I received Lab Rat’s Love from the author through the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s Don’t Buy My Love review program. This story is told through the eyes of Nex, the ‘lab rat,’ and Kane, the man who's in charge of the company that came up for the experiment that Nex is a part of. We also have a ghost character in the story, Styx, Nex's twin brother, who pops up every once in a while through letters written to Nex and Kane.



The story sucked me in right away. Nex and Kane meet under unfortunate circumstances but I liked the interaction between them immediately. The tension is created by their snarky banter and their physical attraction to each other. We learn that Nex is the twin brother of Styx, who happened to be the partner, of Kane in business and in love. Nex is pulled into the world of Kane and Styx because Kane needs something from him. He needs Nex to be the lab rat for an experimental chip that is to be implanted in the brain. It was designed for his and Styx’s DNA, by Styx, only Styx died. Nex refuses at first until Kane agrees to pay off all of Nex’s debts. See Nex has a problem, he’s a drug addict and a gambler. Also motivation for Nex is that Kane is a Dom and Nex a sub and they have great sex. Styx and Kane didn’t mesh well in the sexual area since both were Doms.

Here’s were the problems come in. Nex thinks Kane wants him only because he reminds Kane of Styx. Kane is confused and keeps seeing Styx, but Nex is pulling at his heart. We learn that Nex has PTSD and Styx was a manic/depressive, and a very manipulative s.o.b. at that. The illnesses the twins had, had a large impact on what goes on in the story, as does their traumatic childhood background.

Nex has always thought he was stupid because Styx was such a genius and their dad always compared Nex to Styx. Nex wasn't stupid however. He may not have been a genius, but he had people smarts and he could figure out connections that other people didn't notice. Styx had his issues also, through back the story and talking with Kane and the letters, we find that Styx couldn't let anyone too close. He couldn't handle letting go and he hated drugs so he wouldn’t even take his anti-depressants. He was just as messed up as Nex, but in a different way. We find that even though Nex was an addict, he was the stronger one of the twins, he just needed someone to support and care for him. As for Kane, he needed someone to care for. The relationship with Styx worked for a while, but Styx was too much of a control freak like Kane, to give himself over, and Styx was a suicide victim ready to go off at any moment. In the end, Styx was manipulating Nex and Kane from beyond the grave. By the end of the story both Nex and Kane have changed and grown.

There are a few secondary characters, like Nex’s ex-roommate who supplies Nex with drugs. It appears to outsiders that Ty doesn’t care about Nex, but I think he does and not because they were occasionally f*** buddies. One part of the story I wished to have seen explained more, is what happened to Ty after Nex moves in permanently with Kane.

The one thing I had trouble with was the idea of the chip. If the chip had been successful, I can easily see an unscrupulous person kidnapping someone, implanting it into someone’s brain they wish to ‘keep,’ and then conditioning that person to become dependent on them. Not a good invention. Besides, I think it’s an easy shortcut instead of having the sub learn self-control or the sub learning to tolerate more pain. It takes training. I didn’t care for the chip idea much, but it gave the romance part of the story a focal point to revolve around.

There is BDSM in this story, but it’s mild. I would say the story is more about D/s than kink, even though kink is a part of Kane and Nex’s sex scenes. This was an entertaining read for someone who wants to read light kink. The pacing was good, not to slow or too fast and the editing was good. I only saw a few missed words.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others. I give Lab Rat’s Love, 4 Stars.


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This is a fascinating story, but not really for the main reason I assumed when I first read the blurb. Two words: sex chip. I mean, really? Someone is going to have a chip put in their brain to increase their pleasure, except someone else (with the help of said chip) will be in control. Sounds like science fiction, and I guess that part is. But, unlike in true science fiction, the focus is not on the chip and how it works. Instead the story is really about the relationship between Nex, the guy with the chip in his head, and Kane, the CEO of the company that developed the chip. Just add some extraordinary complications in the interpersonal area, as well as issues of the individual characters and what you end up with is a psychological drama of the suspenseful/nail-biting kind.

Nex is a complicated man who is psychologically deeply scarred from age ten (when his father shot his mother in Nex’s presence), and probably not exactly living a happy childhood even before then. He uses drugs to forget the pain, and is a compulsive gambler. He was separated from Styx, his genius-level twin brother, because “the system” thought he’d open up to others if they took away the one person he was able to relate to after the trauma of losing their parents. And if that isn’t enough, Styx dies in a car accident and Nex is now the only person able to test the chip since it is genetically coded. Forced to accept Kane’s money so he can pay off his gambling debts, Nex begins a journey of self-discovery that is not easy, and not always very pretty. The things he finds out about Styx are horrendous, but what really gets to him is his growing need for Kane—a man who used to be friends with occasional benefits with Nex’s twin and, so Nex suspects, only sees Styx in him.

Kane is just as complex a character as Nex. Yes, he is initially attracted to Nex because he looks exactly like Styx and Kane loved his business partner, even if he isn’t rally sure what type of love it was. They never crossed the line to becoming lovers, but with Nex the sub Kane has always dreamed of and looking exactly like Styx? The temptation is enormous, the ensuing mess predictable, and Kane’s way of dealing with it (denial, mostly) is bound to significantly worsen the impeding catastrophe.

With messed-up motivations and emotions all over the place as both Nex and Kane try to deal with Styx’s death while becoming involved in increasingly hot BDSM scenes in the bedroom, this story truly deserves the title “drama”. One revelation follows after another, feelings are hurt, and Nex’s condition worsens y the page. And all of that is before the real disaster even happens. What a ride!

If you like stories about wounded characters trying to deal with the messes that are their lives only to make a bigger mess of them, if you enjoy reading stories where the psychology will either totally fascinate or completely repulse you, and if you’re looking for a read about a developing relationship that is as volatile as it is hot, then you will probably like this novel. I wasn’t able to stop reading!


NOTE: This book was provided by Loose Id for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )