The Last Girl by Kitty Thomas

 

Kitty Thomas' writing style appears to be pretty straightforward and minimalistic when you first begin reading her stories, but she can really pack an emotional punch. Comfort Food haunted me for days, my thoughts going to the psychology of submission way more times in a day than can be considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. By looking at a relationship that begins as non-consent and turns into consent, it sheds a whole new light on a relationship that begins consensually and gradually gets edgier and edgier. What I'm going around the bush to try to say is that her writing makes you think.

The Last Girl is another non-consent story, and with the addition of a vampire who has powers a mere mortal man does not, the story has some extra twists and turns.

Here is the blurb:

Six years ago strangers broke into Juliette’s house; she was home alone and only thirteen. She kept her eyes closed, praying that if she didn’t see anything, she wouldn’t be killed. No one harmed her. In fact, one of the thieves protected her. Now Juliette’s dreams are haunted by him.

Christian has waited to take her, resisting the urge each night. It always ends badly with human pets. They’re too fragile. The longer he can wait, the better, because the moment he takes her, the clock on her life starts ticking down.

Then she’ll be gone forever.

I both liked and disliked Christian, which I'm pretty sure is how I was supposed to feel. He is a monster and he makes no apologies for it. He is honest though, even when it isn't convenient to be, and I always respect that in a person.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 3 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: He is certainly sadistic, and she has some masochistic tendencies, but not on the level of his sadism. 2 of 3 
• Extra Point: I've gone back and forth on this one. It is an extreme book, and the D/s play is a major factor throughout. However, it is not consensual, and in my mind BDSM by definition is consensual. But, if I don't give it then that puts the intensity level at an 8, and it's more intense than that. So, yes.

As for the writing elements, the plot is exceptional and has an unexpected and satisfying ending, something I had no idea was possible throughout most of the book. Pacing was fine, prose and dialogue were well written, character development was exceptionally well done, and world-building was detailed and interesting.

The Last Girl is a 10 of 10 for me, and the heat level a 4 of 5.

• Book Rating: The Last Girl: 10 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 9 of 10
• Heat Level: 4 of 5

One final note, the author has her own warning about not condoning "behavior done to another human being without their consent". I'll add my two cents to that and say non-consent can be hot in a fiction book (or in role play with your husband), but it has no place in real life.


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The Surrender of Persephone by Selena Kitt

 

The Surrender of Persephone is one of those books you should not judge by the cover.  The evil looking guy on top is not the idea I got from the Hero at all, and I have no idea what the red bomb in the jail cell is supposed to symbolize.

However, while the cover isn't working for me, the story (and the storytelling) worked for me in a myriad of ways.

The blurb makes it look like it's more of a non-consent than it actually is. While he certainly doesn't play fair when getting her consent, she does have the final say in whether she loses her virginity or not. I appreciated that.

Here's the blurb:

Sheltered Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never gets to do anything— thanks to the suffocating love of her mother, Demeter. Sephie is being carefully groomed to follow in the footsteps of the two “virgin” goddesses, Athena and Artemis, and while they sure do have a lot of fun together, she longs for something deeper—and darker. When Aidon, the God of the Underworld—generally known as Hades—appears in his chariot to claim Persephone for his bride, the young goddess gets more than she wished for.

Held captive in the Underworld, she suddenly longs to return to the safety and security of her mother’s protection, but the dark and commanding Aidon binds her to him, claiming her bit by glorious bit as his own. Her coming of age is one of sexual awakening as she learns the bondage her new master imposes fulfills her darkest desires. Persephone finds herself submitting to and obeying Aidon’s command and discovers being taken and consumed in the heat of passion by a man—a god—is what she was truly made for. Persephone can’t deny her own nature, or her growing feelings for Aidon, as she submits to his domination and surrenders as his wife and prepares to rule as his Queen.

As she finally admits her own feelings, Persephone faces the looming specter of her history, which threatens to shatter the newly formed bonds between the couple. She must now face not only her past, but her present, and her future—no longer only the Goddess of Spring, but also as the wife of Aidon and Queen of the Underworld—and the choices she will be forced to make will change the world forever.

 I ended up skimming over the sex scene with Athena and Artemis, as it was mostly vanilla lesbian playing around, and vanilla doesn't do anything for me. It was still well written, just not my thing. Once Aiden comes into the picture I skimmed through nothing.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 2 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: 2 of 3. 
• Extra Point: Yes

As for the writing elements:

• The plot was wonderful.
• Pacing was fine.
• Prose and Dialogue were skillfully woven together.
• Character development was exceptionally well done.
• World-building was detailed and imaginative and I loved it.

