ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't like reading Watch Point. This book wasn't for me.

Eric Sakai-Johnson is a former Navy SEAL and the former bodyguard to pharmaceutical exec Aiden Milford. When Aiden fires Eric for being gay, he also stops funding Eric’s mother’s medical treatment, leaving her to die in debt. Now Eric is seeking revenge by taking something that is precious to Aiden, just like Aiden took Eric’s mother from him. Eric is going to kidnap Aiden’s 22-year-old son Chase and hold him for ransom.

Eric is able to meet Chase when the two connect through a gay hookup app. Eric plans for this to be nothing but a transaction and a way for Aiden to suffer like he has, but Eric finds himself attracted to Chase far more than he ever expected. Chase seems to hate his controlling father almost as much as Eric does. In fact, he is so enjoying spending time with Eric that Chase doesn’t even realize that he has been kidnapped. He just thinks the two are off on an adventure, holed up in Eric’s cabin and enjoying an extended hookup.

As the two play some kinky “captive” games, and Eric teaches Chase more about survival skills in their remote hideout, the men also get to know one another and Eric finds himself really falling for Chase. But he also knows there can be no future for them. Eventually Aiden will pay up and Eric will have to return Chase home. Not to mention Chase will eventually learn the truth about Eric’s motives and the kidnapping. Eric and Chase have found happiness together, but when the truth comes out, it may tear their new relationship apart.

Watch Point was an entertaining and clever story that kept me engaged from the start and was a nice spin on the “falling for your kidnapper” trope. I was expecting a typical Stockholm Syndrome thing going on here, but instead this story goes in some unusual directions. First, it is told all though Eric’s POV, which is an interesting choice in that we don’t really know what Chase is thinking about all this beyond what he says to Eric. Typically this type of story gives us the prisoner POV as he falls for the kidnapper, so this was a unique perspective. It is also a twist in that Chase doesn’t actually realize he is being kidnapped. He is chafing under his father’s stifling rule, and so when he sees a chance for an extended hook up/getaway with Eric, he is along for the ride. Of course, Eric knows he isn’t letting Chase go, but Chase doesn’t. So it makes for some really interesting moments and a chance for the relationship to develop more naturally, at least on Chase’s end.

Once these guys get to the remote cabin where Eric plans to hole up, we get some nice moments where we see the men getting to know each other and exploring some mutual pleasure. Well, a lot of mutual pleasure actually. This is a very sex heavy book and the guys spend a lot of their time hooking up in all kinds of ways. Early on Chase indicates he is interested in some “captor/captive” role play, so there is some kinky fun here along the way. But in addition to that, I liked how Eric uses his SEAL background to teach Chase how to build a shelter and look after himself in the wilderness. Chase has been so smothered by his domineering father, so sheltered and not allowed to do anything on his own, that we can see how much he thrills in learning new things and in Eric’s praise. It is nice to see that aside from the sex, that Chase is really getting something out of this experience.

I don’t want to give too much away, but things get exciting and go in some surprising directions, and it all comes together really nicely in the end. I was rooting for Chase and Eric to find a way to actually be together and Tan manages to pull it all together well.

I did have some issues however. First off, I think that Eric’s backstory with his mother needed to be much better explained. In fact, it is barely addressed at all in the book until most of the way through. The only thing that really helped me understand his motives was reading the blurb, as they aren’t really clear from the book itself. Given that Eric is a kidnapper and we as readers need to be able to sympathize with him for the story to work, I think we need a lot more detail into why he holds Aiden responsible, what exactly happened to his mom (did she die because Aiden cut off funding? Or just in debt as a result?), and more about Aiden’s relationship with his mom and his sense of loss. This seemed to be too glossed over for such an important element of the story.

I also would have liked more information on Chase and his father. Again, a key element here is the idea that Chase hates his dad and that he is so eager for a chance to get away from him that he is willing to hang out with this stranger in a cabin for days without communicating with anyone. I wasn’t clear why Chase continues living with Aiden, or why he is still so under his control as an adult. Why doesn’t he just leave? Is it financial? None of this is ever really explained. So while it is clear Chase hates Aiden, more backstory would have been really helpful for understanding him and his actions.

