Review: One Man’s Trash (The Heretic Doms #1) by Marie Sexton
After four tours in Afghanistan, Warren Groves couldn’t settle into civilian life. For the last twelve years, he’s survived by working odd and often illegal jobs for some of Denver’s less fortunate. His personal life is equally unsatisfactory. He can barely remember the last time he had sex, let alone the last time he got to use somebody hard and rough, the way he likes. Fate intervenes when a favor for a friend leads him to a pretty young rentboy named Taylor Reynolds.
Taylor’s spent the last few years on his own, working as a hustler, going home with anybody who’ll give him a warm meal and a place to sleep. He enjoys having a bit of force used against him, and he makes Warren an offer he can’t refuse – all the sex he wants, as rough and dirty as he likes, in exchange for room and board.
At first, Warren thinks he’s struck gold. Taylor’s the perfect roommate – he cooks, he cleans, and he’s dynamite in the sack. But Taylor has some dark demons in his head and some even darker cravings. Falling for somebody as volatile as Taylor is dangerous enough, but when Taylor’s urges turn truly self-destructive, it’ll be up to Warren to decide just how far to let things go.
I GOT THIS BOOK AS A GIFT
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
ABUSE, PAST INCEST AND RAPE MENTIONED ON PAGE, SUICIDE ATTEMPT, VIOLENCE.
SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW, SPOILERS
Review:
Dear Marie Sexton,
A few years ago, when this series was first published, I tried the second book. Or I should say I started it and ran away from it, because it had the potential to annoy me and I chose not to take the chance.
I actually love BDSM themed romances, but I so far have not found many of them where I have found the execution to my liking.
This year I decided that I may as well try another book from this series and received this story as a gift at Heather’s book exchange. I also want to note that I do not have knowledge of real life BDSM practices, so my preferences are only concerned with how it is portrayed in romance.
This book is very hard to review.
The series tells the story of these four friends actually finding love. They are also all in the lifestyle to one degree or another and they call themselves Heretic Doms which confused the heck out of me. Apparently as the series begins they all have had failed relationships and because they “did not follow the rules” they thought they failed as BDSM practitioners, but one of the friends convinced others to call themselves Heretics, because it sounds better.
I know I said that I do not have real life familiarity with the BDSM lifestyle and I mostly do not, but I read some not romance stuff and I did think that rules are whatever works for you and couple is free to play the way they want, harder, easier, etc. I do not believe that everyone is obligated to play by the same rules, but I can certainly be wrong.
Initially Warren takes Taylor home not because he wants any other sort of relationship with him besides a sexual one, but very quickly they are attracted to each other. I did like both Warren and Taylor and thought that they had good chemistry. Did I believe that they had a future? I am not sure. They both had a lot of issues. Taylor was raped for years by his brother. I think it is very understandable that he would have issues after that, especially since he also loved his brother a lot and his brother’s abuse did a number on him.
Warren was probably the more stable of the two, but he also went through his father’s abuse of his mother which eventually led to her death and Warren also blamed himself for not protecting his mother for years. Then he served in Afghanistan, which left him with physical and emotional scars, understandably so.
However, I think the story makes a point (there is a paragraph to that effect, so I am not really interpreting much here, more like sharing what the book was trying to say) that Warren worked through a lot of his trauma by himself and with the help of his three friends, one of whom served with him in Afghanistan. Allow me to wonder about working through most of the trauma. I do not question that he was the much more stable of the two, but I thought Warren’s rage came to the surface once or twice (no matter how good the reasons were) and I think he would have benefited from the good therapist.
In any event despite all the demons main the characters (mostly Taylor) have and face, I did feel the emotional connection and I wanted to believe more than once that they will have a future.
I did not think that BDSM was portrayed as a cure for Taylor’s issues either, but one scene in the story tried REALLY hard to convince me to the contrary. My eyebrows rose so hard when I read it. Please understand, I have no problems with reading about multiple characters having sex if that’s what rocks their boat. I mean, I do not pretend that I read it all the time, mostly I read about two people getting together, but I have read quite a few stories about three people in the relationship and few stories about four of them.
This was such a bizarre scene because mostly it was Warren’s doing and he hated it. He thought this was what Taylor needed to get the flare up of his depression (was it even a depression? I am not sure, I cannot diagnose anyone even a fictional character) to go away, because Taylor developed a humiliation kink over the years. But very quickly Warren realized that this was not a real help and I was left scratching my head.
I was glad Taylor was getting some real help at the end and that Warren was there for him.
Overall I liked the book. I cannot say that I will rush to read others in the series, but I do not regret reading this one.
Grade: C+/B-
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