Melissa reviews The Master Will Appear by L.A. Witt Published May 16th 2017 by Self-Published, 364 pages.
Dr. Mikhail “Misha” Budnikov takes one look at fellow fencer Ryan O’Connor and instantly knows his type. The undisciplined hothead is all ego with no finesse and even less control. In short, Misha’s pet peeves personified. To put the arrogant kid in check, Misha challenges him to a sparring match, which he predictably wins.
Not so predictably, Ryan asks him to be a mentor and show him how to fence. Startled by the moment of humility, Misha agrees.
What begins as fencing lessons becomes something much hotter, and before they know it, Misha is giving Ryan an entirely different kind of education. Dominance, submission, pain, pleasure—at the hands of an older, experienced man, a whole new world is opening up for Ryan.
As the trust deepens and their bond strengthens, though, Ryan retreats because that sham called love left him jaded long ago. Cynical beyond his years, he’s not letting his guard down, least of all for a thrice-divorced man twice his age.
Now Misha has to find a way to crack through those defenses…or accept defeat and walk away from the submissive who might just be the love of his life.
An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Why I read this book: I kept hearing about this book (and it contains a lot of what I like in my MM romance) and decided I needed to read it for myself.
L.A. Witt’s writing is hit or miss for me and this one here was a complete HIT!!! After seeing this book show up on my Goodreads feed soooo many times, and after hearing how much people liked it (for the most part), I grabbed the chance to read this one asap! I enjoy age gap romance, and then to have a student-teacher dynamic as well as Dom and Submissive? Yep, I wasn’t passing up the chance to read this one. If those are things you like in your MM romance too, this book will not disappoint.
You already know a lot from the blurb about Misha and Ryan and how their relationship grows. What the blurb doesn’t tell you is that it’s not all about dominance and submission – there are sweet and gentle times as well (Vanilla). I found it super endearing that when Misha asks Ryan what he would not be able to give up in a relationship, Ryan says kissing. And, oh, boy. Do these two men know how to kiss! 😉 And I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that their entire relationship wasn’t all whips and chains. For as much time as Ryan was submissive, there were equal times where they were equals in the bedroom. It was all about balance and pleasing ones partner – THAT I enjoyed. I’m not opposed to hard and heavy BDSM novels, but I also enjoy the softer moments where there is just cuddling too. And ‘The Master Will Appear’ gave me exactly what I needed.
At no point did I feel like the story was dragging on or there were scenes that felt pointless. Everything that was on page felt necessary to show Misha and Ryan’s growing and changing relationship, Ryan’s familial history and how he became cynical towards “love.” For the majority of this story, Misha and Ryan have balance and caring in their relationship. That’s not to say Ryan doesn’t harbor doubts about what Misha is really getting out of this relationship, but Ryan pushes that aside and tries to focus only on the present and not worry about when the relationship will sour (because Ryan is certain that it will since that’s all he knows).
I highly recommend this story and feel this is worthy of 5 stars/10 pots. I was surprised by the events in the epilogue but that didn’t matter enough to make me change my rating. I hope we get to see more of Misha and Ryan (and maybe Gene will get his own story, *sends telepathic message to Witt*). I didn’t want to put this book down and eagerly awaited the moment I could pick it up again.
Where to buy: Amazon US, Amazon UK
She also has substantially more time on her hands these days, as she has recruited a small army of mercenaries to search South America for her nemesis, romance author Lauren Gallagher, but don’t tell Lauren. And definitely don’t tell Lori A. Witt or Ann Gallagher. Neither of those twits can keep their mouths shut…
Visit her website at http://www.gallagherwitt.com/.
Twitter:@GallagherWitt
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