She’s shameless, that Savill is. No limits. No boundaries.

So in retaliation, I’m going there. I’m going to ring my own bell and promote my short story Thorn King, which, as some of you may be aware, has just been released as part of Cleis Press’ erotic fairy tale anthology A Princess Bound.

See what you made me do, Sheri? See? Post a dark erotica excerpt. How could you? (The Corvette’s in the post.)

THORN KING

Just what is this … thing, this creature?

There is no time to consider the question; my mind blanks to a sheet of white nothing as a blisteringly hot tongue begins lapping at the crimson trails smearing my leg. I groan, my head falling backwards like a heavy, dead weight. The feeling is … indescribable. Sublime. Completely foreign.

Arousing.

The idea that some strange being is tasting my blood – feeding on me – should fill me with horror. Yet, with each lick, blood rushes to my clit until it is so tight and swollen I feel as if it might burst. It’s almost as if the cut in my leg has become a soft, luscious cunt and the tip of his tongue a tiny, rapacious cock.

I stare at the umbrella of leaves above and see a heavily pregnant moon shining between the trees. It leers down, a sinister voyeur to this strange, twisted encounter. His tongue continues to stab relentlessly. To probe at my flesh until it feels as if it has invaded my body, that he’s slid inside me like a dark, dark river.

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following links to purchase a copy:

Amazon.com

• A Princess Bound: Naughty Fairy Tales for Women – paperback
• A Princess Bound: Naughty Fairy Tales for Women – Kindle

Amazon.co.uk

• A Princess Bound: Naughty Fairy Tales for Women – paperback
• A Princess Bound: Naughty Fairy Tales for Women – Kindle

Cleis Press

• A Princess Bound: Naughty Fairy Tales for Women – paperback 

Who else is joining in with this week’s Dungeon Crawl? Click on the banners below to find out.

The post Dungeon Crawl: Thorn King (A.K.A. shameless self-promotion) appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Make Me: Twelve Tales of Dark Desire

Image: courtesy of Cari Silverwood and Skye Warren.

It’s no secret that I am a huge (huge) fan of dark erotica, so I cannot shout loudly enough about Make Me, a brilliant collection of popular stories that’s been put together by some of the genre’s stand-out authors. C.J. Roberts, Annabel Joseph, Skye Warren, Cari Silverwood, Claire Thompson … the contributor list for this thing reads like a who’s who of the smut writing world.

You get twelve full-length novels for what you’d roughly pay for a single eBook (£1.85 if you’re in the U.K. or $3.58 if you’re in the U.S.) and the collection is comprised of titles that have already proven to be extremely popular with readers in their own right. Don’t believe me? Check out the ratings for the individual books on Amazon and Goodreads. Basically, you’re getting the good stuff. Non-con, dark smutty heaven.

The catch? This is a March-only deal so you need to download the Make Me collection (purchase links below) before the 31^st. Go forth and find your mind’s dark alleyway!

Amazon.co.uk

• Make Me – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Make Me – Kindle

Oh, Liana I love you!

Not a discount alert but a ‘new season’ alert. The folk over at Lascivious, who make seriously sexy lingerie, got in touch to let me know that their Spring/Summer collection for 2014 is now available. I’ve got a few things from Lascivious in my cupboard and the workmanship and design of their pieces really is outstanding – hence the reason they’re included on the Chintz ‘Retail Therapy’ list over there on the right-hand side. Not only that, they actually have things that suit those of the small-breasted persuasion, such as myself. (As evidenced by my recent Sinful Sunday image, I’m no Dolly Parton but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look sexy, dammit!) So it is with much covetous lust that I highlight this new creation of theirs, the Liana Long Suspender. *Sigh* Isn’t it beautiful?

 Image: courtesy of Lascivious.

