Restraint (Power Exchange Book 4)

Psychologist Ben and ex-police detective Gavin are back for another adventure. Things start innocently enough, as they always do. The two men are just married and off on their honeymoon at the Puget Sound island cabin that Ben spent many summers at when he was younger. But when Ben starts reading through his monther's old journals he uncovers evidence that the car crash that killed his parents may not have been an accident. Their quest for the truth puts the duo on the trail of a talented art thief, and right in the sights of a crime syndicate that they already know will stop at nothing to protect their dirty business.It's always a pleasant surprise when a new book appears in the Power Exchange series. Not only does each installment seem complete, but each also ends rather emphatically with no dangling loose ends, and with the main characters seemingly in a good place. Yet, Gavin and Ben seem to find trouble where-ever they go, or trouble finds them, as the case may be. The plot line in this book, like the last one, is not your typical detective story.Ben and Gavin are very complex characters, with a rather complex Dom/sub relationship as well. So, while each story stands on its own, there's a lot you won't know about the mens' backgrounds and experience if you haven't read the preceding books of the series. However, while this installment of the series layers on more depth to the central characters, it's the new players that really add interest to the story, as well as provide the means for gaining more insight into the two protagonists.Perhaps the most interesting character, and probably the only one in the entire series that you'd like to see with a book of his own, is the art thief Leo. He plays a significant role in the story, and we learn enough about him to want to know more about the path that led him to the life he leads. While Leo seems to be written out of the story at the end, I still hold out hope that he'll somehow be back again to unsettle Ben and Gavin's lives a little more.Although Leo is by far the most interesting new character, the author has created several others on the island where much of the story takes place; enough to form another series line altogether. The story line of this book gets wrapped just like all the previous books, it's just that you can see scope for new stories based on the new characters and settings introduced in this latest installment, so I won't be so surprised when a new book shows up in the series.

Gavin and Ben are now married and on their honeymoon. While visiting the family cabin in the Pacific Northwest, they come across evidence that Ben's parent may have been murdered rather than victims of a car accident, as Ben has believed for ten years. Although Gavin is now a retired detective, he will stop at nothing to help solve the mystery.This book is the perfect cap to the Power Exchange series. It's great to spend time with Gavin and Ben again, to see the progression of their relationship, and to see them back in action. Their relationship has matured in a very satisfying way and they still work well together. D/s doesn't play a huge role in this book, but there are a few scenes and, mixed with plenty of danger, there is a lot of love between the two men. A great read especially for those who have read the previous books in the series.

Another lovely Ben and Gavin story. I always liked their relationship and their dynamics in particular. While many BDSM books focus more on staging the scenes and impact play has a major role in defining D/s relationship, the unique way Ben dominates Gavin and the way Gavin feels his submission is a very welcome change from regular mark. More than ever the meaning of the name series Power Exchange resonates strongly throughout the book.The first part of the book was a bit slower paced than I would have liked, but the second part picked up really well in terms of suspense and a bit of angst. New characters introduced while initially a bit irritating turned to be worth knowing, and I honestly want to read their journey to their HEA. There were requisite intimate moments that as always were well written and showcased the meaning of submission and the depth of feelings between Ben and Gavin. While at the beginning I was miffed at the subject of the case, later I warmed up to it. A.J. Rose made a good case and brought enough intrigue to get me excited about the investigation. That said I don't know if I want to read any more about Ben and Gavin since it seems they have reached their happy ever after and every single issue between them has been resolved. It's been an adventure, for sure.

I mean let’s be honest, the amount that’s happened to these guys by this point is absolutely ridiculous. You could have gone with the first two books then just written a couple books about their evolving lives and relationship and it would have been good and less absurd. This one in particularly was like a particularly ridiculous action movie.I think really I was kind of let down by some foreshadowing that didn’t pan out. Namely: fisting, and a return to rope bondage. There was a lot made, at least two times, about roaring training, only to come to nothing; similarly there was the whole revelatory overcoming rope-related ptsd thing that again, came to nothing. Bit of a letdown, tbh.

Fantastic addition to what I thought was a finished trilogy. Now I want another book because there was not enough in the way of intimacy and scenes for Gavin and Ben and I want more of Leo! Their honeymoon is rudely cut short when Ben finds evidence of his parents murder, beginning an escalating series of events needing all of Gavin’s detective skills. Thankfully it was nothing as brutal as Myah’s story was. It was just as suspenseful and exciting but not as dark as any of the first three.I loved Leo and the convoluted way he got involved with Gavin and Ben, helping resolve the mystery that grew out of proportion. I do feel it shortchanged Ben and Gavin a little but their bond was still quite evident. Gavin had to compromise some of his hard earned morals and ethics from his law-enforcement career but it was good to see him shake off some remaining shadows from book one. It also allowed Gavin to return the support and strength he’s gotten from Ben, when Ben gets close to the end of his rope (heh). Wish they’d been used a little differently!

