Fantastic, where do I begin? Easily, the best piece of MM/BDSM fiction I’ve read in the last year or maybe last couple years! For me this book was epic. Sure I agree what others have said about it being a little long is true but I really didn’t have any problems with it as far as that is concerned. Sure there is also a lot of sex in it, every few pages there is a new sex scene but that didn’t bother me either because I loved the whole thing too much. Let me start with the characters, this is a classic master/slave or you could say a rich man poor man story as we are dealing with a man who is in a royal position and another man who is in the lowly position of gypsy and thief. They are written so well I lived every moment of the story with them as it unfolded. I really felt the anguish that the situation caused between them but their love was so great that it made all of it worth something wonderful. I am dictating this right now and know the machine won’t get any of the proper names used in the book correctly so please bear with me as I just talk about them as master and slave. The slave is a young man who is born a gypsy and a free man but he gets into some trouble and ends up as a palace pleasure slave in this fictional 1025 A.D. setting. The master is another young man who is next in line for the throne of this kingdom upon the death of his father. The father is a tyrant, a bully and shows no love for his two sons let alone any slaves he gets his hands on. When the gypsy is introduced to the court as a new pleasure slave the corrupt rulers eldest son sees him in there is an instant attraction. Now this man who I’m calling master doesn’t agree with the whole pleasure slave concept and has never had one of his own. He is so entranced by the new slave however and he asks to have him one night and of course one thing leads to another and they fall in love. They have to deal with this whole master/slave thing and all goes well until the evil father starts to really become abusive toward the slaves to spite his son.
The plot then thickens here with how to get rid of the evil father who is the ruler of the country without implicating his son who is a good master to the new slave and in love with him. Amidst this backdrop there is such a tender love story of two young men for each other with elements of BDSM mixed in. For example there is a LOT of orgasm denial practiced here which seems to go on for days and days at a time almost making it seem impossible for anybody to be able to have such control. There is also a lot of the use of cock cages whereas the slaves are trained when and when not to have their orgasms. This of course is dictated by whoever uses the slaves which have given up any rights to control their own bodies.
At the end of the book the rich man poor man theme comes in and we are wondering how this master and slave can possibly stay together without the master losing his Royal position. At first I thought I knew how it would end but once I saw that I was wrong I came up with my next best ending and once again was wrong with this ending. With these twists and turns it becomes a real page turner to see just how it will end. I will leave it up to you to read to see just how it does end
The last thing I want to comment about is the narrator, Joel Leslie, who did a fantastic job in this book. At first I didn’t like him and it took me a little bit to get used to him but boy did he grow on me! You knew exactly who was talking at all times with him and the fantastic voices and accents he used. I will definitely be looking for more books narrated by him in the future. To wrap it up, an easy five stars all the way down for story and narration and highly recommended.