I like over-the-top, angsty Harlequin Presents, and I like Maisey Yates’ writing, so it was no real surprise that I enjoyed Avenge Me. It’s the first book in the 5th Avenue trilogy, and based on the steaminess and drama of the first installment, I’m going to like this series a lot.

The book opens with Austin Treffen reflecting on the fact that he’s about to destroy his family. Austin is a lawyer, and just like his daddy, Jason, he specializes in defending women who have been abused or exploited. Ten years ago, Jason’s assistant (and Austin’s friend), Sarah, killed herself by jumping from a building. Now Austin knows that she committed suicide because Jason was extorting sexual favors from her. He also knows Sarah wasn’t the the first.

Repulsed by his father–and the fact that while their practice was about helping women, they were being abused right under his nose–Austin is fully of broody angst. He’s like Batman and Heathcliff’s love child, he’s so damn broody.  He’s going to reveal his father’s actions, and he knows that means driving his family’s business into the ground and crushing his mother and sister.

He’s at his father’s annual holiday party when he runs into Katy Michaels. Katy is Sarah’s sister–although Austin doesn’t know that. She’s posing as a party planner to break into Jason’s office and get evidence about how he violated Sarah.

When Katy and Austin literally bump into each other, they are both full of tension. Emotionally fraught, they look to each other for release. They have a one night stand, never exchanging names. Of course when they meet later and realize how they are linked, conflict comes barreling out of the pages and smacks you in the face.

When Katy learns that Austin is out to destroy his father, she agrees to team up with him. She’s got evidence that not only was Jason blackmailing his female employees for sex, he was pimping them out to his friends and colleagues too. Austin demands that Katy stay with him for the time being, afraid she’ll be targeted by one of the powerful men they’re going to bring down. When she refuses, he gets her fired so she’s in dire financial straights and has to stay with him. It’s kind of douchey, but it moves the plot along.

So now they’re living together and planning to expose a ring of sexual slavery, you know, like you do. But they are totally never going to have sex again, even though the first time was great. Why? They’re both weirded out and afraid.

When Katy and Austin met at the party, they were strangers and felt safe exploring their sexual fantasies with each other. Katy has always craved domination, and when she first met Austin, she realized he could give to her. It seems that in D/s romance, the sub has this “There’s my Dom!” Spidey Sense thing.

When they have sex, Austin runs the show. There’s no pain play in this book (aside from a little spanking), but there is some mild bondage. Mostly Austin just tells Katy what to do and gives her lots and lots of orgasms. When Katy learns that Austin is Jason’s son, she’s troubled because:

What did it say about her that she wanted that man’s son? That he was the one she’d picked out of a crowded room when she could have had any guy there? That he was the one she’d trusted to live out her secret fantasies with.

Austin is similarly conflicted. Knowing that his father gets off on controlling and exploiting women, he’s afraid that his desire for a submissive means he’s a monster too.

Yates does some cool things in this book by addressing what I think are fairly common reservations when it comes to D/s fiction. Can a dominant male hero still be respectful of women or does his need for control signal an inherent sexism? Can a woman want to be a submissive without giving up her independence? Can a D/s romance still be feminist? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Katy and Austin have so much anguish over the type of relationship they want and need from each other that it’s almost tragic.

“Can I ask what made you change your mind that night?” he asked.

“Okay, I’ll be honest. Being busy wasn’t the only thing it was…I knew what I wanted, Austin. I knew I wanted a guy to hold me down and tell me what to do, to take my control away, take my decisions away and…that’s a scary thing to want. A scary thing to admit you want. Then I met you and for some reason I trusted you wouldn’t abuse that power. And I could also see you wanted it. I didn’t see you as a hassle because I saw you as sex.  I could not have been more wrong.”

Katy and Austin have an unconventional, kinky relationship, but they enter into consensually with full knowledge that it fulfills them in a way that they’ve been previously unable to achieve. Austin dominates Katy in the bedroom, where she is submits to him, but outside of their sex life, they resemble an average couple. Well, an average Presents couple anyway.

Yates contrasts this with Jason Treffen, who engages only in vanilla sex, but sex that’s abusive and exploitative. She clearly makes the case that wanting to be tie someone to a headboard and spank them doesn’t make you a monster or a predator. Monsters and predators aren’t necessarily wearing a black leather mask–they might be the respected, successful women’s right’s lawyer whose secretly running a prostitution ring.

So anyway, the no sex rule lasts like five minutes because Austin and Katy can’t keep their hands off each other. Also they need the release; they are under a shitload of stress. And Austin has a shower with three showerheads. How can you not have sex in that shower?

The external conflict–avenging Sarah–isn’t fully wrapped up in this book (I’m assuming it’s addressed in the other books too), and that was more than a little aggravating given how much I wanted Jason to be slowly torn apart by wild dogs. I understand that the conflict has to extend over the other books, but when you present the reader with such a loathsome villain, I think it’s fair to feel a little shortchanged when justice isn’t fully served. I mean, I hated Jason, and I needed closure, dammit.

The internal conflict is beautiful though. Austin and Katy are clearly two people who belong together, and had they met under different circumstances, I got the feeling they’d have slipped right into a relationship. Given the nightmare they’re both living, the relationship they crave with each other feels dangerous to them, forbidden. It cranks the tension up to eleven. I wanted to tell them “It’s okay! You can be happy! NOW KISS!”

Add to this some really hot sex scenes, and Yates’ signature snappy dialogue and irreverent humor, and you get a book that’s basically Elyse-bait.

If you want to try a D/s romance and aren’t sure where to dip your toe into the pool, this would be a good place to start. If you like angsty, melodramatic Harlequin Presents with lots of sex, this is right up your alley. I’m looking forward to the next two books in the series–and to Jason hopefully being coyote-bait.

As a side note, if you want to try the trilogy or Yates’s writing, the novella prequel to the series, Take Me is currently free. You can’t beat that!

OMG, that wasn’t a BDSM joke, I swear.