reviews_and_ramblings | Above the Dungeon by S.M. Johnson

Above the Dungeon is maybe a bit much to extreme to be my cup of tea, I’m not sure I would be comfortable to live an experience like the one in this novel, but indeed it has an original development and some nice and particular characters. The odd thing is that I really didn’t “like” any of those characters, and for like I mean in a very personal way, and that is perfect understandable since I would not want the lifestyle they so obvious need. It’s not a judgment on what they want; it’s an admission of what I would not be able to understand.

The story is told in two points of view, something I didn’t immediately understand and it made the discovery pretty nice. Adair is a out of age runaway “kid”: he is 26 years old and till now he has always lived the life someone else planned for him; but when he was there to do that final step, marrying the nice girl his father chooses for him, Adair broke free from the cage and the place where he finds a shelter is his cousin Maddox’s New York apartment, and also a job as bartender in the gay club the same Maddox works as bouncer. Above the Dungeon is indeed a night club above the Dungeon of Roman, and Roman takes immediately under his wings the new kid on the block, and recognize in him the desire, and need, to be freed by his straight laced upbringing. Adair, now Dare, will find in Above the Dungeon more than a job, and will find freedom in being in power of someone else… this is probably what I didn’t like of him, I would have preferred for him to take a more independent path, to probably discover a bit ore of himself before giving all of him to another man.

In any case, Roman remained a mystery, even more when the second chapter, and second point of view started, the one of Jeff, the long-term 24/7 slave of Roman, the one who is living with him. As Jeff himself explains to the reader, Roman and he don’t have an open relationship, but are aware that cheating is a possibility, and they went through it in the past, but they had already decided that their relationship is more important. They are together since 12 years, and they are pretty sure that it will be something lasting forever, and so he thought Jeff before Dare enters the picture. Until then it was Jeff who had some out-track experiences, but they were mostly flirts, something Jeff probably needed to prove that he was still an attractive man, I felt a bit of self-esteem issues in Jeff, something that he probably brought on from his family background. But the relationship between Dare and Roman is not a flirt, not like the one we witness between Roman, Jeff and Tristan. And Dare has to come to pact to this new development to not face the possibility to loose Roman.

And now we come to Roman; I think that he has actually never expressed any preferences over Dare rather than Jeff; indeed if asked, Roman told that he would not willing to jeopardize what he has with Jeff, and that he would be willing to let it go Dare. But Jeff knows that he can’t put Roman in front of a choice, since Roman is the Master and Jeff the slave, and so in no way Jeff can ask to Roman to choose between him and Dare. Roman’s reassurance to Jeff is done by words, but also with gesture, like really collaring him, for the first time in 12 years, and not only as a play during sex.

Again, I’m not sure the balance Jeff, Roman and Dare find is something that will last, I’m not so sure that Jeff is really willing, or able to share Roman, as indeed I’m not sure Dare is really ready for this relationship. In any case, the author is able to make me wonder about it all, and this means these characters have depth and development.

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Amazon Kindle: Above the Dungeon

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