** 2,5 Dolphin stars **

Two Japanese dolphin shifters living on a private island in Hawaii taking care of a dolphin shifter baby. The guardinan of the baby has a "gym" between their bedrooms that he keeps locked at all times. Cue "Jaws" music theme. 

Asai, ten years senior than the the younger Takumi, is a Dom and, whaddayaknow, Takumi finds his submissive side. Surprise, surprise.

How's that for a plot? 

All when the nanny takes care of the baby, of course. (Don't they always seem to have a nanny? How convenient.)

Joke aside, the story was nice and developed slowly. I liked the descriptions and the characters "felt" Asian or Japanese, if you know what I mean. Japanese comes across as cool, calm, collected with a lot of respect for each other, especially someone older than yourself. On the surface anyway. Under the surface there's a whole different story, which showed in a short scene right at the end.

Would it have hurt the author to apply a little more romance when they finally (finally!) got together? 

I mean, Takumi went from having a crush on Asai to getting his feet cuffed, nipples clamped, bound and gagged while being pretty "tough loved" from behind in an instance. How about easing Takumi into it? Sometimes less is more!

It was a solid 3 star rating through most of the book. I was kinda waiting for something to bump the rating up or down. The abrupt initiation of Takumi  bumped it down, sadly.

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All Asai's gentleness was gone now. He thrust in with no concern for Takumi's comfort, violating the hole that he had caressed with his lips a few minutes before. It hurt. Takumi cried out and struggled, but his hips were held firm. The more he fought, the more determinedly Asai controlled him and the harder he was fucked. The burn became overwhelming until he thought that in another moment he would have to end this. But he held on for one more thrust, and one more...

Then he recalled Asai telling him that he should submit. (...) He consciously relaxed his ass, surrendered to the thrusts and found himself riding the wasves of sensation that could no longer be called pain. It was the most intense experience he'd ever had. He heard Asai murmur, "Oh, yes."
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Just... ow. 

It's his first time submitting ffs!

In short, a nice story that could have used a little more romance together with the D/s at the end. Thumbs up for kinbaku rope, though.