Title: The Master Will Appear
Author: L.A. Witt
Narrator: Michael Ferraiuolo
Publisher: Self-Published
Run Time: 12 hours and 59 minutes
Category: Contemporary, BDSM
At a Glance: The Master Will Appear is a prime example of LA Witt’s skill at writing well-developed and engaging characters in a contemporary BDSM romance. As for the narration, Michael Ferraiuolo is a good narrator and, overall, does well with the book.
Reviewed By: Jovan
Blurb: Dr. Mikhail “Misha” Budnikov takes one look at fellow fencer Ryan O’Connor and instantly knows his type. The undisciplined hothead is all ego with no finesse and even less control. In short, Misha’s pet peeves personified. To put the arrogant kid in check, Misha challenges him to a sparring match, which he predictably wins.
Not so predictably, Ryan asks him to be a mentor and show him how to fence. Startled by the moment of humility, Misha agrees.
What begins as fencing lessons becomes something much hotter, and before they know it, Misha is giving Ryan an entirely different kind of education. Dominance, submission, pain, pleasure—at the hands of an older, experienced man, a whole new world is opening up for Ryan.
As the trust deepens and their bond strengthens, though, Ryan retreats because that sham called love left him jaded long ago. Cynical beyond his years, he’s not letting his guard down, least of all for a thrice-divorced man twice his age.
Now Misha has to find a way to crack through those defenses…or accept defeat and walk away from the submissive who might just be the love of his life.
Review: The Master Will Appear is a prime example of LA Witt’s skill at writing well-developed and engaging characters in a contemporary BDSM romance. When forty-five-year-old Mikhail “Misha” Budnikov sees twenty-six-year-old Ryan O’Connor fencing, he thinks he knows everything he needs to about the type of person Ryan is. To Misha, Ryan is the worst kind of fencer: an overly confident, aggressor with no real skill, just brute force. After watching his cocksure display, Misha decides to show Ryan what real fencing looks like and bring him down a peg or two. After being soundly trounced, Ryan’s cockiness melts away, and Misha is intrigued enough to say yes when a humbled Ryan asks for lessons. Although willing to admit to his deficiencies, Ryan needs to prove to himself (and his father) that he can be a great fencer, which makes him impatient with Misha’s focus on the basics. Ryan’s frustration and stubbornness annoys Misha, causing them to lock horns at every lesson. However, underneath the annoyance is a simmering awareness that grows as the weeks go by and, eventually, ends with Ryan on his knees in the locker room.
While they agree to a sexual relationship where Misha and Ryan explore Ryan’s submissive side, eventually the “moments in between” and the time they spend together begin to bond them in unexpected and, in Ryan’s case, unwanted ways. Not only does Misha get to see beyond Ryan’s brash facade, he learns more about Ryan’s emotionally draining and dysfunctional family. Misha is “the first person who’d ever come along and cared that [Ryan] was safe [or] comfortable,” and it’s refreshing for Ryan to be with someone who doesn’t treat him as if he is “stupid or useless”. Instead of being the arrogant, spoiled jerk that Ryan’s privileged upbringing would suggest, and was Misha’s first impression, he’s just a guy struggling to figure out who he is outside of being the “unwanted” outcast and emotional pawn his family has labeled him.
Hearing Ryan’s thoughts or discussions of his family is heartbreaking for Mikhail. The more Mikhail learns, the more comfort, security and love he wants to offer to the young, talented man whose self-doubt and negative views on relationships has been cultivated by his family’s vitriolic and emotionally abusive behaviors. However, while Ryan is fearless on the piste, he’s terrified of the idea of Misha being in love with him. To Ryan, love doesn’t exist and is, at best, a delusion which leads people into relationships that only end in misery and, at worst, is a tool to manipulate people. Thus, Ryan constantly questions Misha’s motives and offers of anything beyond mutual sexual/BDSM satisfaction, and he can’t seem to stop himself from viewing everything as a transaction on an open tab he will have to make good on.
Part of the enjoyment of the story comes from the juxtaposition between Ryan’s trust in Misha as a coach and a Dom, but his hesitancy to do so on an emotional level and his blindness to it when he does. Even as he admits to himself how safe he feels with Misha, how well Misha treats him and how much Ryan shares of himself in ways he never has with anyone else, Ryan cannot comprehend or recognize his trust in Misha as a romantic partner. Additionally, and one of the things I love most about Witt’s BDSM books, is how well she portrays and builds the trust necessary for BDSM. Instead of just making it “kinky sex”, she highlights that, like in any kind of intimate exchange/relationship, an element of trust is a necessity. The only thing keeping this book from being amazing is that it exhibits one of my personal nitpicks with Witt’s work—repetition of certain character ideas/beliefs—in this case, how incompatible they should be because of their age differences and dissension on the piste. To me, it crops up frequently enough from both characters that it slows the pacing since you can’t skim and skip while listening as you can when reading.
As for the narration, Michael Ferraiuolo is a good narrator and, overall, does well with the book. Accent work is always tricky, but he does Misha’s voice satisfactorily. Although the accent is not as subtle as indicated by the text, it is not OTT or cartoonish either, and Ferraiuolo manages to keep the accent consistent while conveying the required emotions. On the other hand, Ferraiuolo does not do so well when it comes to the voice work for Ryan’s mom. While she doesn’t have a large amount of dialogue in this twelve hour story, her appearances are very important in imparting the toxicity that Ryan is fighting against and running from, and to me, Ferraiuolo falls short when expressing the sarcasm, irritation, needling, etc. that so strongly affects Ryan’s mood and behavior when indicated by the narrative. Thus, Ryan’s responses to his mother, particularly early on, sometimes come across as brattier and more petulant than emotionally distressing. However, Ferraiuolo does a good job portraying the varied emotional scenes of the story, from frustration on the piste to hot sex and floggings to the peace and comfort in simply being together, transforming the compelling beauty of Ryan’s oblivious fall into love and Misha’s quiet, pure and generous love for Ryan into an enjoyable listen.
You can buy The Master Will Appear here:
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