Review of To Trust and To Touch by Vivi Anne Hunt

I fully admit that I almost didn’t end up reading this one. I’d seen the major premise before in multiple different iterations, both from an LGBTQ+ perspective and not. You can say that my trust had been broken much like one of the two romantic leads in this novel. I am so happy I did give it chance though because To Trust and To Touch ended up being one of the better iterations of the trope that I’ve seen.

A lot of what works hinges on the personalities of the main two characters and several supporting characters, a best friend and the daughter of one of the leads. All too often, I find the ‘hurt’ side of this type of relationship whiny or unable to do anything by themselves. The likelihood of this only seems to increase when it’s the younger half of an age-gap romance. Here though, he’s flawed, sassy, and trained to become a living weapon. His counterpart’s only flaw is that he’s a little too good to be true.

With one character being a performer at a place called Kinkworld, I was expecting a little more of one thing and ended up getting more of another thing. I’m the type who likes all the things, but I can see why certain readers might get drawn in then disappointed by it. The true focus of the novel is on an overarching connection between two people and not just a physical one.

There are quite a few flaws with To Trust and To Touch, however. Idealism is probably the highest among those. Things are too convenient, characters act in ways they wouldn’t realistically in certain situations, and the timing feels just a bit off at points. I noticed a handful of errors scattered throughout, mostly with punctuation more than anything.

From a purely technical standpoint, I’d rate the novel lower. But the writing and characters did draw me in enough that some of those flaws I couldn’t really see until I was done. Considering how hard it is for me to shut that side of my brain off, that’s a pretty credible feat. If you are a fan of hurt/comfort or age-gap romances, I would definitely give this one a read. A note of caution though: there is some graphic violence as well as described sexual assault.

To Trust and To Touch is available to buy on Amazon.