Beloved Possession

by Leona Windwalker

Ishmael Lux.
A name synonymous with wealth. The elite come to him- to stay in his hotels and to play in his club, both for business and for pleasure. He has a secret, though. It’s rather an open one, though believed by most to be rumour and speculation.

Kristoffer Jones.
A new hire of Triborr Property Management International, one of Lux’s many legitimate fronts. He was thrilled to be in London, straight on the heels of being informed he was being moved onto the management track. Some rumours are best left unconfirmed, as he discovers when he finds himself in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Ishmael saw it as an opportunity..
As with all opportunities that will pay off handsomely, he takes it. Then, he locks Kris away. Kristoffer is his and he is never going to let him go.

The kicker?
Kris is rapidly becoming unsure if he wants to be free.

Genres: BDSM, M M Romance, Dark, Crime, Dark Romance, Romance, Erotica

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 2019

About the author

Leona is a longtime staunch supporter of human rights and environmental causes. Her favourite genre to read is M/M fiction and she particularly enjoys science fiction, fantasy, and action/suspense subgenres—especially if they have a nice seasoning of romance. She has far too many books on her Kindle, has overloaded her phone with even more and, when not reading, writing, being driven to distraction by her children, or being overlorded by her three cats, can be found trying to locate the portal that the sock monster uses to steal socks from her dryer.

pseudonym for Loretta Johns

***Works by this author are protected by Muso. Please help support the author who is supporting her family by only purchasing legal copies***

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you’re not a fan of this genre, you’ll hate if for sure. If you are indeed a fan, this is a pretty calibrated novel, which has (close to no) goods points and (many) letdowns.
When I dive into this particular kind of book, all I’m hoping for is a twisted and morally dubious kind of relationship between 2 characters, topped with angst and angry feelings all over. The lines between good and bad have to be blurred and I’m all in. There can be some heavy BDSM-like stuff but it’s not the core of the genre. The real thing relies on the relationship between the main characters, its twist and turns, its overall complexity.
But this novel was a real disappointment.
There was some heavy BDSM -like stuff but as I said, it doesn’t make for a good novel. The characters behaviour and thoughts just didn’t make any sense and as for the so-called romance… I mean, in this genre, romance is scarce at best and as much slow-paced as they come. In this novel however, the author managed to squeeze a weird and cringy romancey vibe that didn’t make any sense and contrasted strangely with the rest of the characters's « relationship ».
As for the plot, it was predictable and yet surprinsingly bad as the characters behaviour wasn’t consistent. They did a pretty successful remake of Dr. Jekyl and M. Hyde with Ishmael going from « He’s mine, he’s cute, I like him, he’s different, let’s pamper and spoil him » to « let’s record our first time on camera and feed him only cum for three days straight » in a matter of lines. I mean, I’m not opposed to either of those options but the constant jumping from one to the other was confusing. Kris seemed to accept the fate bestowed upon him in a matter of days if not hours and didnt fight it at all. Which is weird given his trail of thoughts at the same time. And the insta-love…let’s not even raise this topic.

I had a hard time finishing this novel up. I hope the next one I pick in this genre won’t disappoint as much.

[Ro {semi-hiatus} · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is actually so fucking bad lmaooo. not written well and so utterly corny, if i hadn't once again fallen into a slump halfway through there's no way i would've made it as far as i did. DNF at 87% as it is, but christ was it awful. like most of these D-budget books, there is nothing original about it and it's the same regurgitated plot and dialogue; completely indistinguishable from any other story of its kind.

did i mention it was CORNY. the part i finally gave up was so offensive, not because it was dark, was so out of touch with whatever the author was aiming for. the reason dark romance as a genre is so lush is because it humanizes the villain with every interaction he has with the protagonist. there are obviously a million ways to go about this, but this book couldn't manage a single one.

anyway, i finally drew the line when Kris, the poor hapless boy captured and "seduced" by Ishmael, is snatched from his original snatcher. the new kidnapper dresses him up in a white leather kitty costume and forces him to keep company of an urn, Norman Bates style. nothing particularly awful happens to him while in his second bout of captivity apart from being forced to eat real cat food, but in spite of that, it irritated me to no end that when Ishmael found him he immediately??? started 69ing him in the car??? LMFAO like what the fuck. didn't even ask mans if he was okay. didn't have any moment of reckoning about his feelings for his pet. it was so... mechanical. "oh the bad guy saved his victim and now they need to be sexual since that hasn't had a chance to happen and this is the perfect time to transition into intimacy." it was tasteless at best but also such a boring segue i refused to subject myself to it any longer.

you could hazard a guess about what this book is like from start to finish and likely be spot on, that's how dull and predictably un-noteworthy it was. not even worth the half star i'm allowing this. i should've stopped the first time i got annoyed but this is what i get. smh

[Skirmish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book Reaction: https://neverhollowed.com/2020/06/02/...
Rating: 2 Stars – it’s a struggle to finish the damn book

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This no worky!!! I didnt like this one. First and foremost it's hard to buy this story. Nothing about it felt plausible or real. The relationship had no development and prior to the acquisition you got no real sense that the MC's even registered on each others radar. This book lacked development in all aspects of a book.

