Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Still catching up on some (short) reviews: Knight or Daye by Jude Mason


Jude Mason
Knight or Daye
Total E-Bound Publishing, 2009

Genre & Keywords
: Gay, M/M/M, Menage, Bdsm

Rating: êêê
Heat level:
¹¹


The Back Blurb:
A love lost, then found. Can Knight rescue his love or will Daye prevail?
Jeremy Knight lives with, and is in love with, Sam, a man who hides his submissive nature until, one fine evening, he asks Jeremy to dominate him. Jeremy is shocked, but does go along with his lover's request. It goes well - perhaps too well - overwhelming Jeremy. He leaves, gets wildly drunk and decides he can't abide the behaviour. Returning home, he tells Sam, who pushes his sub side down, for a while. He finally can't take it and leaves.
Devastated, Jeremy does some soul searching and discovers that perhaps Sam's desires weren't all that horrible. His own dominant side shows itself and he does as much research as he can to find himself.
Then he must find Sam. A cop friend of Jeremy's sees Sam in the company of 'someone of interest' to the police - Nathanial Daye, a very wealthy man who owns and sells people. The only trouble is they've never been able to prove it. When Jeremy decides to get into the picture, he winds up as the newest 'boy' in Nathanial's house. He finds Sam, who has fallen for another slave named Peter.
Can Jeremy rekindle the love Sam had for him? How will Peter fit into the picture? Can Jeremy find a way to rescue them all? Or will Daye win?


I like a book that opens in mid action and Knight or Daye has a strong opening that sucked me right into the story:

Jeremy Knight stood outside of his lover’s door, his hands clenched at his sides, thinking about knocking, but not quite sure he was ready. […]
He looked back at the door. “Could use some TLC,” he mumbled and shifted from one foot to the other. The thong pulled tight up the crack of his ass. He squirmed, trying to readjust the strap without actually using his hands. It didn’t work. He knew it wouldn’t.
He looked at the door again and took a deep breath. It was now or never. Standing there any longer wasn’t going to help his indecisiveness. He raised his hand and knocked. Stepping back, he waited and his heart raced. He crossed his hands in front of himself, gripping one wrist. Head lowered, he eased his feet apart, shoulder width.
His decision was making itself known.
Jeremy watched the rise and fall of his chest, and worked on his patience. His hands grew slippery with sweat. His jeans felt too tight, his tank even tighter. The boots weighed a ton when he moved his feet. He clenched his fist then straightened his fingers, stretching them, trying to distract himself. Jumbled thoughts and desires plagued him. His c**k pulsed, and he wanted to sooth the dull ache he’d been trying to ignore for the last hour.
Footsteps approached from inside.
Should he bolt, flee for his freedom?

The back blurb is pretty misleading though. We actually step into the story where the blurb ends. Everything that’s written in the blurb, except for the last few sentences, has occurred already and is not part of the story, it’s only mentioned shortly. By the time I figured this out I was already pulled into a lot of action, involving a mean Dom and slave trader (Nathaniel), Jeremy’s lost and submissive ex boyfriend (Sam) and Sam’s newfound friend and fellow submissive (Peter), who were all thrown into the mix with Jeremy to have a hot bondage sex scene at Nathaniel’s house. Jeremy went there as the new boy toy of Master Nathaniel to find and win back Sam. Well, he finds him very quickly and things are forgiven and solved between them even faster.

Then the suspense is increased with a notch or two by introducing the mean side of Nathaniel, who keeps the men in captivity and intends to sell Peter as a slave. I don’t want to give the whole plot away but let me say that there’s a lot going on in this short story (of ca. 40 pages). And not everything was as easy to believe as I wanted to. To be honest, the characters appeared to be not much more than chess-pieces on a board in a play of fast chess, only there for the sake of action. Granted, the play was hot and sexy! It’s just that I didn’t feel the love or the romance or the affection, only the attraction.

If you pick up this story as a quick hot read than you won’t be disappointed and it will be worth 3 or 3.5 stars, if you want a heart wrenching romance than you won’t be satisfied and probably won’t rate it with more than 2.5 stars.

19 comments:

  1. Whoa. I just realized that the guy on all the Lust Bites covers? Is Candy Cane Guy (as featured again today on my blog) - I didn't realize it before, but now I've seen the original stock photo that was used for those covers.