MyStim Electrosex Lust Egg

Another item I’d like to get my sticky paws on – what a shocker! (Pun intended.) Given my growing interest in all things electrical (okay, may not all things – I have my limits (put that cattle prod down, M!)), this little egg was bound to catch my eye. It’s made of polished, medical aluminium, which means that in addition to providing little electrical vibes, it can be heated and cooled for temperature play. Bondara currently have the MyStim Electrosex Lust Egg down from £64.99 to £49.99 however you need to use it in conjunction with either the MyStim Pure Vibes Electrosex Tens Unit (£84.99) or the MyStim Tension Lover Electrosex Tens Unit (£114.99).

Food for thought if you’re a bit bored with standard vibrator sensations and want something a little different.

Have a great weekend everyone. And to all those attending Eroticon 2014: laugh lots, learn loads, be inspired, and enjoy the hell out of your smutty selves!

Jane
xxx

The post Freebies and Discounts: A Dark (Dark!) Erotica Smorgasbord, Luscious New Lascivious Creations, and Electrosex appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

*Please note that the below review does contain spoilers pertaining to books one and two in the Pierced Hearts series. You can find our previous reviews for Take Me, Break Me and Bind and Keep Me here and here.

MICHAEL’S TAKE

Title: Make Me Yours Evermore
Author: Cari Silverwood
Publisher: Cari Silverwood
ISBN: 9781311900234

Okay, in Take Me, Break Me, we meet Jodie and Klaus when she comes up with a money-making scheme: Have Klaus hold her captive for a month, film the whole thing, and release it to fame and fortune. In the end, things go a bit awry but they achieve a kind of working balance in their relationship.

Skip ahead a year and we get to Bind and Keep Me. When Jodie attends a wild party and dies, Klaus kills the man responsible. Only Jodie isn’t dead. And rather than either hope the police don’t figure out what happened or even try to explain what happened, Klaus comes up with a unique solution: kidnap the one witness who can expose his secret. And hold her captive for the rest of their lives. Perhaps not the greatest plan ever, but it has worked so far. Mostly.

Which brings us up to Make Me Yours Evermore. One of the mostly wrinkles is that Kat has figured out something weird is going on. We actually met Kat at the end of the TMBM. As a character, she was kind of annoying. The other characters thought so too. She still doesn’t know precisely what is going on, but she is going to find out. Only Chris, Klaus’ business partner, is determined to stop her. Because it turns out that Chris has always had a secret fantasy: To kidnap someone and hold her captive for the rest of their lives. And so to help out Klaus, Chris volunteers to do that to Kat.

Oh, and just for fun he brings along his groupie. Years ago, Chris saved Andreas from a shark attack. So anything Chris wants to do is okay by him. All I can say is I am glad that Chris wasn’t into unleashing global thermonuclear war. And actually, it turns out that Andreas has a secret fantasy as well. You guessed it? To hold a woman captive for the rest of her life. I am sensing a theme.

So, anyway, if you aren’t in love with Chris already, he also has a somewhat less-pleasant secret. For years, Chris has been doing the books for a criminal enterprise – something that apparently our boy Klaus didn’t even know about. And just what sort of criminal enterprise? Why, human trafficking, of course. And so his buddies have set him up with a place where he can unleash his Big Bad Dom Self and learn wayward little Kat who her True Master is. He is quite confident that within a month he can have her molded into the submissive little slave girl of his dreams.

Around this point I was thinking if this was an episode of an American TV show, Kat would manipulate Chris and Andreas into a jealous rage over who would possess her and end up stepping over their dead bodies as she walked off into the sunset at the end. Fortunately, though, while there is an element of that, Cari came up with something far more original.

I don’t really want to spoil the latter part because honestly I didn’t really see it coming. What I will say is that going into this sort of novel I am always curious about one thing: Can the captor actually “break” his victim and do it for me in a believable way? I found the ending believable but I think Chris may not have achieved the result he was looking for.

