24/7 (The Subs Club Book 4)

24/7 is the fourth and final book in The Subs Club series. It is best to read the series in order.It’s been three years since Gould and his friends – Dave, Miles and Kamen – started the Subs Club after the tragic death of the fifth member of their close-knit group, Hal, at the hands of an irresponsible Dom at their favourite BDSM club. Even though he started playing regularly with a couple a year ago, Gould is still struggling to move on with his life. Although they had no longer been a couple at the time of Hal’s death, Gould had still loved Hal, so while losing him had been devastating to their whole group, it was especially difficult for Gould. Tied in with his grief is Gould’s guilt in choosing to be with husband and wife couple, Greg (GK) and Kel, who own the club where Hal died, since their decision to allow Bill back into the club.Even with the guilt, Gould has found a safe place with Kel and Greg to explore his craving for deep submission, but there is still a part of him that can’t quite truly surrender to complete submission. Recently, however, things had begun to change between the them. What had started as mentoring was feeling like something else. Something that had Gould needing to give more of himself and his submission to Kel and Greg. Threaded through this want is Gould’s frustration with seeing his friends all find their feet and get on with life after Hal, leaving Gould behind in a grief that he has been unable to get out of no matter how hard he’s tried to get past it.24/7 is largely a journey through Gould’s intense sorrow. Which sounds like this story is all dark and full of sadness, and watching him slowly come apart is definitely hard at times, it is balanced out with JA Rock’s use of humour and the wonderful friendships between the subs club members.On the BDSM side, Gould’s kink is deep submission with a good dose of humiliation. I have to admit, the humiliation kink is not one I can manage to wrap my head around. Some of the scenes did push me outside of my comfort zone but even so, the writing is good enough to get me past that (although I may have skimmed through a couple of the more extreme ones). I found the relationships between Gould, Kel and Greg to be fascinating and sometimes frustrating. And I do means relationships, plural. This was not about three people falling in love with each other. It was very much Gould and Greg each in love with Kel, Kel loving both of them, and Greg and Gould feeling affection for each other more along the lines of friends with occasional benefits than romance. Kel was great as the master in their relationships. I liked her quite a lot and it was interesting to see how she dealt with each of men’s very different personalities and needs. I can’t deny I kept hoping for a deeper connection between Gould, who’s bisexual, and Greg, even though he identifies as straight. I was really wanting the three of them to become invested in each other. Greg admits that there’s something special about Gould that draws him, but it’s Kel that holds their hearts. After waiting for a connection between Gould and Greg for the entire first half of the book, I did get some of what I was hoping for with a couple of great scenes between them. Up until then it had been all about Kel and Gould, with Greg only hovering in the background or around the edges.The last third of the book is where Gould’s journey kicked into high gear and really drew me in. It was painful to see him almost implode before coming out the other side of his grief. I so wanted him to find his happiness again. By the end, I felt like he was heading in a good direction, although the ending was left very open. I don’t think having everything resolved would have been believable, but I think if the relationship between all three of them had been a bit more fully explored, especially between Greg and Gould, I wouldn’t have felt like I was left hanging so much. It was great catching up with the rest of the gang from the previous books and get a look in to see how they had settled into their relationships. As with the previous books, the character development was excellent. The BDSM elements were very well written and the author raised some interesting and thoughtful topics in the story, and did it with a very deft hand. I’ve enjoyed this series, and I was excited to finally get Gould’s story. In the previous books he’d come across as somewhat mysterious. I really loved getting to know him. Now I’m a little sad to say goodby to him, Dave, Miles and Kamen.

