Jenn

This review won't be complete because I need to think more and more on this book.

I had numerous problems. I hate the pet names: Master and Pet. I found the POV switching to be incredibly distracting. There were far too many coincidences. The lack of getting to know the characters seriously hindered this book. Even after it's over, I still don't feel I know these characters. 

But that's where it becomes so difficult. The writing is exquisite. I seriously found myself moved over and over by this book. The BDSM club scene had me in tears. So many fucking times, I found myself in tears. But it's almost like a string of short essays or movies were strung together. So many SCENES evoked emotion in me, but you put it all together and if I came across either character in real life, I can't say I'd feel I'd know them. I can't tell you beyond sex and near damn obsession and art what either of them enjoys or who they are as people. After all is said and done, I still don't know why either really loves each other. I FEEL the love, I know genuinely they love each other, but the why and how I don't get.

These two dated or some semblance of that for 2.5 years but I don't feel either knew each other. They had settled in to this routine of only living in the present. The future and past wasn't spoken of and their love never given a voice. So if not observing Thomas paint and not observing the 1000000000000x we are reminded Marcus is gorgeous and the sex...what did these two have to connect them. 

I want to love them and believe in them. But a relationship can't exist solely on sex and obsession. It can't rest solely on admiration for one's talent. It can't rest solely on being drawn to one's looks and how that person makes you feel in bed. And I never felt this book moved beyond that. Sex is a powerful thing and I've stayed in shitty relationships long after I should have because of the chemistry we had. But they always came to an end.

Even the convenient way Thomas discovers Marcus' past. It didn't feel real to me. It felt epic and grand but not real.

Even the proposal. It felt false for their characters. I can't buy a man so shut off from everyone to make some gesture like that. It had always been the two of them, Thomas stated. So why not then? And if it had always been the two of them, what drew them and kept them interested?

This book will continue to make me think...but this is my rambling thus far.