Review: A Dom and His Writer by Xenia Melzer

Title: A Dom and His Writer

Series: Club Whisper: Book One

Author: Xenia Melzer

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Length: 200 Pages

Category: Contemporary, BDSM

At a Glance: In spite of a few issues, I liked this book very, very much. It’s not often that a standalone features an already established couple, and I was very happy that’s what we got here.

Reviewed By: Ky

Blurb: Life is perfect for Richard and Dean. Richard is a wealthy and successful businessman who also owns a BDSM club, and Dean is a best-selling author and sub to Richard. They’re young, happy, and in love. The future is bright….

Until tragedy strikes and an accident claims Dean’s beloved sister. Dean finds himself the guardian of a three-month-old infant, and soon he’s trading in his leather fetish gear for diapers and drool bibs. But little Emily is all that remains of his family, so how can he abandon her?

It’s not what Richard signed up for. As much as he tries to be supportive, he never wanted kids and misses having his partner to himself. Suddenly the life he imagined for them is gone, and he’s not sure their relationship can survive the upheaval. But fate isn’t through with Dean, and when misfortune strikes again, will he be able to turn to the man he loves? A final crisis will determine if they can pull together as a family or must face facts and part ways.

Review: A Dom and His Writer is a romance about an established couple that suddenly finds their lives coming upside down in the space of twenty-four hours.

Richard and Dean are settled and happy, they’ve been together for five years, they have their routines, they love their ability to be spontaneous at times, and they have no plans at all to include a kid in their family. Unfortunately, life doesn’t cooperate with their plans and after a car crash that claimed Dean’s sister, he finds himself the guardian of his three-month-old niece—that he didn’t even know he had.

Dean dives into the care of the baby from the start, and without a second thought; it’s his sister’s kid, so there’s no question about taking care of her. Richard’s feelings on the matter are another story… What I haven’t mentioned is that Richard is Dean’s Dom, Richard is used to being the sole focus of his sub’s attention. All of a sudden there is someone else who takes up Dean’s time and has become as much a priority for him as is Richard. The fact that this someone is a baby doesn’t seem to matter to Richard. He is jealous, angry, unreasonable, desperate… Let’s just say that the first few months with the baby didn’t evoke the best reactions from Richard. He was someone who craved to have control over his life and his sub, and from one day to the next a baby disrupted all that. Thankfully, he got over his petty phase, eventually, and managed to come to terms with the new normal of his life.

Dean was a sweetheart. He seemed dependant on Richard for a lot of things and needed guidance whenever life got hard. He froze, spaced out and needed someone to help him through confrontation or tough situations. When the baby came along, though, he was like another person. He took charge, made fast decisions and gave his everything to care for the new member of his family. Richard’s attitude made things a lot harder for Dean since he was simultaneously trying to learn how to care for an infant and keep Richard as happy as possible, which meant keeping the baby as far away from Richard as possible. Dean didn’t once give up; he soldiered on and kept trying to make the situation work and find his connection with his stubborn Dom again.

One of the elements I liked most about this story is that it spans about a year. Everything doesn’t happen in the space of a few weeks, but rather, it takes time for all those changes to occur. It’s essentially the narration of a transitional and critical year for Richard and Dean. Their lives as well as their relationship change drastically. Through a lot of obstacles they manage to come out together and are stronger than ever.

A few minor things that bothered me, though:

The money. It was tiring to read about how much of it they had on every other chapter. Their attitude towards money bothered me, as it was like they were constantly showing off. I’ve read about wealthy characters before and liked them, but this time they were over the top. The money was there, so the couple could have the perfect everything without a second thought about it. It was there so the story could progress without them having to deal with trivial things, like the cost of a house. It was too ideal.

The POVs: We get both Richard’s and Dean’s, and I liked that, but in some occasions the change happened abruptly, in the middle of a scene, without clear indication. A few times we also got the POV of some of the side characters. It seemed unnecessary and I could have done without it.

The side story: Out of nowhere we get a match for two of the side characters. They get a scene together, one of them gets to narrate and suddenly we’re off reading about them. I was beyond confused about that scene. It didn’t fit in the book, it didn’t have anything to do with the MCs, and I’m not sure why it was there. Maybe it was the setting up of a future book, but even if that’s the case, it had no place being in Richard and Dean’s story.

Other than these three observations, I liked the book very, very much. It’s not often that a standalone features an already established couple, and I was very happy that’s what we got here. Also, it didn’t feel as if I was dropped into the middle of a story. The fact that their relationship had already started and we didn’t see it happen didn’t take away from how well we got to know the characters or the dynamics between them.

A piece of advice: don’t let the sample preview affect your decision to read the book. If you do read the preview, try to focus on the writing style and not on the story itself. The real plot starts at the end of the sample, but up until then it’s just several sex scenes, one after the other. That’s not the way this book goes, though, so I don’t think the preview does the book justice. There’s actual plot here, and a good one. I’m glad I decided to give A Dom and His Writer a try in the end. Just ignore the sample and dive into the story!

Recommended

You can buy A Dom and His Writer here:
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