[Ajumi]

DNF ~61%
This isn‘t a bad book - but it also isn’t a great one.
I’m a big fan of the kidnapping / dub-con / plaything premise, but this book sadly did not manage to deliver. The characters and their emotions felt flat. I was not sucked into the story.
Which is pretty sad since I have read a few books that managed to do that using this premise. Namely Just a Bit Ruthless and Love of the Egoist, two great books with a similar premise but a vastly different feel and story.
So if you had the same feeling as I did, maybe check out the these two. ;)

[Carleigh Leake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

This is my favorite Criminal Delights so far! The story was fast paced and exciting! What a great story. I loved this authors style of writing.

[CarolynAnne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I dont think the book saw an editor. DNF @ 70%. I tried, but at that point the errors stood out more then the story.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have enjoyed this more than I did and that was disappointing because I’ve been in a reading slump for the past two weeks and thought this would be the one to break it.

The mafia boss/kidnapping theme is done excellently by a few of my favourite authors - Alessandra Hazards is the perfect combo of taboo GFY with her Russian villain and feisty spoiled twink. MD Gregory absolutely smashes the dub-con themes out of the water with criminal mastermind sadist Sloane and his stubborn pet. JM Dabney did it with their Criminal Delights instalment - particularly fucked up with the kidnappee getting off on the torture (YUM).

On paper this story has all the elements of a great dark read. Maybe other people will enjoy it more than I did because it wasn’t BAD, it wasn’t poorly written, I finished it because I was curious enough to want to know how it would end.

But something was missing for me in this book that meant it fell short compared to these others. So a few things that kind of pulled me out of the story:

1. I don’t know if the author was pushed to get it done by a deadline but it felt a bit rushed in some areas and avenues weren’t as explored as I think they should have been. Eg the sexuality of the MCs was pretty ambiguous with a few statements thrown here and there. There wasn’t even really a point where the kidnappee was panicking about being sexual with a man??? Aside from a few words about people thinking he’s gay and him not knowing if he is????

2. Ishmael felt a little too “telling not showing” with how “bad” he was supposed to be. The author did a thorough job of weaving in a plot of beef with another criminal mastermind, but he just didn’t come off as that bad to me aside from the way he treated the MC. Then his actions towards the man he kidnapped just came off as cruel and mean. I didn’t find them sexy or thrilling because it was bad touch and there wasn’t really a “turning point” where the MC started to like it. The author just stated he’d been hard. I think the lack of chemistry just made it hard for me to buy into it.

3. The sexual cruelty was gratuitous. Eventually the MC (I’ve forgotten his name in case you can’t tell) is kidnapped by Ishmael’a rival and degraded pretty thoroughly and he just???? Takes it????? And there literally doesn’t seem like there’s a purpose for this except to humiliate him? Except he doesn’t seem like it effects him that badly beyond him being annoyed. And that baffled me.

4. There’s a scene where Ishmael promises one of his henchman he can train the kidnappee to suck dick (where the twink can’t here). The henchman betrays them and it’s brought up to the kidnappee and he feels betrayed that Ishmael would share him - BUT THEN THIS ISNT PROPERLY ADDRESSED WHEN THEY REUNITE. The kid just mentions that he knows and that’s IT.

Look, I shouldn’t dunk on this so thoroughly because it wasn’t bad. There were just enough things that bothered me that I felt this wasn’t as good as it could have been, hence my disappointment. Maybe people who aren’t as picky would enjoy this more ://

[Natalie H · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one crossed some lines for me. Kris felt young and naive to the point it was creepy. He didn’t know when to be quiet and he suffered for it. Ishmael was a charmer and a manipulator. I did like how he was gentle and eased Kris into things, but mostly I liked how the bodyguards formed near friendships.

The whole setting felt familiar and it wasn’t until the camera, that this book reminded me of the Viewfinder series. Unfortunately it followed the whole kidnapping and traumatic abuse theme. I skimmed it. It made it clear Ishmael was the better choice. The feeding and drinking piss and cum was too much for me. Favourite character was Bob and his off page worry.

[Karen BookAddict · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aucun interet pour moi

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[Elin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ishmael, the man who will mean in literally when he tells you to go fuck yourself. And he will help you with the task.
Poor Kris is thrown head first in to a game where he doesn't know the rules but manages to behave better than most while threading carefully to figure them out. While having a whole lot of sass in his inner dialogues.

This book brings us along as Ishmael and Kris are brought together and what happens when you suddenly wake up to find you just became someone's boyfriend and pet all in one.
It's tamer than I thought I would be, it have more humour and a few moments where you feel a tint of warmth towards his captors.
As families goes, Ishmael and his guards are anything but regular, but endearing all the same. How ever strange their devotion is.

There are some spelling errors in the book, and I found them somewhat distracting as they were rather frequent.

