Book 1: Unearthed
Love. The most powerful force in existence, but also the most ruthless. Cunning and deceptive. Man’s greatest Achilles heel. Leaving all who embrace it weak and vulnerable.
At least that’s how Dom-for-hire Max Kelley sees it, after the love of his life knocked him on his ass. A brutal blow that not only stole his breath, but decimated his ability to trust. Turning him cold and cynical. The TKO he never saw coming.
Love. A mistake Max won’t ever make again.
Meaning no more relationships—not exactly a hardship. Just the thought of dating makes him queasy, and one of the reasons he doms for a living. To sexually engage without the poison of intimacy. The other reason? To keep his demons sated. With whips and chains, and scandalous kink. A fiery mix that always hits the spot.
That is, until a bright-eyed beauty walks into his life and refuses to leave.
Sean Matthews. College senior and flirt extraordinaire. Max’s newest—and greenest—client sub. Man, is he delicious; able to push Max’s buttons, able to make him crave the things he knows he shouldn’t. Sound the alarm, this can only mean trouble. Unfortunately, deterring Sean proves virtually impossible, and now Max finds himself at a crossroads.
Man up and kick his favorite sub to the curb… or succumb to his own caged desires.
Book 2: Revived
Love unearthed his heart from the cold, hard ground.
Now comes the fight to revive it.
Love. Just when Max Kelley thought he’d eradicated it from his life for good it snuck back in, in the form of his beautiful new sub, Sean. Something that Max is far from happy about. In fact, he fights it tooth and nail. Having his world decimated was hell on earth, an experience he’d go to any lengths to avoid repeating. Problem is, while his head is determined to protect his heart, his heart can’t stop thinking about Sean. Sean, his perfect sub, his perfect match, his perfect everything. Which makes him that much more of a threat. Were Max to claim him and then lose him, the devastation would be far greater than even Kevin’s death. So, in order to ensure his heart and soul stay intact, he must once again eradicate love from his life. Eradicate Sean from his world. But Sean is a scrapper, just like Max, and refuses to give up without a fight. In their final showdown of fiery passion and wills, whose heart will come out in one piece?
Love. The most powerful force in existence, but also the most ruthless. Cunning and deceptive. Man’s greatest Achilles heel. Leaving all who embrace it weak and vulnerable.
At least that’s how Dom-for-hire Max Kelley sees it, after the love of his life knocked him on his ass. A brutal blow that not only stole his breath, but decimated his ability to trust. Turning him cold and cynical. The TKO he never saw coming.
Love. A mistake Max won’t ever make again.
Meaning no more relationships—not exactly a hardship. Just the thought of dating makes him queasy, and one of the reasons he doms for a living. To sexually engage without the poison of intimacy. The other reason? To keep his demons sated. With whips and chains, and scandalous kink. A fiery mix that always hits the spot.
That is, until a bright-eyed beauty walks into his life and refuses to leave.
Sean Matthews. College senior and flirt extraordinaire. Max’s newest—and greenest—client sub. Man, is he delicious; able to push Max’s buttons, able to make him crave the things he knows he shouldn’t. Sound the alarm, this can only mean trouble. Unfortunately, deterring Sean proves virtually impossible, and now Max finds himself at a crossroads.
Man up and kick his favorite sub to the curb… or succumb to his own caged desires.
Book 2: Revived
Love unearthed his heart from the cold, hard ground.
Now comes the fight to revive it.
Love. Just when Max Kelley thought he’d eradicated it from his life for good it snuck back in, in the form of his beautiful new sub, Sean. Something that Max is far from happy about. In fact, he fights it tooth and nail. Having his world decimated was hell on earth, an experience he’d go to any lengths to avoid repeating. Problem is, while his head is determined to protect his heart, his heart can’t stop thinking about Sean. Sean, his perfect sub, his perfect match, his perfect everything. Which makes him that much more of a threat. Were Max to claim him and then lose him, the devastation would be far greater than even Kevin’s death. So, in order to ensure his heart and soul stay intact, he must once again eradicate love from his life. Eradicate Sean from his world. But Sean is a scrapper, just like Max, and refuses to give up without a fight. In their final showdown of fiery passion and wills, whose heart will come out in one piece?