Because, really, at the end of the last novel there was one person who could be Klaus’ undoing. At the beginning of this one, we were up to two. Now we actually have five. All it will take is just one Charles Ramsey and a whole lot of people are going to jail.

This is one series where just when you think you have an idea where things are going, things head off on a tangent. I am very curious to see where we go next but, as I said at the end of Bind and Keep Me, I am making no predictions.

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following links to purchase a copy.

Amazon.co.uk

• Make Me Yours Evermore – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Make Me Yours Evermore – Kindle

*Please note that a copy of Make Me Yours Evermore was provided free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

The post Make Me Yours Evermore, Part Deux: The Michael Chronicles appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

At one point, Chris, a character in Make Me Yours Evermore, mentions brain bleach. By the end of the book, I was surreptitiously checking supermarket shelves for a bottle of the stuff.

Redemption? Remorse? Morality?

Phtt.

Love?

Wash your mouth out.

This book is about lust, desire, control and corruption. But, above all else, it’s about power. Held absolutely and resolutely over another human being. Consensual? No. But compelling and intoxicating, nonetheless.

I can’t recall a single time I’ve ‘enjoyed’ (not to be confused with ‘been impressed by’) a book featuring a core protagonist I was unable to like, empathise with, or warm to. But in this particular case, I did.

Chris is a sadist who’s been waiting for the perfect opportunity to cross the line. And he’s no paragon of virtue in other areas of his life, either. Andreas is a man with some naughty little fantasies who gets a taste of the forbidden and all too quickly strays from the path of righteousness. To my shame, I found myself coming to terms with these two men – one of whom was devoid of any redeeming qualities whatsoever and the other who, despite starting on slightly higher moral ground, very quickly succumbed to the allure of a body available to his every sexual whim. Why, you may ask, did I find these two men … acceptable (if that’s really the word) given my distaste for their actions? It’s simple, really. They were contrasted against a silo of darker, more infinitely abhorrent human beings. Well, that and they tapped into a Pandora’s Box of dark fantasies.

Being forced to submit.

Being humiliated.

Being made to crawl.

Surrendering yourself absolutely – whether you want to or not.

I should make very clear at this point there is a definite S/m thread running through Make Me Yours Evermore. However – and this is really important – I’d in no way class it as a BDSM book. It is not safe or sane. Nor is it risk aware or consensual. The best way I can describe it is as a darkly kinky head-screw that’s not afraid to dig around in the murkier parts of the human psyche and throw a bit of dirt. As with Take Me, Break Me and Bind and Keep Me, Make Me Yours Evermore takes the reader on an unapologetic journey to the dark side. What’s more, it coerces them into enjoying it. If you’re at all uncomfortable with letting your mind wander along darker paths in the name of erotic fantasy then this is – cue flashing warning lights, sirens, etc. – most definitely not the book for you. With each Pierced Hearts instalment, the stakes just seem to get higher and higher, the situations more edgy. And that’s saying something considering Take Me, Break Me kicked off with non-consensual play. Yep. Say ‘hello’ to organised crime, forced slavery, and human trafficking. David Cameron would no doubt – and please excuse the crudity – sh*t a brick if he read this.

Just in case it’s not clear from the rest of this review, the thought of any of the events in the Pierced Hearts series happening in real life flat out appals me. Kink without consent, murder, kidnapping; I am not for one nanosecond condoning any of these things outside of fiction. No way. But I’d be lying if I said the scenarios Cari Silverwood has dreamed up didn’t push my buttons in an erotic fantasy context. Despite my guilty feelings, I’ve been well and truly seduced by her dark little tales. Make Me Yours Evermore is no exception.  

Next time, though? I’d like the characters’ emotional connections to be more … pronounced. Extreme. Because while the plotting, scene-setting and sex were excellent – I’m still recovering from the encounter in the forest between Kat, Andreas and Chris – I found myself yearning for a cataclysmic, no-holds-barred, sexual and emotional kick in the guts to really hammer this story home and cement the characters. Truthfully, I’m still not entirely sure where they stand with one another.

