Title: Fractured
Series: Bay Area Professionals 03
Author: Mickie B Ashling
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM
Length: Novel (216 pages)
ISBN: 978-1-62798-782-0
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (24 March 2014)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 3.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: Roque “Ro” Celdran dreams of a better life, far away from the hand-to-mouth existence of his migrant worker family. He moves to San Francisco to study Landscape Design but finds himself short of cash. Tony, Ro’s identical twin, comes up with a plan to help Ro make ends meet. The BDSM club Tony frequents is looking for gay men to act as submissives to the Dommes-in-training. Ro reluctantly takes the job and falls headfirst into a world he neither understands nor desires.
Lance Roberts is the new doctor at the dental practice started by Scott Gregory and Robin Kennedy. On the surface, he seems to have it all: the Mensa IQ, blond and blue-eyed good looks, and the determination to make it in his competitive field. Underneath lies a frustrated Dom in search of the perfect sub who can handle his obsessive behavior and debilitating need for control.
When Ro ends up in Lance’s dental chair, the last thing either one expects is a physical and mental connection. Ro’s attraction to “White Bread” never pans out, and Lance’s weakness for Latinos always leads to a dead end. Could this time be different? What happens between the two alphas leads to a lot of soul-searching and some surprising conclusions.
Purchase Link: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Fractured is the third book in Mickie B Ashling’s Bay Area Professionals series. While this is the third book in the series, you can easily read this as a standalone as there are only brief appearances of the founding (if you will) characters of the series, Scott and Robin, as Lance is the new doctor in their practice. However, if you tried to read book 2 as a standalone, the word impossible comes to mind.
Although I’ve been enjoying this series, I can’t say if I am completely sold of Ashling’s writing to put them into my authors I must read list. Yet in saying that, I’m really impressed with how well the author deals with what could be classed as taboo, or even progressive, storylines that heavily involve some form of kink. I find these types of books hit and miss, but I am really impressed by how Ashling tells the story with an edgy twist, but also manages to move the story along quick enough that I didn’t get bored. I personally don’t like long sex scenes in books, because romance isn’t all about smut, and Ashling nailed this (pun intended) really well.
The story is about Roque, aka Ro, and Lance. As I just said, Lance is the new doctor at a surgery set up by a dental surgeon and dental hygienist who live the BDSM lifestyle, except at work. Lance is also a Dom, he needs the perfect sub that can match his need to dominate and control, but so far he’s been very unlucky in love.
Ro is a man of many dreams, he wants an easier life, away from his family and wants to study landscape design, but since he’s short of cash, his twin brother produces the answer. There’s a BDSM club which needs a submissive, gay male to perform scenes with the training Doms. He enters the BDSM world reticent but desperate, not expecting to find what he needs.
It is at the dental surgery where Lance and Ro meet. The sparks fly but both guys have been unlucky going after the type of man that they see in each other. These guys are extremely complicated characters and part of what can make these books hard to read is that Ashling delves deep into the minds of the MC as you go along. The character development is spectacular. Likewise, the secondary characters are also amazing. These guys are complicated but they have good people in their lives to help them along the way.
I recommend this one to those that first, love BDSM, but also have a touch of angst tied within a pretty complex and deep storyline.