P.A. Friday

I received All About the Boy through the Don’t Buy My Love program. This book contains three BDSM short stories around fifteen to twenty pages each in length. They are all told in third person through one MC’s pov. I’m going to give a short review of each separately and then my overall impression at the end.


Pretty Little Straight Boy

3.5

This story is through Stefan’s pov. He’s on a camping trip with his three buddies as a last get together before they go their separate ways and head out into the world. The one person that’s important, is Stefan’s soft spoken friend, Rufus.

I won’t go into what happens on the trip, but I found the beginning of the story confusing. It felt like there was head hopping. I got confused with the numerous characters speaking and it seemed like I was reading between Stefan’s and then Rufus’s pov, even though that wasn’t the case. I would call this light BDSM with Stefan finding out things about himself and Rufus.

The BDSM scenes were sexy and I enjoyed this story the most out of the three stories, and I especially liked the ending lines.


Making Amends

3.0

This story is through Jake’s pov. It’s about his interactions with Alessandro, Jake’s Master, and Alessandro’s friend, Leo, who Jake loathes. Leo reminded me strongly of Snape from the Harry Potter books, not Alan Rickman of the movies. Leo is a very dislikable character but he’s a caricature of a Sadist, someone who is thoroughly unpleasant.

Jake ends up being rude to Leo, which means Alessandro punishes him for his behavior. What I’m surprised about is that even though Jake is physically punished, he is also rewarded by being allowed to come. I don’t think that allowing Jake to come, is a punishment. On the other hand, he has to endure with Leo, and Jake feels his body is betraying him, I can see how coming would be humiliation and torment because he doesn’t want to feel pleasure with a man he loathes. I found it odd that none of the men talk through their problems, but instead use humiliation to put Jake in his place. I don’t find that solving anything and would, in the end, only make Jake feel less about himself. Reading that kind of BDSM isn’t fun for me, even though I’m sure there are some who will like it.

The ending almost makes me think that Alessandro and Leo baited Jake into a punishment and are training Jake to enjoy humiliation. The ending lines indicate that Leo is going to do his best to make Jake take punishments again. Saying that, I didn’t enjoy this story like the first. The scene with Alessandro I enjoyed, but not the one with Leo.


Office Politics

3.0

The author certainly has a knack for writing unpleasant characters I must say. Kel is the CEO in this story, he’s arrogant, self-centered and a switch. He’s into thrills and pushing the limit. Peter is very submissive and not out. The last person is Dean, an angry, aggressive man. I wouldn’t call him a Dominant, so much as dominating. Kel has planned a rendezvous with Peter first, then Dean. He likes the thrill of them almost meeting. Things happen with Kel getting beaten up by Dean and Peter coming to Kel’s rescue there-by outing himself.

I found the abuse to Kel pointless other than to tell a person to stop the BDSM when someone doesn’t want to continue and never to play when angry. In the end it felt like Peter was on the losing end, since Dean planned on outing him. The ending was confusing, in that Dean said he wasn’t going to get Peter sacked, but he knew that being gay was frowned upon in the company and he planned on outing him. Peter would have a very difficult time at the company or would have to leave.

I didn’t care for this story that much either. It felt unresolved but with an unhappy end for Peter’s future.


Conclusion:

For some reason, these stories weren’t what I was expecting in this book. Two of the stories were abusive and bordered on non-consensual. The second one was emotionally abusive and the third was physically abusive. I don’t enjoy stories like this. Also when there was monologue, the stories felt like telling rather than showing. The author did however, do well with the characters in making them distinct. All About the Boy was a very quick and easy read without any errors that were obvious. Averaging the story ratings together, I give this book, 3 Stars.


… (más)

This is a really delightful modern fairy tale with some very clever parallels to the classic Cinderella story. What I loved even more were the subtle differences which set it apart from the older version and made it a truly modern incarnation of the old story.

Joe has been neglected and verbally abused for years, his only real supporter is his equally suppressed father. While Joe has managed to build his own life to some degree, he has not managed to fight back against his awful mother and two dreadful older sisters. Meeting an author he has admired for years, and being accepted by him, finally gives Joe what he needs to stand up for himself.

This was fun to read, with lots of humor. Very entertaining.… (más)