Review - Falling Into Place

This review originally appeared at BDSM Book Reviews.

Scott is a 30-something stay at home dad with two children and a wife who also plays his domme. Scott has a deep-seated desire to submit and experience pain, a need that masks a dark secret from his past and helps stave off the depression that digs away at him. Only, lately it hasn’t been working, and after a near disaster with his daughter, Scott’s wife Heather asks for a divorce, to which he agrees. Scott finds a dump of an apartment not far from his former home, and manages to land a job as the personal assistant to Milo Brock.

Milo is a former professional hockey player whose playing career came to an abrupt end due to an injury. To him, Scott is a godsend, keeping him organized and helping to succeed at a job many thought he was too young and inexperienced to handle. Like Scott, Milo considers himself straight, but over time he begins to recognize Scott’s submissive nature, as well as the feelings it raises within himself.

The challenges faced by the two men are formidable. Not only are they employer and employee, but Milo has no experience as a master or a dom. He’s not sure he can give Scott what he needs. And then there are the other people they both have in their lives, and their reactions to the two men both ’turning gay'.

“Falling Into Place” is, at its heart, a big mushy romance about finding love where you least expect it. In that respect, the horribly girly cover art is probably appropriate, even though it is a big turnoff and doesn’t reflect the kinkier themes of the book. However, while Scott’s need for pain and domination are a very central part of the plot, there are very, very few actual BDSM scenes described in the book. What is described is the very strong D/s bond that forms between Milo and Scott before either one of them fully realizes it. Scott falls into being submissive to the bigger, stronger Milo simply because that’s the way he’s wired. For Milo, it’s more of a journey as he at first admires his assistant’s efficiency and then slowly realizes where it comes from, and the feelings it awakens within him. Fortunately for Milo, or conveniently, depending on how you look at it, he has a friend who is into the lifestyle to help him figure out what Scott needs, although whether or not Milo can give it to him is still the big question.

The writing style of this author is a bit unusual. The narrative, which is mostly from Scott’s point of view, is in the third person and relies heavily on ’telling’ us what is happening rather than ‘showing’ us. While this is a cardinal sin to some, in this case the prose manages to avoid the tedium that this style can often invoke. More unusual is the occasional snarky comment. These come off with varying degrees of success, but they always are slightly jarring. Together with the narrative style, it adds to the distance between the reader and characters. We don’t quite connect with Scott in the way we we should. For me, Scott is exactly the kind of character I could get deeply emotionally invested in, but that didn’t happen. So, while this is a nice story, it isn’t really going to tug at your heartstrings nor is it going to give you much excitement erotically, although there are a few nice scenes.

“Falling Into Place” is available from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press, or from Amazon