Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Deviations: Domination 
SERIES: Deviations #2
AUTHOR: Chris Owen and Jodi Payne
PUBLISHER: Pretty Muses Publishing
LENGTH: 261 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 29th, 2016
BLURB:
In this sequel to Deviations: Submission, Dom Tobias and Sub Noah are back, learning more about each other and their relationship, testing the boundaries of what they can and cannot handle, both together and apart. Tobias works at becoming more comfortable and finding his balance as a full-time Master again. Meanwhile, his work brings out the true submissive in Noah, who faces some of his greatest fears, and his greatest secrets, confessing to Noah about a terrible time in his past. He’s not the only one who has a rough time. Tobias breaks down and shows Noah he’s not all dominance, too, which sends shockwaves through their romance, leaving them to wonder if they can keep it together. With a deep exploration of the BDSM scene, secondary characters who shine, and a romance that has the reader rooting for these men from the start, Deviations: Domination is one book you can’t miss. Authors Chris Owen, writer of the popular Bareback, and Jodi Payne, writer of String of Pearls have done it again.
REVIEW:
Deviations: Domination picks right up where Deviations: Submission left off. This continues the evolving relationship of Tobias the Dominant, and Noah the submissive. In the first book, we saw the two meet at a club, have a scene, form a bond, negotiate a contract, and begin a six month relationship. We know that Noah has issues from two past D/s relationships, and he’s struggling to submit fully to Tobias. But it turns out, it’s Tobias that has the trust issues in this book.
This book is very much focused on emotions of the men, not just Tobias and Noah, but Phantom as well. Phantom had a relationship with Tobias that ended, although the two have remained friends. Phantom has issues that Tobias was not able to deal with, primarily his need for extreme pain. The two ended their relationship and Phantom has been unattached since. Lately he’s been seeing Bradford, the owner of the club, to get his pain needs met. Bradford decides to force the issue with Phan, and Tobias is needed to help. We also see a lovely scene between Noah and Phan, with the assistance of Tobias, of course.
But back to Noah and Tobias. So Tobias has lost his family and has a breakdown at Christmas, that Noah handily deals with, further bonding the two emotionally. Noah works through some of his drama, and really tells Tobias what happens. There is some arguing between them, some really hot sex, with an audience and without! Basically it’s the story of the two of them drawing closer together and falling in love. What it doesn’t have, is as much BDSM as I expected. There is some D/s certainly, and a couple of BDSM scenes, but more emotional stuff is deal with, and lots of tears are shed. We see a more human side of Tobias, which I liked. The culmination is a sweet scene at the end that I loved. But overall not THAT much happened. Lot’s of internal drama coming out, but nothing that made me gasp.
I liked this book a lot, I love these two characters, but I almost think it could have been cut down quite a bit and combined with one of the other books. I feel like I’m reading really long chapters of a much bigger story. There isn’t a beginning, middle, and end to the first two books. Things happen, but it all blends in together. The book starts, goes for a while, and stops. I’m not sure how I feel about that honestly! It’s interesting to read them again after so many years, I find I’m loving the characters and the emotion, but wishing there was just a little more action or something. As part of the ongoing, bigger story, it’s great, but it’s not a complete story on its own.
Off to book three!
RATING: 
BUY LINK: