Shale Shelby (yes, really) has a bad boy past – at the age of 22, he’s just got out of a relationship with a wealthy Chinese crime lord that saw him running money-laundering trips between the US and Macau. Hoping to return to a quiet life, he’s invited to perform a BDSM scene in a swanky Las Vegas penthouse suite and finds himself up close and personal with rising movie star Lyndon Becker. The two enjoy a night of thrilling sex, but the arrival of a video clip showing them in action threatens to destroy Lyndon’s career. To find out who’s blackmailing Lyndon, Shale needs to call in favours from the man he thought he’d never see again – and in doing so, he may well drag both himself and Lyndon to hell…
Reaction Shot is billed as a BDSM thriller, but it takes quite a while for the thriller element of the novel to kick in. At first, this appears to be just a series of intense play scenes between bratty bottom Shale and arrogant top Lyndon. (Not that it would be a bad thing, because the sex is so hot it’s almost volcanic.) However, once Shale returns to Macau in his attempt to stop Lyndon being blackmailed, things get very dark very quickly. This section of the book is not for those who are happiest reading about a little tie and tease – there’s prolonged mental torture, blood and knife play, and a serious lack of respect for limits. Parker Avrile points out in the introduction that this isn’t how BDSM works in the real world, and by now we should have moved on far enough from Fifty Shades that not every book needs to have a prolonged negotiation of limits scene and a properly drawn up slave contract to show E.L. James how it’s really done. Even so, the early part of the book may lull readers into expecting a straightforward hot romance, which it most decidedly isn’t. Shale and Lyndon are complex, sometimes unlikeable characters, and the initial cockiness of both men may come across as off-putting. However, Avrile is a fine writer who captures the nuances of a domination and submission scene (even if she does have a tendency to overuse the word ‘fuck’ in dialogue), and the secret part of themselves lovers will only reveal when the time and the trust levels are right. And if you’re comfortable with BDSM play that threatens to go over the edge there’s plenty in Reaction Shot to enjoy.
Reaction Shot is published by Paris April Press and is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. You can find out more about the book at Goodreads.
I was given a copy of the book by Indigo Marketing in return for an honest review.
The (Really) Naughty Corner 