REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: No Pain No Gain
SERIES: Herc’s Mercs #7
AUTHOR: Ari McKay
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 219 Pages
RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2018
BLURB:
Hunter Callahan loved being a merc. As an explosives expert for Lawson & Greer, he’s dealt with everything from IEDs to rogue nukes. But when a suicide bomber in the form of a seven-year-old boy walks into camp, Hunter learns there are some fates far worse than death.
Payne Gibson recognizes the “thousand yard stare” of the PTSD Hunter refuses to acknowledge, and as a natural caretaker, he can’t resist when his boss, Cade “Hercules” Thornton, asks him to help. Hunter is resistant until their surveillance assignment turns dangerous, and Hunter realizes he’s in danger of losing his career, the only thing in his life that matters to him anymore.
Conventional therapy hasn’t worked, so Payne suggests an unorthodox form of therapy: BDSM. As a Dom, Payne thinks he can help Hunter face the issues he’s been avoiding. Having come to trust Payne and knowing his career is on the line, Hunter agrees to try.
Their relationship as Dom and sub deepens more than either of them expected. Payne knows adding emotions into the mix is dangerous, but he can’t help it when Hunter is both the man and the sub Payne has hoped to find. But Hunter doesn’t feel he deserves love, not when his best friend is dead because of him, leaving behind a wife and child to mourn — and to blame Hunter for their loss.
Payne can help Hunter to stare into the abyss… but what stares back might be more intense than either of them can handle.
I somehow missed and hadn’t actually read any of the previous books in this series, but I wasn’t lost reading this installment. When Hunter’s friends and saw he was struggling, they decided to step in and require him to seek help in via Hercules Security employee, Payne. Payne is not a merc, but he has quite a few skills of his own, including a background in psychology. He is the perfect guy to help Hunter with his PTSD issues, and that’s without taking into consideration the potential use of his alternative methods via BDSM.
Hunter knows he is in trouble. He suffers not only from the PTSD, but also from crushing survivor’s guilt over losing his best friend and military partner. While not all that excited about getting the help, it doesn’t take long for him to see that Payne might be able to help him after all. He has no BDSM experience but Payne eases him into it using certain methods in ways that will help Hunter cope with his PTSD. This wasn’t the typical BDSM makes everything better story. It was done very well in the way it was utilized and I really enjoyed how this was done.
Even though he was introduced relatively slowly to the idea, Hunter seemed to have no trouble with the sub role, though maybe this was due to the fact that the activities were actually providing him with some relief. They didn’t have the cliched scenes sir/master, etc., which helped make it more plausible as well. It was also nice to see the progress Hunter made to be able to reacquaint with his friend’s widow and child (his Godchild) whom he had been avoiding.
All in all, while this wasn’t a super exciting or extremely sexy story, it was definitely a feel good second chance book that left me wanting to go back and read the previous books in the series. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series, as well as more from Ms. McKay.
[…] via Book Review: No Pain No Gain (Herc’s Mercs #7) by Ari McKay — Love Bytes […]