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following links to purchase a copy:

Amazon.co.uk

• Make Me Yours Evermore – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Make Me Yours Evermore – Kindle

*Please note that a copy of Make Me Yours Evermore was provided free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

The post Make Me Yours Evermore – Cari Silverwood appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

Two words: still recovering. Bind and Keep Me is non-con BDSM erotica at its absolute best. If you like your tales dark, you’re not going to want to miss this one.

*You can click on any of the stick figure drawings below to make them bigger. Which many of you will likely need to do if your eyesight is as bad as mine and you can’t read the writing!

JANE’S TAKE

This book should come with a health warning:

Caution! Jaw may drop to floor and disconnect from face. The author assumes no responsibility for readers who spontaneously combust with arousal and/or spend days wondering whether their moral compass needs resetting as a result of reading (and enjoying) this book.

Leave your sanity at the door because there is absolutely no way that Bind and Keep Me can be put into either the Safe, Sane and Consensual (SSC) or Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) buckets. There is unsafe play in spades. There is insane play by the truckload. There is non-consent to the power of a hundred overlaid with the veneer of incredibly dubious consent. There is risk with a capital ‘R’. And there is kink. Oh, man is there kink.

But the scary thing is that it works. Almost too well. So well that you come out the other end of this book and think ‘I’m one twisted individual for enjoying that. And wanting more.’

A sadist who’s completely off the chain? Check.

Thoroughly illegal activity (murder-slash-manslaughter and abduction)? Check.

A ‘victim’ who has absolutely no say, no outs, no choice in what is done to her? Check, check, check.

Why is it that this book is so deliciously frightening? Because it feels so believable. You could actually imagine the scenario it describes happening. Cari Silverwood has taken everyday characters and situations and completely run them through the twisted kinky wringer to create something that is, pardon my language, a thoroughly arousing mind f*ck. (Let me assure you, you will never look at accountant in quite the same way.)

I was expecting a continuation of Klaus and Jodie’s story, which began in Take Me, Break Me. What I got was a tale that took me on a totally unexpected right-angle and went far deeper and darker than it’s predecessor. And as I read, I could not get out of my mind the following passage from that first book, the one in which Klaus truly begins to understand just how far his sadistic desires go:

‘My new epiphany turned creepy cold. Sharing hadn’t been last on the list, killing her and burying her on the beach had been it. Christ. Thank God, I wasn’t that man, but it made me wonder who I had become. I doubted I could change back.’

So just how far will his desires push him to take things in Bind and Keep Me?

To the limit, people. To the limit.

And what can I say about the ending? I’d have thought that Klaus would be a pretty hard act to follow but reading the Bind and Keep Me epilogue, it seems Ms Silverwood is going to crank things up even further with the next Pierced Hearts entry; Chris frightens the cr*p out of me – but oh, hell, do I want to read about him …

MICHAEL’S TAKE

I’ve decided to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible.

So after Jane and I read Take Me, Break Me a few months ago I learned that there was a second book in the Pierced Hearts series. At first I was confused but then I remembered that there were several possible supporting characters who could be featured in the next story.

So when Jane sent me the Bind and Keep Me review copy, I just picked it up and started reading. And found that it featured Jodie and Klaus. I was surprised, obviously, but decided to just go with it and see where we ended up.

And then … Boom! I didn’t see that coming.

What Cari had to do was tricky. Add a third character to the mix. Create someone who was likeable enough that we did care what happened to her. And yet at the same time make her unlikable enough that we didn’t get too upset at what she went through. I think she pretty much succeeded.

I am still trying to process the ending. Did I see it coming? I definitely saw it as a possibility earlier but had kind of eliminated that from the list by the time it happened. How do I feel about it? Honestly, I am still kind of unsure.

