reviews_and_ramblings | So Much More Than Naked by D.J. Manly

So Much More Than Naked by D.J. Manly

Darcy is a 26 years old virgin history professor. Orphaned at 19 years old after his mother commited suicide since she was not able to move on the husband's death, Darcy became the only steady point in the family for the younger brother Martin. Darcy reacts to the events becoming a freak controlled, everything in his life has to perfect and in order, and obviously his attraction toward men has to be denied.

Now Martin is marrying and other than throw into confusion Darcy's life with the marriage preparations, he also wants that Darcy brings a date to the ceremony. But since Darcy has no one aroud him to ask, Martin replies to an online add only to mistake the addresses. And so he sets a date for Darcy with Ryan, a sexual therapist who is searching a submissive lover to move on on a relationship that has left him with some trust issues.

Ryan is a very handsome and comprehensive man. He realizes that Darcy has some sexual issues on his own to overcome and also that the man needs badly to leave for once the control. But convicing Darcy that is not a problem if he likes men and to also move from a virgin status to a play room full of chains and strange toys is not so simple.

Darcy and Ryan's relationship is not smoothly. When you think that they have reached a common path something happened that derails them. And despite the argument there are more scenes where Darcy tries to understand himself and the outside world than sexy scene between the two main characters. All the book is focused on Darcy and we know little about Ryan, other than he seems a nice guy. Why he chooses Darcy and why he is not more demanding on their relationship? maybe he wants to give time and space to Darcy to arrive by himself to the right end of the path...

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Amazon Kindle: So Much More Than Naked
Publisher: eXtasy Books (July 1, 2010)

So Much More Than Naked 2 by D.J. Manly

Darcy and Ryan met in the previous book through an ad in a newspaper. Darcy was forced by his little brother, since he was an old "virgin" with a problem with power: he was always in too much control, he seemed to be not able to let go. Ryan instead was a sex therapist who needs control in the bedroom, since his last relationship ended pretty bad when his Dom partner took a bit too seriously they sex games. Darcy was convinced that Ryan was a woman, but when he faced the man for the first time, another of his internal walls crashed down, he finally admitted that he was more interested in men than in women.

The story continues where we left Darcy and Ryan: trying to build a life together learning how to balance their power. In the first book, it was Darcy that learned the lesson, and now is time for Ryan. He has a problem with his former lover, he consciously realized that their relationship was ill but his body seems to have not yet reached the same conclusion. Plus Ryan fears to let Darcy take control, since the man is a natural Dom, and Ryan is scared that if he will taste also that type of power, he will never give it up again. Nor Ryan or Darcy want a total submission or a total dominion, in bed and in life.

This book deals with the extreme layer of the S/M sex games; what Ryan craves in bedroom (and not only) is a little too edgy for me to comprehend, but, all in all, the book is not so dark and angst, I read other books far more extreme. What it really bothers me is that Ryan "cheats" on Darcy; oh, he technically didn't do that, but not talking with his partner, and seeking release to his desires with another man, for me is equal to a cheating. Even more, since Ryan is a sex therapist, and where a physical cheating is less important for him, a "mental" one is far more dangerous and deadly for their relationship.

Of the two, Ryan is the one to blame. It's true that, at the beginning of the book, Darcy seems reluctant to let go, to fully being involved in their relationship, but he is trying. Maybe he is not so fast, but on the other hand, Ryan never tried. He plunged in his error without even looking around for an alternative path.

So here is an example of a book where I like the story, but I don't fully like both characters; even if Ryan is a therapist, he has yet a lot to learn on how to make work a relationship, when he is one of the part involved.

http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=ebook_flypage&product_id=4093&category_id=3&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=44

Amazon Kindle: So Much More Than Naked book 2
Publisher: eXtasy Books (July 1, 2010)

Amazon: So Much More Than Naked
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: eXtasy Books (November 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 155487145X
ISBN-13: 978-1554871452

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle