Tia Fielding

Inhaling Smoke is the story of Austin Moore and his boyfriend Micah as they adjust to the sudden addition of a toddler to their lives. This is told in third person through the eyes of Austin.

Austin is a tattoo artist working at ‘Fiery Squid Tattoo.’ Austin is covered in tattoos and is talkative. Micah is studying art and is shy and quiet.

The other significant people in the story were Katie, Austin’s best female friend, and their son River. They never had a romantic relationship, but Austin donated sperm so Katie could have a baby. Tragedy strikes and Katie dies, and Austin and Micah have to take on the job of raising River.

There are a few things that bothered me in this story. While I think the dialogue worked, when there wasn’t dialogue, the story went into ‘info-dump’ mode and that was boring, unfortunately.

Another thing had to do with inconsistency. These two lines contradict themselves:

”Austin had taught Micah how to touch another person and in return Micah had taught him how to love.”

“They (Micah’s people/family) were tactile, hardworking people with a fear of God instilled in them by the preacher.”

I used only those lines, the part in parenthesis are my words, but Austin is thinking that he taught Micah to be comfortable with touching, but then in the second sentence above, it says that Micah’s people/family, were tactile. If that’s the case Micah would have been very touchy-feely with Austin. He wouldn’t need to be taught to be tactile. So that’s something I had issues with.

I did however enjoy the author’s choice of names. “Fiery Squid Tattoo,” is awesome, also some of the names of the characters, “Soda,” one of the tattoo artists, “Hyacinth” or “Hy” for the boss, “River” for the son’s name.

This story has its sad parts, but also has a hopeful future for Austin, Micah and River. It’s easy and fast to read. I give this 3 Stars
… (plus d'informations)

A Daddy for Bear is the story of Luukas, a tattoo artist, and Bear, a little. This is told in first person from Luukas and Bear’s povs.



Since there isn’t a blurb posted yet for this book, I’ll give a quick rundown of the plot. Luukas is sent by a friend to check-in on a Dom named, Carl, and his sub, Bear. Luukas sees that Bear is unhappy and not being well treated by Carl. Carl is known for his abusive and manipulative behavior to newbies and subs in the community. Luukas brings Bear home to his place to help get over the trauma of being with Carl. In the meantime, Luukas is getting over the loss of his husband. Both Luukas and Bear must figure out where they fit in the BDSM community, and what they want in a relationship. Luukas never pictured himself as a Daddy, and Bear never figured he was a little. That’s the basic plot, both men, recovering from the past, figuring out who they are at the core, and what they want from a relationship. There’s also a conflict in their relationship that comes up later that I will discuss later because I have many words to say about that.

Now the cover. I like it. I don’t know if the cover model is close to what Luukas looks like, but I suppose he could be. While reading, I always pictured him as more muscular. I love the font style and color choice. Simple but nice.

I was quickly drawn into the story. The writing was smooth for the majority of the book, as was the plot. I did catch some instances where the sentence structure and word usage felt different, and I wondered if English was the author’s second language. I didn’t realize at the time the author was Finnish until I read her bio and that explained it.

