3.5 stars
A kind of road trip…
The setting in Finding Master Right is a huge leather convention complete with a vendor fair specializing in lots of sex toys and workshops. Sort of like a fun road trip, except instead of a car and the open road, we have the fair and its aisles and aisles of paraphernalia to be navigated. A road trip to paradise one might say. Okay, maybe it’s a stretch but it had that kind of a feel for me… not so much a geographic pleasure trip as a sensual pleasure trip… Our two friends, Derek and Chase, are attending the convention together, ostensibly to share costs, but is that all there is to it?...
Sex, yeah, whips, no...
They are good friends and belong to the same BDSM club where they’ve kind of circled around each other, but Derek and Chase don’t play that way. Derek admires Chase’s sexy Dom style and harbors a secret crush, but Chase has been involved with another sub with whom he has recently broken up. Now, he’s is finding himself thinking more and more about the subby Derek... but Derek doesn’t want to be the rebound guy.
And would going further affect their friendship? Do they want to risk it? Interestingly and oddly enough, the two decide to hook up vanilla-style right before the convention (off page, unfortunately); so, sex is ok but ix-nay on the power-play. As Derek says, it would just “muddy up the waters.” Which happens anyway— it sets up all sorts of tension between the two. ’Cause they really want more, you know they do even if they won’t admit it. And it only adds to the tension when Chase’s ex shows up at the convention wanting to make amends… more muddy water.
Derek is an easy-going, self-described pain-slut masochist, always testing himself in the game, We get into his head a little more, so get to know him a little better. He’s a little bit brat, a little bit snark, and a whole lot adventurous. Most of the action scenes are seen through his POV. At times, Chase seems controlled and in charge, as you’d expect from a good Dom. But his quiet ruminating over his ex and what to do about Derek makes him come off as insecure and wishy-washy too. He seems to bounce back and forth between the two extremes, so it’s hard to get a bead on him, to know who he is.
Whips, and chains and bootblack, oh my…!
The fair has lots to see and try out— vendors showing off leather wear, harness and rigging gear, workshops on hot wax technique, cock-and-ball torture techniques, suspension and rigging demos, knife play, predicament bondage (owch), a bootblacking station— it’s a veritable erotic smorgasbord, a BDSM playground, guaranteed one-stop shopping til you pop. Okay, really, the setting is almost another character in the story and is at least as interesting as the interaction between the guys.
Will they, or won’t they…?
The author sets it up so that Derek plays with others while Chase keeps watch over him— he has to look on while others dominate the sexy sub— and Derek’s high pain threshold and ability to sink quickly into ‘sub space’ make him a very popular playmate. It’s interesting that Chase is always there to make sure Derek is safe, interesting that Derek always looks to him for comfort, interesting how the author slowly and subtly slips them into a D/s dynamic. But, more and more, I just want Chase to take charge already.
The author has an easy writing style. I liked the convention setting, and the descriptions of the various bondage techniques were hot. I did find Chase and Derek’s relationship confusing at times but I guess that’s because they were confused too. This is not to say that there isn’t some hot, sexy stuff going on, just not always between them… kinks, fetishes, sexual abandon which includes public display— a caution— if these are squicks then this might not be the read for you. There’s lots to like though— the atmosphere of care and safety and attentiveness that pervades all the D/s interactions is welcome. This isn’t a heavy or dark read. With a touch of angst and a BDSM edge, it’s more about fun at the fair.
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