Dinner and watching movies together is a strange price to pay, but Tom loves spending time with Cypress. As they grow closer and feelings begin to blossom, they discover that Tom's ex-boyfriend might be into more than just drugs – he might also be a murderer.
Author’s Note: This book includes intense sexual scenes, rough spankings, and depictions of death and embalming as they relate to the funeral industry. If this material offends or may upset you, please don’t read this book.
If you’re looking for something different, off the beaten path, you're in good hands with K. L. Hiers and in this offering she doesn’t disappoint.
Thomas Hills is an embalmer, a perfectionist of his craft, with perhaps too much empathy for his clients, the dead and the living. As a result he finds himself at thirty five (35) as lonely as a dog without his master. Luckily there is one not too far away.
Cypress Holmes is that master. He’s forty one (41) the owner, florist, and current delivery person of Doyle’s Flowers. His frequent trips to Crosby-Ayers Funeral Home has fostered admiration between him and Thomas, though self-effacing, shy, low self esteem Thomas thinks it’s one sided. It’s not.
There’s lots to love in this story. I’ll start with that.
Here’s a description of Thomas: “He was quite pale with chin length mousy brown hair, and his big blue eyes gave him an owlish appearance.” (Made me think of the late David Foster Wallace). He has no washboard abs or eyes to drown in. He’s not rich or possessed of any superpower save that he’s good at his job and proud of it.
Cypress is a Black man living in America today. He comes from a good and loving family, is the proprietor of his own business and has no back story of misery & woe. He is smart, self sufficient, knows who he is and what he wants. Who he wants is Thomas. He wants to watch Tom come apart and fly under his tender ministrations. Yes, this is a BDSM romance, some pain to bring you pleasure, and pleasure was had by those involved. I confess to being fastidious about Doms but I generally liked Cypress. He treats Tom as the adult he is, confining their bedroom dynamics to that, the bedroom. He never tries to manage Tom’s professional life, showing only the logical care and concern any romantic partner would.
Usually I’m leery of BDSM as a substitute for therapy, but that wasn’t the case here. What Cypress gives Tom is a way to channel the grief he bottles up after dealing with the dead & the bereaved, guidance to structure his time, and something to look forward to after long hard hours of soul crushing work. If this “help” comes in the form of sexual bliss Tom’s not complaining.
I would certainly recommend this for those wanting a romance rooted in an adult relationship between recognizable modern humans, inhabitants of a diverse society. I loved that aspect and Tom & Cypress as a couple. Their square pegs fit in each other's round holes.
What I didn’t like were things that I think can easily be remedied by stricter editing:
*** The perhaps excessive rendering of mmhmm & hmm was distracting
*** IMO the side plot shenanigans at the funeral home weren’t what brought Tom & Cypress together, nor were they central to the story. Maybe less about them.
*** The author is an embalmer, and it shows in the meticulous, detailed, and knowledgeable way she describes Tom’s work. I greatly appreciated the accuracy but I also feel that some of it, when it’s a reiteration, could’ve been scaled back. It would tighten the story and allow it to hone more sharply on Tom & Cypress’s relationship where it deserves to be.
Recommended. Enjoy. xoxo
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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