Book 776: Star Spanked (Holiday Romance #3) – Leighton Greene

And to finish off 2020 I finish off the kinky romance trilogy I unexpectedly walked into. Instead of a Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa (those are so hard to find!) or New Year’s MM Romance I read a 4th of July Independence Day novel!? Oh well, I actually ended up reading one more MM Holiday Romance after the first because I forgot I’d put it on hold at the library.

Star Spanked finds us once again deep in the kink world of Los Angeles. We find out that Jon and Connor from Winter Wonders are now engaged (or married) and Tristan and Seth from Taming Tristan play a decent sized role in this novel as Ezra, a model seeking to get out of the industry is Tristan’s roommate. The other protagonist is semi-celebrity British ex-pat Sebastian.

More so than the other two novels this one is more about serendipity and happenstance. Sebastian and Ezra have an incredible night at a new kink night and go their separate ways and then they keep running into each other or are thrust together (unknowingly) by friends.

As I took his face in my hands to kiss him, I knew exactly how all those fireworks had felt on the Fourth of July: a great upward rushing before a detonation of light and color. This moment was it, I knew it then. The whole culmination of my life’s purpose. Not at all what I’d thought—not perfect pastry, not all the acclaim, not collecting Michelin stars. (294)

This one definitely falls somewhere in the middle of the kink scale with spanking being the primary interaction between the two protagonists, or at least the one I created having read these three novels. It’s not as light, fluffy and introductory as Winter Wonders and it’s definitely not as hard, niche or advanced as Taming Tristan. I was fascinated there were so many types of spanking according to Greene. I mean who knew?!

The big drama of this novel, aside from the power dynamic between Sebastian and Ezra when Ezra is temporarily employed at Sebastian’s restaurant, is between Ezra and Tristan. Tristan is over protective of Ezra since he’s just come into the kink scene and it’s chaffing Ezra and rather than talk it out the two butt heads constantly until they’re avoiding each other and it’s causing issues with their friend groups.

‘I’m just nervous,’ he said. ‘What if you hate them?’

‘Why would I hate them? Besides, I’ve met them before. I think what you’re really worried about is whether they’ll hate me—or one of them, in particular.’

He sighed. ‘Tristan has his issues.’

I chuckled. ‘It’ll be fine, love. I promise. I’m quite charming when I want to be.’

‘Sure, but Tristan is a giant bag of dicks when he wants to be, so—oh, shit,’ he finished in a groan as a knock sounded at the door. (278)

Honestly, I think the funniest line of the entire series, and the one that sums up Tristan’s character the most is that last one above. These is the culminating scene of the novel and Tristan and Sebastian have a come-to-Jesus discussion which results in Tristan accepting that Sebastian and Ezra will be good together.

Honestly, the biggest bone I have to pick with this novel and the reason I dropped the rating from a four to a three like the last one is the editing and lack of proofreading. The quality seemed to fall off a cliff in the middle of the second novel and never climbed out of the hole. I’m not sure if the proofreader/editor changed or got distracted, but it really affected the quality of the novel for me in the end.

Recommendation: This one is definitely lighter than Taming Tristan, but a little kinkier than Winter Wonders. So, if you think you might like it, give it a go. I doubt I’ll seek out more in the series by Greene because the proofreading and copyediting seemed to drop off significantly over the last two novels and it affected my enjoyment of the novel. That being said, I’m glad I accidentally fell into these, it showed me a different side of MM Romance novels that I don’t usually see in the ones I select to read.

Opening Line: “By Wednesday, Sophie and I had managed to get the place into some semblance of a working restaurant.”

Closing Line: “‘I’d love that,’ I told him, and then lunged up to taste his lips again.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)