I enjoy many of Selena Kitt's BDSM books, and I think The Surrender of Persephone is one of the best she's written. It's got a big strong all-powerful Dom who is fair and kind as well as tyrannical and sadistic. And his bride ends up being pretty much perfect for him. They are a perfect match.

• Book Rating: The Surrender of Persephone: 10 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 8 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5

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The Auction by Kitty Thomas

 

The Auction is set on another planet, far in the future. Humans have seeded this planet, and the species that lives there allows them one city in which to live. If they leave the city, the monsters kill them.

Human females are auctioned off when they turn 18. We are shown that it's not such a different idea than the dowries of old, the main difference being the money goes into the city's coffers. Most girls have someone buy them and set them free, a family member or boyfriend. Some are bought for the purpose of being owned, but society tries to ignore that when it happens. I liked the build up, the thought processes that went into building this society, this world.

Here is the blurb:

Belle Walker lives in a strict society where women are treated as property, sold to the highest bidder soon after their eighteenth birthday. But the auction isn’t the only danger. Though she’s never seen them, she knows monsters live outside the city. These creatures have allowed the humans a small area to inhabit with the promise to leave them in peace as long as they never cross the boundary. On the day Belle is sold, one of the monsters breaks that promise and enters the city, intent on having her as his own.

Kitty Thomas, as a general rule, focuses more on the psychology behind slavery and submission than she focuses on the physical. Tender Mercies was the exception, where she gave us a lot more description of the physical acts. But with The Auction, she gives just enough for our imaginations to take hold and finish the picture in our own way. I appreciate that, I really do, but sometimes I could do with a little more description.


BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 2 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: 1 of 3
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements:

• The plot was predictable but that was okay, I enjoyed the process of getting there.
• Pacing was fine
• Prose and dialogue are always very well done when Kitty Thomas is writing.
• Character development was superb
• World-building went above and beyond for such a short story, describing not only the physical aspects but the general rules of society.

I've gone back and forth on a rating and I'm settling on a 9 of 10.

• Book Rating:The Auction: 9 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 6 of 10
• Heat Level: 3 of 5

I recommend The Auction even if you aren't normally a sci-fi fan. Sometimes, taking us to another world allows an author to give us non-consensuality in a way that is hot without pushing our squick buttons. It's far enough from our reality to allow our inner conscience to keep quiet, and close enough to our fantasies to allow our libido to enjoy it. Kitty Thomas has once again done an excellent job of giving us a non-consensual relationship that ends up working for both people, and letting us travel along the thought processes from beginning to end.

Out of the Woods by Syd McGinley

 

I read Out of the Woods because most of the time I adore the writing of Syd McGinley. Parts of the story worked for me, but parts did not. At all.

I like the world and would enjoy learning more about it. I liked the characters. I liked most of the setup and plot(s). But the story moved too slow for me, and I didn't quite appreciate where the story ended. Not a huge cliff hanger, but a big enough one that it bugged me.

Here's the blurb:

Wild boy Tarin is determined not to be captured by the men who live in the decaying Before Times buildings on the other side of Tarin’s woodland home, but he’s just as determined to protect the younger boys in the woods.

No one remembers being a child or knows where all the women have gone or how society crumbled, but for as long as they can remember, boys have lived in the woods and are hunted by the men each Fall. Some boys believe in a mysterious Lady who protects them, while others think the men are magic. Tarin knows better – he’s met a man, and escaped by stabbing him.

Hunted through the woods as he tries to protect the weaker Cory, Tarin is trapped and claimed by the very man he knifed. All Tarin wants is to stay in the woods and not have to get ‘civilized,’ but he’s carried off into a different world of rules and discipline. Will he be able to survive now that he is Out of the Woods?

I am intrigued enough that I will probably read the next book. Maybe.

I find myself having a hard time grading this one on BDSM elements because it isn't BDSM. The "boys" are 18 and 19 year old wild boys who have lived in the woods and survived as best they can since about 10 or 11, and who don't remember anything before that age. The "boys" are captured by the men and then civilized and trained and expected to please their men in all ways. There are boys claimed by the officers and then there are boys are who community property who can't refuse anyone.  I'll talk abut each element, but I'm having a hard time putting a number on them.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Discipline, for the most part, is scary and not tittilating. Bondage is more of being caught and not being able to escape, not so much being bound.
• Dominance and Submission: Some of the boys do seem to be naturally submissive, but Tarin is not.
• Sadism and Masochism: No.

