A.E. Lawless

A Hearts On Fire Review

THREE & A HALF STARS-- A.E. Lawless' debut story, "A Perfect Solution" is a friends to lovers short about pop rock musicians discovering a new kinky facet to explore. River the lead singer of Caged Hearts has a hard time focusing and spazzing out of his fellow group members. Jeff, guitarist of caged Hearts and River's good friend, inadvertently discovers River responds well to control and River's submissive tendencies. Good thing for both men, Jeff has played scenes and like to Dom.

"A Perfect Solution" is 82 pages of part fluff, part steam and part kink. It was easy to read and enjoyable (especially that last scene between the men - yum!) It read like BDSM for beginner's so if you don't have the patience for reading stories like that, I would not suggest you trying this book. But fans of sugar kink, who don't mind a little D/s and humiliation of the lightest sense, this might be for you. I did enjoy the book but there were some areas of concern that stopped it from being a 5 star read.

Areas of Concerns: Though it was a hot number, this story has a few issues.

- The fan fiction/ slash fiction feel in the beginning - It's not a problem because out of all the fan fiction I've read, musician slash has been the most prevalent. So for me, the beginning read like something I have read before with (insert a popular boyband/ pop group of choice here because these guys in the story was generic) a group that we didn't get any depth to. I have read stories where one member is like the 'momma bear of the group'. Then they end up falling for the delicate baby of the music group many times before. I wish something was added or changed up a bit to lose some the bleh feel. Nothing came off as original on that front.

- If the group is famous now...why are members sharing bedrooms? I get it makes sense for a plot device but it niggled me because there would be no need to share bedrooms. I've again read this in fan fic before so I guess it ties in with my first area of concern.

- River - I believe he is an adult. (He did some adult things!) An adult with spazz issues but an adult nonetheless. Why did everyone coddle him? It was borderline annoying but luckily the short length worked with this issue since it was so short.

- Biggest concern, the length. This story is not long but the length works against the impact it could have left. Some parts could have been removed like the over repeating of the same issue, fleshed out the scenes (I wouldn't have minded some penetrative sex, just saying) and not introduced River as a baby who acted like hyperactive puppy but more as an adult who had submissive tendencies he'd like to explore, maybe build more story scenes with Jeff and River's burgeoning D/s relationship, this would have been a stellar read.

The story is a hot little number. The writer has potential and I would definitely read more from this author. When the story got into it's sweet spot (D/s scenes), all of the other concerns melted away. But then the story ends so abruptly and I'm left wanting more. I'm not sure if the author plans on exploring the other group members or more Jeff/ River action in a sequel, but I'd check it out if she does."… (mer)