[b:Past Hurts|22305545|Past Hurts|Jessie G.|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400874611s/22305545.jpg|41695650] is the story of two boys who meet and fall in love as teens. MC Davin Monroe has a tough life. Money is always tight and he and his mean, belligerent, hard-to-please father were abandoned years ago by Davin's mother. MC Alaric Bennett lives in the lap of luxury with two siblings, a loving mother and father and a powerful family business to one day rule. Ric's family sees the injustice in Davin's life and welcome him with open arms into their hearts and home, loving him like a son and brother. Davin and Ric are truly soulmates and are deeply into a D/s relationship, but do not have the knowledge at their young age to put a label on it. Ric has absolute control over Davin's emotional and sexual happiness and the arrangement works perfectly for them and the exchange of power makes them both better together than they are apart.

A traumatic event separates Davin and Ric for eight years. Davin is raped by Ric's brother Terrance. Davin runs away in shame. During those eight years, Davin becomes a police detective and Ric takes over the family business. Davin is tracking a serial killer and one of the victims turns out to be Ric's brother, Terrance. Making the family death notification is the first time Davin and Ric speak in eight years.

The serial killer case and finding Terrance Bennett's body is where the book begins. We are told a lot of Davin and Ric's tale in flashback and secrets are revealed slowly, layer by layer. This was a very interesting book with a slam-dunk premise, but it absolutely missed the boat with the final outcome.

First of all, I had a really hard time staying interested in the storyline. I kept getting confused and would go back a few pages and then be even more confused and then just give up and put the book down for several hours. That is unusual for me. I usually read an entire book before starting another. I read 4 books (all short stories) while reading this one. The area that confused me the most was during character discussion. I would very easily lose track of who was speaking what lines, as this book was jam-packed with dialogue, and need to go back and look for the beginning of the discussion thread again. And many times? I couldn't actually find it. It was implied who was speaking. *shrugs* So, I missed a lot that way. And speaking of dialogue, during the first 20% or so of the book, I had it in the back of my mind how refreshing it was that these characters were so open and honest with their discussion with one another. I made a note to mention that in my review, that I enjoyed the extra dialogue. That took a nose dive at about the 40% point when I was ready for them to shut the hell up and DO SOMETHING instead of just TALK all the damn time. And that lasted through the entire book.

Another bone of contention with me was just how unbelievable it was that these two men went from not speaking for eight years to having a few discussions and exchanging "I love you's" within a few days. Done! We're all good! All is forgiven! Just a big misunderstanding! Whatever! And the D/s relationship... It felt tip-toed around by the author. Not like the author was as ashamed of it, but like it didn't really need to be clarified. Dude, that was the most interested part! For me anyway. I felt a bit cheated.

So, this book just all around did not work for me. By the time I was finished reading it, I felt like I had read three different books. Each one more confusing than the last. The book had a great idea, but it wasn't able to deliver. I am not able to recommend this one.

( )