First of all, this short novella might just have one of the best names ever for a lead male character. Demetri Awerbuch. Awerbuch! I can’t help but say it with a heavily pronounced and over-the-top German accent.
What’s it About? 
Gabbie is tasked with writing an expose about the high and mighty visiting BDSM clubs. She sets her target on one Demetri Awerbuch, a man who buys and sells multi-billion dollar businesses without a blink of the eye. But what happens when Demetri decides he wants Gabbie for his own? The young reporter is pushed and pounded by the demanding businessman. He teachers her about obedience, control, and punishing consequences. Gabbie drips from the pleasure Demetri decides to give her. He brings her to the edge again and again. Playing her body like it’s just another one of his toys.
First Impressions
First and foremost, there were a lot of glaring grammar issues throughout this novella. There were missing words, the use of hear instead of here, references to his and her were mixed up, and a plethora of other blunders which honestly made for a very distracting read. As for the storyline, the premise was interesting at first. Gabbie is researching the BDSM lifestyle, bumps into Demetri at a party, they exchange numbers, meet up for an interview, and I was intrigued to see what would happen next. But that’s when things got a little weird.
Say What Now?
Infiltrating the darkest depths of a BDSM club can be challenging, but Gabbie has the best possible billionaire resource to answer all of her questions. There’s just one problem, he’ll only agree to the interview if he can play with her. That…sounds a lot like extortion. Well, if not extortion, then whatever the hell it is certainly isn’t professional activity for a reporter to engage in.
Something else which frustrated me about this novella, aside from the grammar issues, was that there seemed to be a scene missing from the time she gives Demetri her number at the party to when they meet for the interview. Everything seems to be going fine, but then he expresses how upset he is with her, disappointed even, and that she has to be punished. Turns out she was supposed to wear particular clothing to this interview, which she did, but she wasn’t supposed to wear panties, which she did. We were never told though that this extra conversation had happened, as it was heavily implied they hadn’t had any further communication from the time they met at the party until the interview. Definitely not the case!
Not Comfortable With This
Most of you know that I’m not a huge fan of BDSM in general. I never understood the whole pain versus pleasure argument, and I sure as shit will never refer to a man as “Master”. That’s just not gonna happen. But I’ll give a new BDSM book a try every now and again. However, this novella incorporated an element that I really didn’t care for: fear. And it wasn’t a fear of her feelings for this man. No, it was an apparent fear of the man himself. At one point in the story when Gabbie is being tied down to his bed, she thinks about how he might hurt her, and nobody even knows where she is. I’m sorry, but if you’re starting to worry that others don’t know where you are as a man is restraining you, that’s when you need to get the hell out of there.
There’s a lot of dirty/filthy talk in this one extended bedroom scene, and Demetri seems exceedingly rough with Gabbie, to the point where she feels used when all is said and done. That’s…not okay. Not that I’m a BDSM expert or anything, far from it, but a recurring theme in most BDSM novels is that the power is actually all in the hands of the submissive by being able to stop the scene at anytime with their safe word. There are no safe words in this book, and it seemed like Demetri’s goal was to take away as much of Gabbie’s power as possible, and simply use her body for his own pleasure. Not my cup of tea.
*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*
Series: The Billionaire Claims series, book 1.
Should you read it? It only takes about 20 minutes to read, but this was a whole other level of BDSM that I’m personally not very comfortable with. Proceed with caution.
Smut Level: Excessive.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $2.99 Kindle Price. LBD Books, 34 Pages.
Romance Novels for the Beach 