Angel and the Assassin by Fyn Alexander

 

I read Angel and the Assassin in preparation for the second book, Angel and the Assassin 2: Be Brave.

Here is the blurb for the first book in this series:

Kael Saunders loves to dominate handsome, masculine men like himself. Being in charge is his way of life whether it be in his work with the Secret Intelligence service, his personal life, or in the dungeon. The last thing he expects when he is out on a hit is to fall in love with Angel, an eighteen-year-old boy desperate for the love and guidance of a Daddy. Yet Angel also has a passion for being spanked and restrained. Two very different men find love in a world of skilled assassins, Bosnian terrorists, and dungeon play.

I'll get the controversy out of the way first: I have no issues with what grown adults choose to call each other in a consensual power exchange relationship. If they want to call each other Sir, Master, Daddy, pet, slave, sub, boy... I don't care. If you've got a problem with the Daddy honorific then you may want to skip this one. If you can substitute Daddy with Master then you should be fine.

There are a lot of situations where I'd have problems with a thirty plus year old Dom taking on a barely legal young man in any sort of slave relationship - but the set up for this relationship made it okay for me. Angel had been wanting this, had magazines about it, had dreamed of finding his own leather daddy. And Kael was responsible with the power he was given. I didn't agree with everything he did, but that's okay. Overall I thought he was a responsible Dom who was worthy of the trust he was given.

Now for the fun stuff... Fyn Alexander writes hot sex and great D/s. It was tender, it was rough, it was harsh, it was sweet. There was communication. And did I mention the sex was hot?

One of my pet peeves is when conflict involves a lack of communication, and that carried the story for a brief period of time. It didn't annoy as much as it normally does though. For these two particular characters the lack of communication was plausible. Plus, it didn't last too terribly long. Had it stretched out much longer it would have caused a problem.

I want Kael's dungeon. Seriously.  And I wouldn't mind being under his flogger, either. There is a flogging scene in this one that has to be one of the top three or four descriptions of a good flogging that I've ever come across.  Yum.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 3 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: 2 of 3 
• Extra Point: Yes

As for the writing elements:

• There were a couple of plots, all of the nicely done, and all of them worked well together.
• Pacing was perfect.
• Prose and dialogue were well done. 
• Character development was exceptional.  

The heat level on this one is easy - it's a five of five hands down. 

• Book Rating: Angel and the Assassin: 9 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 9 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5

I'm about to open up Angel and the Assassin 2: Be Brave and I can't wait to see what happens next. Will there be color in the apartment? How much will Angel have grown up? How much farther will things go in the dungeon now that the pair have been together a while?