Review: Great first novel!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2014
Is this really a first novel? If it is one, we did not realize so the writing is clear and professional. This author writes better than most authors in this genre and even authors writing in any other genre of novel. She has an excellent vocabulary and knows how to express clearly what she wants us to understand.SPOILERS BEGIN HERE:CharactersBrennen Brady: The MC. He is a 21-year-old man who has a history of rapes and abuse of all kinds during his childhood. His mother, an alcoholic and drug addicted prostitute died when he was 12, leaving him in Adrik hands, a stepfather who has only one idea in mind: make the boy pay for his mother’s death (Brennen's mother died when the boy was alone with her).Dubrovsky Brothers:Dmitri: Brennen's rescuer. He took Brennen away from Adrik, with whom the boy lived since his mother’s death. Dmitri is a member of the Russian Mafia. Brennen lived first in a father-son relationship with Dmitri. This relationship turned into a lover relationship.Mischa: Dmitri's brother and hit man for the Mafia. Mischa has a bad temper and can react very sharply when something does not please him. However, it is him that Dmitri chose to be Brennen's bodyguard.Adrik: One of Brennen's mothers lovers. He lived with her just before her death. He is the one who tortured and raped Brennen after his mother death. Adrik was a member of the Mafia, but now he is in debt and pursued by his creditors. So he changed his name and lives in a hideout.Jesse: Brennen's roommate. He lives with the MC in his apartment in Beverly Hills. Brennen regards him as a friend. But Jesse was actually hired by Dmitri to spy and report to him all Brennen's actions.Nika: The woman who becomes the wife of Dmitri at the beginning of the novel and who hates Brennen because Dmitri still loves his protégé.Bella: One of Brennen's classmates at USC. Brennen finds her very attractive and invites her restaurant and at home. They are surprised in bed by Dmitri.Professor Brady: Brennen's biological father. He teaches at USC. Brennen, who has not seen since his mothers, only meets him when the professor replaces a colleague.Lies and deceits scattered throughout the novelThroughout the story, we discover with Brennen all the things that have been hidden by everyone around him, particularly by Dmitri, who is the mastermind behind all these concealments.Adrik hid to Brennen that he met Professor Brady, the boy’s biological father. Professor Brady had gone to look after his son when his mother died. So Adrik let Brennen believe that his father had abandoned him.Dmitri, whom Brennen considers as his boyfriend, cheated on him with women, because he was looking for a wife. He said nothing to Brennen, who discovers the truth the day Dmitri announces his upcoming wedding. Dmitri hid to Brennen for months that he did nothing with Nika, leaving the young man suffer every day when imagining Dmitri and Nika making love together.Dmitri hired Jesse to spy on Brennen. Obviously, Brennen knows nothing about it. He considers Jesse as his only friend. Brennen learns everything at the end of the story while Jesse, who has enough of Mischa's anger, decides to drop espionage and move in a hideout.Mischa, who never stops to say to Brennen that he loves him like a little brother, is actually in cahoots with Dmitri. Everything Mischa does is planned and reviewed by Dmitri. Dmitri knows everything even when Mischa points his gun at Brennen's head, forces the boy to get naked, hogties and transports him to the cabin into his car’s trunk where he beats the boy. All that, to give Brennen a lesson. A lesson of what? Of cruelty? Even if he said afterward that his gun was not loaded, it is an unacceptable behavior, especially with regard to a young man with a tormented past like Brennen.During their first visit to the cottage, Dmitri "punishes" Brennen by hitting him with his belt for his antics during the marriage (very understandable behavior given the circumstances). He gives the boy three unacceptable options, in the hope that Brennen choose to drop his work for the escort agency. Dmitri continues to strike the boy in the hope that Brennen eventually say hell quit his job. Not only the reason given for this beating (punishment for his misbehaviour) is false, but more importantly, while Brennen has not abdicated, Dmitri still forced him to stop his job. Then Dmitri stays without seeing Brennen for days, leaving Brennen worrying about the reasons for this silence and being frightened to be rejected by him. Then he dares tell Brennen: "No one would hurt you the way Adrik did." Another lie. And who would hit it a kid in the same way that his stepfather and abuser did (with a leather belt)? No need to be a psychologist to understand that it can awaken very bad memories and create damages in the kids mind and heart.Dmitri hid to Brennen that he knew Professor Brady, that Brennan's father had wanted to take charge of the boy; but Dmitri, wanting to keep Brennan, had convinced his father that he was better to take care of the kid. Professor Brady was debt-ridden, so he decided to give his son guardianship to this Mafioso! Dmitri then paid the debts of the teacher, but kept Brennen into his custody. Dmitri said that he loves too much the boy to give him back to his real father. The latter, now freed from his debts, could have very well taken care of his son. But Dmitri hid all these details to Brennen, who continued to believe that his father had abandoned him and that everyone except Dmitri had his fate to heart.Dmitri also lied to Brennen when he said that he didn't give Mark Miller, Brennen's favorite client, to Viktor. Viktor was Dmitri's his former lover (maybe not so former than that). Dmitri claimed later that Viktor went to live in Russia, but in reality he had given Viktor his American escort agency.Bella is friend with Nika, Dmitri's wife. She was at Dmitri's and Nika's wedding party and she noticed Brennen dancing there that day. But she said nothing to Brennen about her friendship and the fact that she had already met him until, at the very end of the story, Brennen asked her about all this.Brennen was interested in a dominant named Master Ethan, whom he met in a bar. Dmitri hides him he knew that dominant, and they communicated with each other.At the end of the story, Nika lies to Dmitri about the quarrel she had with Brennen. She was indiscreet and cruel to Brennen, who got angry against her and slapped her in the face. Nika accuses Brennen to be constantly violent towards her.Brennen hides things to Dmitri several times: when he met his biological father at university or his first date with Bella, his web site filled with photos of himself naked or videos in which he put on a show. Brennen lied at the end of the story, pretending that he did nothing with Bella.There is a gap between Brennen's inner voice and what he says to people. While he wonders about the trust or even the love he can afford to give to people, about the injustice of the treatment they showed towards him, he comes to think, “I hate you!” about Dmitri and Mischa when they mistreats him, he still tells them, “I love you”. When is he lying? When he thinks he hates them or when he tells that he loves them?Although Dmitri keeps hiding things and lying to Brennen. Yet he continues to say to the boy that he should trust him. And when Dmitri asked Brennen if he has ever lied to him, Brennen replied: "Not that I remember." Does Brennen have memory problems?At an advanced time in the story, Brennen wondered why it so hard for him to trust people. Why would he trust anybody? Everybody lie constantly to him or hide him important facts?Comments on the storyI think that Brennen suffers from Superman syndrome. Not that he thinks himself to be Superman, but he sees Dmitri as his rich savior, his superman. He is so grateful to have come out of the grip of Adrik that he falls in love with his rescuer and comes to believe that he cannot live without Dmitri.But it is Dmitri who generated the idea of helplessness, inability to live on his own in the boy's mind. Brennen works for the Dmitri's agency. And Dmitri, his boss, places all his wages in a bank account which Brennen will not have access to before he is 35 years old. Brennen lives in an apartment paid for by Dmitri, but he cannot greet friends there for fear that they would discover his and Dmitri's homosexuality. This is also the reason for the marriage of Dmitri: to keep up appearances on his heterosexuality with his family and his Russian friends. Dmitri gives Brennen money to meet his needs; so Dmitri knows exactly what he spends. Although Dmitri put the Brennen's name on all his possessions papers, what can Brennen do with it? Nothing. Brennen also says that he don't care about all this money which he does not have access to anyway. What he wants is to feel loved. And it’s not with a married man and in the absence of friends that he may feel really loved.Brennen can do NOTHING without Dmitri knowing it through the employees of his company, his brother Mischa and Jesse. Brennen is emotionally and financially dependent on Dmitri.What amazes me most is that while Brennen complains about Dmitri being a control freak, acting as if he was his father and treating him like a child, Brennen asks Dmitri to become his dominant. But I guess for the author, a D/s relationship is only held in the bedroom. In any case, if it is held elsewhere someday, as the end of the novel suggests, Brennen will certainly find Dmitri more controlling than ever. He may well not like it at all.SPOILERS END HEREEvaluation of novelI preferred to believe that this is a deliberate choice by the author to picture all her characters, even Brennen occasionally, as secretive and liars in order to sprinkle her novel with events that lead to revelations. All these revelations spice her story and give it pizzazz.The author seems to have understood very well how to lead her readers to ask questions about her characters and events. Throughout the story, the readers, as Brennen, wonder who they should trust or not, who they should love or hate.This novel is the story of the ups and downs of a young man’s life coming out of an abusive relationship to fall into another full of deceptions. All those who are usually fascinated by stories about children's or teenagers' plight will certainly be charmed by this story.Regarding the erotic part, it is mainly at the beginning of the novel that sex is described in more detail. The author has not abused of it; which suits me perfectly.Regarding BDSM, it is more mentioned than accomplished.SPOILERS BEGIN HEREMany times Dmitri plans to "play" with Brennen, but something prevents it. Once or twice, Brennen is paddled by Dmitri. Mark, the lawyer, is better at taking original postures in bed than to dominate. There is one scene with him with Brennen handcuffed and blindfolded, but they only have sex. We cannot consider the times Mischa or Dmitri beat Brennen with a belt as BDSM. The scene with many clients sprinkling Brennen with beer against his will and letting him believe that it was something else that was running over him cannot be seen as BDSM either. The scene with the guy Brennen called the Prince is just cruelty, since Brennen cannot free himself and has no safeword. This leaves just a few scenes classifiable as BDSM. For me, BDSM means that there is consent from all partners, that the sub is able to terminate the scene by a safeword or the possibility of leaving, and that there is more than bounded sex.SPOILERS END HEREFrom this point of view, there is not much BDSM in this novel. But the author said that there were soft BDSM elements, so she didn't lie to us.As I said in the beginning, the author writes better than the vast majority of current writers. She did her research on Russian habits and was able to use some elements of this knowledge appropriately. She knew very well how to give life to her characters that make us think of people we met on the street so they are alive. She has also been very successful in supporting her readers’ interests throughout her story.