Review: On Hands and Knees by Sai Fox

Title: On Hands and Knees

Series: The Valentino Family: Book One

Author: Sai Fox

Length: 190 Pages

Category: Contemporary, Mystery, BDSM

At a Glance: Despite the overall structural flaws in the writing, I was hooked in enough to see myself reading the next installment, which is apparently due out soon.

Reviewed By: Sammy

Blurb: Nicolai Valentino is the almost perfect heir to the Valentino Family—impeccably dressed, devilishly handsome, impossibly cold, and absolutely dedicated to a family that scorns his very existence. Born to the infamous Boss and a Japanese woman of no consequence, Nico must fight for respect in a blood-thirsty world that would be much happier to see him with a hole in his head.

Blood runs thick in the Valentino Family. To them, Nico’s little better than water.

Gabriel Delatto is Nico’s right-hand man, his childhood friend, and under the darkness of their ruby red sheets, his lover. But more than that, Gabriel holds the secret to unlocking who Nico really is—the true Nico, not the mask beginning to crack around the edges.

But there is a pleasure in that pain, he knows. There is only ever pleasure when it comes to Nico, even if it comes from the crack of a whip or on the edge of a blade.

But there’s someone lurking in the darkness, something that neither Nico nor Gabriel truly understand, But there is one thing they do know—

It isn’t afraid to bite.

Review: Being raised in a crime family dynasty means more than sacrifice; it means living each day as if it’s your last. When Gabriel Delatto’s parents died, the young boy was taken in by the Valentino family and raised to be their son’s bodyguard—something Nico would need, considering his father had made the mistake of falling in love with a Japanese woman rather than the hand-picked Italian girl the family wanted. Now, both men must prove their worth and keep their intimate relationship discreetly locked behind closed doors. Nico is not all he appears to be. Even though he seems always in control, Gabriel knows the other side—the real side to his lover. When trouble truly comes to their doorstep, it will take every ounce of courage Gabriel has to stop the killer and keep Nico safe. Now, if only he knew where Nico was in order to do that.

On Hand and Knees by Sai Fox ends in a cliffhanger that left me both curious and a bit let down, let down primarily because this story lacked one very important thing—smooth transitions. These segues were desperately needed primarily because there were several sub-plot points that got introduced, as well as characters, and when we were abruptly moved from venue to venue or taut emotional moment to explosive sexual encounter with roughly no warning, it all got a bit confusing. This was my main concern with this novel—I felt that we were made privy to various highlights of Nico and Gabriel’s life together rather than taken on the journey of what was their lives. I understood the need for the mystery surrounding Nico so that we were never sure what kind of person he was. It was believable that he could actually be the cold-blooded killer some made him out to be, or, just as easily, a man trying to survive in a family that mostly hated him due to his being half Japanese. However, what didn’t help either of those hypotheses was being jerked from scene to scene and meeting unexplained characters who it felt we should already know.

Beyond the feeling that I’d been dumped into the middle of a book instead of gradually introduced to the cast of characters, I found that the latter half of the novel was really intense and well-paced. While I still felt a bit lost as to exactly what the relationships were between the various members of the Valentino family and their associates, I appreciated the intense action and intrigue the author created in this second part of the story. Suffice it to say that the ending was exciting enough for me to want to read on about Nico and Gabriel’s saga and that I was hooked in enough to see myself reading the next installment, which is apparently due out soon.

What I can tell you about this story is that the relationship between Gabriel and Nico is volatile and passionate and not one you might expect; that alone had me wanting to read more about them despite the overall structural flaws in the writing. I do wish we had more background on just about every person in this novel, but hopefully more of that will be forthcoming in the next installment.

You can buy On Hands and Knees here:
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