Author/s: Kora Knight
Publication Date: 2016
ASIN: B01M02MDLH
Buy it from Amazon
Maria's Rating: ★★★
I'm gonna write only one review for the duology because I honestly don't believe I can do this twice. So here goes:
Man, this was an exhausting read. There were multiple times when I contemplated just skimming the rest of the novel because IT JUST TOOK SO GODDAMN LONG TO GET ANYWHERE. This wasn't terrible per se, but I feel that this book would have benefited a lot by slashing at least 50% of the word count because most of it was just a rehash of what was already said in the first book. If it wasn't that, the same scene that we already read from Sean's perspective would be retold from Max's perspective, and then vice-versa. By page 100 I was so ready for the angst to end, but oops no, we get subjected to the torture maybe a dozen more times. God fucking damn it. Will this ever end??
Kora Knight's biggest strength is writing the sex. We all know that from her first series, Up-Ending Tad. I loved that one; I gave five solid stars to the first three books that I read and reviewed. In Max's and Sean's story, though, I feel that Knight's editors should have reined her in at some point and told her to stop. JUST STOP. I know, I know, people will argue that it's a BDSM book, so duh, sex should be expected. But there's only so much sex that you can include in a 500-page book, and there's only so much sex that readers can actually enjoy reading without hurling. It got old really, really fast, especially coming from the first book. I honestly don't know what they were thinking by not dividing the book into multiple parts.
I mean, based on pure arithmetic alone, we have the following: Up-Ending Tad was made up of 6 books and had an average of 97 pages each, which sold at $2.99 per book (I counted, sue me). Suppose they did the same for this duology and split it into several books with 100 pages each at $2.99 per book. The second book alone would have been five short books, which would have sold a total of $14.95. Granted, readers would have been bored out of our minds by the third book because of the repetitiveness, but I think that would have been much easier for us to follow and swallow (no pun intended) than a single 500-page book.
I didn't start out liking Sean. He wasn't bratty like I originally imagined he would be, and I guess that just kinda messed with the vibe I got from him from Scott's and Tad's book. He was written as more mature, which wasn't bad exactly so I guess it's just my preference, but I felt that more cheekiness and brattiness to his character would have worked well against Max. I did like Sean's persistence, though, and I was honestly baffled by how determined he was to get to Max. Maybe it's just the length of the prose, since I know the scenes take place every Tuesday each week, but it felt like he put so much effort into the whole thing despite being rejected each and every time. It's like... a druggie hooked on heroin and just can't fucking let go. Normally I'd call him stupid for being so eager to get his heart broken over and over again, but I guess at this point I'm just too exhausted after reading the duology back to back to really manage being pissed off.
As for Max, well I loved the heartbreak in the first few chapters of the series and I really liked how it showed us who he was before he was the scary roommate that Tad met in the previous series. I also loved how Knight went in-depth about Max's and Scott's relationship; how it started and how it eventually got to where they were when we first met them. I felt it was believable, and I really sympathized with both characters' struggles.
That being said, though, there's something about Max that disappointed me just a little. Maybe because he was introduced as the big bad Dom in Tad's and Scott's book, but I just felt like he didn't give that vibe when he and Sean finally met. It wasn't exactly extraordinary and so didn't quite meet my expectations (I wanted something explosive, okay). For one, I expected him to be... much more ruthless and distant and serious, but he was... actually pretty normal. Which, again, is not a bad thing, but I think my point is that he was originally introduced to us as this sexy, mysterious, ruthless Dom who became a big softie when it came to his sub - we were being set up for a super tough, no-nonsense guy. But when he was finally introduce I honestly felt that he fell short of my expectations. Dude's not supposed to be as human as the rest of us - at least in the beginning. That would have made the whole chase more intriguing, prolonged the struggle and made his inner conflict more believable and his surrender much sweeter. But nope, instead we got him totally affected by Sean from day 1, which removed all this mystery to him too damn early in the story. Which I just found to be really disappointing. You have issues, dude. Find a shrink.
On the other hand, I am honestly fascinated by Kai and Breck. I can't believe the people around them don't suspect shit, because I absolutely want to know more about them. Especially Kai, because his little scene with Sean told me that he's a very capable Dom and pretty fucking twisted himself. I love that shit. I have this theory that Breck stayed away from Kai because of his scholarship but now that he's graduated and I assume that complication is gone, what's gonna happen? So exciting. I hope their book gets published soon.
