Review: Better than average erotic romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2014
I worked at major convention hotels for over 10 years, why didn't we ever have such interesting conventions?Derek, a masochistic sub and Chase, a sadistic dom are friends and Derek was a great support to Chase during his nasty breakup with his former sub, Ian.  They decide to share costs and go to a BDSM convention together and share a room.  Just before they leave, they unexpectedly have sex together for the first time...vanilla sex.  Neither is quite sure why it was vanilla sex and not what they preferred (but it was still very good) and thinks it means the other person doesn't really have true sexual interest in him.  They agree to stay platonic to preserve their friendship.  Well, of course that causes problems when both, separately, wonder "What if?"A real positive which helps to develop our interest in the characters and their relationship is that the story switches from the first person POV of Derek and Chase.  I found it easy to follow and enjoyed it because so many times in BDSM books we don't really know what's going on with the characters beyond how they react sexually.  We get their thought processes so we just don't go "Why, why are you being so dumb?!?"  So often with erotic romance it seems like the connections are instant and that the characters are just puppets to the action, but I didn't find that here.Derek and Chase also try to communicate with each other, they just aren't great at it.  Chase is not the all knowing, perfect dom and Derek isn't a doormat.  Outside of scenes it's shown that people in the scene have normal social and business relationships with others.  It is also the first time I've read about "Top Drop", the fact that after an intense scene a dom can suffer from depression or be emotionally wiped out.While the ending comes a tad fast, at least we know Derek and Chase have been friends for a long time and have been interested, more so for Derek, for most of that time.I received a copy in exchange for my honest review from Netgalley.