    *sigh* I'm never going to be done posting about that guy!

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  2. I had the same light bulb moment at your blog :) I think it's no hardship posting about him, is it?

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  3. the characters appeared not much more than chess-pieces on a board in a play of fast chess, only there for the sake of action

    That was the impression I got as well - I never got HEA with this book...

    I just enojyed it for what it is - I period in time where Sam and Peter needed each other...

    Cool roundup....

    @Chris... obsessed I tell you - obsessed...

    E.H>

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  4. He's everywhere! Eeeeeek!!! Too bad he has the face of a 14-year old.

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  5. @Erotic Horizon: Exactly, I'm not feeling the HEA either. And I'm not the least bit curious about how things will go from there on for the three of them.

    @Chris: LOL! I like him better with his head cut off too... :0

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  6. Don't like covers that feature "baby boys". Drives me NUTSO. I say OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.

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  7. Janna this book doesn't have an HEA? THAT BOTHERS ME. I'm not sure why I'm okay with KMM's cliffhanger for her fever series but when I pick up a erotic rom or m/m I want a happy ending dammit!

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  8. I'm in the mood for lots of steam, story and a HEA to sink my teeth in, in short a meatier book than this I'm afraid ;S However the cover is nice, verra nice *waggles eyebrows*

    PS: I've signed up...'s all I'm saying *wink*

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  9. Sounds interesting, great review!

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  10. @Regina: LOL! Only the babyface heads, right?!

    @Smokinhot: O don't get us wrong! It does have a happy ending, but I just didn't FEEL it, you know. I couldn't picture these three guys living HEA together although they were going to according to the end of the story :)

    @Leontine: Yeah, there's so much more meatier stuff out there *grin* And that cover model is on every book in this Lust Bites series of Total E-Bound, so take your pick.
    Woohooh! for you for joining the M/M Challenge! :D
    I've got a great rec for you already (def meaty and steamy) The One That Got Away by Madeleine Urban and Rhianna Aile. I'll write a review about it later.

    @Lily: Thanks, sweets!

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  11. Janna...I needs to browse my e-folder, hold on....

    I thought I already had bought an e-book from them but as it turns out it is just name recognition LOL I look forward to your review...I can really like a novella but my heart lies with the more developed, full length novels where an author really can dig in to the characterization and emotions.

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  12. Nope, you did :) but it was by Madeleine Urban with another co-author: Warrior's Cross. That one is very good too, but a little less steamy. Both are really well developed with round characters and great build up!

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  13. LOL about the cover :)

    I don't know if I would pick this one up or not...

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  14. Hey HONEY!

    Just dropping in to see what's up and happening here...it's always interesting! ;-) LOL

    Hugs
    Hawk

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  15. Hey honey! Just dropping by to see what is going on in your world today!
    Oh... very smexy post you got going on!
    Hope all is well honey! Hugs to you!

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  16. @Mandi: Unlikely you will ;)

    @Hawk: Hi sweetie! Good to see you again :) Glad you enjoy yourself, LOL!

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  17. @Cecile: Hey girl! Today has been crazy, I just got home from work! But now I'm happy again, having time for my blogrounds and all :) I'll be dropping by at your place later to check out your new post I saw popping up, out of the corner of my eye, at my blogroll ;) Hugs, sweetie!

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  18. EEp!

    How come no one told me you'd reviewed this book for me? Wah!

    Janna, an honest review and I tend to agree with you to a very large extent. My boys weren't as well filled out as I'd have liked. Sigh! Uh, methinks I may have said that last line wrong, but I'm not going to even try to correct it. LOL

    The ending was happy, but as one of the commenters posted, it didn't feel like it. Again, I agree and I will have to work on this in my shorter works. I seem to be able to do the heat, but need to work on other things.

    Thanks so much for a great review!

    Hugs

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  19. Wow, Jude, you're really wonderful about this :)
    LOL, I think your boys were 'filled out' quite nicely ;)
    Gotta say it's the first of your books I've read but it's definitely not the last, cos you sure know how to do the heat! And I heart that! :)
    I'm glad you appreciate my honesty! Thanks!!
    Hugs,
    Janna

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