This is a hard book for me to review. I've gone in reading it knowing this was one of Mickie Ashling's very early pieces. And like most authors, her writing style has grown and changed over the years. That was extremely evident to me while I was reading, to be honest.

I love the characters: Scott and Robin. Scott was quite an contradiction to be honest. Confident in his job, but very unsure and needy when it came to his private life. Robin was a great counterbalance to this, but again there was a slight "disconnect", for lack of a better explanation, between work and play. And while I'm not in any way connected to the BDSM scene in RL, some things just didn't sit comfortably with me, which is another reason I think I struggled a bit during the story.

There was also a lot going on. The story was told from different POV's which doesn't worry me. However the sheer amount of POV's was challenging. If it were only Scott's and Robin's, okay. But all the other side characters who had their say... I feel a lot of these distracted and took away from the story, although some of the info we were given was very relevant towards the end of the story. Other sections we could have done without, as far as I'm concerned at least.

However even with these issues, it's a book I did enjoy reading. I do feel it's a very clear example of an author's early writing, with all the mistakes they often make without a very strong team behind them. None of this is evident in Mickie Ashling's later works, so please don't let this tale put you off reading any of her new books. ( )