...Bookfanatic

At just over 2 hours 'Master Class' has a lot of story packed into it...unfortunately for me it felt like just a bit too much and didn't work as well as it would have, if there'd been a bit more story.

Nicky Avery is the darling of Broadway at night but during the day he's a one bad hook-up after another as he looks for something...but not even he knows what it is. 

Devon Turner thinks he knows what Nicky's looking for and while he wants to be the one to fill that need, he's determined that Nicky learns who's going to be the master in their relationship...and unlike his past experiences it's not going to be Nicky. Devon doesn't put up with 'topping from the bottom' so if Nicky wants what Devon has to offer and he's fairly certain he does, he'll need to up his game.

Master Class isn't my first time with a BDSM story but I have to admit it's the first time I've read one where the play between the Master and sub at times feels like it's bordering on abuse and also includes humiliation...no judgement here, ok? It's a thing for some people and that's totally cool, I'm just saying it's not my thing, not that it's good or it's bad...it's just not my thing and that's cool because different strokes for different folks, right? So while, I admit I'm not a fan of these two things and had there been something in the blurb that hinted at one or both of these things being in the story, I very probably would have taken a pass on this one and that's only because I would have known that giving it a glowing review wasn't going to happen...it's why I don't read SciFi or Horror or Historical Romance...they're just not my thing.

However, having said all that quite honestly because of the brevity of the story I decided to give it a go anyways and while there was a couple of things that I didn't like there were other aspects of the story that worked for me. Like the fact that in spite of the fact that the play between Nicky and Devon at times felt abusive and the issue of humiliation, Devon's treatment of Nicky also held an underlying expression of care and concern that spoke to Devon's true feelings towards Nicky.

Andrew Navarro is both a new to me narrator and it seems a new to audiobooks narrator as well and I definitely enjoyed this first foray into the medium by this narrator and look forward to hearing what comes next for him and while the book was only a 3 star listen for me. The narration was definitely stronger and I'd have to put that at a solid 4 stars.

'Master Class' for me spoke more to the s/m part of BDSM than stories that I've read previously and had the story been a bit longer with a bit stronger relationship development I may have come away feeling differently than I did about the overall story. So ironically it was the shortness of the story that convinced me to read it while also being one the reasons that I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to.

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An audiobook of "Master Class" was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.