Review: Doesn't start out well, but a development near the end redeemed it for me
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2013
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 6/10PROS:- The D/s dynamics between Paul and Brian and between Jim and Scott are complicated and feel realistic to me. I like that the relationships are so different but are both obviously predicated on a power exchange dynamic.- Some of the writing is amusing, especially when the author uses capital letters to emphasize the importance of certain terms: "Brian was an intelligent, well-adjusted young man. But he was a Brat, and he was feeling a definite lack of Proper Appreciation."- There's a third relationship introduced about 2/3 of the way into the story that I liked a lot. I was much more interested in Freddie and Joshua than I was in the original foursome.CONS:- I understand that Brian's attitude is the main conflict of the story, but he is such a brat in this volume that I didn't like him much.- There are a couple of plot developments that are described in deliberately obtuse terms (for example: "And then there was how the entire question made him, Paul, feel"...with no explanation as to what "the question" is until much later). I imagine the author's intent was to create intrigue; however, knowing that these things weighed so heavily on all the characters' minds but not knowing WHAT those things were irritated me. It felt to me as though Riley felt that she ought to keep secrets from her readers because all of the characters are keeping secrets from one another.- The point of view switches from character to character within some scenes, but other scenes are consistently third person limited.Overall comments: I ended up liking this okay, mostly because I was interested in the secondary romance between Freddie and Joshua. The tension at the beginning of the story made me reluctant to keep reading, though, so I almost didn't even get to the Freddie-and-Joshua part. I'm not sure whether Brian's character is any different in this story than inGoldilocks and his Three Bears, but I could hardly stand his brattiness in this one. I found him very off-putting.