Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Made to Order
SERIES: A Naughty in Pendleton Story
AUTHOR: Brigham Vaughn
NARRATOR: James Edward Jones
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 34 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2026
BLURB:
A demanding chef and a straight former soldier: Taking orders has never been so hot!
Veteran and bar manager Tyler Hewitt has too much on his plate. His old Army buddy is hanging on by a thread, his father is recovering from surgery, and he’s temporarily running the Hawk Point Tavern while the owner is away.
Chef Donovan Ryan is always the one in charge—in the kitchen and in the bedroom. So it doesn’t sit well when he has to answer to Tyler. They’ve always butted heads, but without a buffer, the tension has never been higher.
Until one night when their sparks go up in flames.
Tyler is sure he’s only into kink if he’s the one dishing it out, but Donovan’s control leaves him hungry for more.
Hooking up is one thing. Love is another.
Can Tyler embrace taking orders from a civilian, or will Donovan have to give up his dream of a collared submissive to keep the man he loves?
Made to Order includes: hot tempers, CBT, breath play, kinky kitchen implements, and nosy grandmothers.
REVIEW:
Tyler Hewitt enjoys his job. He’s been at the Hawk Point Tavern for over a decade. He enjoys a great relationship with his boss and a not so great relationship with the executive chef of the sister restaurant. Chef Donavan is a persnickety and condescending piece of work. He’s abrupt and not exactly friendly to Tyler. And why does Tyler care? He’s got his own job and life and he’s got plenty on his plate. His best friend Eddie from his military service is in trouble. He can’t seem to get the help he needs from the VA. He’s got a pretty severe case of PTSD and the therapy isn’t working. He’s drinking way too much and both Tyler and Eddie’s wife Andrea are incredibly worried that he’ll do something rash.
Donavan Ryan loves his job. He’s half owner of a Tavern/Restaurant and has built a solid reputation. He’s busy, exacting and prickly. When his previous job and relationship blew up in spectacular fashion, he moved on the much smaller town of Pendleton. It’s where he went to lick his wounds at his grandparents place. It was his safe haven growing up – especially after he declined to join the family business – lawyering – and become a chef. His grandma is his biggest fan though and he couldn’t love her more. Generally he’s pretty happy, although he’d be way happier if he could find the perfect sub. When his relationship with Jude, his former boyfriend, happened in a loud and public way, it resulted in Donavan being persona non grata and so he had no choice to move out of town. Luckily he landed on his feet in Pendleton. Now if he could just get the “bar manager” of the Tavern to see things his way 😉
When the owner of the bar decides to take a vacation, she leaves Tyler in charge. This makes Donovan furious! He should NOT have to report to a bartender. Oh boy. Wrong move buddy. When one of her partners confronts Donovan and Tyler about their behavior and how it’s going to ruin the vacation, they decide they need to straighten up. But that doesn’t mean they like each other. What does it mean? Well when they confront one another late in the evening at the beginning of the vacation, their spark turns sexual. And it seems like they might have something more in common than their animosity. They embark on some pretty hot hate sex when Tyler discovers that Donovan is a dom and he just wants to get out of his own head.
What starts out a something very casual catches fire pretty quickly. Donovan introduces Tyler to a lot of new things. In the military Tyler had a couple of encounters with guys but he chalked that up to desperation out in the field. He’s only ever really been with woman and while he’s indulged in a little dom kink, he didn’t really love it. Being on the receiving end though? That’s a totally different story. Especially when that Dom is Donovan who clearly knows what he’s doing.
Tyler has a lot of noise in his head about going from thinking he’s straight to craving what he has with Donovan. They end up spending more nights together than apart. Tyler loves giving himself over to Donovan and even really likes the struggle. There is a lot of kink to explore here! They both have other issues to deal with too – but especially trying to support Eddie. But Tyler eventually comes around to realizing that he can’t do this thing with Donovan half way. Once he’s all in, he’s going to have to make peace with sharing that he’s not really all that straight 😉
This is my favorite book in this series so far. I really liked these two and they certainly didn’t have an easy path. Tyler has to do a lot of soul searching and find a way to accept that he might not be who he always thought he was. His desires after being with Donovan are not at all where he thought he would be at this stage in his life. He is very clearly into what they are doing, but it takes him a while to understand the why of it and be ok with embracing this side of himself. He is worried about what other people will think about him being with a man and he’s especially worried about people judging their relationship and all that entails. Donovan has pretty much given up on finding his person. His last relationship explosion just about tanked his entire life – including his professional life. He and Tyler start out very much at odds. Donovan is very formal in how he runs his kitchen and he is a bit unfair to Tyler in the beginning – calling him just a bartender – despite Tyler having worked at the bar/restaurant longer than Donovan has. This feeds into their initial hostility/animosity that spills over into the hate sex encounter. I really loved how their relationship built and I felt like that part of this story was authentic. This isn’t my favorite genre, but this book really showed the dynamic between these two that grew from just sex to so much more.
As usual, James Edward Jones does and outstanding job performing this story. Donovan is a prickly exacting Dom. His expectations must be met 😉 Tyler’s gradual acceptance of his true nature and his brattiness are so on point here. I loved the secondary relationships too – well except for Jude. Maybe he’ll redeem himself in the next book 😛 Very very well done. Highly recommended and even if you aren’t a BDSM fan, this book is worth a listen.
RATING: 
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