Title: Hearts Under Fire
Series: New Amsterdam: Book One
Author: Kelly Wyre
Publisher: LT3 Press
Length: 233 Pages
Category: Contemporary, BDSM
At a Glance: The characters are well-written, their emotions and scars deftly handled, and the ending was mostly satisfactory, but overall, there was just something that didn’t appeal to me.
Reviewed By: Jenn
Blurb: Ten years ago, Clark thought he would spend his life as a military man. But his world turned into a nightmare when a suicide bomber destroyed his career. It’s been a long road to recovery, but Clark has finally found peace. His bar, Glow, is the place to be in New Amsterdam; the son of the mayor employs Clark as a confidential information man; and the BDSM club he part-owns is a profitable release. Clark’s life is a good one, so long as no one gets too close.
Then Daniel walks into Glow, and what Clark expects to be just another handsome face proves instead to be the kind of challenge he’s been avoiding—but he just can’t seem to walk away.
Review: For some reason when I glanced at the blurb for Hearts Under Fire, I thought this would be a murder mystery, so to be given a BDSM story was a bit of a shock. I really wasn’t sure what to make of this at first; however, that didn’t put me off. Looking back at the blurb, I’m not actually sure what it was that made me believe it to be a murder mystery, as it did make itself quite clear in purpose.
Clark was an interesting character and I enjoyed getting to know him better, and his first interaction with Daniel had sparks flying and me turning that page. I wanted to know how they would get together, and yet, as it progressed, it looked like despite a lot of jealousy and desire, they couldn’t since they were both Dominant. This book really focused on their pasts and their relationship, building it from trust and vulnerability. I feel the relationship developed too quickly, though, only over a weekend (from what I could see) before jumping to a later stage in it. I would have like to have seen how the people around them reacted to their relationship, and Clark’s change from Dominant to submissive for Daniel. In a lot of ways, it was a different take on the gay-for-you storyline, going instead with Dom/sub dynamics. I’m not sure that this is entirely realistic, as that is a firm part of somebody’s personality and Clark had never looked to be a switch.
There was a strong focus on the main characters despite the author creating some interesting secondary characters I would have liked to see more from, as well as Clark’s passion for his job which he only really talks about and we never get to see. The characters are well-written, their emotions and scars deftly handled, and the ending was mostly satisfactory, but overall, there was just something that didn’t appeal to me.
You can buy Hearts Under Fire here:
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