I'm conflicted about this "dude dominatrix" term. It's bad, definitely, but is it so bad it's funny? I don't know if it's quite there. I'd like to get all self-righteous on his ass, like "wow, how stupid and ignorant of you," but on a more objective note, that is the sort of stupid hyperbolic shit people will say and keep saying, even after learning otherwise. It's the playing up the cluelessness for melodrama/humor thing.
Having read far more M/M than het, though, it's a bit odd to see "dominatrix" as a previously recognized term, but not knowing any sort of __ counterpart term.
Slow burn.
And that's about it for comments I made while reading. I actually thought about commenting. Not in a "I should comment" way; literally thought "oh, yeah, commenting." That was...sometime in pt 5? But I dunno, I just wasn't feeling like commenting.
It's...well, it's kind of bleak, isn't it? All of the implied future heartbreak for Hugh.
I dunno, I hate series where there's a new love interest each installment. Like in various thrillers *cough cough* Dan Brown *cough* Robert Langdon *clears throat*. ...and, I dunno, it kind of seems like it might be headed that way. Which is, well, depressing.