My review of "
My Husband's Boss" [
v0.2].
To preface this entire review, I have to quickly explain the reason for my 3/5 rating: I feel responsible to balance out the numerous 5/5 ratings, which are unfounded - the game is excellent, and it deserves a solid 4/5, but it very much has its fair share of flaws which keep it from being a "masterpiece" deserving of the perfect rating.
Now, to the review:
Stop me if you've seen this scenario play out before: Man fucks up & loses a lot of money, his livelihood is on the line, and the entire family might end up destitute. In walks the wife, confident they can resolve this issue by addressing the boss directly. And so the pair hatch a devious plan, to use the wife's sexuality as a means of securing the husband's position, and avoid money problems. However, what starts out as a simple evening, turns into a dangerous whirlwind of lust and love, when the wife is not-so-subtly blackmailed into performing sexual favours for the boss... all in exchange for the aforementioned prosperity.
These NTR stories are a dime a dozen, aren't they? Well,
My Husband's Boss is a shining example of
a cliche done right -
a wonderful retreading of familiar elements explored deeper than usual, filled with
refreshingly nuanced characters.
First off, the husband, the male MC: on surface, he looks to be your run-of-the-mill corporate drone, married to a woman completely out of his league, yet firmly in the throes of a thriving marriage. And in your run-of-the-mill NTR AVN, he would be
the usual "cuckolded" man, forced to helplessly watch another man take pleasure in his wife.
And while this MC fills that role, it is merely a ceremonial one; Hutch is a regular man, plagued by deep insecurities upon learning his wife might sexually enjoy another man more than he ever thought possible.
He despairs, but does not whimper. He tries to understand, but never blames anyone but himself. He may appear passive & submissive to the wants of other people in his life, but
he is clearly a man on edge.
What he is not, however, is a cuck.
The wife is an equally multi-faceted character: At first glance, she is your stereotypical loving wife to the MC, and a caring mother to her adult son. When she learns of the imminent danger to her family, she offers a solution that would end up extracting a much larger toll than she could've anticipated -
and thus, the proverbial Pandora's Box is opened. Now, to be completely honest, the wife is
not the most compelling character in this play, and she suffers from a lot of unreasonable flaws in an otherwise grounded story:
- Her physical appearance is at odds with the role she is supposed to play. Nose piercings and tattoos are hardly the usual medals of honor of a suburban housewife, let alone a high school teacher. And her choice of rather revealing everyday (and professional) attire betrays a repressed promiscuous personality, something not yet confirmed by the story, yet I suspect will eventually be proven true... though I dearly hope not. I hope I don't have to explain why witnessing the corruption of innocence is a more attractive prospect than watching a born-again virgin descend down the figurative ladder she kept stowed away.
- Her emotional turmoil is devalued by a constant stream of strange decisions regarding the affair. While not exactly non-sensical, they do leave me scratching my head afterwards, as I feel I must've misunderstood some part of the scene before me. But alas, I did not, and I wonder why the author decided to have the wife weep from guilt in one moment, then sniff her lover's shirt but a few later.
- And if this was but one such instance, maybe I wouldn't mention it at all - but there are, unfortunately, several such examples throughout this plot, so far. And, what is obviously meant to tug at the viewer's heartstrings, now only feels like an empty echo of what is intended to be. I can't make myself believe she feels this guilt, because she keeps repeating the same mistakes.
- Her personality is tragically overplayed in this genre. The suspension of disbelief necessary to forgive her naivety in dealing with various classical "NTR" scenarios is just laughable. For someone portrayed as filling the more dominant role in her marriage, it makes no sense that she could be so... out of tune with how the world works, and what some men are really saying to her.
- As an example: during her brief visit to her son's college dormitory, she indulges the inappropriate behaviour of his friends - which are clearly only trying to "cop a feel". Not only does she not realize this, she berates her son when he attempts to protect her honor from these perverts. *Slaps forehead*
The Bossman: probably
the most interesting actor in this theater of pain,
second only to the husband.
He is narcissistic, manipulative, and deplorable - but also charming, assertive, and silver-tongued: he knows what he wants, and how to get it. Even with all this, he is not hateful, nor is he a villain. Just a hedonistic opportunist, hell bent on peeling back every wall of this morally tormented woman that is melting in his arms. At times, he even appears to be genuinely "friendly" to MC (
or at the very least, positively indifferent to him), that is, when he is not trying to goad the man into deepening the rift in his marriage. Still, there is no malice here. The bossman seduces the wife because she is a "gorgeous caged bird" to him - the typical unsatisfied wife, married to a man who can't possibly ever rise to the level of deserving her attention. Hence why
he actually actively works to further his lustful goals, instead of waiting for the MC to make the "inevitable" wrong move... again.
All in all, MHB is a fantastic, 4/5 piece of NTR material, but there are
several flaws hampering it:
a momentous jumping of the shark in the first part,
a leading lady with an annoyingly inconsistent pattern of behaviour, and
a husband whose efforts to maintain control over the situation are clearly in vain.
If there is one more thing I must warn potential players of this "game", it's that, seemingly, a lot of different 'types' of NTR partners have been teased for the wife. And given the boldly presented kinetic nature of this novel, I fear the end result of this fascinating narrative may indeed fall flat on its face - with a loving wife who irrevocably becomes the "village whore". The developer promises a "surprising ending", but I would still err on the side of scepticism for this one. Only time will tell.