I felt like there were two separate books, with the beginning seventy-five percent a nice slow get-to-know-you, and self-discovery which I enjoyed quite a bit. I liked Luukas and Bear then. But when Bear suffered his accident, I didn’t like either character after that. Deeper personality traits were revealed that I didn’t find admirable in either character and I lost respect and interest in both men. Luukas’ personality was consistent throughout the story. At first, he was hesitant about starting a relationship with Bear, but Bear eventually pushed him, so Luukas gave in. Luukas did want Bear so that wasn’t a hardship, but what Bear did later after the accident, compared to how he pushed Luukas to have the relationship in the first place made me dislike Bear. I understand that the accident affected Bear’s ability to deal with his anger. However, he didn’t really seem interested in fixing the problem. He lashed out at Luukas about something Luukas said that he’d ordinarily say anyway since he was a Daddy to Bear, and Bear got pissed off and completely blamed Luukas. Now here is where I start to have trouble with the conflict the author created for the couple. None of it rang true for me. It felt like a manufactured conflict because a conflict was needed at the seventy-five percent mark of the book. It didn’t flow well. It felt like the author was reaching to make the actions and reactions connect to make the conflict real, and it didn’t. Luukas is taking the blame for saying something to Bear that Bear would normally find okay since Luukas is the Daddy, and Bear at the time was in little mode. Of course, Luukas will respond in Daddy mode checking to see if things were all right. Then Bear leaves Luukas’ home saying basically don’t contact me. He later says to another Dom, it’s not a separation or break-up. What? When people move out, don’t talk to each other for a month, not even text, that is a separation if not a full break-up. Bear is leaving Luukas hanging until Bear can make up his mind about ‘who he is’ and what he wants. That is a totally unequal power trip. Not only that, Bear told Luukas he felt too dependent on Luukas and needed to find out who he was without Luukas. So, what did he do? He moved in with another Daddy and his little! He became dependent on them for shelter and companionship. Bear was now being written as a hypocrite and victim, or else he always was one, but his accident finally revealed what he was. It felt like a trick switching Bear’s personality because his adult was no longer like the adult before the accident. Yes, yes, he had less patience and the other physical handicaps, that doesn’t change who he is unless he’s rewritten like that. Another thing, Bear never apologized to Luukas for his behavior when they got back together. It was like ‘He’s my Daddy!’ and everything is a-okay again. No thanks. By that point, I no longer cared about Bear as a character or as a little.

Next is Luukas. There’s a little subplot going on in the background dealing with Carl and what the Doms and littles are going to do about him. They want revenge. Luukas takes it upon himself to find someone, named Lisa, who works for the IRS and she’s going to do something that’s never mentioned. At the end of the story, Bear and Luukas find out that Carl is going to be sent to prison for tax fraud or something like that. What’s never really explained is, was Carl really a tax cheat, and did Lisa hunt down that info? That would be more legit than what it sounds like what happened. It sounds like Lisa set Carl up. That she manipulated his taxes so he’d be arrested. If that’s the case, then Luukas is no better than a dirty cop hiding drugs on an innocent victim because he doesn’t like him or wants revenge. I’m suspecting this is what happened and the author springs this on the readers at the very end that Luukas will do anything to get back at someone who hurts Bear. I know, I know, there are going to be scores of readers who will ‘swoon’ and say ‘it’s soooo romantic! He’s soooo protective!’ But not me. Who would want an immoral man? If he can’t uphold honor and goodness, then he can break it for anything, and not be trusted. The fact that Bear and none of the fellow Doms care, shows that they aren’t great people either, and their self-righteousness says it’s okay to hurt someone else even if they have to lie about it. The author flips the characters on their heads after showing them as nice people, then revealing that they really aren’t good people. Being nice to your family or close friends, doesn’t make a person nice or good. It’s like neighbors saying about a murderer, ‘He was always friendly and pleasant, a nice guy.’ In the end, I no longer liked Luukas either as a character or a Daddy.

What the author did with the characters at the seventy-five percent mark by revealing and switching up Luukas and Bear’s personalities, spoiled my enjoyment of their characters. I no longer liked them and no longer cared whether they succeeded as a couple. Even their reunion was lack luster, with no heart-to-heart talk with Bear revealing how he felt or apology for his behavior. All Bear did was stock the refrigerator and somehow that was supposed to make things all right again. After all the anger from Bear and the separation, the author didn’t give the readers a full and heartfelt talk between the men, it was just sex, and that didn’t work for me. I no longer liked either man. It was almost a ‘throw the Kindle at the wall’ moment. This is what affected my rating for this book. After such a great start to a book, I give A Daddy for Bear, a low 3 Stars.



I received an ARC copy from the author. I'm giving my honest and unbiased opinion.… (plus d'informations)