The Book Boyfriend Addict

Poor Laurie. If only he was mine.

I’d hug him and hurt him. And save him too.

Alexis Hall’s books are known for pushing the boundaries of what you might expect in a romance and I think he did that again with this story. It takes what you’d expect in stories featuring BDSM and flips it on its head. In this story, we have Laurie who is pushing forty, a sub, and quite jaded with the whole Scene after his previous relationship fell apart six years ago. And then there’s Toby, nineteen, inexperienced, but eager to explore his desire to be a Dom.

Laurie has no business getting mixed up with this man, who’s nearly half his age, yet there he is, surrendering his body to this fearless and fierce young man. Toby relishes the control he’s given over Laurie’s body but he also wants Laurie to surrender his heart – which is not something Laurie is eager to part with.

I’m definitely, undeniably, impossibly in love. With this man I know and don’t know at all.

I’ll start by saying this is the hottest Alexis Hall book I’ve read. The sex scenes are graphic and kinky yet intimate, sweet, and vulnerable. But the real highlight for me was the dynamic between Laurie and Toby. It was so interesting to me. With any of the BDSM books I’ve read (which admittedly isn’t many), we are usually introduced to a fully-formed Dom. Here, we have this acne-prone nineteen-year-old with all these sadistic desires that he hadn’t had much opportunity to act on before meeting Laurie. He’s eager and excitable and even though he’s inexperienced, he’s fearless and wears his heart on his sleeve. I loved his character. He was a little lost and vulnerable at times. But he was also a hoot, I laughed quite a lot at the things he’d think/say/do. I can see why Laurie was drawn to him.

Perhaps a stranger would look at Toby and see little more than a skinny postadolescent with a shockingly bad haircut. But he was my boyfriend, my dom, my fragile prince, and he was nothing less than beautiful to me.

Laurie was a more prickly character. He submitted his body so easily to Toby but he had a lot of baggage that made it hard to give Toby all the things he wanted – namely to be loved by Laurie. But this was a journey for them individually and together and I loved how both characters grew throughout the book. Alexis Hall’s characters are always so well formed and complex and that was certainly the case here. It was such an interesting story, I enjoyed it. I also loved going through all the author’s annotations at the end of the story, they were equally funny and informative.

He understands and makes it okay.

He makes what I have to give beautiful.