Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: The Needs of Human Pets
AUTHOR: October Arden
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 219 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2025
BLURB:
Sawyer was ready to die. Then Velvet arrived.
After losing his only friend—his dog Lawson—Sawyer stands on a bridge, ready to jump. But a stranger with piercing eyes and impossible demands interrupts him. He needs a name. Without thinking, Sawyer answers: “Velvet.”
Chaotic, impulsive, and infuriatingly demanding, Velvet forces Sawyer to postpone his plans. Taking him home is one thing—keeping him is another. Velvet is particular, unpredictable, and utterly impossible to please. Yet, as days pass, a fragile rhythm forms between them. Velvet follows Sawyer everywhere—work, the park, even his bed—until Sawyer’s empty life is suddenly, inexplicably, full again.
Then, one morning, Velvet is gone.
This time it’s Sawyer who hunts him down, but what he finds is not the faithful pet he built his fragile hope around, but a man holding grief and trauma at bay. The choice Sawyer faces now is harder than the one on the bridge: walk away and return to the emptiness or fight for a man who may never again be his.
The Needs of Human Pets is a dark, obsessive MM romance about grief, power, and what we rescue in each other when everything else is broken.
Recommended for mature readers due to mature themes and content.
REVIEW:
I have to be honest and say that when I started this book, I had some doubts.
Sawyer is a man on the edge…and he’s teetering. With nothing left to live for, he’s decided he won’t…until another man bulldozes his way into his death…and life.
Velvet takes over Sawyer and wills him to live for very selfish reasons. Or so it seems. He throws temper tantrums to get his way, forces Sawyer to take care of him…and forces Sawyer to take care of himself against his will.
I’ve never read a book quite like this. I have read some stories with very obsessive characters, but this kind of takes things to a whole new level. And then switches everything, turning it all upside down.
There are some interesting characters besides the MC’s. Their behavior seems odd at first until you realize what’s going on.
This is the story of two men who are completely lost in very different ways. They both end up in places that they weren’t expecting and when I I finally engaged with this story, I couldn’t put it down until I found out how it ended. It was very compelling.
These are very complex characters who’s stories apart from each other are interesting enough, but putting them together blows things up in a completely different way. Watching these men work their way through the twists and turns that life throws at them was fascinating.
This story will not be for everyone. There’s some triggering issues such as the off-screen death of a pet, talk of and attempt of suicide and some very interesting explorations of kink. Not everyone is cut out to be a human pet but it’s interesting to see how people can change their minds and attitudes to make their lives better.
There isn’t a lot of sex in this story but the anticipation is almost better in some ways. The sex there is? It’s hot and steamy and I definitely couldn’t look away.
I’m glad I took a chance on this story. It turned out to be very different than I anticipated and I’ve never been more happy to be wrong. If you are looking for something that’s not the run-of-the-mill romance story, then this couldn’t be any further from your typical Harlequin or Mills and Boon.
If you are up for broadening your horizons, I would definitely give this story a read!
RATING: 
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