The Locked Room - RayeAnn Carter

Interesting novella. At first I thought it was going to be more or less fade to black on the sex scenes, until the end. I don't know if this was a conscious decision on the author's part but it worked. The only scene we see in detail is the one where West has revealed the secret that he has been hiding, so we see and understand the importance of that one scene and of Klin's acceptance.

I think Klin's easy acceptance was helped by the way the first half of the book was written. The disjointed half scenes gave a great sense of stolen moments, and the broken up narrative showed the strength needed to stay together. And despite having spent more than a page or two on any scene, that start gave the relationship the solid foundation it needed to weather both West's secret and West meeting Klin's brothers.

I guessed West's secret long before the brothers broke into the locked room. Probably because I knew (hoped) it couldn't be either of the options the brothers put forward.

The brothers, twins Jack and Harry were hard work. Jack seemed sweet and accepting but he was easily led by Harry, who was smarter but manipulative. The way Jack was written implied to me that he had possible social or learning disabilities but this is purely my conjecture and wasn't written in the text. Both brothers certainly acted much younger than Klin, even though they weren't. Harry's manipulation seemed to stem from a desire to have both his brothers with him at all times and he was willing to wreak both their relationships (and anything else) to do this.

At 20,000 words this book was easy to read all in one sitting. It kept my attention throughout and was well worth an hour or so of my time.