BarbsBooks

4 Stars

Steven Stanhope learns firsthand the saying “where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise” is a big load of crap. Knowing he was walking into a legal and personal nightmare before he went home to Australia would have been good. In Leather+Lace, by AB Gayle, Steve thinks he’s going back home to help a friend open a bar that caters to the local gay community. He’ll be doing his Stevie Nicks drag routine and there will be a demonstration of BDSM techniques from some American guy, Donato Rossi. Steve wants to kill two birds with one stone on his trip home. He wants to get some of his things back from when he fled from his abusive boyfriend, Julius. Steve and Don’s first meeting doesn’t go well, nor do the second and third. The awfulness culminates for Steve when Don is the one who tells him Julius is dead. To make things as surreal as possible for Steve, Don takes him to the house he and Julius used to share. The house from which he escaped. Apparently Julius had gone to the states to learn more about the BDSM lifestyle. He met Don, and his slave Alex, and lived with them for a time. Because holding Steve hostage in his home as a slave wasn’t enough to make Julius a bad guy, he also had an affair with Alex and was responsible for the bike crash that killed both him and Alex. Everyone was hurt as much as possible.

Gabriel is a young man Steve met at the bar....

Read Faye's full review at Live Your Life, Buy The Book