** spoiler alert ** 
 This is hardcore BDSM, boys and girls, but there's a lot going on behind the kink too. Jonathan Watkins recognizes the hallmarks of a great submissive in Bran McKinney, but the truth is buried beneath layers of sheer will, determination, pride, and pure fucking stubbornness quite literally beaten into him by his father when he was younger. More layers than Jonathan gave credit for, and nearly more than he was capable of dealing with. He coaxed, prodded, beat, flogged, fucked, fisted, and even broke Bran repeatedly, and still Bran held on to who he was. And it was obvious that Jonathan did NOT understand Bran any more than Bran understood Jonathan. 
 One of the things that I was desperately afraid of was that Bran would lose what makes him Bran, and that Jonathan wouldn't see it until it was too late, because that wouldn't do either of them any good. Jonathan was trying to break through walls Bran had erected without truly understanding that some of what he was doing was damaging Bran's sense of self in the process. Jonathan was so certain that Bran was just being a stubborn fuck, and it wasn't until Bran cried out, half-asleep, asking his Dad to stop beating him that Jonathan got a true inkling of what he was dealing with. And I was so disappointed in Jonathan that he didn't put his own fucking pride and confidence aside and talk to Bran the next morning instead of going through with his plans to drive Bran out. 
 And I felt so validated when we get to the end of the story and Bran finally tells Jonathan that he stopped being what Bran needed as soon as they began, essentially saying that Jonathan's overconfidence backfired on him. It was heart-breaking to watch Bran struggle to figure out who he was (or wasn't) during that week he was back in the real world; it was so obvious he couldn't go back to who he was, and he wasn't capable of moving forward on his own. (I would say it was cruel of Jonathan to leave things half-finished, but things had to break before they could be fixed.) 
 So thank God they both finally understand some of their culpability. Definitely looking forward to the next book. 
 Oh, and I enjoyed seeing Devon from Master Class again, albeit briefly. I'm guessing he and Nicky will show up in Power Play: Awakening.