Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Does the baddest boy in school need a tutor... or a Daddy?

I've spent my whole life needing absolutely nothing and getting exactly that. Love? No. Security? Yeah, right. Parental supervision? As if. I take care of myself. After graduation, my football scholarship and I are out of here and we're never looking back.

Unless I screw it up.

Trying to study when I'm cold and hungry, that I'm used to. But throw in my mom's sketchy new boyfriend and his shady side hustle, and my home life's suddenly way more than just unbearable. Studying's barely on my radar and I'm in danger of losing my future before it starts.

My one shot at turning things around is The Beast.

Caleb Heath is the smartest guy in school. And the biggest. A giant, quiet bookworm with no friends, and okay, maybe that's partly my fault, but whatever. I hate him and he hates me, so why would he even offer to be my tutor?

Turns out there's a reason. He doesn't just want to save my grades. He doesn't just want to save my season. He wants to save me.

Wants to wrap me up in his giant arms and rescue me. He wants to spoil me. Punish me. Take care of me. He wants me to call him Daddy.

Sure it's hot. Sure it's tempting to think anyone could ever really want me. But I'm way too old to believe in fairy tales.

Aren't I?

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Hurt Me, Daddy is book one in The Brat & The Beast duet, an angsty, kinky, grumpy epic MM romance about an angry, stubborn, bratty jock who won't give an inch and a slightly stalky gentle giant with infinite patience. Get ready for steamy study sessions, unexpected attraction, hurt/comfort, daddy kink, spanking, fun sized candy bars, ugly gray sweaters, and all the feels.

This book ends on a satisfying but exciting cliffhanger. The second and final installment, Comfort Me, Daddy, contains a happily ever after for Logan and Caleb.

Content Warnings for toxic/abusive/neglectful home life, drug and alcohol abuse/addiction (parental), additional mentions of both in the past, frank portrayal of poverty, and food insecurity.

Book Review

After such a lengthy blurb, I am grateful for my own brevity. (Not!) ‘Hurt Me, Daddy’, book one of ‘The Brat & the Beast’, seems to be about real people – whether or not you know the ilk. The heroes appear perhaps to have been shortchanged by life – it's all the more interesting for the characters appear to be archetypical Aesopian villains, rather than dwelling in our modern world. With luck, you have avoided that kind. Even if familiar, their world’s reality is a stretch for most of us, and the strength (and a basis for my enthusiastic referral) isn’t the bare plot, but rather how the personae relate to each other and how the author’s careful use of language was chosen to encourage our understanding and sharing. Thank goodness, as, anomalously, detailed and erotic sex only occurs for our libidinous interests somewhere past midway in the text, we enjoy the characters’ relationships (with each other and with the secondary scumbags!) from the start. And as they are unpredictable but so well developed: witnessing their metamorphoses is – WOW!

 

We start with an introduction to Logan. He is a high school senior, and openly gay. His home life is awful, with a disinterested and addicted mother (i.e., just name a weakness: drugs, drink, sex!) and her current live-in loser-lover. Logan is a football star and, in an effort at complete escape, has gained a college scholarship. Now all he needs to do is bring his chemistry grade up to an acceptable level for graduation. Sadly, chemistry and comprehension seem mutually incompatible to Logan.

 

Misha Horne presents a realistic and regrettable picture of a Dickensian home life and the almost inhuman adults therein. The poverty is not only monetary, but emotional. If it were depicted in a Manga comic, the scene would be epically dreary.

 

Logan needs a chemistry tutor, so now we meet Caleb Heath, the Beast. A friend of Logan when they we youngsters, but turned enemies when both were left back in fifth grade. Caleb is six foot five and very smart.

 

Do you find added interest when the author, in addition to clever repartee and bon mots, sometimes provides a gratuitous philosophical truth? Here’s one, explaining why Logan put off basic chemistry until his last year in high school: “Because when there is never actually any way to fix shit, waiting until the last minute meant you got to live in the meantime.”

 

Anyway, for a high school student, Caleb comes across as an enigma – part weird, part parental. He is strict, yet caring and oddly compassionate. Against his will, Logan, with his dysfunctional background, finds him to be sexually stimulating. As the tutoring continues and consumes more time, Caleb demonstrates greater strength in their relationship, and Logan seems more accepting of their situation. But there is a problem: Logan wants to get rid of Mama’s boyfriend and also to pass chemistry. As Mama dear never tells her boyfriends of Logan’s queerness, eventually Logan figures out how to use Caleb to disgust his mother’s current boyfriend. He starts to design a gay “scene” in which he and Caleb are discovered, and then that boyfriend will leave in homophobic disgust. With but an hour to seduce Caleb and confound Mama’s boyfriend, Logan is surprised when the “scene” becomes an alternate coming out, leading to the story’s true heart. Caleb evinces a daddy kink and a strong dominating personality; Logan slips into the unexpected comfort of submission. What follows is a detailed (and colorful) coverage of both the philosophy and physiology of D & S.

 

You can’t beat reading it directly. (Actually, forgive the pun, as you sure can!) So -

 

Example one: “… he was training me, the way you do with a dog and a treat.”

 

Example two: “Your bottom’s gonna sting. It’s gonna get all red and sore. But it’s gonna feel so nice. Daddy’s spanking you for your own good…”

 

‘Hurt Me, Daddy’ passes mere porn, and actually is the weird combination of a love story and educational treatise. We learn the softer, romantic side of domination/subordination, as well as delving into to angst of abusive childhood. It’s a grand smorgasbord for the adequately literate. That’s the good news. The better news: the next volume to follow Logan and Caleb is expected in August.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book was purchased by the reviewer for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 273 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	16-May-2022
Price	$0.98 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Hurt-Daddy-Brat-Beast-Duet-ebook/dp/B0B1JQL895