The second book in the Christmas Bears Trilogy, Sleigh Ride focuses on Arthur. After Paul moves out because Arthur refuses to commit to being in a real relationship with him, Arthur is suddenly alone for the first time in ten years. He's convinced that he's fine on his own, but his mother is determined to see him partnered up, and throws him in the path of the town librarian, Gabriel.
Gabriel is everything you'd imagine a small town librarian to be: prim and a bit proper and wonderful with children. But underneath that slightly prudish exterior, he's always wanted a boyfriend who would take him apart, both physically and emotionally. He doesn't like Gabriel at first, but could that dislike be hiding a burning attraction?
I'll be honest, the first sex scene between the two of them is just on the edge of being too rough, too soon for me. And I think that the author knows that, because the sex scene stops in the middle of it so they can have a discussion about consent that feels like it's there for the benefit of the reader, rather than because it's something the characters would actually do in the moment. Even stranger though is that once they actually start dating properly, and have established enough trust and knowledge of each other that the kind of rough BDSM scene play they engaged in right off the bat could be hot AND safe, they suddenly don't actually have very much kinky sex at all. Things fade to black, or are discussed but then not actually done, and so as a reader it didn't really deliver on its promise. If part of what makes them work as a couple is their sexual compatibility regarding kink, I want to actually see that successfully kinky sex. I want negotiated kink, but the talking and the action seemed to occur in the wrong order in this book. I wanted it to work better for me than it actually did.
Grade: C
Gabriel is everything you'd imagine a small town librarian to be: prim and a bit proper and wonderful with children. But underneath that slightly prudish exterior, he's always wanted a boyfriend who would take him apart, both physically and emotionally. He doesn't like Gabriel at first, but could that dislike be hiding a burning attraction?
I'll be honest, the first sex scene between the two of them is just on the edge of being too rough, too soon for me. And I think that the author knows that, because the sex scene stops in the middle of it so they can have a discussion about consent that feels like it's there for the benefit of the reader, rather than because it's something the characters would actually do in the moment. Even stranger though is that once they actually start dating properly, and have established enough trust and knowledge of each other that the kind of rough BDSM scene play they engaged in right off the bat could be hot AND safe, they suddenly don't actually have very much kinky sex at all. Things fade to black, or are discussed but then not actually done, and so as a reader it didn't really deliver on its promise. If part of what makes them work as a couple is their sexual compatibility regarding kink, I want to actually see that successfully kinky sex. I want negotiated kink, but the talking and the action seemed to occur in the wrong order in this book. I wanted it to work better for me than it actually did.
Grade: C
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