I also love Marcie and Jay and the running gag about the two of them wanting a photo of Tad and Scott in action. That never gets old, I swear to god. Marcie is like my very own self-insert in the book, and I feel a lot of readers can relate. Also, Ned is a dumbass and I like him despite his lack of exposure so far.
Tad and Scott are still very dear to me, but I have to say, I didn't particularly enjoy their presence in this book. Scott in small doses is okay, because it makes sense; after all, he is Max's best friend. But what I don't understand is why his and Tad's story had to be thrown into the mix, when the series should be all about Max and Sean. Tad and Scott already had their own series, so the spotlight should have been more focused on Max and Sean. Fine, all those scenes tied things together (e.g. what were Tad and Scott doing while Max and Sean were here etc). But it could have been handled better, could have been written in a way that did not distract from the main protagonists of this new series. Shit, if it's just pandering to the readers, I'm sure many of us would have been okay with being given a separate short book containing an epilogue of sorts about Tad and Scott and their relationship and whatever. Up-Ending Tad's second installment was a 73-page ebook (chapter?) that sells for $2.99 on Amazon. Goes to show fans would have bought a separate spin-off ebook, no matter how short.
Given how much pain I had to endure to get to the fucking ending of the goddamn angst in this book, I just feel like the ending was too abrupt and SO NOT WORTH IT. Like?? I needed to see more of Max and Sean cuddling?? Kissing?? Being ridiculously sweet and disgusting together?? I was impressed by Max's mini-breakdown towards the end and I actually really appreciated how it kicked him hard enough in the nuts to realize how much he loves Sean, but goddamn it, his Kevin story? Vague as fuck. I don't even know if Sean 100% understood what happened to that guy. Also, that drunk sex between Sean and Max a bit towards the ending was goddamn stupid. All those pretty words thrown around and then Max forgets practically everything in the morning after? I don't know who okay'd that shit.
Also really? Backpacking across Europe as our happy ever after? Max is too old for that shit, and I don't mean it physically. I mean it like an old man who's too jaded and too settled to literally take a hike no matter how cute his boyfriend is.
Overall this series is just frustrating. Which sucks because I was fascinated by Max in Tad and Scott's series, and I think he deserved better. Deep sigh. The attempt was there, but I don't believe it gave justice to the Max I met in Up-Ending Tad. Three stars.
Man, this was an exhausting read. There were multiple times when I contemplated just skimming the rest of the novel because IT JUST TOOK SO GODDAMN LONG TO GET ANYWHERE. This wasn't terrible per se, but I feel that this book would have benefited a lot by slashing at least 50% of the word count because most of it was just a rehash of what was already said in the first book. If it wasn't that, the same scene that we already read from Sean's perspective would be retold from Max's perspective, and then vice-versa. By page 100 I was so ready for the angst to end, but oops no, we get subjected to the torture maybe a dozen more times. God fucking damn it. Will this ever end??
Kora Knight's biggest strength is writing the sex. We all know that from her first series, Up-Ending Tad. I loved that one; I gave five solid stars to the first three books that I read and reviewed. In Max's and Sean's story, though, I feel that Knight's editors should have reined her in at some point and told her to stop. JUST STOP. I know, I know, people will argue that it's a BDSM book, so duh, sex should be expected. But there's only so much sex that you can include in a 500-page book, and there's only so much sex that readers can actually enjoy reading without hurling. It got old really, really fast, especially coming from the first book. I honestly don't know what they were thinking by not dividing the book into multiple parts.
I mean, based on pure arithmetic alone, we have the following: Up-Ending Tad was made up of 6 books and had an average of 97 pages each, which sold at $2.99 per book (I counted, sue me). Suppose they did the same for this duology and split it into several books with 100 pages each at $2.99 per book. The second book alone would have been five short books, which would have sold a total of $14.95. Granted, readers would have been bored out of our minds by the third book because of the repetitiveness, but I think that would have been much easier for us to follow and swallow (no pun intended) than a single 500-page book.
I didn't start out liking Sean. He wasn't bratty like I originally imagined he would be, and I guess that just kinda messed with the vibe I got from him from Scott's and Tad's book. He was written as more mature, which wasn't bad exactly so I guess it's just my preference, but I felt that more cheekiness and brattiness to his character would have worked well against Max. I did like Sean's persistence, though, and I was honestly baffled by how determined he was to get to Max. Maybe it's just the length of the prose, since I know the scenes take place every Tuesday each week, but it felt like he put so much effort into the whole thing despite being rejected each and every time. It's like... a druggie hooked on heroin and just can't fucking let go. Normally I'd call him stupid for being so eager to get his heart broken over and over again, but I guess at this point I'm just too exhausted after reading the duology back to back to really manage being pissed off.
