I received a copy of The Dom Around the Corner, by Christine D’Abo, from Netgalley.
Description from Goodreads:
Simon is jaded. His bookstore is failing, his personal life is nonexistent, and he’s tired of the local scene. He’s desperate for a change, and hopes to find it at Escape, the hot new BDSM club in town.
What he finds there is Gavin. One look at the sexy submissive is all he needs to know that his trip to Escape was the right decision. And their night of no-holds-barred kinky sex feels like only the beginning . . . until his promising new sub vanishes with the dawn.
Then Gavin walks through the door of Simon’s bookstore—for business, not pleasure. To both of their surprise, he’s the consultant Simon hired to help save the store. As they work together, Simon realizes that he might have another shot at happiness, if only he can convince Gavin that he’s worth sticking around for.
Review: (slightly spoilerish)
Not much to this one, but what’s there is enjoyable enough. Really, I could end this review there, as it pretty much encapsulates my feeling about the book. We have a lonely older Dom, who happens to be a very good at what he does. (We’re reminded of this several times.) And we have his perfect sub who can’t commit. Overcoming this refusal is basically the plot (the saving his bookstore bit is just framing) and the presumed HEA comes after the inevitable ‘yes.’
I enjoyed it all, but I do have to admit that the solution comes off screen. One page the sub is all, I can’t, I just CAN’T. Then, on the next page he’s explicably back saying, I want to give this a try. But we, the reader, aren’t granted access to what made him magically change his mind, which honestly (in my opinion) was really needed. In fact, I would almost argue that it should have been the backbone of the book; so having it left out was extremely frustrating.
All in all, for a bit of fluff it was a fine read.
