Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.

Things I did not have on my 2024 bingo card:

1. N. R. Walker giving me the ick
2. Thinking a book would’ve been better without daddy kink

Yanni’s healing and journey during this book was beautiful. It felt like it was done well and in a healthy way. Certainly no magic dick in sight. Yanni and Peter were well matched and had a lovely caretaking relationship. The found family aspect was so sweet and lovely, and it just made me happy to see Yanni go to therapy and slowly work through his trauma and generally reclaiming his life.

However. I get the impression the author isn’t very familiar with daddy kink. I certainly hope that’s the case. Yanni and Peter’s dynamic didn’t actually feel off or yucky in any way, but literally every time the kink and their dynamic was talked about, I made this face:

First off, there were some pretty (possibly) harmful stereotypes and generalizations, including how daddy kink is about the age gap and size difference, where the daddy is older and bigger, and the boy is young, twinky and hairless. Literally anyone can be a daddy or a boy. The last thing that matters is how you look and it made me sad to read how it was described.

Second, the dynamic was referred to as ‘daddy/son’ several times, which just made me uncomfortable. The role of the daddy was described to as being a sort of father figure (but with benefits and less incest <- almost exact quote), which is yucky and just plain wrong. I have read more books with daddy kink than I can count, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen father/son being brought into it, not even with hardcore age play books. It all felt so removed from the actual relationship, because it didn’t feel creepy, but any time it was discussed it made me feel like my soul cringed so hard it inverted itself.

The book was absolutely lovely and perfect when I was able to forget about the kink, and if any of the things I just mentioned won’t bother you then I highly recommend it, but man. Difficult to ignore. I love this kink more than any other kink so I like to think I have a fair amount of understanding and ability to let things slide.

The book was full of understanding, therapy, cute dates and great communication. When the spice hit (it’s a slow burn), it was incendiary. It was a slow starter but it made sense for Yanni and his story that it took a while.

I don’t know what else to say about it. Could’ve been one of my favorite N. R. Walker books, but they can’t all be winners.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
Daddy kink
Age gap
Hurt/comfort
Past abuse
Slow burn
Healing journey
Found family
Therapy
Good communication
Strangers to friends to lovers
Platonic dates
Kink exploration
Prostate orgasms

⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Past verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of MC (non-graphic details)
Themes of past domestic abuse
Mentions of bring disowned and kicked out by homophobic parents (past)
Food insecurity (abuser controlled eating, past)
Housing and financial insecurity
Brief mention of alcoholic parent
PTSD symptoms
Brief mention of death of parent (past, off page)
Some details of group rape of SC (past, including family members)
Mention of attempted suicide by SC (past)
Homophobic side characters (off page, past)
Some details of abuse of SC (injuries)
Mention of domestic abuse (MC’s parents, past)
Explicit sexual content
Ableism (off-page bullying of SC with Down syndrome)

⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: No
Breakup: No
POV: 1st person, single
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pairing: M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
Main characters’ age: 21 and 43
Series: Interconnected standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 446
Happy ending: Yes





You can find most of my reviews on Instagram as well: https://www.instagram.com/booksafety?igsh=MWZ3azhkdDc2Y2ludg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr