Customer Reviews

Deviations: Submission

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I absolutely loved the story and the characters! Story and characters were well devloped.Certainly this is a different BDSM scene from many other books I have read. This is a touching story of a Dom and a sub and their respective lives and loves in the world of BDSM. I loved both characters which have their flaws and sensitivities. Certainly Tobias is a most thoughtful Dominant and Noah a willing submissive who has a lot to learn. The story is refreshing and enlightening but also very erotic, and sensual. Tobias shows Noah that there are more way to dominate than physical pain. But when need be Tobias can deliver the whip! Another good read from Chris Owen. Have already ordered the sequel!

I really enjoy M/M erotica and romance. But, I wasn't so sure about gay BDSM. This book totally changed my mind! The characters are engaging, the story is realistic and the sex is hot. But, there is also a deeply felt relationship beginning between Tobias and Noah that makes the reader want more. The BDSM aspects can be a little uncomfortable to someone who isn't involved in that (like me), but no more uncomfortable than stories that have elements of rape, danger or abuse to propel a plot. I devoured this book, and the sequel "Deviations: Dominance" is a couple of days. If you are a fan of gay romance, do yourself a favor and try this.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 7/10

PROS:
- A different and more in-depth look at the BDSM lifestyle than I've encountered anywhere else. I don't participate in the scene, and though I've read other books about it--Claire Thompson's Switch, Sean Michael's Between Friends: Sammy's Place--this book portrays a more extreme version of the scene. Reading about various levels of the lifestyle has rounded out my view of it and helped me to understand a bit of its mystery.
- Some of the sex I found very hot (although other scenes made me uncomfortable).
- Interesting role-play scenes that I read with a sort of puzzled fascination.
- Likeable supporting characters--almost all of them, in fact.

CONS:
- We never hear any of Noah's internal thoughts. He's honest and vocal, which allows the reader access to his emotions, but no dialog is ever quite as personal or deep as a character's unvoiced thoughts. On one hand, it's great to focus on the worry and giddiness of a Dom who understands the weight of the power he wields over his partner, but on the other, I wanted to see the elation and hesitation of the sub also, who puts himself so completely at another man's mercy.
- I couldn't help balking at some of the ways Tobias asked Noah to submit to him. I understand some people enjoy pain along with the pleasure of sex, so whipping and other similar things aren't that much of a mystery to me. But denying someone an orgasm for 2 days when he's turned on the whole time? And making him sleep on the floor instead of in the bed? Made me cringe.
- I didn't understand why Noah, who must submit in every area of his life, gets away with taking the initiative in sex at times. Even to the point of causing Tobias to beg at one point.
- Something major happens during one of the scenes, and Tobias doesn't address it then, thinking that they'll discuss it later in the safe room. But the discussion never happens. Maybe it will in one of the later books...
- One editing issue that I found very difficult to read around: throughout the book, dashes (--, or one long line that's essentially two hyphens connected) are written as hyphens with no space before or after them. Here's an example of how this leads to confusion: "Allison is very smart-that stir-fry got things going quite well, if I recall." The first hyphen should be a dash, but as it's written, it appears to signal one of two (incorrect) things: either "that stir" is being set off by dashes on either side, or "smart-that" is one compound word.

Overall comments: I'm definitely intrigued enough to continue reading the series, but this is the heaviest, most graphic look at BDSM I've read, and I'd be lying if I said that at times it doesn't wig me out just a little.

I like what this does for the BDSM scene. Submission shows that even in a BDSM relationship, there is romance and affection. So many people are under the (false) impression that BDSM is about cruelty and slavery when that's just not so. The book moved fast but not too fast. The characters were well developed, as well; I didn't leave the book feeling as if I lacked an understanding of the characters. What's more, I liked them and I was rooting for it to work. Submission focuses on the submissive, Noah and how he and his new Dom, Tobias, work through Noah's trust issues to bring him to the ultimate state of slavery. It was very hot but also very emotional. Definitely a good read for anyone who likes gay erotica with an edge. This isn't about light spanking and handcuffs, guys.

Deviations: Submission is like the 101 course about Gay BDSM Romance; when you are a newbie in the genre, and you are like testing the water, it's very likely that you will stumble upon this series, or at least it was like that for me. I admit, I was not ready; I remember that I started to read the first book, this one, but I was not able to continue. Pain/pleasure games, 24/7 D/s relationships, flogging, gagging, and on and on, was really too much for me at the time. I realize now, more or less 5 years later, that indeed this series is way more "mild" than other novels I read after that.

Both men involved in this relationship, the Dom Tobias and the sub Noah, comes together with different needs clicking together. Tobias invested a lot in a relationship with another sub, Phan, but he was not the right man for that job; basically Tobias is a caretaker, he is a vet and he has the need to take care for other people embedded in his behaviour, he cannot really dish out extreme pain, not even if the other man is asking for it. Something that apparently I didn't catch the first time I read this novel is that Tobias is not searching for a pain s**t, and that, if Noah was one, the relationship between them was never fated to start.

