Review - Unraveled by K.M. Neuhold

Auto mechanic Max has his hands full taking care of his daughter, who he shares custody of with her mother. He is definitely thinking about finding the “right girl” and settling down, but nobody he meets seems to spark any deep feelings. Max’s roommate and best friend Clay’s situation isn’t much different. He’s busy running his business and helping Max take care of his daughter. Only, in Clay’s case, he just hasn’t found the right guy, which is doubly hard for him given his need to be tied up to really enjoy sex.

It shouldn’t be too much of a spoiler to reveal that Max and Clay do get together in the course of the story. I’ve never particularly cared for the “gay for you” plot line. It often doesn’t ring true, and of course feeds into conservative hysteria about gays “recruiting” straight people. But the plot of “Unraveled” lays some careful groundwork to make a believable case for Max coming to terms with his attraction to Clay.

The two men come across as quit believable characters all-around. There are quite a number of other people around them, and they’re all three dimensional. A lot of Clay’s friends seem to be people who were introduced in other books from the “Heathen Ink” series, but I haven’t read the previous books and it doesn’t feel like I’ve missed much.

Clay’s kink, which is rope bondage, as you can guess from the title and cover, plays a big role in this story, and it creates a somewhat unusual dynamic for a BDSM story. The sub-who-doesn’t-know-he’s-a-sub is a common plot theme in kinky stories, but it’s rare that we see dominant feelings surface in a character. Perhaps even more rare is seeing a [potential] Dom research what his [prospective] sub needs. While the story arc is otherwise what you’d expect from a D/s romance, these distinctive aspects of the plot set it apart from the usual fare.

“Unraveled” is available from Amazon.