The final issue is one that I am going to be super vague about because I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are times these guys act in ways that don’t make a lot of sense and they threw me out of the book, especially early on. Some become clearer as the story continues, and others still left me kind of questioning (and some are in hindsight clearly intentional). Again, I can’t be specific here without ruining anything, but I did feel like there were a few small holes that affected things for me.

Overall however, I really enjoyed this one. It is a really fun spin on the kidnapping trope and Tan takes things in interesting directions with the story line. These guys are hot and heavy thorough most of the book, but through all that, I still felt like I got a good sense of the men and I liked seeing them get to know one another. Each man has some growth along the way, particularly Chase, and I was rooting for them to find a way to make it all work. So this was a really entertaining story and one I can definitely recommend.

This book wasted no time getting started. It started fast and kept right on going. Interesting dynamic between the two men and I liked how it all wrapped up. Would be interested in reading more by the author, Tan.

I LOVED it IMMEDIATELY. The opening was gripping, clever, and filled with delicious irony. The way the plot unfolded moving forward was engrossing and fulfilling. I need to check out this author's blacklist, stat.

m/m
Watch Point by Cecilia Tan is a kinky m/m romantic thriller. Eric Sakai-Johnson is messed up. He was honorably discharged from the Navy (before don’t ask, don’t tell), fired from his bodyguard job even after he took a bullet for the guy because the guy found out that he was gay. The firing also ended the medical support his employer was giving Eric’s mother leaving Eric with millions in debt. He is pissed off. His plans to kidnap his former employers son in exchange for the money doesn’t go exactly to plan but it does clue him into the fact that he isn’t the only one his former employer has hurt.
Watching Chase blossom while kidnapped was delightful. I had a couple of issues with this but I think it was mostly due to the nature of Chase’s kink and Chase’s father is up for asshole of the year.
Trigger warnings… this story is full of dubious consent due to the kidnapping. Actual kidnapping. Rape fantasy between kidnapper and hostage.

Watch Point was so bad, so very, very bad. I normally like a good kidnapping, Stockholm Syndrome, dubious consent plot. Add in MM and I'm so there. Add in a former Navy SEAL and I'm a happy, happy woman. But this? No, just no. It just never connected for me. Eric, for one, has to be the dumbest former Navy SEAL I've ever read about. He doesn't behave or think like a former SEAL, at all!

The plot, which sounded good, is this: Thanks to Eric's former employee screwing him over, Eric has decided to kidnap the man's son, and to ransom him off to his father. Unfortunately, or fortunately I guess, Chase (the son), thinks he's just meeting Eric at a motel for a pre-arranged (via a dating app) hot hookup where he'll get to live out his darkest fantasies, one of which is to be kidnapped. When he ends up on an island, he has no idea at first that he's been kidnapped for real. Even as Eric and he play survival games, and Eric makes Chase service him and they play other kinky games, Chase is still under the illusion that this is all part of their hookup. Sigh...yeah, it's that stupid. He's that stupid.

Of course, things happen, things that are supposed to be suspenseful and Chase and Eric are torn apart for awhile until things all work out in the end, a la fantasy style. I guess if you're really into erotica with a flimsy plot, sex that, while hot at first, became a bit much after awhile, then Watch Point could be your thing. However, if you want a truly dark and/or kinky romance, heavy on the romance, I'd advise against Watch Point.

I’m such a huge fan of Cecilia Tan’s Daron’s Guitar Chronicles serial, so I jumped on this book like it was made of chocolate and coffee to get a taste of what the author could do with something far more erotic than Daron and Ziggy ever get into.

Good God…

Watch Point hits on some of my fave tropes, especially when the tables are turned and the hunter becomes the hunted, figuratively speaking. The setup of Chase Milford’s kidnapping and the unveiling of his particular kinks afford the book all of its erotic potential, but it also gives the revenge aspect—the sins of the father, in this case—the leeway to veer into romantic territory in a plausible way. Eric Sakai-Johnson isn’t a villain in either the literary or literal sense of the word, but he has a mission to complete, one that’s personal, and he’s determined not to fail in his objective. Except for the fact that he didn’t count on his heart getting involved and his feelings becoming an obstacle. But even then, Eric is a trained Navy SEAL. He will see this mission through to the end, come hell or nor’easter. Or both.

