Thursday, July 26, 2012

Diary of a Submissive - Sophie Morgan

13




Pages: 304
Published: 4th September 2012 Penguin Publishing
Genre: BDSM/ Adult/ Memoir
Format :Ebook
Acquired: Net-Galley
Date Finished: 26th July 2012

Synopsis:
In Diary of a Submissive, Sophie Morgan candidly explains what exactly an independent, 21st century woman gets out of relinquishing her power and personal freedom in a submissive relationship with a dominant man for their mutual sexual pleasure.
In the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey, here is a memoir that offers the real story of what is means to be a submissive and follows Sophie’s story as she progresses from her early erotic experiences through to experimenting with her newfound awakened sexuality. From the endorphin rush of her first spanking right through to being collared, she explains in frank and explicit fashion her sexual explorations. But it isn’t until she meets James, a real life ‘Christian Grey,’ that her boundaries and sexual fetishism are really pushed. As her relationship with James travels into darker and darker places, the question becomes: Where will it end? Can Sophie reconcile her sexuality with the rest of her life, and is it possible for the perfect man to be perfectly cruel?
Daring, controversial, and sensual, Diary of a Submissive is filled with a captivating warmth and astounding honesty such that no one— man or woman—will be able to put Sophie's story down.

Thoughts/ Review:
Oh Sophie Morgan, whatever am I going to say about this book? Firstly I would like to thank Penguin Publishing Australia for supplying me a copy of Diary of a Submissive, for without it I would have probably wasted a fair bit of money. Secondly- I really need to stop reading books if they have any reference to fifty Shades of Grey, because frankly from what I’ve heard about the BDSM element on Fifty Shades and from reading this book they are both pretty similar in context and both seem to have this unfortunate affect over me.

I am tempted, so kill me by books about BDSM, especially if they are memoirs. So when I found out about Diary of a Submissive I had to jump on it as soon as I could. Once I’d got my copy it was just a matter of sitting down and giving it a go. I mean who wouldn’t be intrigued by a true account of a submissive and her sexual escapades through the journey of finding herself while also and discovering so many deliciously deviant things in the process?I sure know I was, And I’ll admit, at various points in the book this is exactly what I got and I took so much from it in those fleeting moments of connection, and realisation. But the majority of the book was a disappointment.

It was all exciting at first, like a new relationship- learning about the ins and outs of a Dominant and submissive relationship. Not that I am new to the concept [personally I know the lifestyle] but after a while, after the same situations were played out over and over again, recycled with different partners with a few added extra punishments I was about ready to throw my kindle against the chest of draws. Don’t get me wrong, I did gain something from reading this book, and no it definitely was not any tips on how to make my sex life kinky, but it was so hard to absorb the experiences Sophie went through without feeling emotionally drained and quite frankly bored shitless. There is only so many ways to spank a person and I feel like 300 pages is way beyond the required explore that.

I didn’t care at all about her as a person as much as I wanted to. The men in her life did nothing but infuriate me and I know, yes I know that these are personal experiences and it’s hard to embellish upon something that didn’t happen but damn I needed something more. I wanted to be shocked, and I wanted to crave the experiences she had. I wanted to learn and explore what it meant to me as a reader, as a person and as a member of the community learning about my own place as a submissive in my own relationship and maybe that was my problem. But I doubt it.

People need to stop coming out with their own adaptations of popular books. I appreciate and respect the author as a person, as a woman and as a writer who is courageous enough to share her story with the world. It takes a lot of strength and confidence to do so and I have no doubt in my mind that there will be an audience for it. But you haven’t sold me Sophie.  There was something about it I just couldn’t buy and it read more like a blog to me than anything else. In saying that, if you’re on the bandwagon for all these ‘soft erotic’ books at the moment then by all means pick this one up and let me know what you think of it. For now I can safely say that had this book ben about fifty pages I might have enjoyed it more. But I think I endured enough time wasting to feel that this book just wasn’t for me, and that is okay.