I had been really looking forward to this book but I have got to say I was a little disappointed with it.Ben and Gavin were on their honeymoon yet there was very little sexual encounters between them.For me there was too much intrigue and not enough about their relationship and got quite boring and repetitive which is a shame as I love AJ Rose writing style.

Book four was so worth waiting for. If you haven't been reading this author's work you must be either crazy or dead lol...do yourself a favour and read anything AJ Rose writes

Restraint book 4 of the PE series, I’ve read them all, and I have to say, crime mystery aside I LOVED book 1 the most. Hands down my absolute favourite. Gavin and Ben were simply dynamic together, sexy AF and their chemistry flew off the page. Unequivocally drew me to them like flies to honey. Then AJ Rose gave us Myah as Gavin’s new BFF and yeah who didn’t that love that fierce as hell gal? Add her with Cole and even as painful as book 3 was to read, I was all in on the series. Doesn’t mean I loved every element of the books though, because there was a lot of flaws in the crime elements that annoyed and frustrated me throughout, though I did think AJ Rose mystery writing had improved by book 3.Book 4 kicked off fairly soon after book 3, Gavin and Ben are on their honeymoon up in Seattle, Washington State. Catching up with Oliver, Ben’s uncle and staying at the vacation property from Ben’s childhood. Tying up loose ends from Ben’s deceased parents estate, when Ben stumbles across some journals belonging to his mother Grace and after reading them he is confident there is evidence to suggest his parents might have been murdered.In typical Gavin style, he is not convinced, and for a trained, albeit retired detective of some considerable skill set, I thought his logical arguments were flawed. In fact ifor a fair while there it took a bit to convince him of even the smallest possibility that foul play might even be a faint consideration despite the massive amount of circumstantial evidence.Truthfully, I wanted to slap Gavin up the side of his head and yell, ‘Open your mind Gavin’, Just looking at the circumstantial evidence on hand, the burglary, the sudden spending of large sums of money by a suspect, then the death of the PI investigating everything, and then Haversons untimely deaths a mere two weeks later, yeah even a layman can see possibilities.This is a major element of AJ Rose’s novels that needs serious work. I’ve been fairly vocal in other reviews, even on her work ( book 1 I was opinionated) because I am strongly opposed to authors dumbing down their characters in crime mysteries. I am not a fan at all of taking away our hero’s ability to critically think, just to throw a red herring, or confuse the plot when we can see the baddie from a mile away, or even add in a smoking hot sexytimes, seriously there is a better way to add doubt, add a twist, introduce a baddie.Look at other good crime fiction novels to see how twists and turns can coexist with smart sleuthing. So when I read my favourite MC’s are reduced to words fillers, (arguing for arguing sake and none of its logical) I get annoyed, because that’s what I felt took place here...again because Gavin lost significant IQ in Book 1 when he and Myah were chasing the Breath Play killer and all his IQ dropped straight to his crotch. Absolutely not needed and all it does is detract from the strength of Gavin’s character, chips away at the believability of a United relationship between Gavin and Ben and seriously it just ruins the plot.That said, Book 4 the crime element was significantly tighter all round than previous books, and flailing investigative arguments aside, I felt the other obvious issue this time around was, that there was something more significant missing between Gavin and Ben. Truthfully, the story overall didn’t really do it for me. There were a lot of obvious actionable moments where I was rolling my eyes. Yeah that’s not good, truly I just missed the bond that existed between Gavin and Ben from the moment they met in book 1.This instalment, I couldn’t sense that bond, it seemed to have lost its way, or became a little dull almost. I wasn’t sure if it was Ben’s distraction from Gavin, or Gavin’s angst of feeling short changed at his waning investigative knowledge or what it was, what ever was amiss, even Gavin sensed it when he accused Ben of pushing him away, not leaning on him and opening up enough. I totally understood that completely because it seemed to almost pervade the romance of the book. For 2 guys in their honeymoon you’d never guess it just at face value.Let’s look at the kink. The guys have been together a fair while now, Gavin still has issues from book 1 and I’m not judging him at all for that, but I thought even their PE was wishywashy. It was hard to reconcile Ben in this book to the same Ben from book 1, he was short tempered, and distracted, impatient and very unDom like, and Gavin sort of came off as a petulant kid and not a mid 30’s man. I might be overly judgey but I’ll be honest I won’t be reading this book again and that’s a massive statement right there, because I’ve read Power Exchange and Safeword a number of times because crime hoohahs aside, they were terrific keepers. If Consent hadn’t been so ugly, so raw, so damn hard to read, I’d read it again as well.So as I’ve said in previous reviews, reviews are subjective and what I like others might not, and visa versa, so there may we’ll be a lotta folks out there that think book 4 rocks. That’s fine, different strokes for different folks. I just was enormously disappointed and so sad to see my favourite guys changed so much. I missed them and absolutely missed their special dynamic that existed in book 1. Thank god I own the series because I can always go back and revisit Gavin and Ben at their best any time I want.3.5 and seriously Amazon really needs to add half star ratings.

It was so great having another story about Ben and Gavin. I love the relationship they share and this book was as good as all the others. I do hope we get Leo's story one day😃