Well. I barely know what to think about this one. There are a few words that come to mind: "seriously disturbing" and "I wish I hadn't read this" come to mind. "Insect play" in the tags given to the book is what should have stopped me from reading this story in the first place, but my curiosity got the better of me, I guess. That is entirely my fault and a personal issue.

It all starts so well: a couple in trouble, trying to reconnect, going on a weekend retreat in an old hotel. Sounds promising, right? A bit of bondage, or even serious kink is something I do enjoy reading about, but this story? About halfway through it began to press all the wrong buttons for me. By that time I was too invested in Eli's fate to be able to stop reading, no matter how much I wish I could have.

What isn't a personal issue and what made me rate the book the way I did, is that the way Eli, the sub, was treated by Rob, the Dom, was disrespectful, seriously non-consensual, and then his safeword was ignored. IGNORED, I tell you. That really got to me. Eli's fear during the insect scene was so real, his pain even more so, and you can say whatever you want, but the Dom, at that point, was NOT in control (nobody controls wasps crawling on a man's cock, locked in place by an inverted glass and agitated by the poor sub's desperate struggle to get away). That is DANGEROUS and plain stupid!

And no matter how much they end up professing to love each other at the end, I was never convinced Eli really wanted that torture. He may have endured it to please Rob, but that was born of desperation so he wouldn't lose his Dom, nowhere did I find a hint that he was into pain.

So, the bottom line is I don't even know whom to recommend this to. I guess if all of the above intrigues you more than it disgusts and horrifies you, and if you're into horror and torture, then you may want to read this story. Others seem to have enjoyed it, but I was, unfortunately, not able to.


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First off, I have sung from the rooftops how incredibly grateful I am at all the fabulous authors who have given us so many wonderful FREE stories this summer as part of the M/M Romance Groups's Love Has No Boundaries story collection. I'm still not even a quarter of the way through them and look forward to lazy winter days when I can give them more of my attention. That said, there are always going to be some stories that just aren't for you, and this is one of them for me. I put it on my DNR shelf and will not rate so as not to mess with the ratings, but that in no way means I am not grateful for [a:Tripoli|7204785|Tripoli|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] taking the time and energy to write this story. Different strokes for different folks!

Read the blurb for disclaimers and a few reviews to see if this one is right for you. And many thanks to my GR friend Tina K. for steering me away from this one. She has known me long enough to know my reading tastes and knew this would be a bit much for me.

Happy reading!