As the landlord of The Dragon’s Lair and leader of The Black Dragons Motorcycle Club, Axel Carmichael has seen it all and done it all. He’s a respected and experienced dom. Nothing shocks him any more, and nobody catches him off guard.
When Bayden rides up to The Dragon’s Lair on a bike worth more than most men earn in a year, and immediately demonstrates that he has far more attitude than sense, it’s easy for Axel to write him off as a silly little rich boy who’s about to get himself killed.
But, there’s more to Bayden than meets the eye. He’s no silly little boy, rich or otherwise, and werewolves aren’t easy to kill.
Another KD Classic!
I think it's well known that I'm a KD fan. Her writes give me the warm fuzzies with her never-ending ability to put the heart into kink, I tell ya.
If memory serves this is her 100th published work and while I've not read her entire backlog, two things stood out while reading Axel's Pup, the first being that it's abundantly clear she put her heart and soul into this novel, and secondly, I think she pushed the kink envelope outside of her comfort range. I ain't mad about that.
I saw/read some of the reviews prior to picking this up and the one thing that everyone seemed to comment on was the length. It is longer than what KD usually writes but it didn't read long, if that makes sense. She made her words count, using them either to world or character build, for the most part. Yes, there was a lot of pushing the hair off Bayden's face but that's their thing.
Did I love this couple? No. I like them a lot. I like how possessive Axel is, but I thought he was too lenient at times and as much as I get what he's trying to do with the limits and boundary setting, I feel like a lot of that stuff could've been mediated by setting a precedent during their first conversation OR would've made sense to rely more on instincts/intuition. I also feel like the level of possessiveness also could've been mitigated by starting off with the honesty talk. Then again, I am kind of partial to TPE, so there is that. It did kind of have that TPE vibe...
"I want to screw you, and tie you up, and make you writhe from-you know all that. But I want so much more. I want the whole thing, not just a quick scene. I want twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I want you to be mine. I won't take anything less."
Could be I just saw what I wanted to see.
Anyhow, it was clear to me early on that things are not what they seem with Bayden not to mention that he seemingly has no practical experience with BDSM. I've learned the never judge a book by its cover lesson the hard way, but Axel seems oblivious to the obvious. That I found disappointing and instead of discussing why he's betting and getting into fights all the time when they have their first serious conversation about their would be relationship they discuss orgasm control. I appreciate trying to find out what turns someone's crank but if your intention is to collar that person then it's prudent to get to know them in a global sense particularly when they are throwing up enough red flags to rival a NASCAR race. Really, this is my only quibble in an otherwise delightful book, but it did pervade Axel's Pup.
Bayden is the epitome of sweet submissive as only KD can illustrate. His transformation from a rough and scrappy leader of his pack werewolf to docile submissive I found a little jarring, but I guess love and a muscled, tatted and über possessive alpha who's also leader of a BDSM motorcycle club can do that to a wolf.
Axel's Pup is a wonderful beginning to what appears to be a series and let me just state right now for the record that I am DYING for the next book to be about Hale. A submissive cop who's in denial about being submissive?
I'll take two. Thank you very much.
Recommend to everyone who likes a feel good read.
A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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