As for Max, well I loved the heartbreak in the first few chapters of the series and I really liked how it showed us who he was before he was the scary roommate that Tad met in the previous series. I also loved how Knight went in-depth about Max's and Scott's relationship; how it started and how it eventually got to where they were when we first met them. I felt it was believable, and I really sympathized with both characters' struggles.
That being said, though, there's something about Max that disappointed me just a little. Maybe because he was introduced as the big bad Dom in Tad's and Scott's book, but I just felt like he didn't give that vibe when he and Sean finally met. It wasn't exactly extraordinary and so didn't quite meet my expectations (I wanted something explosive, okay). For one, I expected him to be... much more ruthless and distant and serious, but he was... actually pretty normal. Which, again, is not a bad thing, but I think my point is that he was originally introduced to us as this sexy, mysterious, ruthless Dom who became a big softie when it came to his sub - we were being set up for a super tough, no-nonsense guy. But when he was finally introduce I honestly felt that he fell short of my expectations. Dude's not supposed to be as human as the rest of us - at least in the beginning. That would have made the whole chase more intriguing, prolonged the struggle and made his inner conflict more believable and his surrender much sweeter. But nope, instead we got him totally affected by Sean from day 1, which removed all this mystery to him too damn early in the story. Which I just found to be really disappointing. You have issues, dude. Find a shrink.
On the other hand, I am honestly fascinated by Kai and Breck. I can't believe the people around them don't suspect shit, because I absolutely want to know more about them. Especially Kai, because his little scene with Sean told me that he's a very capable Dom and pretty fucking twisted himself. I love that shit. I have this theory that Breck stayed away from Kai because of his scholarship but now that he's graduated and I assume that complication is gone, what's gonna happen? So exciting. I hope their book gets published soon.
I also love Marcie and Jay and the running gag about the two of them wanting a photo of Tad and Scott in action. That never gets old, I swear to god. Marcie is like my very own self-insert in the book, and I feel a lot of readers can relate. Also, Ned is a dumbass and I like him despite his lack of exposure so far.
Tad and Scott are still very dear to me, but I have to say, I didn't particularly enjoy their presence in this book. Scott in small doses is okay, because it makes sense; after all, he is Max's best friend. But what I don't understand is why his and Tad's story had to be thrown into the mix, when the series should be all about Max and Sean. Tad and Scott already had their own series, so the spotlight should have been more focused on Max and Sean. Fine, all those scenes tied things together (e.g. what were Tad and Scott doing while Max and Sean were here etc). But it could have been handled better, could have been written in a way that did not distract from the main protagonists of this new series. Shit, if it's just pandering to the readers, I'm sure many of us would have been okay with being given a separate short book containing an epilogue of sorts about Tad and Scott and their relationship and whatever. Up-Ending Tad's second installment was a 73-page ebook (chapter?) that sells for $2.99 on Amazon. Goes to show fans would have bought a separate spin-off ebook, no matter how short.
Given how much pain I had to endure to get to the fucking ending of the goddamn angst in this book, I just feel like the ending was too abrupt and SO NOT WORTH IT. Like?? I needed to see more of Max and Sean cuddling?? Kissing?? Being ridiculously sweet and disgusting together?? I was impressed by Max's mini-breakdown towards the end and I actually really appreciated how it kicked him hard enough in the nuts to realize how much he loves Sean, but goddamn it, his Kevin story? Vague as fuck. I don't even know if Sean 100% understood what happened to that guy. Also, that drunk sex between Sean and Max a bit towards the ending was goddamn stupid. All those pretty words thrown around and then Max forgets practically everything in the morning after? I don't know who okay'd that shit.
Also really? Backpacking across Europe as our happy ever after? Max is too old for that shit, and I don't mean it physically. I mean it like an old man who's too jaded and too settled to literally take a hike no matter how cute his boyfriend is.
Overall this series is just frustrating. Which sucks because I was fascinated by Max in Tad and Scott's series, and I think he deserved better. Deep sigh. The attempt was there, but I don't believe it gave justice to the Max I met in Up-Ending Tad. Three stars.
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