[Kosh Gott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is just a complete mess. There is little story logic and no story flow. The character development makes no sense. Abuse is posited as if it were BDSM. One really gets the feeling the author just made this up as she went along, without any plan for either plot or characterization and didn't go back to tighten things up with such things as editing. The conclusion is not only implausible, it borders on Deus Ex Machina.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great MM mafia romance!!

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good idea that needs a good proof read.

[Mirjam]

Part of the Criminal Delights series. While part of a series each can de be read as a standalone:

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish this book had been proofread, and possibly seen a developmental editor. The gist of the story, in my opinion, could have easily been a 4 or 5 star read. The frequency of proofreading errors, from punctuation to using the wrong name for a character, reduced a star for me. The timeline the story provided felt unreal to the point I reduced another star. I can get behind the suspension of disbelief in many cases, but in this case the mental shift could have been done so well if the author was willing to fill in a timeline instead of just rush to the finish line. The only reason this book got two stars from me is because I adore characters like Ishmael, more than a little dark and depraved but with their own set of rules that fit the character and backstory.

[Nonniereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay, I really liked this book. It was not as dark as I expected, but I felt that it lacked in character building and story building. This could definitely could have been a larger book or maybe even a part of an ongoing series. Therefore, only 3 stars.
Kris was cute, but he was very docile and accepted his role unnaturally fast. That's also why this book didn't feel as dark as it might suspect. Yes, the whole ass premise screams dubcon, and red flags and toxicity. But Kris never really put up a fight. He's the embodiment of “this is my life now”.
Ishmael, although there hadn't been any negotiation whatsoever, was a well-considered dom. He was attuned to Kris's comfort and reassured him over and over again when Kris started panicking. Just overall, very patience.

[IK · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had potential

... it’s too short though. No build, the characters have no time getting to know each other and suddenly they say I love you..
I would also have expected the scenes to more explicit, the little there was.
All in all a good story line, but it could have used a couple more chapters where Ishmael and Kris form their bond.

Also, and that is very annoying to me, there were lots of spelling and grammar mistakes, missing words, wrong words and punctuation. Takes away from the pleasure of reading big time.

Disappointed by this book. I was excited after reading the blurb and others in this series.

[Jessey Yarbrough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read

So while there are many and I do mean many grammar and spelling mistakes that could have easily been caught by any beta/arc/editor it still was a very good book! It is very sweet probably one of the sweetest in the series so far. The plot did feel kind of monotoned especially for this series this felt like an every day read. This series is based around blurring lines but it felt like this was just a normal mob story that you read.

[Patrice Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely my least favorite of this series. Not because of the subject-matter. I love dark, twisted reads. I just felt like this one wasn't up to the caliber of the rest of the author's works in the series. The characters weren't highly developed. The story itself wasn't really built up too well, either. There just felt like there was very little substance to any of this.
But, so far the rest of the books in this series is fantastic...and I've read quite a few of them.

[Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the book has a lot of potential but it is very rushed, predictable, has many spelling mistakes which I don’t really mind and a wtf situation which was to be expected but took so long considering how short the book really is.

On another part I think the book, with a little bit of more work would’ve been such a great book, I also was expecting it to be a bit kinky but not really disappointed

[MOZELLE PRUITT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story but the editing errors were so bad and repeated through-out the book to the point of being extremely annoying. Only because I enjoyed the premise of this story did I plod along to finish. This would have been an enjoyable read if someone had bothered to properly edit. Not sure if this was a rush to publish but there is no excuse for a release of a book in this manner.

[Kk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has me a bit backwards. I don't know if it's ok because Kris signed a contract or stockholm syndrome that became more. There is definitely pet training involved when Ishmael was trying  to make Kris submit and accept.

Its a good book but the plot is a bit short and needs more fleshing out.

[Beli · Rating 1 out of 5]

The relationship between Kris and Ishmael was instantaneous, the characters did not have depth and the plot was not well understood, it leaves many loose ends. Even as smuty light reading is useless, unless you're into bdsm lether masks with cat ears and bulky and rapey bodyguards who suck their bosse's dick, while the ml didn't even know.

[Library]

6.5, dom/sub, bdsm, ruthless captor who does whatever he wants with him, development isn't great, dual pov

all the books in this series are COMPLETE standalones, and can be read in any order

[Brangela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazies

Everyone in this book is crazy one way or another. Even the plot is crazy. The kinks are crazy. However it's a quick enjoyable read. I was prepared for another truly dark tale. This ain't it. Instead it's kind of funny...in a crazy way.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Dark and So Unique!

This was an awesomely bizarre, dark romance. It was intriguing and riveting.

I will admit that the MCs were kind of flat, but the story itself kept my interest.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

The plot was promising and there were some really good parts in the book. Overall, however, it just didn't gel. There were too many weak passages/chapters.

[Ms. Fear · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book had seen an editor it would have gotten 5 stars because the story is so dark and hot but holy crap spelling and grammatical errors made me want to scream.