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The Mask He Wears
Ian Dennison loves his job, but when he's invited to the Mardi Gras ball thrown by his law firm, it's not for company loyalty that he goes. It's for Stephen Caulfield, his boss and the man for whom he's been longing since his first day.
Amidst the costumed revelry and fine champagne, the sparks fly between the men. Ian begins to think perhaps there is hope for them, despite the rules against company fraternization. That is, until a drunken senior partner lets slip the secret Ian never knew Stephen was keeping...his wife.
Is there more to the story than Ian suspects, or is the mask Stephen wears really who he is?
Gay / Contemporary
Amidst the costumed revelry and fine champagne, the sparks fly between the men. Ian begins to think perhaps there is hope for them, despite the rules against company fraternization. That is, until a drunken senior partner lets slip the secret Ian never knew Stephen was keeping...his wife.
Is there more to the story than Ian suspects, or is the mask Stephen wears really who he is?
Gay / Contemporary
48 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 12, 2009
50 people want to read
About the author
Fae Sutherland
29 books230 followersFae Sutherland is the award-winning, bestselling author of 30 M/M erotic romance novels - co-authored and solo. She also writes M/F erotic romance under a pen name.
When Fae's not working on new stories to make her readers sweat, she loves website design, spending too much time on Twitter, and watching oodles of Food Network with her beloved life partner. If there's any time left over, it's spent snuggling the cat.
When Fae's not working on new stories to make her readers sweat, she loves website design, spending too much time on Twitter, and watching oodles of Food Network with her beloved life partner. If there's any time left over, it's spent snuggling the cat.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 27, 2010
Ok m/m romance about a lawyer, who has a marriage of convenience, confessing his feelings for his male secretary and really making a mess of it.
June 22, 2019
This little story is cute but I regret its length. These two authors are fantastic, their book "The Gladiator's Master" is one of my favorite gay historical fictions, I can't help but praise it whenever the occasion comes, and their writing style is just fine with me. I like it, it isn't elaborate but it isn't trite either, it's enchanting most of the time. However this book is short. Although the storyline holds everything that's expected from it, and that it doesn't feel or sound incomplete for a short story, yet I can't help but want it to be a little bit more than 5 chapters of temptation.
I like the personality of Ian but Stephen's is more complex, more interesting... yet the two characters are both enticing in their way. I liked the fact that this story is written in third person, it gives a perfect overview of the intrigue and leaves space to the reader's imagination and experience. I am not too fond of the cover but it's okay, I won't be too demanding with two authors doing what's expected from them.
I rate this story 2 stars because the storyline remains too basic to me ... in the wait of new books from these two authors. A new historical fiction would be amazing though :)
I like the personality of Ian but Stephen's is more complex, more interesting... yet the two characters are both enticing in their way. I liked the fact that this story is written in third person, it gives a perfect overview of the intrigue and leaves space to the reader's imagination and experience. I am not too fond of the cover but it's okay, I won't be too demanding with two authors doing what's expected from them.
I rate this story 2 stars because the storyline remains too basic to me ... in the wait of new books from these two authors. A new historical fiction would be amazing though :)
March 14, 2010
The Mask He Wears by Fae Sutherland and Marguerite Labbe. Another book where there was so much I disliked about it, I barely know where to start.
So let's start with the premise: Ian is the secretary to lawyer Stephen. Ian has a crush on Stephen, Stephen has a crush on Ian. There are two basic problems that I have with this:
First of all, we're told that Ian is head over heels in love with Stephen and vice versa, but we never really get to see what it is about Stephen or Ian that's so worth turning their personal and professional lives upside-down for. It's all tell, no show and it's much harder for me, as a reader to be invested in a relationship that I never get to see.
Secondly, there's a huge power disparity between lawyer Stephen and Ian the secretary that never gets addressed. And it's not just that Stephen is a lawyer and Ian is the admin (I'm sorry, secretary belongs back in the 50's, yo), Stephen is also Ian's boss. While I'm willing to let the author take me on a trip to either explore the unequal power dynamics or create a way to make the relationship work despite the wild inequality of power, the power disparity has to be acknowledged. I need to know that the author knows it's there, the elephant in the room.
