Lord and Master 2: Taking Work Home by Jules Jones – review
Rating: 
Author: Jules Jones
Genre: Contemporary romance
URL: Loose ID
Price: US 5.99
Other Information/warnings: explicit m/m
Summary [from the publisher]:
It was just an office affair, with wonderful sex. Young scientist Mark Paulson liked older men, especially tall, dark, and very handsome men like his new boss. Self-made millionaire Steven Frost had no trouble finding sex, but what he needed was a friend who shared his interests; someone like the young assistant he’d just hired. What started as simply great sex between friends has become much, much more, and now they’re engaged.
Life’s never that simple, of course. Other people have an interest in Steven’s welfare and Steven’s money, and they’re not about to let the pretty little PA half his age take control of either. There’s a reason why Steven was still single at the age of forty-four, and some of his family are intent on ensuring that Mark finds out about it the hard way.
But Mark already knows — true love is about more than champagne and roses.
My review: Taking Work Home is not actually a sequel, but comes before the epilogue at the end of Lord and Master. The story won’t make any sense without reading the first novel, and frankly, there would be no reason to because the whole point is to spend more time with characters with whom we have become familiar. Very little happens in Taking Work Home to move any plot along – we meet Steven’s family, Mark proves himself in front of hostile relatives and we learn a little more about Steven’s long terms plans for their relationship and his company. Since we know how the story ends, there’s no surprises there.
So basically, it’s about a relationship deepening, showing the characters interacting as lovers become comfortable with each other, and how Mark copes with Steven’s bipolar disorder. If that’s not exciting enough for you, then skip this. Personally, I found it enjoyable, and sweet, but not as substantial and engrossing as the first story. Hurt/comfort junkie I may be, but I was growing a teeny bit weary of Mark acting as Steven’s nurse, and all the sex being about Steven’s needs. It seemed an unequal partnership, whatever rewards in the future Mark may receive. Mark is preternaturally patient and kind and understanding and wise, and I didn’t really blame the relatives who didn’t buy the act – it’s a little hard to believe, however lovely.
There’s a lot of sex in this slight story, and very sparely described. As almost all of it is intended to be therapeutic to help Steven through the manic and depressed episodes he experiences, it’s sweet rather than erotic, not that tenderness between lovers is a bad thing, and really, that all showed their feelings better than the too frequent declarations of love between them.
My main criticism of the writing is the almost total lack of environmental detail and the preponderance of dialogue over any kind of action. People talk and talk and talk in white rooms we never ’see’, and characters suddenly appear and speak without any physical description of their arrival. It reads more like a script than a story and it became a little tiring to read. Any longer and this story would have outstayed its welcome – as it was, I got the feeling the author had slightly run out of ideas as to how to get it to a reasonable length.
However, for what it is, it’s perfectly enjoyable. The writing is clean, though workmanlike, the characters are engaging and attractive, and the love story between them is appealing. I’ve read a lot worse, and I’m always glad to see more of Mark and Steven, which was why it was nice to discover there is a free story which comes before Taking it Home in the timeline. If you like the freebie, you’ll definitely like this second novella.