I gave Klaus a lot of leeway and the benefit of the doubt the first time around. Truth? He scares me more than a bit now. I am not sure where he is going to draw the line anymore.

Is there room for a third book? Actually, there is. I am not going to make any assumptions next time around, though.

*Please note that advance copies of Bind and Keep Me were supplied free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following links to purchase a copy.

Amazon.co.uk

• Bind and Keep Me – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Bind and Keep Me – Kindle

The post Bind and Keep Me – Cari Silverwood appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

Confessions Collection Vol. 1 was one of those books that took me a bit longer to read than usual because I had a hard time figuring out what was going on at first.

London Brown, Caden Jacob Carrington the Fifth, Rhys Christos Edward Stowell, and Desniah Williams. From an outsider perspective, these are four of the youngest and most powerful people in British society. But the insider perspective is very different.

When Desniah is discovered as little girl, she can only say one word: London. Eventually, she’s adopted, but at the age of nine, something happens that turns her world upside down yet again.

The main thing I didn’t understand was the relationship between Desniah and London. I didn’t think they actually had one. I thought London was just the name that Desniah used when she was working as a call girl. But that isn’t true at all. Desniah and London are two entirely separate people. London is aware of everything that happens to them both but Desniah is not. In many ways, London does look out for her ‘other’ personality – but not in all ways.

London has a strong self-preservation instinct and she’ll act to defend herself when she feels threatened. And the person who most scares her is Rhys.

Both Rhys and Caden are firmly attracted to Desniah.

Caden is willing to accept London as a substitute. Rhys is not.

Desniah is attracted to Rhys and repelled by Caden but thinks she has a future with neither.

If there is a good way out of this, I don’t yet see what it is.

Very cerebral. I liked it, but wasn’t particularly engaged by the play scenes.

Tickle your fancy? You can buy Confessions Collection Vol. 1 by clicking on the following links:

Smashwords

• Confessions Collection Vol. 1 (London Brown) – epub, PDF, RTF, LRF

Amazon.co.uk

• Confessions Collection Vol. 1 (London Brown) - Kindle

Amazon.com

• Confessions Collection Vol. 1 (London Brown) - Kindle

Editor’s note: Confessions Collection Vol. 1 (London Brown) is an erotica – and a dark one at that – but it isn’t a ménage despite the number of protagonists. Those who are sensitive to reading about scenes of abuse should proceed with caution.

This book was provided free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

The post Confessions Collection Vol. 1 (London Brown) – Leila DeSint appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

I’m not even sure how to begin describing this book, except to say that it is brutal. You pick it up, you’re entering a warzone – both literally and figuratively.

It’s the 80s and the Cold War is still in full swing. The Russians are in Afghanistan. The Brits are there, too. Unofficially. An August night in Kabul and an SAS solider is raped by a member of the Red Army. This single violent and awful act sets in motion a story of revenge, friendship and love between two men that spans, in this particular instalment of Voinov’s Special Forces saga, nearly a decade.

Special Forces: Soldiers came to my attention through the BDSM Buddy Read feature on Goodreads. From the comments of those who had already started it, I knew it was going to be full-on but I have to admit I was totally unprepared for the level of intensity I encountered. Just a few pages in and I was at once shocked, appalled, and totally hooked, as evidenced by my Soldiers Buddy Read ‘in progress’ status update:

‘Holy sh*t! On page 28 and jaw is already on the ground. Totally shocking (easily the most intense thing I’ve read this year) but very, very well written. *Takes deep breath and dives back in*’

There is so much going on in this book that it’s virtually impossible to sort through all my thoughts and assemble them in a way that makes any sort of sense – not least because Special Forces: Soldiers clocks in at a whopping 650 pages and spans such a lengthy period of time. When you boil it right down, however, this is a book about anger, denial, lust, respect, understanding and, eventually, love between two men who have everything against them.

