Title: No Flag
Series: N/A
Author: Liz Borino
Genre: Contemporary/Military/D/s and DD
Length: Novel (255 pages)
Publisher: Lazy Day Publishing (October 23rd, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4
Blurb: For Mike and Will, “No Flag” meant, “come home alive,” but will their love survive what happens next?
Captain Mike Kelley does not ignore his intuition, so when sexy bartender Will Hayes captures his heart, Mike embarks on a mission to win him over to a Domestic Discipline relationship. Will accepts with one caveat: Mike must promise not to renew his Army contract. Mike agrees, and they spend a year building a life together, getting married, and starting a business.
Only days before their café’s grand opening, Mike receives news that threatens everything he and Will have built. The Army invokes the Stop Loss military policy to involuntarily extend his commission and send him back overseas. Will, left alone to cope with the café, must rely on the support of old friends who may no longer be trustworthy. Through emails and Skype calls, Mike and Will keep their love and structure alive…until the day a horrific terrorist attack occurs on Mike’s outpost.
Mike awakens in a hospital with a devastating injury and no memory of the attack. As the only survivor, Mike’s memory may be the key to national security. Mike struggles to cope with his injury and Will struggles to support the man who always held him up. Both fear they have lost their previous relationship. Will has Mike back rather than a folded flag, but in the aftermath of war, can they rebuild the life they had before? Especially when those closest to them may not have their best interests at heart?
*Contains BDSM elements in the context of a loving relationship.
Product Link: http://www.amazon.com/No-Flag-Liz-Borino-ebook/dp/B00G3T4E5Y
Reviewer: GiGi
Review: I’m an avid reader of stories and romances with BDSM content. And what I’m usually drawn to in that is the D/s elements. SO, I found this story of bartender meets military officer fascinating. It contains not only a dominating, totally lovingly controlling soldier with OCD, and an otherwise independent spirit waiting to be harnessed by love.
Captain Mike Kelley picks up Will in a bar and later takes him home, but from there the predictable outcome takes a diversion. The friendship lasts months before Mike drops the Domestic Discipline issue on Will. And even after dealing with his no intimacy before relationships and crazy OCD tendencies, Will is intrigued and interested enough to do his homework. What he finds is that he’s drawn to this mutual contract, drawn to having Mike order his life, lovingly and respectfully of course. His only hang-up is his discomfort for the military and Mike’s career risking their relationship, risking Mike’s life. His one and only hang-up is to make sure that at the end of the two months left of Mike’s enlisted period that he’s done, he does not reenlist. Mike agrees and their DD relationship seems to work for both of them. Will is making improvements in his own life, working towards education and career goals with Mike’s direction and discipline and Mike is even loosening up his tight OCD, a tiny bit.
All seems to be going great, they are making commitments, heading into marriage, looking forward to opening a business together and the military drops the bomb. A nuclear bomb for their relationship in the form of Stop Loss.
Can Will handle the devastating distance, the fear his husband won’t come home alive, the lack of the control he so trustingly handed over to Mike? The distance is hard enough, but opening a new business alone, classes, and keeping the discipline Mike has ordered send Will to the breaking point. While glued to the pages I kept cheering them both on, they could do this, hard as it may be, only a year with Skype and text to keep them connected. But when Mike is near fatally injured and loses his arm, I feared the worst looking down that road. I really wondered if Mike could keep such an important part of himself, control, dominant tendencies, care for Will, when he faced such traumatic loss and psychological damage.
But this story surprised me, made me take a closer look at my own marriage, my own close friends and other influencing relationships. I’ll be honest the only time I’ve heard of something like Domestic Discipline is from heterosexual religious extremists using marriage contracts and texts from the Bible to keep man as head of house second only to God. So I was leery, but after Liz spun this tale for me, I saw the attraction among loving and respectful partners. I’m fascinated and warmed by this story. It really is full of hope, encouragement, and respect. Kudos Liz Borino…time for me to look up your backlist!