Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Professional Distance 

SERIES: Thorne and Dash #1

AUTHOR: Silvia Violet

PUBLISHER: Silvia Violet Books

LENGTH: 242 pages

BLURB:

Thornwell Shipton is wealthy, uptight, closeted, and an incurable workaholic. A tragic love affair left him terrified of relationships, so he tells himself sex is better scheduled and paid for.

Riley Dashwood is young, easy-going, and comfortable in his own skin. He’s a passionate baker and an aspiring chef, working as an escort to save up for culinary school.

They’re clearly made for each other.

When Thorne hires Dash, it’s lust at first sight. After a few scorching nights together, both men start to wonder if what’s between them is more than physical, but their age gap and resistance to romance make them afraid to change their professional relationship to a personal one. Dash pushes Thorne to admit he wants things he’s denied himself for years. Kinky things. Soft, caring things. Things that force him to open his heart, not just his body. To move forward, one or the other must take a risk and ask for what he really wants.

REVIEW:

Wow! I loved this book…. In some ways it was so predictable, Wealthy older man, younger rent boy, starting off with a professional relationship, but falling in love. We’ve read it before, seen it in movies, and we all know how it ends. But the characters were so damn good! That’s what makes this book fantastic. It’s not all about the story. It’s a simple plot, but with really good characters and some very hot sex, and enough drama to keep it interesting.

Thorne is the older rich half of this pair, he’s a work-a-holic, has no life outside his job, had a relationship go bad, so now he just buys a man to have sex with every Friday. One Friday afternoon he gets a call from the service he uses for his Friday evening gentlemen, and is told his usual man isn’t with the service anymore. But there is a new man that will be coming to him, a switch like Marc was, that should be able to meet his needs. Thorne reluctantly agrees.

In to the picture comes Dash…. Hot young thing, rent boy by night, aspiring chef by day, hoping to earn enough money to pay for school and open his own business. It turns out he is exactly what Thorne needs, he takes control, pushes Thorne in a way he hasn’t been pushed before, and Dash leaves behind a very satisfied client. Thorne agrees to keep seeing Dash on Friday nights. This goes on for some time, but underneath all of the really hot sex the two have, feelings are growing.

I’ll stop there, you can probably guess how this story goes. But what you can’t guess is how amazing these two characters are.

Thorne is so… cold isn’t the right word, because he’s not cold. He’s not hard, or firm. Spoiled maybe, set in his ways, stubborn, but passionate when he finally opens up. He’s had a bad experience in his past love life, and he’s just happy paying for sex. But he needs to be loved so badly.

Dash I just loved. He’s two people really, Dash to his clients, and Riley to his friends. Silvia goes back and forth with his name, Dash when he’s with Thorne, Riley the rest of the time. Literally one paragraph he’s Dash, the next he’s Riley. I loved that. It clearly showed which part of his personality was forefront. Even Thorne at the end of the book goes back and forth between Dash and Riley. It worked very well for me. So Riley is a young man, a baker, hopefully a student soon, just a sweetheart. But Dash is aggressive, determined, a sexual being, happy fucking or being fucked. But focused. As Dash gets more comfortable with Thorne, more Riley starts to sneak in there. Dash comes to fuck, but Riley brings cupcakes, and makes omelets.  I loved watching that change.

From page one you know how this book is going to end, and what is going to happen, but it was so much fun watching these two get there! Of course there is drama, there has to be to make it a good story, and I liked how Silvia did it. How can I say this…. the catalyst that causes the drama worked with in this story and with these characters very well. It didn’t feel fake to me, as sometimes happens with roadblocks thrown in the story to cause drama.

There is a lot of sex in this book. Almost too much, I could have done with a couple less sex scenes, and a few more “date” scenes, but that is really my only issue with the book. I hate to say there is too much sex, because the sex scenes are sooooo good, but it started to take away my interest from the story a bit. But damn, the sex scenes are great. I loved the little bit of BDSM we see, a little bondage, a little spanking, and a little dominance. I liked the switching aspect, it showed the changing needs of the two men very well. The story is set in Atlanta, I was there a couple of years ago, and I liked seeing the places (the aquarium and the Coca Cola museum) mentioned that I had visited.

I highly recommend this book, It may be light on plot, but the fantastic characters make up for that, plus the sex is just so hot! I see it’s the beginning of a series, I’ve very curious to see what comes next for Thorne and Dash!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

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