Title: Beautiful C*cksucker
Author: Barbara Sheridan
Length: 44 pages
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing
Genre: m/m contemporary
Rating: C+
Blurb:
What NYPD patrolman Ray Watts wants to do is finish his shift and take a much needed vacation. If he has to first suffer through playing chauffeur to some pain in the ass foreign cop visiting New York on a special fact-finding detail then so be it.
But what Ray gets is a pleasant and arousing surprise when Inspector Miki Nabeshima from Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department shows up and skillfully escorts him into a world like none he’s ever known, a world Ray never thought much about, but once he’s ushered in, he knows he’ll never be able to turn back.
Review
This story is a bit of an oldie, having been released over 2 years ago now – to much controversy due to the provocative title. It’s been in my TBR pile for ages and when I noticed that Noble had published another short in the series, I thought it was time to pull this one out and have a read. It follows cop Ray who’s been given an assignment to act as a driver for a VIP visiting cop from Tokyo. Things don’t turn out quite as expected for Ray though as he finds himself introduced to the BDSM lifestyle.
Let’s start with some positives. I liked Ray, especially that he was a good cop and also open-minded when it came to new experiences, although I did find it hard to believe that he could suddenly be attracted to men. Having said that, I thought the way that his misgivings and concerns about the way his evening was going were realistic and the scene where he sits in the forest and thinks through what has happened so far was one of the best scenes in the book. I also liked the mercurial Miki who spent much of the book pushing Ray’s boundaries to see where it would take them. As you may expect the sex scenes were pretty hot, and I like the way the story played with accepted roles being switched about.
My main complaint about the story was that the plot was a little all over the place. The setting moves around a lot, with the characters rarely staying in one place for long. There’s also a lot of themes and ideas in the book, such as cross dressing, bad and good Dom characters and their behaviour towards the subs, abusive relationships and BDSM scenes. This meant that the story didn’t flow very well for me as we are taken from one situation to the next with little to link them but the characters of Miki and Ray. Nothing is dealt with in too great a detail and I felt a little bombarded with ideas which were never fully resolved. Even the end is unresolved, being neither a HEA or a HFN – but also not a sad ending either.
In the end, I was left a little overwhelmed by how much this story managed to cram between its pages and I couldn’t help but feel that the story could have been so much better if it had been pared down a little, and some of the ideas given more space to flourish. However, there was still a lot to like in the story and those who like BDSM stories should still give it a go.
Hmm. Maybe someday, when I run out of other books…
LOL, Chris
. Like that’s ever going to happen!
Exactly.
I might have been intrigued by the plot (if not the title), except I know now that the story definitely doesn’t have a HEA ending—one of the main characters is dead before the start of the sequel.
Maybe I’m a bit too attached to my genre rules, but that was enough to keep me away. I don’t want to go into a book—especially a romance—knowing it’s going to make me sad.
I recognize that my reason is pretty subjective and that other people might have a broader range for what they want to read, so obviously I’m not saying anyone else should refuse to read the book for that reason. Just me.
Oh no! I haven’t read the second book in the series yet. I wondered why one of the heroes wasn’t mentioned in the blurb of that second book. How odd to kill off one of your main characters in a series. I’m actually glad I didn’t know that piece of information before I read because I think it may have coloured my judgement too.
I hope I haven’t ruined your enjoyment of the story. It struck me as odd, too. And because I know, I just can’t make myself read it.
Nah, I would have found out pretty soon anyway after starting the second book.
Uh, oh … I didn’t know about the thing that Dianne mentioned, but knowing it now, I may stay away from the book. It’s good to read a review and get an idea of what it’s about because I know the title caused an uproar at the time, and that made me curious about the book.
Hi Val
The controversy is what made me buy the book in the first place and then it sat for ages in my TBR pile.
Yeah, every now and then being slow to catch up with new books actually works to my advantage.
Well, the title doesn’t work for me, but that’s not the only reason I’m not interested (along with the reason Dianne mentioned – who really does have an adorable avatar). I’m not really into the BDSM much (I like mine lite) so I just thing there are a few too many things here that work against it for me.
Hi Tam
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The BDSM wasn’t really very heavy at all in this book. Most of it was humiliation play with a heavy dose of submission rather than the whips and chains
Wow. I was quite surprised to find out this is a short and not a novella or novel. Don’t know why I assumed it was a longer work.
I’ve been intrigued by this story because of its title, but I’m a little dismayed by its focus. The genre’s glutted with BDSM. Like Tam, I prefer those elements to be light and incidental (i.e., integrated without a lot of hoopla into the sex scenes).
Oh well. There’s other fiction I’ll be able to read comfortably at my desktop.
I was surprised by the length too, KZ. I’d forgotten it was a short until I opened it to read.
It’s quite an old story (over 2 years) so maybe the BDSM theme was a little fresher when it was released. I agree that there’s lots of BDSM around at the moment. I don’t mind that so much cos I like those sorts of stories – well I do for now, I may get bored with them
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