I wanted to hate Vadim for what he did to Dan – and I managed to at first. But then a whole lot of stuff happened that completely screwed with my head and dislodged me from a position I thought I would hold resolutely. Basically, I was outflanked by Aleksandr Voinov’s clever writing and characterisation. From the minute you start reading Soldiers you’re under siege and the outcomes of your various turbulent engagements with both Vadim and Dan aren’t always easy to call.

Interestingly, even though this book was part of the BDSM Buddy Read feature, I’m not sure that I would classify it as a BDSM tale in the traditional sense. While there is undoubtedly a power exchange dynamic going on between Dan and Vadim – and certainly elements of edge play (knives in particular) – the context is never formal. To me, Soldiers is more an exploration of how these two tough, independent men relate to one another – and it just so happens that the way they do includes elements of D/s and S/M.

Remarkably, this mammoth story is free to download from Aleksandr Voinov’s website. Yes, you heard me correctly. Six-hundred-plus pages of military man-on-man love for nary a bean. But I really need to say this loudly and clearly: Special Forces: Soldiers is absolutely not for those of a squeamish disposition. It features an explicit rape, torture scenes and graphic, graphic instances of violence (some sexual) and warfare that some readers may find disturbing. The counterbalance is that the writing is outstanding (although keep in mind this is a self-published work and there are some punctuation issues, typos, etc.).

I dare you not to be crossing everything for Dan and Vadim by the end of this book – and rushing off to read the next instalment in the Special Forces series. This is an m/m love story that will knock your socks off.

Tickle your fancy? Click here to obtain a copy of Special Forces: Soldiers from Aleksandr Voinov’s website.

The post Special Forces: Soldiers (Director’s Cut) – Aleksandr Voinov appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Image: Power of Words by Antonio Litterio

Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a certain gentleman who writes seriously fabulous book reviews. Honest, insightful and, without fail, interesting. He’s been my writing feedback stalwart and is also one of the mods for my favourite Goodreads group, BDSM. (No doubt, a few of you will have met him already.)

Somehow, despite looking after over 2,000 of us kinksters on Goodreads, me pestering him for critiques, and holding down a full-time job, I’ve managed to twist Michael’s arm into doing some reviews for Chintz – and I’m so pleased, because I really think he’s going to give you some wonderful insights into various books from the BDSM-erotica genre and, hopefully, help you determine which ones you’d like to read.

So look out for his name on future book reviews, and salutations, Michael. I’m delighted to have you!

The post Introducing Michael appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

dark
adjective
1. with little or no light
2. (of a colour or object) not reflecting much light; approaching black in shade
3. (of a period or situation) characterised by great unhappiness or unpleasantness
4. hidden from knowledge; mysterious

noun
1. (the dark) the absence of light in a place
2. a dark colour or shade, especially in a painting

I have picked through the above definitions numerous times, trying to decide which one best reflects C.J, Roberts’ Seduced in the Dark, but it’s virtually impossible, because they all apply. It is a story with the barest glimmer of light visible at the end of a long, dark tunnel. A story with a plot that borders on pitch black. A story with characters and situations that twist your stomach. A story that, perversely, arouses you and mere seconds later makes you want to weep. A story of secrets. And, yes, I realise that the title refers to the noun form of the word ‘dark’ but the adjective is equally relevant, equally valid, when describing the fabric of this book. Similarly, I cannot help but pick apart the meaning of the title word ‘seduce’ and ponder its relationship to the story: ‘to attract someone to a belief or course of action that is inadvisable or foolhardy’. Because who is ultimately seduced in and by this murky tale? The characters, the reader, or both?

I need to say up-front that it is virtually impossible to review Seduced in the Dark without introducing some spoilers because its plot is so closely tied to part one of the Dark Duet series, Captive in the Dark (which I reviewed back in July). I will do my best to keep them to a minimum but if you’re spoiler-averse, I suggest you look away now. Further, Seduced in the Dark – and therefore this review – will likely make no sense if you’ve not yet heard of, started, or finished Captive. It cannot be read in isolation. As C.J. Roberts herself says in her ‘note to the reader’ at the very beginning of Seduced:

‘If you’re reading this and you haven’t read Captive in the Dark, turn back! You’ll be lost.’

