Title: Fractured
Series: Bay Area Professionals
Author: Mickie B. Ashling
Genre: Contemporary Romance / BDSM
Length: Novel (216 pages)
ISBN: 978-1-62798-782-0
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (March 24th, 2014)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
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: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4775
Review: Well this was a very interesting book in so many ways. First of all, we have a dentist for a main character and I have to praise the research behind this part of the story. Everything regarding anything dental was described wonderfully, and the way, venues, materials a dentist uses were so real it made me cringe. Fact is I have a sort of phobia toward this profession and damn it if I didn’t feel at times as if I was there, in that clinic facing that Doc. *shudders* But it gave this entire read a very realistic side, made me feel as if I’m right in there, in the heart of this story, inside this very setting. It was a great feeling to be able to immerse myself in such a way in this story.
The other equally interesting things here are the twins. Being a person who has been and still am surrounded by twins, identical and not, my entire life I can’t help but notice how close to the psyche and behavior of twins the author got. At times I felt as if I was reading about my ex-partner and his brother, it was so close to them. Yes, there are twins who get along extremely well even as they are nothing like the other in personality, and then there are those twins who not only are miles in character away from each other, but there is this user/abuser thing going in on between them.
This story has the second part of twins; Ro always the good guy, the one who tries to make a life by working hard toward his goals and his twin is the taking-the-easy-road kind of guy, always irresponsible, always wanting to get somewhere easily and fast. When he crashes and burns though it is Ro cleaning up the mess. This time things got too far and Ro might not only be unable to help his twin, but he is in danger of losing the one thing he thought he’d never get in his life.
The romantic part of the book on the other hand is actually not only sweet, it is intriguing and really worth reading. Lance, the Doc, is a challenging character. He is supposed to be a Dom, but damn if he didn’t give submissive vibes from the beginning of this story. It had me wondering about him the entire time I was reading and when it got to the point where some elements were revealed, well everything made sense then and the way the story turned satisfied me to no end. I loved the dynamic between Lance and Ro. I loved how they handled their relationship. I loved how the book ended with the guys finally having found their place and their own unique style, without suffocating with all those labels and expectations. Not your typical BDSM read, not your typical D/s relationship, and that was perhaps what makes this even more worth reading.
I enjoyed it very much, even as Ro made me want to slap him at times with his holding up the deception, and if you like, a nice romantic story with a kinky bit in it, then this is one I definitely recommend.