Awakening (Power Play, #2) in Riptide Publishing

Jan 17, 2013 Eed99 rated it it was amazing

This book was also very intense. I think I liked this one better than the first one, partly because the first book seemed more about getting things wrong in the relationship and realizing it, and this one was more about figuring out how to do things right.

Some of the BDSM wasn't to my taste, but it was well written and worked in the story.

I really liked the fact that in this one both characters recognized things about themselves and the needs of each other-mistakes were still made, but this time ...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Ayanna rated it really liked it

Shelves: future-rereads, reviewed, lmao-what, squint-who-the-hell-are-you

This is a little weird for me because I'm on Ch 5 now and just found out that this is actually the second book of a series. I actually read it because I wanted to see how realistically written the Silicon Valley setting would be. I'm still not entirely certain. I think it's because usually I read BDSM-themed books with a sense of...disconnect (but then, that's kind of how I read all books...) so while it seems real, it doesn't quite seem real. I live in the Bay Area, so am rather familiar with S This is a little weird for me because I'm on Ch 5 now and just found out that this is actually the second book of a series. I actually read it because I wanted to see how realistically written the Silicon Valley setting would be. I'm still not entirely certain. I think it's because usually I read BDSM-themed books with a sense of...disconnect (but then, that's kind of how I read all books...) so while it seems real, it doesn't quite seem real. I live in the Bay Area, so am rather familiar with Silicon Valley and that kind of forced me to actually consider the implications of this book in a real-life setting [because in many ways, writing fiction of any sort, even realistic fiction, is still creating a parallel universe]. I think I expected something more in-my-face about the setting, but nothing was really there, so it became kind of a negligible point.

I suppose the book wasn't bad, but there were points that were...weird. Jarring. Scenes that didn't quite seem to fit. Times when it started creeping steadily towards melodrama, and then times when it tripped over the edge before it could finally pull itself back up off that particular cliff.

I'll give it to the authors, though, that Bran's resistance seemed a little more realistic than the usual BDSM book fare. Meaning there was a lot more outright denial and (what can be interpreted as) bigotry and hypocrisy. AKA, annoying as hell, but something I grudgingly have to give the authors credit for. The rest of it, though...I dunno, for some reason, it seemed to have a rather surreal quality to it. More so than as I've come to expect as usual.

(view spoiler)

I think I approached this book expecting something a lot more surreal. Something more...I don't quite know. Something more in-the-face, again, though I'm not quite sure what I mean by that either. I kind of got that also, but give it that it does settle in. My opinion of this book when I wrote the first part of this review (I think I was about 1/3 of the way in?) and now (I'm about 4/5) are completely different.

Probably one of the more realistic-seeming books that deal with total immersion - however temporary - into D/s. (Hooray for good prose!) ...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Nic rated it really liked it

Shelves: zz-amazon-yes, bdsm-or-elements-of, mm, series

Loved the way this book concluded the story of Jonathan and Brandan. The subject matter is still compelling and intense (Jonathan is a sadist after all). However this book was really focused on the development of the characters and the complex relationship between Jonathan and Brandan.

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