I am giving this book:
★★
Two Sad Spanks

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Evil at Heart # 3 - Chelsea Cain

0



 Evil at Heart # 3 - Gretchen Lowell and Archie Sheridan
Pages: 345
Published: 2009 by Macmillan
Genre: Crime/ Thriller
Format: Paperback
Acquired: Local Library
Date Finished: July 22nd 2012

Synopsis:
Gretchen Lowell is still on the loose. These days, she’s more of a cause célèbre than a feared killer, thanks to sensationalist news coverage that has made her a star. Her face graces magazine covers weekly and there have been sightings of her around the world. Most shocking of all, Portland Herald reporter Susan Ward has uncovered a bizarre kind of fan club, which celebrates the number of days she’s been free.

Archie Sheridan hunted her for a decade, and after his last ploy to catch her went spectacularly wrong, remains hospitalized months later. When they last spoke, they entered a détente of sorts---Archie agreed not to kill himself if she agreed not to kill anyone else. But when a new body is found accompanied by Gretchen’s trademark heart, all bets are off and Archie is forced back into action. Has the Beauty Killer returned to her gruesome ways, or has the cult surrounding her created a whole new evil.

Thoughts/ Review:

By now I am pretty sure anyone who knows me, knows that I have fallen head over heels for Chelsea Cain and her Gretchen Lowell series. So it is no damn surprise that I had to pick up the third and the fourth installment at my local library [and order them online for my own collection] as soon as I could. And yet while I am still uncertain about why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous installments I admit that I am still a fan and will continue reading the series till the end.

Sweet Evil left with a cliffhanger of sorts and Evil at Heart opened with Archie being inside a rehabilitation clinic, but we don’t know it just yet. Archie is a constant source of torture to himself, the relating characters and to the readers- he never seems to get a break and is always being lured into situations both because of his seated need to catch Gretchen and to understand why she did what she did to him. It’s been hashed out and explored through the series and stands still pretty much through the whole novel until the ending.

Was it the lack of Gretchen, the slow pace or the twist that I never saw coming that made the book still a fantastic read, but nothing that really grabbed my attention and made me hooked like the others have? Or was it that the book felt like more of a transition novel? Written to shock, thrill and even torment the reader and yet not really getting to the nitty gritty in my opinion.

What? Those who have read the book might say – and I agree I keep asking myself the same question. For sure the intensity of the novel was a heart jerker, but it didn’t really catch my breath and yes it was gruesome and in the beginning and late near the end I was flipping pages faster than a burger joint does patties, but all the same I just wasn’t digging the book like I wanted to.

Maybe I am one of those readers who has one of the most morbid fascinations of the relationships that stem from deeply traumatic experiences. Those fed with near death experiences and torture that somehow cross the lines beyond perversion and into sexual attraction and dominance. But the only exciting part of the story was the understanding and progression that despite not being alone anymore being the only survivor [or is he?]Their relationship dynamic has twisted and contorted into something even more deeply tragic and yet something I can totally relate to. Their relationship, whatever happens affects everyone and no one is safe from either of them. And I am holding out for that.

I did however enjoy the cult aspect that Cain interwove into the already tangled web. It is something that has always fascinated me, and there were times when I had to close the book and really think about society and how morbid we all really are and how much of us are to blame [or not to] for the way people act and choose to live their lives. Still, I felt like it could have gone deeper than ‘Run Gretchen’ t-shirts and countdown key rings and really brought upon a larger sense of the cult instead of just a small select group.

Beyond my pickiness, if you’re still reading this series or thinking about picking up this book then I do suggest that you continue. I certainly will be. If nothing else it’s made me even more interested in finding out how far Chelsea Cain can go with the story. I am waiting to see what is to come and I long for that feeling, the one like nothing else in the world when I am hungry for more and deeply in love.

I am giving this: 
 
★★★.5
3.5 bloodshot eyeballs

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Hooked- Catherine Greenman

1




Pages: 276
Published: August 9th 2011 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Genre: Contemporary/ Young Adult fiction
Format: Hardback
Acquired: My own copy
Date Finished: 8th July

Synopsis:
 Thea Galehouse has always known how to take care of herself. With a flighty club-owner mom and a standoffish, recovering-alcoholic dad, Thea has made her own way in her hometown of New York, attending the prestigious and competitive Stuyvesant High School. But one chat with Will, a handsome and witty senior, and she's a goner—completely hooked on him and unable to concentrate on anything else.
Always worried that she loves Will more than he loves her, Thea is pleasantly surprised when their romance weathers his move to college and Will goes out of his way to involve her in his life. But then, Thea misses a period. And that starts Thea and Will on a wild ride that neither of them could have possibly prepared for. When they decide to keep the baby, their concerned parents chip in what they can to keep Will in school and give both teenagers a comfortable place to raise their child. But when a freak accident leaves Thea shaken and threatens to upend their little family altogether, Thea is forced to turn to the last place she would have chosen for comfort: her stiff, uncompromising father.
This smart, touching first novel brims with realistic, beautifully drawn characters, and reminds us that love is never as easy or predictable as we might like it to be.

Thoughts:
So a little while back the Misty - The Book Rat did a discussion topic on Buzz words and deal breakers and while I do believe I had a list ready to roll I never made the video. Needless to say Hooked [to use something totally cliché] had me hooked and it reeled me in with some of my favorite buzz words: Knitting, wool, crochet, teen pregnancy, dysfunctional family and love. Now while I loved those words and I admit I certainly was excited throughout the book every time she mentioned wool and babies; Hooked was not a perfect marriage from begging to end and here’s why.

To begin with there was a lot of inconsistencies in the story, parts where the writing made no sense and I felt were just there to be a filler for the real juice. At times the dialogue itself was confusing, sometimes I just had to read through it and hope that whatever she said would be relevant later on and some of it was, but a lot of the time it was unrealistic to what I know teenagers and even adults to talk like. Lastly Hooked has these characters that are so dense, maybe it is because the writing is meant to come across as simplistic, but to me it reads like a few of those contemporary books where the author sat down and just wrote a stream of consciousness ramble getting to know her characters before she fully fleshed them out and really began writing.

You’d think from those pointers alone that I would dislike the book, but actually I became addicted to reading it. It was so raw and real, the portrayal and the darkness that comes from pregnancy, especially teen pregnancy. It is not all happiness and cash flowing and I actually merited her for creating a family that while were rich did not indulge the main character. I think it made Thea, our main narrator a lot stronger in the end. Her parents are such self-absorbed tools, but it works because we get to see how Thea was raised and her parents influence. We also get to grow with her as her independence becomes stronger as does her passions to make the best life for her and her son.

It wasn’t only the teen pregnancy that had me reading till all hours of the morning though, but the dynamics of each relationship she has with her family and her bf throughout the novel and how those relationships change and progress. I felt this is where the real juice was. The honest to god real life where people struggle and things fall apart and then there is a turning point where you realize that you would do anything for this child and then you slowly start to grow up. I loved this aspect of the novel. She didn’t whine about it, she took everything on board, all the hatred and the disbelief and lack of faith everyone had in her and she turned it into success with her own mind and her perseverance and love for her child.

This novel broke my heart so many times and ripped it from my chest, there were so many moments when I thought I could not take it anymore and I was dying inside for Thea. My strong internal motherly instincts flared up and I wanted to gut Will for being so heartless and weak and for all the utter crap he put her through. He was not a very strong character and I certainly didn’t like him from the beginning but he sure as hell did a fantastic job in the novel in convincing me how strong minded women are and how proud we should be.

Along with will I hated, yes hated Thea’s mother with an anger so deep rooted I could have slapped her so hard it would knock her teeth out. She was a hypercritical, self-absorbed, self-important bitch. She was always complaining and fluctuating with her moods and to be honest she sounded like the type of mother who was not meant to have children. I could see why she could have driven anyone away.

My favorite character in the book was her father. Maybe it had something do with having that relationship with my own father throughout his sobering up, or maybe it was the way the two of them grew together over the course of the novel and what faith he truly had in his daughter even if he had a funny way of showing it. But I loved it.

I would recommend anyone to read it. Please give it a chance, I know there is a lot to dislike about the construction and execution of this novel, but the real gem is the story and the emotional impact is has. I could read it over again and I most likely will sometime in the future. But forewarning, if you are even the slightest bit crafty you may have the urge to start taking up crocheting or checking out wool stores.[ which is never a bad thing] This can get addictive. I would recommend this for all young adults as it is a perfect portrayal of real life and the implications, complications and triumphs that teen pregnancy can bring.

I am giving this:

★★★★.5

Crocheted Bikini bottoms