Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Legendary Daddy

SERIES: Love in LA Book 1

AUTHOR: Mia Monroe

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 292 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2021

BLURB: 

I knew he would be my Daddy one day. Now I have to convince him.

My vision board has three things on it:

Move to LA

Become a popular director

Meet my idol and make him fall for me

What can I say, I’m a dreamer. 

My chances of making that last one happen were slim to none, until one day, fate shined upon me and I was standing face to face with the man himself, Legend. A scandal took him out of the spotlight and the dating world, but I’m determined to make him mine AND return him to his rightful spot as the adult industry’s top Daddy.

He’s been wronged in the past, but I know I can be his perfect boy. Convincing him to give his career and love life another chance isn’t going to be easy, but if fate is still on my side, our life together could be: Legendary. 

Legendary Daddy is a steamy, age gap, Daddy/boy romance with a tenacious aspiring director, a scandal weary performer, a dash of hurt/comfort, and learning that it’s never too late to live life on your own terms. It is book 1 in the Love in LA series featuring doting Daddies and sweet boys finding love in Los Angeles. 

REVIEW: 

Mia Monroe kicks off her new Love in LA series with Legendary Daddy, an age-gap, Daddy/boy story of former porn superstar, Legend, and a very enthusiastic fan, Bentley Price, who’s been in love with Legend forever.  Bentley idolizes Legend, and has long believed that Legend would be the perfect Daddy for him, you know … if they ever actually met.  What are the chances of THAT happening …

Turns out, those odds were pretty good because Bentley does in fact serendipitously meet Legend at a conference.  This encounter takes place nine months after Legend was dragged through the mud by his vengeful ex-boyfriend/porn co-star, Arian. Legend has pretty much been in hiding, given the backlash that left his career in tatters. This conference is one of his first forays out and Bentley is the first person he meets there.  Fate?  Hmmm, maybe …

Bentley swoons, charms and blows Legend (admittedly, the last one isn’t romantic, but it sure was hot 🔥🔥), but then they go their separate ways.  Fate has other plans it seems though. Legend finds himself inexplicably captivated by Bentley. He reaches out to reconnect with him and then they quickly fall into a Daddy/boy dynamic and a whole lot of feelings in a very short span of time.

With this new Love in LA series comes a new vantage point for viewing a diverse cast of characters, all of whom are given what I have dubbed the “Mia Monroe treatment”.  Meaning, they aren’t treated as different or unusual at all. Their varied backgrounds, pasts, baggage and proclivities do not affect how she portrays these characters or how we see them.  They just “are”.  We experience these loveable, caring, multi-faceted men as individuals, sans judgment or commentary.

This series, per the blurb and the title, features Daddy/boy relationships pretty prominently. If that’s not your thing, this is probably not the book or series for you.  Legendary Daddy contains mild to moderate Daddy kink, but does not include age play or ABDL. However, at times, Bentley does act a bit like a little.  We see this through his childlike enthusiasm and wide-eyed, awestruck, exuberant reaction to things.  He also makes certain “requests” of Legend that read like a Daddy/little relationship, or at least skirt the edges of it.  

The fourteen year age gap between Legend and Bentley exacerbates this perception.  Legend is forty, but he comes across as older.  The gorgeous cover model just reinforces that view because, at least to me, he looks much older than forty.  Legend’s 40-year-old world-weary, scandal-battered persona stands in stark contrast to Bentley’s 26-year old vibrant, energetic personality.

Ms. Monroe uses this first story in the series for world-building and introductions to characters that will inhabit, if not star in, later books. The relationships between Legend, Bentley and the secondary characters are the aspects of this story that I enjoyed most.  The bromance between Matteo and Legend put a smile on my face.  Bentley’s empathetic involvement and support of his BFF Finn during his father’s decline and death is heartwarming. The mutual protective bond formed between Bentley and Ramos, the good guy trying to rehabilitate himself from a life of bad choices, is probably the most reaffirming, warm and fuzzy feeling relationship in the book.  Maybe because of all of the groundwork and stage setting, I did find that the book moved at a slower pace than some of Ms. Monroe’s other stories and took a little longer to get into.

The story itself is sweet and pretty low angst.  Legend and Bentley are both men who struggle with being too much and yet not enough.  Legend went all-in with his last relationship with Arian. Yet, that went up in flames, taking his career down with it in the aftermath.  He worries that he gave too much to that relationship at the expense of clear sight into the reality of what Arian really wanted from their connection. Ultimately, despite giving it his all, Legend wasn’t enough for Arian. He sacrificed himself and his needs to make someone else happy.  But in the end, he still ended up broken and alone.

Similarly, Bentley just wants to find the “right” Daddy.  Nothing makes him happier than to make someone else happy and meet their needs. However, prior Daddy relationships fell apart because Bentley was “too much”. He went so above and beyond that he became overwhelming. He blew past his own boundaries and sacrificed himself in the process. 

Bentley knows from the moment he meets Legend that they fit together, that they will be a perfect match. But his doubts creep in and he worries that Legend won’t want a boy at all, or won’t want him as his boy. He goes all in from the first moment they meet because, for Bentley at least, this love affair has been going on for years, albeit through a computer screen. Bentley doesn’t want to miss his chance with Legend now that he has one. He feels the pull to be more, to do everything, to fulfill every desire Legend may have, even if that means ignoring his own boundaries and wants.  All because he worries that he’s too much and therefore he won’t be enough in order to make Legend want him for good and stay.  

A beautiful dynamic develops between Legend and Bentley, striking because of the contrasts in age and personality, but also because their needs remarkably fit the other’s.  The most crucial thing they give to each other is respect – respect for boundaries and choices, respect for their individual preferences and personalities, respect for each other as is and respect for themselves.  Neither of them received this respect in prior relationships, but it is front and center in their relationship with each other.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Legendary Daddy.  It has a different feel from Ms. Monroe’s Tattoos & Temptation series, and is quite different from her Written in the Stars series, both of which I loved.  Nevertheless, I welcomed the freshness and creativity found in this story and am looking forward to seeing Matteo, Finn and hopefully Ramos get their HEAs in later books in the series.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon