Review: Too Short, and Flawed, But Still Good
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2012
Master Class is the newly released (by Riptide) prequel to the Sublime collection of BDSM shorts. It covers the very start of the relationship between the submissive Nicky and his dom Devon. The short-short novella (or longish short story) opens with the first meeting between the two, and it's love, or perhaps lust, at first sight.Nicky is a true masochist who seems addicted to punishment, and goes out of his way to provoke it from his doms. For his part, Devon seems to be a true sadist, although we're give some insight into his doubts about how far he can go with Nicky. Devon sees through Nicky's attempts to manipulate him and believes there's a deeper reason the young man seeks out pain and humiliation. A large portion of the book is taken up with Devon's torture of Nicky to get him to break down.It can be a difficult read. The BDSM action was a bit much for my taste, which is one of the reasons I didn't rate the book higher. I also felt the book was a bit too short, and could have benefited from a bit more character development so we can have a better context for the revelations that come out. Finally, there was some niggling little issues with continuity. The characters occasionally do things that seem physically improbable. For example, Devon sits on a sofa, leaving Nicky standing in front of him. But then the next thing you know, Devon slaps Nicky hard in the head. Either Nicky is very short or Devon has very long arms. I find such things jar me out of the visual scene I've built in my head when reading and really distract from the story. There aren't a lot of such issues in this story but enough to mention.