The fact that Stephen felt that a work event was the right place to make his move on Ian is, in and of itself, a demonstration of his power. Power that he has and Ian doesn't. The consequences of someone as important as Stephen making a pass at an admin are (generally) far less and (potentially) far less career-endangering than the consequences of Ian rebuffing those same advances from his boss. And though Ian holds supreme confidence that Stephen would simply go back to business as usual if Ian were to reject him, it comes across more as naïveté than "Stephen is just that awesome".
Truth be told, the actions and thoughts of both men come across as incredibly naïve, throughout the book. TMHW is another example of hyper-romanticism, where communication between the parties is open, free and without reservation from the opening scenes, where both parties are confident in the other's interest and that the interest and commitment level is mutual and equal. Without having ever discussed it, even once.
Though they don't seem to have any relationship outside the workplace, both Ian and Stephen are confident that they are in love with each other and that their love is life-long and committed. By the time they've had their first kiss, they're talking love-of-my-life permanency and Ian, at least, is horrified and outraged by the suggestion that they date and get to know each other better before taking their (potential, not-yet-existing) relationship to the next level. Only pages later, Stephen is ready to throw away his marriage (of convenience) and his career at the law firm for Ian…with whom he's never even had a single date.
Now personally—and as someone who has had a gentleman or two, in her time, confess that he's her soulmate within a very short period of time (and yet, still after some dating!)—I find that all creepy and weird, not romantic. I know that's probably blasphemy, given that it's such a staple trope of the romance genre, but there it is: creepy and weird. Unless we're talking soul-bonds, but this is not that kind of story. I'm not saying you have to sample the milk before you buy the cow, but my goodness, at least go and look at it. Don't buy it sight unseen off of craigslist, to stretch a metaphor to breaking.
Pulling back to the nuts and bolts, for a 45 page story, it reads fairly slowly, bogged down in pages and pages of exposition and rumination with very little dialogue or action. More, a lot of the exposition is repetitive, stating the same information in slightly different ways within sentences of each other.
Though the middle of the story was moderately stable, the beginning and end of the book have POV changes within the same scene and without any real transition, creating irritation and confusion. There's also a lack of consistency in POV; I'd say a good 80-90% of the story was from Stephen's POV, leaving only about 10-20% for Ian to get his say in. Though I don't think a story has to be 50/50 equal, I do feel that if you're going to split the POV between your two protagonists, there should be a better representation and a better reason to have the other person's POV than to just fill in the cracks.
I also felt that, at least in the beginning, the authors didn't have a good grasp of Stephen, in particular, writing his personality with explicit inconsistencies that took me out of the story.
If you tell me that your MC is in a marriage of convenience, because it fits with his career and then tell me that he doesn't care what people think and never has, if you tell me he was isolated in high school and only becoming BFF with his future beard-wife gave him the security to 'put himself out there', but you tell me that he doesn't care what people think and never has, if the whole freaking premise of your story is the masks that people wear and you tell me that your MC doesn't care what people think and never has, I call bullshit. Similarly, if you have your other MC just about having the vapors in outrage at the thought of being someone's piece on the side, I don't buy it if—before anything's been said or done but a declaration of love—the first thing he does is show up at his wanna-be lover's office, strips off his clothes and demands some sexing on the desk. Just…think it through, okay? No, people are not one hundred percent consistent; in fact, they are often downright contradictory, but come on. There's a difference between in-character, psychologically grounded inconsistency and plain ol' sloppy writing.
Overall, it just felt like a lot of sloppy writing.
So let's start with the premise: Ian is the secretary to lawyer Stephen. Ian has a crush on Stephen, Stephen has a crush on Ian. There are two basic problems that I have with this:
First of all, we're told that Ian is head over heels in love with Stephen and vice versa, but we never really get to see what it is about Stephen or Ian that's so worth turning their personal and professional lives upside-down for. It's all tell, no show and it's much harder for me, as a reader to be invested in a relationship that I never get to see.
Secondly, there's a huge power disparity between lawyer Stephen and Ian the secretary that never gets addressed. And it's not just that Stephen is a lawyer and Ian is the admin (I'm sorry, secretary belongs back in the 50's, yo), Stephen is also Ian's boss. While I'm willing to let the author take me on a trip to either explore the unequal power dynamics or create a way to make the relationship work despite the wild inequality of power, the power disparity has to be acknowledged. I need to know that the author knows it's there, the elephant in the room.
