Lesli Richardson, $4.99
Contemporary Romance, 2021

Lesli Richardson also writes as Tymber Dalton for Siren Publishing, and no, I haven’t read anything by the author before. Sacred is my first introduction to the author, and it’s…

Well, remember all that hilarious drama involving liberal and progressive politicians made to resign because they are having weird threesomes with their colleagues and staff a while back? Well, here’s a more porn-y version of that kind of drama.

Meet Liam, the protagonist. He’s a senator, and his husband of 10 years and his sub, Daniel, is a congressman’s chief of staff. In this one, Liam’s lover from his college days, Ward, reenters his life as a freshman senator. Liam and Ward had a Master and sub thing back then, and now Liam realizes that he’s never really moved on from Ward.

Sacred is marketed as a political romance, and I don’t even know whether this was a straight or gay romance when I first bought it, as the synopsis only mentions an “I” being in love with Daniel and bumping into Ward again.

Hence, imagine my bewilderment when there is nothing political here aside from everyone on the good side being a Democrat. Oh, the characters talk about their politics in a rather superficial manner that one can easily get from carcinogenic places like Reddit, but they don’t seem to spend a lot of time actually working their capacity as politicians. They spend more time playing sexy musical chairs, which sort of underscores their uselessness as politicians on the whole.

Okay, there is no cheating here, sort of—it depends on how the reader will perceive the whole hall pass concept that Liam will redeem to get it on Ward. Is it cheating when the fellow is just doing something that he and his partner have agreed would be okay?

Me, my bigger issue is that Liam comes off way too often as a selfish prick. His idea of romance revolves too much around what other people do for him or what they make him feel, and the fact that he’s willing to risk a relationship of 10 years for something that can destroy the careers and marriages of all parties involved… yikes. Yes, Ward is married too, to a woman. Don’t worry, this is a gay romance, so I’m sure that woman will turn out to be a slut, liar, ho, or something.

Anyway, good for Daniel for slapping Liam towards the end, and I only wish that cheek also makes contact with the sole of a boot a few times for extra measure.

It’s easy for me to dislike Liam because the whole story does the character little favor. His relationship with Daniel feels underdeveloped, as if I were supposed to accept at face value that these two are awesome together. Well, it can’t be that awesome when it doesn’t take much for Liam’s penis to start leading him to another direction, if you ask me.

Ward doesn’t seem like a character as much as he’s a walking, talking version of one of those toys that men can buy to stick their pee-pees into when they are lonely, complete with cringe-inducing baggage such as a no-doubt evil wife and crappy parents. His baggage is so transparently set up to make it easier for Ward to eventually discard them as the series progresses.

However, this is part of an actual series, so I’ll have to get the next titles in this series to get the whole story. I looked up this series to learn that this series is classified as a man-on-man-on-man thing, so I guess Liam will get Daniel and Ward as his two subs in the end? Well, good for them, but I can only wonder how the rest of the country is faring with these people in charge, as they spend more time examining one another’s navels and pee-pees than actually working like the politicians they are supposed to be.

I don’t feel any urgent need to read the rest of this series, and certainly the idea of Liam getting it all doesn’t sit well with me. The superficial treatment of politics here doesn’t help, as it presents politicians more like businessmen that do things for their own interests. While you can argue that the author may have inadvertently presented a whole lot of realism here, come on, this is fiction so how about some useful politicians for a change?

At any rate, this story doesn’t sell me on the rest of the series, so I guess this is the end of the line for me.