Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: eARC from publisher
It’s time for this Dom to learn he may not always know what’s best.
When his four Memphis PD friends needed to let off steam, Mondo helped them all navigate the BDSM world—his world—and find the women of their dreams. Now the vice cop and La Forge Master/Dom is the last single man standing. And he’s feeling a little like the odd man out.
He’s been waiting a long time for the right woman, one strong enough to match his dark passions. A timid grade school teacher definitely doesn’t make the short list.
Sunny Boudreau was content with her rather prosaic life until a trio of lovers moves in next door. But as she gets to know them and all their friends, she’s drawn to the edge of their ménage/BDSM play. She’s tempted to take the plunge—except Mondo warns her off.
Her first taste of the club only whets her appetite and ignites her desire to prove she’s exactly the woman Mondo’s been hungering for.
Product Warnings: BDSM play at your favorite kinky club, group play at home, some fun BDSM, girl-on-girl kissing, an orgy…the usual for our boys in blue.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
I’ve never read Devlin before, but finding a good BDSM book is something I’m always on the lookout for!
Ever since Sunny first met Mondo, she has wanted a chance to know both him and his world of BDSM better. But convincing him that she wants more from her sex life than she is currently getting is harder than Sunny expected. Getting Mondo to take her on as a sub is next to impossible, and she will have to go to great lengths to get his attention.
Mondo knows that school teacher Sunny is too sweet and innocent for the things he wants to do to her. But seeing her in his club has him breaking all his own rules and taking her under his command. But Mondo isn’t sure that he is ready to fall completely in love with someone, despite the happiness he can see amongst all his friends.
From a purely erotic romance view, this book was great. Mondo and Sunny kink it up in every which way possible, and Devlin doesn’t hold back. There is girl-on-girl kissing with a super innocent school teacher, there is lots of sexy club scenes, and an orgy to top it all off. Devlin doesn’t hold back on the smut, and in that regard, this book hit all the right marks.
However, I felt like the romance really took a backseat to the sex. Yes, these books are very erotic driven, and given that Mondo is a Dom, much of their relationship development takes place with their clothes off. But, IMO, they were quick to jump to “I love you,” especially since Mondo was struggling with even taking Sunny on as a sub at the beginning of the book. It seemed to me as if he was pushing her away right up to the very end when he blurted out that he loved her and that was that. I needed more development to really believe in their romance.
There were also a few times I struggled with keeping track of the large secondary cast of characters. I’m sure if I had read the previous books in the series, they would stick out to me better. But since this was my first Devlin book, all of Mondo’s friends seemed to blend together and they came across as more props for the sexual exploits than they did as actual characters. New readers to the series might want to consider starting at the beginning to get a better feel for the group dynamics and relationships.
All in all, I enjoyed the erotic aspects of Devlin’s novel, however needed so much more from the romance perspective. This was a novella, and since the page time is limited, I felt like everything else except the sex fell through the cracks: character development, plot, and secondary character interpersonal relationships.
I give Once is Never Enough a C