Power Play: Resistance: Power Play (Volume 1) Paperback – October 7, 2012

I finished this book a few days ago, but I can't seem to get it out of my head. Normally that's a good thing, because I enjoyed the book so much. But not in this case. The more I think about this book, the more upset I get. I'm not complaining about the intense level of BDSM in this book, because I think the book description and reviews do a good job warning people that this isn't for the faint of heart.However, to me the dom, Johnathon, crosses a line from acceptable BDSM behavior over to torturer and rape. The more I think it over, the more upset I become. (SPOILER ALERT) It would be one thing if by the end of the book, the sub, Bran, realizes what a horrible person Johnathon is and leaves him. But that's not what happens. Bran does leave, but then goes back and actually asks for forgiveness. Bran has nothing to ask forgiveness for. Yes he was quite rude during a conversation he had with Johnathon (the only actual conversation he was allowed to have the whole month he was there). But Johnathon told him he could speak freely without fear of reprisal, so he did.What followed was several days of torture that finally forced Bran to give up and break their contract. Johnathon deliberately caused too much pain and suffering in order to force Bran to leave. To me that violates at least the spirit of the contract. And the thing is Johnathon NEVER apologizes for it. Bran is constantly groveling and begging for forgiveness for every little thing. When Johnathon screwed up to a monumental level, the very least he owes Bran is a heartfelt apology.I also don't understand the motivation for why Bran got himself into this situation. I could understand if he had a sick child or something and needed money for surgery. I think we would all do things we wouldn't normally do to save our children's lives (including resort to prostitution, which is what this arrangement is. Both characters may say it's not, but the fact is, it's sex [and submission] for money.) Bran, even when he was homeless, refused to resort to prostitution. So what's changed? I know he wants to buy this business, go back to school and have financial freedom. We all want some of these things. But the torture he was willing to endure to get it, I just don't see that as realistic. It's made very clear that Bran does not enjoy pain. So the whole arrangement is truly agonizing for him.The thing is, if he didn't live in one of the most expensive cities in the country, he could easily be saving a couple grand a year to buy his own business. There are construction jobs in just about every city in America. With the exception of New York, every city in America is also cheaper to live in. If he'd just lived somewhere else for the past ten years, he'd already have a down payment put together, and be a lot more likely to qualify for a business loan to buy or start his own business.I wanted to like this book. I went in expecting to enjoy it. I can tolerate a lot of imperfections from the main characters. I can also tolerate a lot of painful scenes that I myself might not actually enjoy. But I was so angry that this book seemed to be saying that the dom's behavior is acceptable, when it's clearly not. Things do get better in the second book (I was so upset after the first book, I had to see how things were resolved). They both start communicating more, something they seem to have completely forgotten exists in this book.But, in my opinion, all the communication in the world can't make up for the horrible way Johnathon treated Bran in this first book. And it's not just the torture. Johnathon is an experienced dom. He should know better than to take a total newbie to the lifestyle and expect him to just adapt the day the contract starts. That's ridiculous. He should have either better prepared him for it ahead of time, or given him a period of time to adjust. Bran didn't know any better to state what his limits were ahead of time, because he didn't have any concept of what he was getting into. I think Johnathon really took advantage of Bran. Johnathon got mad when Bran didn't get all the rules right immediately. Johnathon was ready to give up after a couple of weeks. Bran wanted to keep going, and when Bran wouldn't agree with him about ending the contract early, Johnathon behaved like the spoiled child he accused Bran of acting like, and forced Bran to leave through too much pain and torture. The whole thing was just wrong on many levels.I don't normally take the time to sit down and right a review much less a bad review, but I really felt like something needed to be said about this book.

Spoilers in this reviewI read this from beginning to end, so that's an automatic 3 stars from me, but I was really angry with Jonathan the entire time. I thought he was a really bad dom, and he took a difficult situation and made it much much worse. It was disingenuous in the extreme to say that Brandon was willing, and not factor in the money. That Jonathan set up the relationship with such weird parameters shows how he has intimacy issues. He never looked to what bothered Bran, he just wanted him to bend to his own needs, no consideration of the subs needs. I feel myself rambling but I was so enraged about that. He actually felt sorry for himself and he was using a stun gun on that poor man!! He was awful to Brandon and no experienced sub would have put up with it. I didn't like him and though he had a flash of insight at the end, it wasn't enough to satisfy me. So while I was engaged the entire time I read, it was mainly to shout at Jonathan (in the same way one shouts at the TV...) about all the terrible choices he was making.

This book is schizophrenic, just like the title. I would say there was Yin & Yang, but there wasn't. The Dom was selfish. The author gave us some history, telling us he had previous submissives. They moved on. 3/4 of the way through the book you can see why.I actually tried to like this book, I did have a problem with Zero to 24/7, especially when the sub naively says No Blood and the Dom lets him sign contract and vroom, away we go. I don't think the sub was ever properly briefed on Consent. It didn't appear that the Dom thought Consent was an issue. He was paying $3,000,000 for a plaything it would appear. Really, this book could have gone a different way and it would have been a scorcher.I believe the authors must have realized that no one would volunteer for what the sub went through and had to have the scene stop to allow a reset. A week to cool off. If the Dom wanted a lasting relationship, he would have tried harder after the starvation. The sub was new to this, he was willing, he had limits but there was a threat ($3 million) which figured more in his reasoning than reason.

I have to start off by quoting cupcake:If Fifty Shades of Grey was too hardcore for you, let me just say that (a) the BDSM community finds you precious and (b) don't even THINK about reading this book.In a nutshell, if you like m/m romances, like BDSM fiction and like it towards the more extreme end of the spectrum then this book is for you. There is no humiliation, water sports, scat, pony/puppy play but just about everything else I have read in any other book in this genre. There is a lot of insight into the characters however and the books are long enough to let the relationship evolve so the d/s elements are the story themselves, not something thrown in to make the book "edgy" as is sometimes the case.I love the Jodi Payne / Chris Owen series Domination and character development wise this is very similar. I would put the intensity at quite a bit higher though.So, not for the faint of heart, but a great read if you dare.