The fact that Stephen felt that a work event was the right place to make his move on Ian is, in and of itself, a demonstration of his power. Power that he has and Ian doesn't. The consequences of someone as important as Stephen making a pass at an admin are (generally) far less and (potentially) far less career-endangering than the consequences of Ian rebuffing those same advances from his boss. And though Ian holds supreme confidence that Stephen would simply go back to business as usual if Ian were to reject him, it comes across more as naïveté than "Stephen is just that awesome".
Truth be told, the actions and thoughts of both men come across as incredibly naïve, throughout the book. TMHW is another example of hyper-romanticism, where communication between the parties is open, free and without reservation from the opening scenes, where both parties are confident in the other's interest and that the interest and commitment level is mutual and equal. Without having ever discussed it, even once.
Though they don't seem to have any relationship outside the workplace, both Ian and Stephen are confident that they are in love with each other and that their love is life-long and committed. By the time they've had their first kiss, they're talking love-of-my-life permanency and Ian, at least, is horrified and outraged by the suggestion that they date and get to know each other better before taking their (potential, not-yet-existing) relationship to the next level. Only pages later, Stephen is ready to throw away his marriage (of convenience) and his career at the law firm for Ian…with whom he's never even had a single date.
Now personally—and as someone who has had a gentleman or two, in her time, confess that he's her soulmate within a very short period of time (and yet, still after some dating!)—I find that all creepy and weird, not romantic. I know that's probably blasphemy, given that it's such a staple trope of the romance genre, but there it is: creepy and weird. Unless we're talking soul-bonds, but this is not that kind of story. I'm not saying you have to sample the milk before you buy the cow, but my goodness, at least go and look at it. Don't buy it sight unseen off of craigslist, to stretch a metaphor to breaking.
Pulling back to the nuts and bolts, for a 45 page story, it reads fairly slowly, bogged down in pages and pages of exposition and rumination with very little dialogue or action. More, a lot of the exposition is repetitive, stating the same information in slightly different ways within sentences of each other.
Though the middle of the story was moderately stable, the beginning and end of the book have POV changes within the same scene and without any real transition, creating irritation and confusion. There's also a lack of consistency in POV; I'd say a good 80-90% of the story was from Stephen's POV, leaving only about 10-20% for Ian to get his say in. Though I don't think a story has to be 50/50 equal, I do feel that if you're going to split the POV between your two protagonists, there should be a better representation and a better reason to have the other person's POV than to just fill in the cracks.
I also felt that, at least in the beginning, the authors didn't have a good grasp of Stephen, in particular, writing his personality with explicit inconsistencies that took me out of the story.
If you tell me that your MC is in a marriage of convenience, because it fits with his career and then tell me that he doesn't care what people think and never has, if you tell me he was isolated in high school and only becoming BFF with his future beard-wife gave him the security to 'put himself out there', but you tell me that he doesn't care what people think and never has, if the whole freaking premise of your story is the masks that people wear and you tell me that your MC doesn't care what people think and never has, I call bullshit. Similarly, if you have your other MC just about having the vapors in outrage at the thought of being someone's piece on the side, I don't buy it if—before anything's been said or done but a declaration of love—the first thing he does is show up at his wanna-be lover's office, strips off his clothes and demands some sexing on the desk. Just…think it through, okay? No, people are not one hundred percent consistent; in fact, they are often downright contradictory, but come on. There's a difference between in-character, psychologically grounded inconsistency and plain ol' sloppy writing.
Overall, it just felt like a lot of sloppy writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
August 3, 2009This is a short story that manages to be unexpected and surprising despite being short. Apparently the plot is simple, Ian has a secret crush on his boss, lawyer Stephen; being Ian his secretary and having the firm a strict no fraternization policy, Ian has never made any move on Stephen if not being always available for him and always with an eager to please smile on his face. Then at a office party, Ian eavesdrops another colleague asking Stephen about his wife, and Ian's world crashes around him.