First off, I adored Chase. I’ve always loved miscalculation as a romantic catalyst, and Eric falls into the trap of underestimating Chase from the start, as well as discounting the impact he’d once made on a much younger Chase. The Milford heir wasn’t the spoiled and pampered little rich boy that Eric had expected, and watching Eric’s respect for Chase grow was the lit match to the short fuse you know damn well is going to blow up before the happy ending. You also know damn well that Chase won’t be alone in the damage from the fallout. The heart: it’s both a weak link and a powerful ally.

The villain in the story is, without question, Chase’s father. He is intentionally written to be exaggerated in his villainy, has one dimension—asshole—and serves one purpose—to be as big an asshole as he can be. He succeeds. I should also mention here that if you have any sort of rape/abuse triggers, Chase’s father is a disgusting asshole, too, so consider yourself forewarned.

A little kinky and a lot erotic, I have to say that Eric’s backstory makes me want a prequel to this book. In a big way. Ending with a sweet and satisfying finish, I really liked getting to know a different side to Tan’s writing. Watch Point is the perfect escapist read, a lot of hot for a chilly afternoon, and I wanted these guys to get their happy ending, so mission accomplished.

I've gotta agree with one other reviewer of Watch Point... this book is not for everyone and there are some people who will have a real issue with it. I've also have to be clear on one point. I do not in any way condone what Eric did. I can also honestly say that I've never been in a situation as desperate as he found himself in, so I'm not judging his actions. There's a very fine line drawn between right and wrong in Watch Point and Eric pushed it to the limit, but what Aiden Milford did to Eric, in my opinion, was much worse.

Even so, I wasn't quite sure about this book in the beginning. Both Eric and Chase grew on me though. There was a slight twist that ended up changing my opinion totally. Not everything is exactly as it seems and there were quite a few surprises in Watch Point. My heart broke for both of them by the time they each realized exactly what was going on. I had no idea how they could get to their inevitable HEA, but I wanted it desperately for both Eric and Chase.

There was plenty of heat, some nail biting suspense and more. I'm glad I picked this one up and stuck with it even though I wasn't quite sure how things could possibly work out. ;)

I'm so torn on this book. There were definitely elements I liked- both MC had qualtities that made me want to know more. You only hear Eric's voice throughout the book- I wanted to hear Chase's. It felt unbalanced because of this. Also- It is not for the faint of heart. There could definitely be some triggers for people. I love dirty talk in a book- this was a little too coarse for me. The BDSM and sub/dom elements weren't too over the top- but I needed more connection on another level to believe where the story ends up. I also needed more wrap up in the conclusion. It was difficult to tell whether it was a HEA or a HFN.

I'll be the first to admit I like my male/male books on the dark side of storylines and I've liked other books by Cecilia Tan so I was REALLY excited to read this ARC. But after 20% in my mind was going NOPE NOPE NOPE. First, the dubcon was more like rape fantasy, the big-bad SEAL displayed a whole lot of un-SEAL like behavior, and I frankly wanted to punch both characters. A big fat miss for me. I should note though that Watch Point is part of Riptide's 2017 Holiday Collection with 20% proceeds being donated to the Russian LGBT network. So, maybe it's worth purchasing for just that.

Trigger warnings… this story is full of dubious consent due to the kidnapping. Actual kidnapping. Rape fantasy between kidnapper and hostage.

MY REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS BECAUSE I CAN NOT REVIEW IT WITHOUT THEM.

Okay, are you still with me after all the warnings? Good. Let me tell you something about me. I can read dub con and non con books. I can. I’ve been known to read quite a lot of them, actually. So just know that the fact that this book is riddled with it, that’s not totally my problem. Where I had issues was the way in which this story was told.

The writing isn’t all that bad, truthfully, which is why it’s getting 2 stars from me. But those two stars were hard earned. As in I am still contemplating changing it to 1 star, or 1.5. This story about Eric who is planning to kidnap the child of his previous boss felt wrong wrong wrong. It made me feel bad reading it. The only reason I finished it was because I have a hard time leaving a character behind and not knowing what their final fate will be.

Eric is supposedly this ex Navy Seal. So, badass dude, right? Nope. He’s really not. He’s tough and all, he knows survival skills and stuff like that, but badass dude he is not. Someone who is supposed to be an example of the type of men we have serving our country would not behave like this. At least I hope not. And I know… people are who they are. But this guy was not in the least bit likable. For someone who wanted revenge on his former boss, he comes off worse than you’d think. Kidnapping? Drugging the person you’re taking, having sex with them under the assumption that the hookup you’d arranged with them was exactly that, a hookup, and keeping it going for days and days? Nope. Big. Fat. NOPE.

I felt so bad for this kid Chase. He thought he was signing up for a good time. Hooking up with someone who could fulfill his need for a kidnaping fantasy… or something. He’s a kinky guy and has a lot of fantasies that he’d like to play out, and he does but none of that was truthful. Not really. All he got was his heart broken and a major feeling of betrayal. Oh, and probably a case of Stockholm Syndrome because yea, they do end up together in the end.

Ugh. I feel like I’m all over the place with this. What you should know though, is that this is a book with a weird take on what is supposed to be dub con, with a serious scene of total non con/rape and it’s gross and made me feel dirty just reading it. There are some parts that kept me going, mostly me rooting for Chase to get away and finally be free from kidnappers and overly “protective” fathers who are actually just abusive and cruel. But all I really got out of this was a whole lot of disappointment.

This book, it should be noted, is also part of the Riptide Holiday Bundle. This bundle of books has 20% of the proceeds going to the Russian LGBT Network. A worthy cause for a holiday bundle. Sadly, this part of the bundle was neither celebrating any holiday or keeping with the holiday spirit. And for that, I think the publisher missed the mark.

Cecilia Tan’s Watch Point had me initially hooked by the blurb. I was expecting this forbidden, dark captive romance that rides the edge of dubious consent. Reading other reviews first, I got the sense that this wasn't what I should expect. I thought that if the fantasy element was there, however, that it would still work for me so I one-clicked hard.

This was a total miss for me, however.

Eric is a SEAL who was screwed over by his past employer, Aiden. To get back at the man, Eric decides to kidnap his son, Chase, and ransom him.

Let’s start with the fact that this story just felt a bit…off from the beginning. Eric and Chase meetup at a hotel to hookup, and that’s basically what it is. It isn’t until later that we even realize they met up to perpetrate a fantasy, and it doesn’t feel like it until 35% of the way through the book.

And when it does come up, it still isn’t quite the book the blurb made it sound like. Sometimes, Eric is the kidnapper, other times he becomes Chase’s Boy Scout leader (?) and still others, he is Chase’s hookup.

My biggest problem, however, and the reason this book totally flopped for me is Eric. He makes these odd comparisons during the strangest moments, drops the ball on Chase's safety play-wise, and then there’s this one time Eric puts Chase's skills down and says Chase has no dignity even after Chase gives Eric the trust of submission?!

I’m sorry. What?! That was my reaction to Eric through most of the book. I scratched my head at the conclusions he draws, at his inconsistent actions and reactions, and especially his dialogue and internal thoughts.

I will say some of the scenes were pretty hot, and when the forbidden sequencing does come along? It’s out-of-the-park blazing hot, and I wanted more!. This book—the plotline, the characters, the kink—it lacked adequate direction, however. I really wanted the story to commit to the basis of the story and bring it, fullstop.

Instead, we get this compilation of some kink mixed with Boy Scout training mixed with Chase being an actual captive. I spent much of the book completely baffled by all these things that didn’t mesh.

If you can overlook that this isn’t what you’re led to believe you might give it a try. There is a good plethora of scenes here, and when it’s on it really is on. I just needed more direction to keep the thread of the story alive.

2 stars.

DNF so will not be rating or reviewing this title. Thank you for the opportunity to review it.

In news that will shock exactly no one, I skimmed the blurb. I checked the tags and saw: dubious consent, BDSM, military, enemies to lovers and hate sex and...

REQUEST!
REEEEEEQUEST!!!
REEEQQQQQQUUUUUEEEESSSSSTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost immediately things went sideways, though. Most of those tags (IMO) should come with a "lite" disclaimer.

Check it. These two arrange to hook up through an app. Meet at a motel. Hit The Bone Zone right quick then the next thing I know Eric is sedating Chase while he's bound and asleep then takes him to another motel. I'm rubbing my hands together at the bad wrong at this point. Then the next thing I know Chase wakes up and is all, "I have to piss".

Wait, wut? *frantically flips pages back* *rereads* *finds zippity do da*

Come to find out, these two jokers arranged for some sort of capture fantasy hookup that Chase agreed to!



That's a good way to get your ass shot full o'holes, buddy. You ain't supposed to be complicit in the bad wrong! That inherently makes it less bad wrong.

NOT that I went into this expecting it to be realistic, because dub-con, but...



There is a slight caveat, but still.

All the people who do not do dub or non-con, this is the dub-con for you. This might be the fluffiest dub-con I've ever read. These two wend up on a tiny, uninhabited island in Maine (see above gif. again.) and settle into some sort of strange trainer/recruit routine that involves teaching survivalism, ramen and Dinty Moore dinners and whale watching?

My interest waned, then waned further when the "heavy kink" that was promised seemed to evaporate in the pink fluffy sex magik cloud. They like it rough(ish) but they more dance with kink than actually engage in it. That toy bag Chase brought along hardly gets touched. *pouts* It's very superficial with the "sirs" and "boys", a little D/s, some bondage, cock choking/breath play, some "force" play, but they mostly like to punch their tickets to Pound Town and are cum junkies. The sex is same same and not super titillating. I'm not even going to touch on why neither of these two thought having a safeword might be a good idea.



The whole guise of Eric pretending to have "captured" Chase when in actuality he's ransoming him for the cost of his deceased mother's medical bills is the fly in the ointment and begins to weigh on him once he realizes that he's falling for Chase. The trouble for me was twofold: (a) I wanted actual dub-con. If I'm led to believe there's going to be bad wrong then I want bad wrong to happen. Eric, it turns out, is more of a cupcake than I. (b) The "love" is rushed. I wouldn't categorize it as instalove but it's instalove adjacent. They spend a lot of time together, but there's no real relationship building, nothing substantive at least. Nothing that got my emotions involved.

The resolution to all the "kidnapping" pegged my fluff-o-meter. I think the glass on it even cracked. What draws me to non/dub con is the redemption factor. The notion that someone capable of bad wrong, even heinous acts, can gain insight, accept the error of their ways and attempt to make amends appeals to me, but that got swept away in the fluff cloud.

HEA? HFN? Probably best to ask someone less cynical than I, though presumably, I'm to believe they're well on their way to forever-n-ever probably with some cute animated animals nipping at their heels too.

There is one definitely non-con scene (not between the MCs) that, honestly, didn't make sense to me; it seemed wholly incongruous to that character. I couldn't stop myself from thinking it an extra dose of craycraybenaynay in an already melodramatic conclusion.

So why not 1 heart?

The author obviously did some research on survival techniques and SEAL training and even though I think that focus would've been better spent on relationship development, I still respect the research.

Eric tells the whole story and his backstory is fairly well developed regarding his motivations. His flashbacks of his time with the SEALs and his relationship with his fire team confused me a bit, particularly with regard to consent, but truth be told, I'd read the stuffing out of that story. It sorta skirted the bad wrong line and what we got was hoooooooooooottttttttttt!!!

Lastly, 20% of the proceeds of this book go to the Russian LGBT Network. That's deserving of a star in and of itself.

Recommend to fluffsters.





A review copy was provided by NetGalley.