It’s safe to say that Gould is looking for something, for answers, for some greater focus and fulfillment, a deeper connection to some of the people in his life than he has now. Is he looking in the right place? With the right people, and for the right reasons?The first quarter of this story feels very isolating. It’s mostly Gould and his inner thoughts and workings, dealing with his grief over Hal, the changes going on within his group of friends, and what he’s trying to figure out about what he wants and needs for the kink part of his life. We get a few scenes between Gould and the familiar group of friends we’ve gotten to know from the first three books in this series. Otherwise, it’s Gould, sometimes with Kel and Greg, the couple who owns Riddle that we encountered previously and with whom Gould has been playing for the last year or so.For me, this was a lot of set-up and a slow start. I’m not sure it could have been done differently considering the heavy things Gould is working through in his life. I think that, if I hadn’t already known something about Gould from the previous stories and been able to utilize that emotional base, I would have had trouble connecting to him. Even with, it was a challenge in some spots.Things begin to pick up as the circle of characters widens, as well as the sharing going on between Gould, Kel, and Greg. All three have their past experiences and current needs that they bring to the table and it starts to get very interesting as more and more of those are revealed. Kel and Greg are huge parts of Gould’s journey through dealing with and healing amidst grief, and what he thinks he wants and needs from and with them to satisfy the submissive part of himself.As usual in this series, we have an awesomely diverse set of characters and, except for when they mention their various backgrounds and cultures in conversation, we’d be hard pressed to suss them out.~ starts singing Depeche Mode’s “People Are People” to herself ~And then I came across this passage, bursting with truth and old beauty, and it rips away any notion that this man Gould doesn’t feel and think to the very depths of his soul:~ * ~ Could forgiveness be both? A gift and reckless? Well-intentioned but dangerous? A ritual repeated so many millions of times that it had lost its significance, and yet there was meaning there. Under countless hollow echoes, there was meaning. There was power, and there was a desire as frantic as lust, as innocent as a wish made on a star. ~ * ~Rock once again demonstrates how there can be not a teeny weeny ounce of doubt regarding her ability to strip away the tedious layers of muck foist upon us by society and its demands for wearing masks all day long and instead allow us to feel the real of it all.To top it all off is this here what Kel says. This is one of the most powerful things I’ve read. I wanted to scream ‘YES!’ because holy hell, YES.~ * ~ ”I want men to think I’m strong enough to care for them.” ~ * ~I know!!!!!!! S’ok, go ahead and scream. Do it. If I was, from this day forward, forbidden from reading anything ever again, I almost think I could do it because of this line. I had to stop reading, actually, for a little while, to gather myself. To revel.We do get some more scenes that involve some of the other characters we’ve gotten to know and love and laugh with over this series. I think, though, they sometimes highlighted the difficulty I was having in totally connecting with Gould. This is unusual for me when it comes to Rock’s stories. She still gets to the heart of the matter here but it feels matter of fact in the way Gould thinks and talks about some of the things I mentioned above. Now, this isn’t the case throughout the whole story, and I definitely had my emotional experiences, as you can see, but I can’t qualify this one as a home run for me.Like the other books in this series, you could maybe read this as a standalone since the characters who make up the focus are different, just as the other three were written. However, you will without a doubt miss some of those emotional experiences that help make up Gould’s story, his wading through grief, his demonstration of love to his friends – the family he’s helped make – and his desire to engage more deeply into his kink and therefore live a more fulfilled life. Rather universal a desire, I’d say, no matter the application.* Originally reviewed for Prism Book Alliance®

I feel like Hal has been the slow acting catalyst in this group of friends lives. Each of them forced to grow from his death and how it happened.Gould's perspective is heavily based around his friend and ex lover. Obsessed to the point of self harm and neglect that translated through his new lovers in a destructive wayThis is one of the hardest books to read. It feels very much like a tale of mental health and it's pitfalls, rather than another book in this otherwise quirky BDSM themed series.An emotionally taxing book but very much worth it.I do feel some hesitence toward the menage in this book, mostly because of this that Greg does and days towards the end. His concerns seem far deeper and more serious than the attention they get given. It left me with a feeling that the relationship wouldnt last or be healthy for everyone involved. Even at the very end, I am still unconvinced the three are suited. It just sits wrong with me.