Release Blitz ~ Unearthed (Book 1) by Kora Knight ~ (Review)
Love buried his heart in the cold, hard ground. Now he’s fighting to keep it there.
Title: Unearthed (Book 1)
Series: The Dungeon Black Duology
Author: Kora Knight
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Blurb
Love. The most powerful force in existence, but also the most ruthless. Cunning and deceptive. Man’s greatest Achilles heel. Leaving all who embrace it weak and vulnerable.
At least that’s how Dom-for-hire Max Kelley sees it, after the love of his life knocked him on his ass. A brutal blow that not only stole his breath, but decimated his ability to trust. Turning him cold and cynical. The TKO he never saw coming.
Love. A mistake Max won’t ever make again.
Meaning no more relationships—not exactly a hardship. Just the thought of dating makes him queasy, and one of the reasons he doms for a living. To sexually engage without the poison of intimacy. The other reason? To keep his demons sated. With whips and chains, and scandalous kink. A fiery mix that always hits the spot.
That is, until a bright-eyed beauty walks into his life and refuses to leave.
Sean Matthews. College senior and flirt extraordinaire. Max’s newest—and greenest—client sub. Man, is he delicious; able to push Max’s buttons, able to make him crave the things he knows he shouldn’t. Sound the alarm, this can only mean trouble. Unfortunately, deterring Sean proves virtually impossible, and now Max finds himself at a crossroads.
Man up and kick his favorite sub to the curb… or succumb to his own caged desires.
At least that’s how Dom-for-hire Max Kelley sees it, after the love of his life knocked him on his ass. A brutal blow that not only stole his breath, but decimated his ability to trust. Turning him cold and cynical. The TKO he never saw coming.
Love. A mistake Max won’t ever make again.
Meaning no more relationships—not exactly a hardship. Just the thought of dating makes him queasy, and one of the reasons he doms for a living. To sexually engage without the poison of intimacy. The other reason? To keep his demons sated. With whips and chains, and scandalous kink. A fiery mix that always hits the spot.
That is, until a bright-eyed beauty walks into his life and refuses to leave.
Sean Matthews. College senior and flirt extraordinaire. Max’s newest—and greenest—client sub. Man, is he delicious; able to push Max’s buttons, able to make him crave the things he knows he shouldn’t. Sound the alarm, this can only mean trouble. Unfortunately, deterring Sean proves virtually impossible, and now Max finds himself at a crossroads.
Man up and kick his favorite sub to the curb… or succumb to his own caged desires.
Warning: This erotic, gay, BDSM romance contains intensely explicit sexual scenes both inside and out of the dungeon.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie in exchange for a fair and honest review. ***
Unearthed is the first book in The Dungeon Black Duology series, an Upending Tad spinoff. You don't have to read the Upending Tad series to read Unearthed, but we did get our first glimpse of Max and Sean there and I really enjoyed it, so just pick it up, it's pretty good, I promise!
I have to admit I didn't quite like Max in the Upending Tad series, he's gruff and keeps most people at arm's length and I wasn't sure of his background with Scott. However, after reading the first quarter of Unearthed so many things became clear about his behavior. I don't really want to give much away, but let's just say he had to live through an experience that really marked him and put him off love, until he met Sean.
Max is a Dom-for-hire, so a lot of the book revolves around how he became one. I am not that much into BDSM, but aside from a couple of scenes that were described in more detail (I had to skim through the last one when it got to be too much for me), the rest was pretty tame in comparison.
I really liked finding how Scott and Max met and became such good friends, and how Kora Knight interwove scenes that we had seen in the previous series into this book, so we could see them through Max or Sean's POV, but she didn't allow them to take over this story.
Sean was a sweetheart, and my heart broke for him a few times. Same as for Max, really. They each went through some hard stuff in the past that marked them. I loved that Max is so oblivious to how much Sean already means to him, or rather, that he is trying not to see and admit to it. Their chemistry was unbelievable, their scenes together really hot and I'm intrigued over how it will play out in book 2.
All in all, it was a very good start of the series. Engaging, angsty, hot and intriguing, really well-written and that left me wanting more. Recommendable!
Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!
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