Noah is another character that has his job in his own blood, but in a different way than Tobias; I think that Noah, a police officer, is always so focused in helping other people, in being good and in control, that in his private life he needs to let it go. But for various reasons he has trusting issues, and so he cannot really fully depend on another man, something that is unbearable from most Doms out there. So Noah is going through Doms like someone would go through boyfriends, testing each of them but finding them lacking. Probably the matching between Tobias and Noah is perfect right since both of them actually don't want to go to the extreme of a D/s relationship, and that is exactly the level of BDSM that I can take.

Another think that I can now appreciate in this series, is that, in the end, the sex between them is more intimate and less "scene"; I really don't like very much all the public display that most of the BDSM novels imply as ordinary. It's true that Noah and Tobias met in a private club, and use its facilities, but the sex is mostly between the two of them, so much that they talk about being exclusive almost from the beginning. The story maybe started like a convenient matching of two people searching a good night, but then it soon moves to love and long-term commitment, even if the commitment was enshrined by a D/s contract. But I can see (and I know since this is only the first in a 4 books series) that this relationship is fated to moved beyond this contract and into a partnership looking for more than sex.

I did like this book but then I am a woman and I felt this book was written for women by women about male gay D/s play. The story did not come up to the BDSM level for me. It's a sweet romance. Some hot scenes. Way too much lovey-dovey talk and sugary sweet interaction. Ick. Ick. Guys don't talk like this. Even vanilla guys. Or cops. To say nothing of kinky cops. Ick. Ick. Considering the general lack of romantic BDSM reading material available, I guess I would recommend this book. But the story needs a whole lot more discipline, less smooching. Although I was actually reminded of how often relationships start out kinky and degenerate into mundane sex as time goes by. In that sense, the book is a good object lesson. Don't Let This Happen To You.

I loved this book. Truly. Tobias and Noah are... amazing. I feel immediately in love with both of them (Phan is pretty awesome, too.)

It would have been a perfect five out of five stars if not for a few things that really bothered me in a major way (although they didn't affect the relationship of the men, so I refused to knock another star off for these details).

No major spoilers, so feel free to read on.

It's a bit trite when one of the men (the Dom, of course) is obviously wealthy. The sub isn't dirt poor, but a beat cop isn't going make as much as a guy with two houses/residences, a driver, a house keeper and a guy to exercise his horses when he's not on the farm to do it himself. That alone wouldn't have knocked the story down a whole star for me too much because I kinda did the same thing in one of my stories, so who am I to call the kettle black? Besides, who doesn't want a rich boyfriend? A little bit of a cliche can be overlooked.

The other issue was a lot bigger:

The men meet in a "perfect" gentleman's club to which they both belong--and I do mean PERFECT. The absolute perfection of this place was a test of my ability to suspend disbelief. If the wallpaper had been curling or the carpet stained in one room, I would have found the place more credible and given this amazing story 5 full stars.

Otherwise, I found rich, complex characters, endowed with enough baggage and backstory to make them interesting, but not so much it was overwhelming, well rounded minor characters (except for the perfect owner of the perfect club), and some really, really good (i.e. credible) BDSM scenes. The authors did their home work and I totally appreciate that. The sex was hot and beautiful, the main characters easy to love... it was nearly perfect.

My only other complaint is the abruptness of the ending. I won't comment overly much, not wanting to spoil anything, but the ending felt kind of like being dropped suddenly on my butt... there I was, it was over, the end, no more. It wasn't that it felt too short or even rushed, I just expected a more complete ending. (No cliffhanger, no bittersweet, so no worries there, I felt like something was missing. The something could have been delivered in a paragraph or two.)

The first half of this I just didn't get the draw that everyone talks about with the series. I thought it was kind of cold and clinical. I didn't see any of the emotion and it seemed very flat. It was all about negotations and directives and there seemed to be a distinctive lack of any form of passion. Sort of like watching a show about surgeon's that's a documentary vs. watching a drama about surgeons. Although the documentary is interesting it wouldn't normally make me overly connective with the characters - not like the drama would. I've read a lot of BDSM books, including some much more hardcore, and this one just failed to engage me until the second part.

The second half of the book redeemed it greatly - I got much more connected and invested in the characters and the woodeness that I found in the beginning went absent. I loved the Phan and Noah conversation and I enjoyed when Tobias got all turned on by men in uniform. Fun! So I settled on 4 stars (2 for the beginning half and 5 for the latter half).

This would be an excellent choice to counter balance some of the more rosy glasses completely happily ever after BDSM lite romances that are out there - sometimes I think there is a happy medium somewhere but it can be hard to find. For exploration of a BDSM lifestyle (vs. finding someone who just wants to have some kink in the bedroom) then Submission is really a good choice!

The characters are so beautifully written and developed! The specific world/lifestyle of domination/submission clubs and contracts is written in a manner so rich and full that one really wants to believe. This really is a romance to, the characters are so caring and loving.

The only thing to complain about is the book ends at a point that isn't the end. I've read all four books in the series and you will want to have all of them handy so you aren't left hanging while you go out to buy the next book.

Deviations Submission
Deviations Domination
Deviations Discipline
Deviations Bondage

I've written a review praising this book before, but I wanted to let others know that there are two other books in the Domination series that are not available on Amazon. (in Kindle version)

If you're like me and fall in love with Noah and Tobias, you have to read how their journey continues! The last two books are:

- Domination: Discipline
- Domination: Bondage

So worth the Google search to find them elsewhere!