Sub Mission by T. S. McKinney

Sub Mission by T. S. McKinney

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Blurb

With subs being murdered at a Miami BDSM club, experienced dominant Agent Seth Wilkinson must find his own submissive to “entice” a killer. When he’s paired with Agent Baker Daley he wonders just how much a straight man can fake.

Baker Daley knows he can “play the part”; he just needs a chance to prove it to Wilkinson. Being a straight man should have no bearing when his Domme has trained him well in the practice and lifestyle of submission. After all, this is just a job, right?

One scene. One intuitive Dom. One sassy sub. The game is afoot…in more ways than one.

As passions ignite and both men grapple with their internal desires, the mission begins to heat up. In a race against time, confusion and danger, they may just discover the greatest threat is to their hearts.

Buy Link

Amazon

Review

I’ll be the first to admit BDSM isn’t my first go-to when it comes to reading material. I have a few favorites, but like everything else involving BDSM it requires trust. I live in perpetual fear – probably unfounded – that I’m going to find myself reading something super triggering or just plain bad. You know the book(s) I’m thinking of.

But this was one book that came highly recommended, and let me tell you it did not disappoint. Murder!  Scorching hot murder romance, in which the kink is an integral part of the plot!  The clouds part, sunbeams and angels descend from on high, the world is right again.

Ahem.

Anyway, the plot is an interesting one. The characters are unique and individual. The two main characters to the side characters like the boss and Baker’s Domme. The kink is discussed ahead of time, safely, sanely and consensually.

And when something happens and one character tries to take things a little farther than he should?  It’s handled, appropriately and without shame. Love it! 

The “gay for you” trope is considered problematic, for a lot of very good reasons. While Sub Mission is definitely a story of self-discovery, at least on Baker’s part, I wouldn’t say it necessarily falls into the trap of so many GFY stories. Forgive me if I’m putting an interpretation onto the story that the author didn’t intend, but Baker didn’t seem to be particularly married to the idea of heterosexuality to begin with. He seemed to be more welded to his identity as submissive, and as his feelings for his work partner grew he accepted newly discovered truths about himself. There was no Big Gay Panic, no crisis of identity, and no mourning his lost heterosexuality. And personally, I liked that.

Both Baker and Seth were likeable, which is funny because they definitely rubbed each other the wrong way from the start. It was fun to watch them come together outside of the sex scenes, which as I mentioned were scorchingly hot and sometimes not even particularly kinky.

There were a couple of things that could have been handled differently, I suppose. (Well, everything could have been handled differently. McKinney could have written an inspirational Amish romance about dairy farming. I wouldn’t have read it, but they could have.)

A private agency would not have had the jurisdiction to act as they do in this book. It’s fine, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, but some people who do work in law enforcement may find it detracts from their ability to get into the story.

I can’t imagine any real employer other than one that specializes in sex work where the boss sits in on a scene. I understand why it was done, but… just no. The auditor in me (who is supposed to be gone but isn’t) is sitting here watching the lawsuits pile up.

And finally, the dark moment at the end is a little manufactured. I’m probably guilty of the same thing myself in some of my books, and I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, but it’s just something that stood out. Both of these guys have phones. They’re grown-ass men who know how to use their phones. SEND A TEXT, BOYS. IT WON’T HURT YOU.

Ahem.

While some people will avoid sexually explicit romance or anything related to kink, and that’s fine, this is a fantastic romantic suspense story that I’d recommend to anyone who doesn’t have a specific aversion to that sort of material. It’s fun, it’s smart, and the characters will stay with you long after the story is finished.