Title: Better
Author: Jaime Samms
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM, Kink
Length: Novel (240pgs)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (27th January 2012)
Heat Level: Low-Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: After filing charges that put his abusive ex-Dom behind bars, Jesse Turbul relocates halfway across the country, hoping to escape his past—but, of course, it’s never that easy. When Jesse meets third-year law student Aadon at the library where he works, their mutual attraction is instant and obvious.
Despite the sparks, they just can’t seem to make it work. Aadon is mired in guilt over his inability to help his older brother, damaged by events far too similar to Jesse’s past. Jesse is stuck in his own desperate wish to forget the painful shadow that continues to threaten him and any hope of a happy future.
The only way to move forward is for Jesse to acknowledge he’s broken and for Aadon to accept he can’t make him better.
Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2739
WARNING: Some scenes may be disturbing for some readers: Self-harm, talk/history about rape and molestation, drug use, and abusive relationship.
Review: Jesse is still hiding from his past and it isn’t until he tries to start a new relationship that he has to admit that he hasn’t dealt with what happened to him. With Aadon’s support he begins to face the past. Aadon has had his eye on Jesse for months and now that he has asked him out and started to get to know him he wonders if he can cope with the additional stress that is coming his way. He hopes he can, because he has no intention of letting Jesse go, if he can help it.
This is an emotional heart-tugging story that shows the vulnerability of all the characters involved. Aadon is already coping with a lot. He is the only support that his older brother has, his father doesn’t want anything to do with him and his mother follows his father’s lead. Aadon is Dominate in the bedroom and he has set his eyes on Jesse to hopefully become his sub. Jesse has had a terrible experience in the past which still affects him. He begins slowly with Aadon confessing what happened in the past and Aadon tries his best to support him but Aadon knows that if Jesse doesn’t face the past he could lose himself to the past.
This was a very draining book, as what is happening between these two young men will affect you as well. You will feel Jesse’s pain and fear, his stubbornness, his anger, his hope and his realization that he isn’t living he is just hiding from the past. With Aadon, you find out what he is already coping with and it will break your heart. you will see his struggle as he tries to cope with being a support to two emotional and physically abused men, and you begin to wonder when it will all crash down on him as it beings to get too much to cope with.
The characters in this book are incredible, the story-line and plot are well written and are very realistic. Both these young men have their own little families who are there to support them through thick and thin. We see the psychological effects on both of them and how that affects their relationship and it is not easy sailing. There isn’t much in the way of sex or BDSM but I was glad there wasn’t as it would have taken away the effectiveness of the story-line.
With this one I am going to recommend this to everyone… it isn’t a light read, it isn’t a happy, joyful read… it’s a read that will tear at your heart for the struggle that these young men go through. It’s a story of hope and recovery and it’s a story of tentative trust and love. I highly recommend this story and will be lurking around the corner waiting for Ricky to start telling his story to Jaime Samms.