I had high hopes for Seduced in the Dark – its predecessor was gritty, engaging, unsettlingly sexy, and very well written. Even better, it was a self-published work and I have a bit of a thing for authors who 1) have the courage to go it alone, and 2) have the talent and skill to turn out a great piece of writing without any professional hand-holding. Kudos.

So did Seduced live up to my expectations? Absolutely.

I love the way C.J. Roberts structured this book. She could very easily have made it a straight-forward continuation of Captive in the Dark, neatly stitching the first page of Seduced to the last page of Captive – but she resolutely resisted the temptation to be boring and predictable. Instead, from the very first sentence, the reader is presented with a patchwork puzzle of information that alludes to the direction the story will take, yet leaves huge, tantalising holes of knowledge that they’re unable to immediately fill. They’re in the dark, just as the characters of Seduced are. They can see there’s hope, but it’s a mere pinprick of light that’s at risk of being snuffed out in an instant.

It’s Livvie who draws us back into the story, and her situation is unexpected to say the least. When we last saw her in Captive, she was possessed by Caleb in every sense of the word – emotionally, physically, as a chattel. But most importantly, she was trying to come to terms with her feelings for him and the fate he had planned for her – sexual slavery at the hands of a man he intended to kill – and her devastation that Caleb would sacrifice her as a utilitarian pawn in a game of revenge.

On page one of Seduced, Caleb is still causing Livvie pain. But the source and method of her hurt is very different. It is Caleb’s absence rather than his presence, the separation of her fate from his original intent, that now has her hung, quartered and drawn.

‘Vivisected. It’s the only word I can think of to describe how I’m feeling – vivisected. As though someone has cut me open with a scalpel, the pain not sinking in until the flesh begins to separate and my blood bubbles out. I can hear the crack as my ribs are flayed open. Slowly, my organs, wet and sticky, are pulled out of me one at a time. Still. Alive.
.
.
.
I want to leave this place. There’s nothing wrong with me. If Caleb were here, I’d walk right out of this place, happy, smiling and complete. But he’s gone. And they won’t let me grieve for him in peace.’

What has happened? How has Livvie, Kitten, become separated from her captor, her Master? Was she sold? Has she escaped? Was she sent to Pakistan? Is Caleb dead?

In the initial chapter, which is broken into non-sequential days, C.J. Roberts feeds the reader the edge pieces of a much larger puzzle and we learn that Livvie is in the psych ward of a hospital in a very precarious mental state. Even more worryingly, she is being questioned by members of the FBI and facing multiple criminal charges, including assault against federal border patrol officers, possession of a weapon, resisting arrest, and felony murder. Clearly, she is back in the U.S. and no longer in Mexico but how did she get there? Why is she not being treated as a victim of human trafficking but, instead, as a criminal? And where the hell is Caleb?!

C.J. Roberts doesn’t give it away easily. Over the course of the book, she colours in the blanks, slowly revealing what has happened between the end of Captive and the beginning of Seduced as Livvie unwillingly recounts her experiences to the members of the FBI assigned to her case, the aggressive Agent Reed and the quietly perceptive Dr Sloan. Cleverly, she frustrates both them and the reader, revealing partial truths and giving selective accounts, forcing those listening to her tale to knit together the threads of her ordeal and discover what she – and Caleb – have gone through since we last saw them. Least you be worried that Caleb is completely hidden from view, don’t panic. He is still very much a part of the story, his third person presence peppered between Livvie’s first person narrative, providing support and cadence to the tale being told – and revealing his inevitable crumbling in the face of his past, his future and his feelings for Livvie.

