WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 26. Will and Patrick Fight their feelings, Book 4 Wake Up Married Series by Leta Blake

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28448746-will-patrick-fight-their-feelings

We’re in the heart of the story, Will and Patrick have consummated their relationship and usually by this point in most romance novels, you fade to black. However, the charm of Leta Blake is that she defies conventional wisdom in the genre that she writes in. It’s one of the things I appreciate in her writing, she’s willing to explore the complete story of relationships from various angles.

At 137 pages and around 4 hours on audible, you will breeze past this short book very quickly.

Plot: Will and Patrick’s passion bloom after their first fully conscious sexual encounter. Both men have grown to love and appreciate each other’s carnal desires, but neither has admitted their love for each other. Will is dealing with issues with his mother dating a younger man, while his own family’s innate drama has caused him to fear his emotional connection to Patrick. During a night of sex, Will reveals a new level of his sexual interest to Patrick, opening up their sexual intensity and trust level a hundred-fold. Will’s grandmother Elenora Molinaro delivers some news in regards to the potential for divorce between him and Patrick. In Patrick’s life, a new case involving a seriously injured man named Shane Hammond comes into play and marks the first major setback for Patrick. Patrick’s best friend Jenny goes through the liver transplant surgery. By the end of the book, Patrick is served by the lawyers of Shane Hammond’s wife and put on administrative leave. As Will tries to comfort Patrick on nighttime walk through Healing, South Dakota’s streets, they are accosted by mafia goons. Will’s father Tony Molinaro puts a gun to Patrick’s head and threatens to shoot.

Review: The book is sexually intense, comedically spot-on, and by its end, leaves readers wanting more. For readers following this series, you have stuck it out to book 4, so you may imagine you have seen everything Leta Blake had to offer. However, the formula of Book 1-3 is dashed in book 4, because once you have sex between two characters, even if you don’t put a ring on it (which they have already done), you’re exploring relationship dynamics and characters. I find the sexiness factor of Will Patterson has grown exponentially in book 4.

Will has some interesting sexual desires. He enjoys things that even for people experienced with BDSM is quite fringe, beyond regular bondage, I am referring to breath play. I’ve heard of breath play before in passing during my exploration of BDSM, some people call it by the scientific name erotic asphyxiation, but I have never experimented with it. It’s a very dangerous practice, most people avoid it due to fear of injury or even death, gay or straight alike. I know it takes a high level of trust in order to give someone the ability to choke you, generate the necessary levels of oxygen deprivation to create intense orgasms, and in case of emergency, be responsible for saving your life. Unless you have medical training, it wouldn’t be the type of sexual practice or activity for novices. Leta Blake took a very deep dive into a type of BDSM activity I rarely ever read about in gay romance fiction, even stuff on Nifty usually don't head in that direction. It’s a powerful concept to build a relationship between two people based on sexual trust, who need to develop the trust for one another to emotionally be able to achieve it. Even Leta Blake, through Patrick's commentary, fears for Will's safety, there's a possibility of death for a vulnerable submissive gay guy. It's one of the times I think BDSM isn't just there to be "Look how hardcore this is", but it really develops characters and relationships into a deeper level. That’s something I find appealing, because it’s not a matter of insta-love between Will and Patrick, they sexually have been building a relationship of trust. That trust translates to a deeper trust with each other in their daily lives.

Also in this book, Patrick’s full story comes out about why he left his father, having been forced into child prostitution to pay for their rent and his dad’s drinking habit. It’s a really traumatic scene that has built up across all 4 books, but when you get to it, be ready. That kind of vulnerability could only be brought out from Patrick through the sexual trust he shared with Will, because Patrick as the previous books have shown is quite unwilling to share that part of himself.

Other fun little side-plots about this book, Elenora had a revelation for Will about his cousin marrying a porn star, who has declared herself a “Born-Again Virgin”. When I first read that, I choked on my hot tea. As a bisexual older woman, she is quite a character with her witty quips about sexuality and relationships. Other fun scene includes Will and Patrick babysitting Jenny’s baby son, Dillon; these two guys are cute fathers, but they are quite overwhelmed by the needs of a single child. There’s something about babies that just seem to make comedy gold. Leta Blake interspersed a large deal of humor.

My rating: 5 out 5, it is one of the best books in the entire series thus far, it had everything you want for dedicated readers: high impact plot issues, interpersonal conflicts, and deeply rich sexual bonding that is unique to a homosexual male couple.

I’ll continue tomorrow with Book 5.