A Cordial Agreement

This is a bit difficult to review and rate for two main reasons:
a) the novella length, which doesn't really allow for a richer character development
b) IMO it's miss-tagged as BDSM

I'm not a super stickler for rules in BDSM stories. In fact I love it when characters are sort of stumbling through what they like, what works for them, what their particular rules are going to be etc. But this is not a BDSM story. Generously it can be called a spanking story, save the spanking is not in the service of any kind of sexual or emotional gratification for either of the parties.

Jim Seiber is a dancer at a strip club in upper Manhattan, occasional construction worker, and apparently asexual, though he just says he doesn't want to be touched. Is there a term for that? I found haphephobia which is a term that applies to folks who have a fear of being touched, and I think fear or disgust might more accurately describe how Jim feels, though we never get too much into that. Jim does feel sexual attraction and gets sexual gratification by his own hand when fantasizing about encounters with those he's attracted to and their imaginary hands on him. So maybe not asexual? In any case he finds himself in a BDSM club looking for someone to hurt him. He's looking to do penance for ... let's just say he feels guilty for something he shouldn't and has come up with this cockamamie idea. Luckily the club owner is a domme who “recognizes” his special needs and hooks him up with Grant Jessup, a man who needs a literal whipping boy to let off steam and not for sexual gratification.

I liked Grant. Maybe he's a fantasy captain of industry, a good guy who does and says the right thing, who respects other people's boundaries, and diligently tries to learn what he doesn't know. What I wasn't too on board with was him using another human to physically vent his life frustrations. It seems to me that that could be a pretty dangerous edge to walk on. As for Jim I couldn't muster up much feeling for him. Sorry. He's this Narcissus like beauty, tall, strapping, and smart. He seems to make good money as a dancer/stripper; he works construction and yet somehow he's living in a dilapidated apartment with his friend Shannon. It feels like sometimes writers use this notion of economic precariousness as ploy to make characters sympathetic. It's not necessary or believable. Also Washington Heights as some awful neighborhood in which buildings have hallways strewn with garbage is a bit dated and inaccurate. Just saying. And where was this strip club? Don't get me going on NYC geography.

Ultimately I didn't understand what Grant saw in Jim other than his physical beauty. Yes, he's a nice guy, but what do they share in common. Do I see Jim becoming Grant's companion and going out with him socially? Grant who owns a media empire? We'll say nothing about how Grant's adult children accept the relationship without much fuss (not likely), but how is this relationship going to work out in the long term, socially, sexually, emotionally? Too many threads were left up in the air for me to trust in the long term viability of this pair.

I didn't hate it. I think the writer is putting forth characters who don't always get much play but good intentions do not a good romance make. Maybe this could be a good beginning for Grant & Jim and maybe others will get better mileage out of this.