Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.

“Did you know dopamine is also connected to the reward centers of the brain? It’s why praise is such a big turn on for submissives, but I’m sure you’re well aware of that. Tell me, Elias, do you like it when I call you my good boy?”

I really adore this author’s books. I only wish they were all longer. These books are filled with kinks but not that high heat. There’s a lot of intimacy and relationship development, where the kink and sex complement it, where it adds to their story and makes sense for the dynamic. I always appreciate a good story that isn’t ‘sex first, everything else later’. I’ve been wanting to read this specific book in the series for a long time, but Sadism/masochism made me a little nervous for a while, just because I hadn’t really read it before. Turns out I enjoy reading it, especially if Izaia writes it.

“Hmmm?” I mumbled against his shoulder as I pulled him into my arms to cuddle. He might be my Dom, but I claimed the right to be the big spoon.

The dynamic in this book is so good. The Dom of all Doms, owner of his own BDSM club, 37 years old, looks younger, body of a twink, pining so hard for the 30 year old beefy farmboy bartender next door who thinks he might be submissive, but is completely new to kink. Has been pining for the pretty, dominant twink coming in for drinks. Their chemistry was so good and I was sad their book wasn’t much longer.

There were lots of great discussions about kink in general in this, and Izaia is so talented when it comes to writing about different kinks you might never consider being into, something you might not understand at all, and make it so human, so easy to understand.

I’d recommend this entire series to almost anyone.

“But I will grant you this, while I may hurt you, I’ll never harm you.”

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
D/s
BDSM
Pain play
S&M
Farm-boy bartender
Club owner
Power exchange
Bondage
Exhibitionism
Erotic e-stim
Size difference
Smaller Dom/bigger sub
Pining
Strangers to lovers
‘good boy’
Praise kink
Kink exploration

⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Power exchange
Impact play (whip, cane, paddle)
Bondage
Sounding
Exhibitionism
Electric stimulation
Explicit sexual content
Predicament bondage
Child abandonment (past, MC’s parent)
Role-play (mild medical play, role-playing doctor)
Unsafe sex (bare without discussing condoms)
Age play/regression (side characters)

⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: No
Breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pairing: M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile
Main characters’ age: 30 and 37
Series: Interconnected standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 164
Happy ending: Yes


“For those of you who might not know my name, I’m Foster Hayes. I am one of The Church's owners, whip master extraordinaire, extremely humble, and I will be your teacher for today. Those of you who do know my name, please don’t believe anything you’ve heard about me. It’s all lies.”

“I watch over the submissives at the club because there are always people out there who want to take advantage of them. We take care of our own because no one else is going to take care of us. I watch out for the Doms, too, because no one ever thinks they need it, but they do. They can be hurt just like anyone else.”

There was that word again: mine. I wanted to shout it from the rooftop, buy billboards around town. Let everyone know. Instead, I placed a kiss on the delicate skin below Elias’s ear and whispered it to the one person who mattered, “Mine.”



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