For Real by R.A. Frick

For Real is a story of creating a dynamic.. to suit yourselves: 

From the blurb:

Living outside of the cis-het box makes life more challenging, but also more fabulous.

Ash is a high-powered San Francisco real estate agent by day, Professional Dom by night. They live their life gender-queer and proud, but sex-work has gotten old. Will they ever be able to quit Pro-Domming and do kink for fun again?

Jefferson “Flowers” Flores is bitter from twenty years in the military and trying to find where he fits in the world. He's finally out of the Army and out of the closet; looking for love, hopeful but cynical in a new city where he doesn't feel like he belongs.

When one of Ash's clients has a video of their scene released, his criminal family is out for blood. Flowers steps up to protect Ash and keeps them safe as the feelings for each other grow. Can they really be what the other needs in the middle of running for their lives?

Kinks: Orgasm control, pro-Dom, chastity, Dom/sub, S&M, Queening chair, sissification and humiliation, Mommy role-play, Daddy play (no abdl), submissive Daddy. 

Triggers: rejection by family for sexuality, discussion of gender for humiliation, use of guns. 


Heather's Review:

For Real resonates for me on so many levels - I don't want to give away the plot by sharing a ton of insights, but what I wrote in the opening sentence sums up my thoughts on the book - it's a story about creating a dynamic that works for two incredible characters...

I absolutely love the duality of the characters - the genderfluid Pro-Dom who wants to explore their kink for themselves and learn to love themselves again... The army vet who spent twenty years in the closet and is ready to find himself and his place, not only in the world outside the military, but in a queer space he's never let himself be a part of...  the way R.A. Frick writes these characters with such depth and emotion - you feel like you're right there in the room with them...

The added tension of the client sub-story just gives the characters a reason to explore their dynamics on an expedited timeline - and it works for the book and the characters...

I read over the review and realized that I've totally vaguebooked this - but really, if I overshare you won't get the same experience from reading For Real and discovering new and wonderful things about the characters while they are experiencing it for themselves - and you need to!  If you love a book that turns cis-het norms, or even kinky queer norms on their heads and turns them inside out, you'll want to immediately put For Real on the top of your TBR! 

Rating: 5 Stars


Molly Otto's review:

Well, if you are looking for a hot af book with action sprinkled in look no further. We have Jefferson, a former military man who now at 40 can finally be his true self and Ash a pro Dom who wants something different. From their first interaction, the chemistry is so powerful that it's hard to even describe how palpable it is. Ash has confidence that I could only hope to have an inkling of, and when they hire Jefferson to be their bodyguard to watch over scenes, both will forever change. With one of the most magical first kisses I have ever read to some of the hottest heat truly an art form RA had accomplished. Then to top that all off, you mix in some intrigue to protect the ones they love, a loveable cast of roommates who all better get their own, a must-read for sure.


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