As for the writing elements plot pacing prose dialogue character development world-building

• Book Rating: Out of the Woods : 7 of 10
• Heat Level:  2 of 5

 

The Emperor’s Wolf by J. C. Owens

 

The Emperor’s Wolf starts out with a man in slavery to a woman he is pretty much disgusted by. But years of painful training have taught him to accept her touch, and to kneel before her, and to avert his eyes so she won't see the hatred in them. We thankfully don't see much interaction between these two, and we just get the barest of details to let us know why he is acquiescing to her, and how he went from being a solder to being favorite harem slave.

And then, well, the blurb does a good job of explaining what comes next:

The echoes of a war four years' past still resounds in the minds of those who endured it. Jaden longs to search for his sister, though he is bound in the fetters of slavery. When he is given to the very man who conquered his country, he is caught up in his own hatred, yet fascinated by the mystery of his new master, the Emperor of Tranaden, who all say is demonic, without mercy. Trapped in the snare of his master’s beauty, Jaden begins to realize that there is much more beneath the surface...

Dersai is Emperor to his fingertips, he is used to command and being obeyed. He will sacrifice anything to see his country safe. Beneath, he is well read, highly intelligent and far sighted in how he views others. Yet, Dersai has an inner demon, a demon that kept his kingdom free and safe from conquerors; only in his dreams can he imagine one strong enough to love him. Now his slave may be the only one who can set him free.

Let me be clear that this is not BDSM. It is a slave who is sold and traded and bartered for. And then later, there are elements of fantasy, and the D/s aspects all fade into the background and go away.

I enjoyed the fantasy elements, and I enjoyed a few of the scenes.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline:3 of 3, though it is only for a short period of time
• Dominance and Submission: 2 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism:0 of 3
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements, the plot was nice, pacing had some issues, prose and dialogue were fine, character development was very well done, and world-building was creative and detailed.

• Book Rating:The Emperor’s Wolf : 7 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level:5 of 10
• Heat Level: 2 of 5

 

Summer School: A Ponygirl Novel by Jurgen von Stuka

 

Summer School is a non-consensual tale of girls being forced into pony play. Actually, the term "pony play" isn't quite right here, because this is quite serious, with no playing around. The girls are eventually made into something as close to ponies as a human body can be taken. (Probably a lot farther than you're thinking.) There are also human cows and human piggies, once you get into the story.

Some non-BDSM parts of the story bothered me:

• The author tried to show that this could be an economic venture, and tried to explain how the "missing" girls could be explained. I agree you could possibly explain some missing girls in this manner, but once there are dozens of girls who go away to school and then never go home again... for families with fifteen thousand dollars to blow on summer camp, they are going to be able to hire private detectives and lawyers, too.
• The description of some of the gadgets was too much for me. A description of a complicated mouth gag took pages and pages to describe the gag and then to show how it was installed. Some of the gadgets were well thought out and ingenious, but there were times that the story stopped too long for the descriptions.
• The author lost track of the kind of bondage her victims were in a few times. Someone in a full hood that blocked sound was able to hear her tormentor speak, but then a few paragraphs later could not hear other sounds that would have been louder than a voice.

 Here's the blurb:

Desperately wanting to get away from home for the summer, Dori Hammond, talks her father into sending her to a summer riding school. However, she quickly learns that this is not a traditional riding school, and its unusual training methods are cause for alarm. However, having signed the required contract, she and the other students are obliged to submit to a rigorous training regimen. Unbeknownst to them, they’ll be methodically transformed into human ponies. Headmistress Wright and Headmaster Boswick employ mechanical horses, strict restraint, suspensions, impalement, and the resources of the farm's deepest cellars. Their female students quickly learn what a horse's life is really like and that misconduct will lead to severe punishment. Riding, as the girls discover, is more than taking a pony around the ring. As Head Master Boswick says, "You can't learn to ride until you've been ridden."

Though the girls may resist the humiliating treatment, they often experience an overwhelming sexual satisfaction in the pleasure and pain they are forced to suffer.

Not all the students are at the school voluntarily. Many are spoiled and unruly young women sent there by their wealthy parents. One unlucky German girl, Lucy, is kidnapped on an overnight train and sent to the school, the abduction arranged for by her Dutch boyfriend.

Dori and her fellow students are subjected to discipline and training from both the male and female staff. For those who resist, there is the dairy barn where the girls are turned into human cows. And for those incorrigible young females who fail in equine training and in the dairy barn, there is the lowly squalor of the Hog Farm, where they are good for nothing but sexual sport. For Dori and the others, it becomes clear long before the end of the story that their lives will be transformed forever, in ways they never imagined.

In addition to details scenes of human pony training, the inventive story includes graphic descriptions of elaborate pony costumes, unique extreme bondage and suspension, gags, cuffs, collars, chains, dildos, steel restraints, elaborate bondage devices, electrical stimulation, milking, piercing, surgical body modification and straight and lesbian sex. Strong BDSM content.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Yes. Both taken to the extreme. Some of the bondage could easily be fatal if done as described with no one left to observe. This is fantasy BDSM, complete with floggers that tear bits of skin off and send it flying through the air. 3 of 3.
• Dominance and Submission: Again, taken to the extreme, and the submission is not consensual. 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: There are certainly sadists who run the school. And some of the girls seem to be trained into masochism.  3 of 3.
• Extra Point: The story is based around a sadistic pony girl school, it's safe to say it gets the extra point.

Obviously, the Intensity Level is a  10 of 10, but I'm not sure what to do with the Heat Level. The first part of the book was a 5 of 5, but the latter part went over the top to the extent that it wasn't hot anymore. More scary than hot. And, with the believability and continuity issues I talked about above, that also interfered with the heat level a bit. I think giving it a 3 of 5 is about right, with the understanding that there are parts of it that do hit the 5 of 5, especially if you're into the whole pony thing.

• Book Rating: Summer School: 6 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 10 of 10
• Heat Level: 3 of 5

As for the writing elements: There isn't really a plot. The book is a description of what happens to a number of people who end up at this school. One person is followed more closely than the others, and we see how far she is taken into being a pony instead of a human.  But it's the physical aspects we see, not really the psychological aspects.

Pacing has some issues. Prose and dialogue were well done. There wasn't very much character building, just descriptions of what was happening to the various characters.

As I said, prose and dialogue were well done, and the voice was easy to follow. If you enjoy pony girl activities, and if the non-consent stuff isn't a turn off for you, then you'll probably enjoy Summer School.   
 

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Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas

 

The types of BDSM books out there are much more numerous than most people understand. One of those types has to do with the capture fantasy, the idea of being captured and then trained into servitude. Trained so well in servitude, taken care of in such a way that you can never be on your own again. So much that you never want to be on your own again. It's the comfort of childhood, of being taken care of... all wrapped up in a sexual fantasy. I've read a number of these types of books -- some of them manage to get you there, most of them don't. I don't want to tell you whether Comfort Food gets you there or not, because I think that would be giving too much away. I will simply say that Comfort Food is a deeply disturbing book -- one I couldn't put down, and one I highly recommend if you enjoy the psychology behind being owned by someone, the psychology of what it takes to get you from independent personality to someone who is completely and totally owned - physically, mentally, emotionally.

Here's the blurb:

Emily Vargas has been taken captive. As part of his conditioning methods, her captor refuses to speak to her, knowing how much she craves human contact. He's far too beautiful to be a monster. Combined with his lack of violence toward her, this has her walking a fine line at the edge of sanity. Told in the first person from Emily's perspective, Comfort Food explores what happens when all expectations of pleasure and pain are turned upside down, as whips become comfort and chicken soup becomes punishment.

The sex in Comfort Food is touched upon, and a few scenes are given in detail.. or at least semi-detail, but the sex is not the focus of the book. The psychology of what is happening is the focus. So the BDSM Breakdown looks like this:

• Bondage and Discipline: There is discipline, but it's not what you'd expect. As the blurb says, chicken soup becomes punishment. There is bondage of a sort, she's locked into a cell, but she can move around and dance. She is tied up, restrained, later in the book, but it's not a big part of the book.
• Dominance and Submission: Tons of it. The book is about how to train (or brainwash) someone into being a submissive.. more than a submissive, someone who is totally owned and is accepting of her ownership.
• Sadism and Masochism: Yes, eventually, but we don't see much of it. A few paragraphs.

The author gives the disclaimer that "This is a work of fiction, and the author does not endorse or condone any behavior done to another human being without their consent", along with a few other words that let you know she's exploring this through fiction, and she has no real desires to see this acted out in reality.

As for the story elements: the plot is genius and very believable. The pacing is perfect. Prose and dialogue are natural, both worked for me. The book is written in first person and it confused me at first when the first sex scene was written in third person, until I realized that it was showing us how she was disassociating herself from it. Character development is exceptionally well done.

Heat Level: 2 of 5
Book Rating: Comfort Food: 10 of 10

Please remember that my Heat Level ratings are in comparison to Erotica in general. Someone who has never read anything more risqué than Sookie Stackhouse's sexual adventures will think Comfort Food a 5 of 5, but someone who is well versed in Erotica will understand why this book gets a 2 of 5 from me, I think. And, really, I think most who read Comfort Food will be well versed in the language of Erotica.

Comfort Food is an exceptional debut novel, and I will be looking for more books from Kitty Thomas.

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