Here is the unexpected element of the story. Usually the office affairs relationships among men are hot and dirty, little or not so little secret affairs almost always based more on sex than love. But Ian is a romantic soul, he believes in love at first sight and forever love. He wants Stephen, but he doesn't want him only for a passing affair, he wants him as his long term relationship partner, he wants him in full daylight.
On the other hand Stephen has always preferred to maintain his private life exactly like that, private. On the outside Stephen appears to be an independent and strong willed man, but in private he is insecure and not so strong. He always related to his friends advice and he was always willing to help them to resolve their romantic trouble but was never ready to resolve his own. Delay was the key, not facing the issue was the best strategy. Stephen's character is the other surprising element of the story, above all how different he is from what he appears; it's a nice surprise since he gives originality to the story.
If Stephen was one another alpha male boss, who is a boss both in office than in bedroom, this one would have been one another office affair story, nice maybe, but nothing more. Instead both Stephen than Ian are different from who you were expecting, they are both very emotional men, men that probably are not imposing and domineering, but that are lucky enough to find each other and to discover that, despite the difference in social status and career level, they have more in common than they thought.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602728461/?...
Here is the unexpected element of the story. Usually the office affairs relationships among men are hot and dirty, little or not so little secret affairs almost always based more on sex than love. But Ian is a romantic soul, he believes in love at first sight and forever love. He wants Stephen, but he doesn't want him only for a passing affair, he wants him as his long term relationship partner, he wants him in full daylight.
On the other hand Stephen has always preferred to maintain his private life exactly like that, private. On the outside Stephen appears to be an independent and strong willed man, but in private he is insecure and not so strong. He always related to his friends advice and he was always willing to help them to resolve their romantic trouble but was never ready to resolve his own. Delay was the key, not facing the issue was the best strategy. Stephen's character is the other surprising element of the story, above all how different he is from what he appears; it's a nice surprise since he gives originality to the story.
If Stephen was one another alpha male boss, who is a boss both in office than in bedroom, this one would have been one another office affair story, nice maybe, but nothing more. Instead both Stephen than Ian are different from who you were expecting, they are both very emotional men, men that probably are not imposing and domineering, but that are lucky enough to find each other and to discover that, despite the difference in social status and career level, they have more in common than they thought.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602728461/?...
April 22, 2014
❤❤❤♡♡
It was an ok book, a pleasant read. But, the book was too short : it didn't allow the reader to be invested in the characters' story. In my opinion, the authors made a mistake in choosing what part of Ian and Stephen's story they related. As a reader, it was difficult to feel anything for the characters when I was only told part of story, and the hard part as it was. The authors didn't show the good, fluffy part of the MCs falling in love or flirting or getting to know each other. They just told us there was affinities, love, friendship and chemistry without ever displaying it. We were only privy to the problems that came with revealing the characters' feelings for each other.
It was an ok book, a pleasant read. But, the book was too short : it didn't allow the reader to be invested in the characters' story. In my opinion, the authors made a mistake in choosing what part of Ian and Stephen's story they related. As a reader, it was difficult to feel anything for the characters when I was only told part of story, and the hard part as it was. The authors didn't show the good, fluffy part of the MCs falling in love or flirting or getting to know each other. They just told us there was affinities, love, friendship and chemistry without ever displaying it. We were only privy to the problems that came with revealing the characters' feelings for each other.
Read
October 9, 2010This would have been better without the sex at the end. I know, sacrilege! By the time that I got to the sex, the whole story had me twisted up. Boy, to be a lawyer, he couldn't put two words together without being a jerk. So by the time the actual sex came about I was so turned off that I tuned out the rest of the story and didn't finish.
August 1, 2011
Couldn't finish this. It just totally didn't hold my interest. Got about 1/3 of the way through the book and stopped reading.
My complete lack of interest was surprising since these authors produced two books that I absolutely loved.
My complete lack of interest was surprising since these authors produced two books that I absolutely loved.
November 26, 2009
Short but sweet. A simple read, with emotion
January 5, 2014
I don't know, maarte si Ian, pa hard to get! haha :P
December 13, 2015
Stephen married but not as it seems. Since he meet Ian he wants a chance with him. Both working in the same firm But will Ian give him a chance.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews