before they can work on building a future together.
REVIEW:
Oh… This is a hard book for me to rate and review. It is the first published book by Avon Gale, and I can see the potential in her writing, but I had issues with this story.
Avery Hextall is an up and coming architect, working under project manager Malin Lacroix. Avery is young, bisexual, vibrant, high energy, and fun. He likes to fuck around, with girls or boys, or girls AND boys. He’s focused at work, submitting designs for consideration by Malin, but none are accepted. He finally has enough, after Malin turns down one more of his designs, and loses his shit in a very inappropriate display of anger directed at Malin.
Malin is an asshole, cold, hard, and not at all likeable. He is good at what he does though, as he explains to Avery, as the man is yelling at him about a design he turned down. Malin tells Avery how things work in the real world, Avery actually seems to get it, and they two move on. But Avery develops a crush on his boss, and after one of his designs is chosen, the two are brought together frequently for work. In another fit of inappropriate behavior, Avery gives Malin a blowjob at work, and I wasn’t sure if Malin even liked it.
This sort of brings the two together. They start to fuck, not date, and embark on a very dangerous and concerning BDSM relationship. They don’t appear to like each other, Malin doesn’t seem to want to even do this. He beats the crap out of Avery with a belt, with no safe word, Avery loving it but having no boundaries or understanding of what is going on. Malin hits Avery in the face several times, and strangles him to the point of leaving bruises. Avery is the one encouraging this, it’s not non-consensual, but it felt really off to me. The sex scenes and the BDSM made me very uncomfortable as I was reading it. There are no rules or safeword for quite some time. There is no emotional connection between the two, and Malin just comes across as vicious. I have no problem with books containing BDSM, I really enjoy reading stories with that element, as long as it is portrayed in a safe, sane and consensual way. These two get there eventually I guess, but I didn’t care for the way it develops.
I did like Avery, he seems like a good guy, trying to understand his feelings and desires and get what he wants out of life. I respect that. But I do not think Malin is the person for him. I didn’t like Malin as a character at all. I didn’t understand him, even by the end of the book when we finally get some backstory on him, it was too late and I didn’t care.
Something about the perspective of this book bothered me a bit, this is where my lack of understanding of the craft of writing is a problem for me. I don’t know what to call it, but the way the story was told was odd to me.
So how do I rate this one? I liked one character but not the other. I liked the concept of the plot, the two men working together, and attempting to develop a BDSM relationship. But I didn’t like how that was handled. I liked the additional characters, Brandon and Justin seem to care about Avery and do make an attempt to get Avery to understand this is not the way to go about getting his needs met. I liked Malin’s drama and backstory, I get why he has issues, but it came too late to redeem him for me. I liked the quick pace of the story, but something about the perspective bothered me. I’ve gone back and forth between 2.5 and 3 hearts, but I can’t give it an above average rating. I can’t really decide if I liked this book or not. I would be curious to try another book by this author, I do think there is potential there, and I’d love to see one that didn’t contain BDSM.
RATING:
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