This is a gem. Nick and Hollister "Holly") have been friends since college. Holly is a bit of a screw up and Nick looks after him. After Nick marries evil bitch wife, his friendship with Holly goes the way of the dodo but he keeps up with Holly's doings by virtue of websites like TMZ. When Holly gets into trouble, Nick goes and helps him out, gets him back on his feet. Then Nick splits with evil bitch wife and he's the one in crisis and it's Holly's turn to help Nick. It is then that Nick realises what Holly has known forever but thought he could not have - they are "it" for each other. That's a really ordinary way of describing this very special story. It stayed with me after I finished it (always the mark of a great read). At the risk of offending (which is not at all my intention but it may come out wrong), this is the first time I've read about a D/s relationship which I "got". I've read and enjoyed other books with this theme but not with any real understanding of how it came to be, what made each partner want that sort of relationship. I've seen reviews (most particularly by Sarah Franz over at Dear Author) where she explains that it just "is" but I've never before really understood. In this book, I did. Their relationship is very symbiotic. I could see (shown not told = excellent) what Holly got out of being submitted to Nick. I could see what Nick got out of dominating Holly. I could see they both needed it and I could see it was beautiful. And sexy too. The only niggle I had was that it wasn't terribly clear to me that Nick was bisexual. I got the impression that he had been straight and straight only until his relationship with Holly commences (after he splits with evil bitch wife). But, there were a couple of comments along the lines of "it's been a long time" from Nick which indicated this wasn't the case. The comments were in the sex scenes and, because I wasn't expecting it, they kind of threw me out of the story a little. However, that could just have been me. Sarah Franz in her review didn't feel that way at all, so YMMV. This was an excellent, moving, touching book and my pick of the month. Yum. ( )

This is a gem. Nick and Hollister "Holly") have been friends since college. Holly is a bit of a screw up and Nick looks after him. After Nick marries evil bitch wife, his friendship with Holly goes the way of the dodo but he keeps up with Holly's doings by virtue of websites like TMZ. When Holly gets into trouble, Nick goes and helps him out, gets him back on his feet. Then Nick splits with evil bitch wife and he's the one in crisis and it's Holly's turn to help Nick. It is then that Nick realises what Holly has known forever but thought he could not have - they are "it" for each other. That's a really ordinary way of describing this very special story. It stayed with me after I finished it (always the mark of a great read). At the risk of offending (which is not at all my intention but it may come out wrong), this is the first time I've read about a D/s relationship which I "got". I've read and enjoyed other books with this theme but not with any real understanding of how it came to be, what made each partner want that sort of relationship. I've seen reviews (most particularly by Sarah Franz over at Dear Author) where she explains that it just "is" but I've never before really understood. In this book, I did. Their relationship is very symbiotic. I could see (shown not told = excellent) what Holly got out of being submitted to Nick. I could see what Nick got out of dominating Holly. I could see they both needed it and I could see it was beautiful. And sexy too. The only niggle I had was that it wasn't terribly clear to me that Nick was bisexual. I got the impression that he had been straight and straight only until his relationship with Holly commences (after he splits with evil bitch wife). But, there were a couple of comments along the lines of "it's been a long time" from Nick which indicated this wasn't the case. The comments were in the sex scenes and, because I wasn't expecting it, they kind of threw me out of the story a little. However, that could just have been me. Sarah Franz in her review didn't feel that way at all, so YMMV. This was an excellent, moving, touching book and my pick of the month. Yum. ( )