I have asked myself many, many times why I empathise and, yes, actually like Caleb. He is everything I should abhor: a human trafficker, a murder. But there is something in him that just barely stops him falling into the category of irredeemable villan. Does he hurt Livvie? Yes, physically and mentally. Is he a good person? Not really. He’s certainly no candidate for sainthood. I can only boil it down to one thing – that his life, over which he’s had virtually no control, has dictated who he is. He was made. As he himself says:

‘I wasn’t born a monster’

Watching Caleb in Seduced in the Dark was close to painful and he affected me far more than any other character, because, in the end, I saw him as the victim. Seeing him dismantle himself, emotional stone by emotional stone, and eventually confront a ghastly truth (a truth I actually suspected at the end of book one) left me feeling very raw. But his erosion, the torture of his character, never felt gratuitous. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it was necessary and a big reason why the book’s conclusion works – both in terms of plausibility and from a moral point of view.

Partway through the novel, Livvie says the following of Caleb:

‘In the dark, he seduced me. I didn’t want the seduction to end.’

Livvie’s acknowledgement is undoubtedly valid but the truth is that it’s actually her who seduces him. She who shines light on the man dwelling in the shadows and makes him consider the infinite blackness around him.

I’m not going to talk about the more major secondary characters in Seduced in the Dark – Dr Sloan, Agent Reed, and Caleb’s acquaintance Rafiq – because I think that it’s important their respective roles in the story are discovered by the reader. I will say, however, that I was intrigued by the byplay between the two FBI agents and I get the sense that Roberts, while concluding Caleb and Kitten’s story with Captive in the Dark, has left the door wide open for a tale involving the two of them.

There is a song I adore by Placebo, Running up that hill, a wonderful cover of an original Kate Bush track. It’s not cheerful. It’s not flowery. The lyrics are painful. It’s about hurt and dark places. And it seduces me every time time I hear it. Seduced in the Dark is its literary equivalent and I loved it.

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following links to buy Seduced in the Dark: Amazon.co.uk (Kindle ; Paperback), Amazon.com (Kindle ; Paperback).

The post Seduced in the Dark – C.J. Roberts appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

I’m pretty bombproof when it comes to subject matter – there’s not a lot that can shock me – but if I’m going to tackle something harrowing, the balance has to be absolutely perfect: the writing has to be solid, the story clever, the characters worth the emotional investment. So having read the synopsis for this book on Amazon and come face-to-face with the pretty blunt warning about its content (‘This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence’), I wondered how I would get on with Captive in the Dark and what I might be letting myself in for.

An amazing book, as it turned it. I am not exaggerating when I say C.J. Roberts – who wrote and published Captive in the Dark herself – had me in the palm of her hand from the prologue. Lately, it’s been a bit of a struggle to find BDSM erotica books that stand out from the crowd and have something truly unique about them (one power exchange plot can start to feel very much like another) but Captive had me absolutely glued. To the point that I couldn’t even put it down to do the dishes – and let me tell you, scrubbing a dirty pot one-handed is hard. I devoured the entire book in a day, that’s how good it was, and then immediately visited C.J. Roberts’s website to find out when Volume 2, Seduced in the Dark, was due. (As you’ve probably guessed from the title, Captive in the Dark is part of a series.)

The premise is a challenging one. The book’s prologue introduces us to Caleb, who is, for all intents and purposes, stalking eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz (Livvie), a poor high school student living in a not-so-savoury part of Los Angeles. Caleb is a slave trainer – a man who teaches girls to become pleasure slaves for the gratification of wealthy men – and he plans to kidnap Olivia, smuggle her out of the United States, train her, and sell her at auction in Pakistan. Olivia’s sale has a purpose other than money, though; it will help him instigate a revenge plot against a man named Vladek Rostrovich – a shady Russian whose past is inextricably tied to Caleb’s.

When the book begins in earnest, we learn that Olivia’s abduction has taken place and, unbeknownst to her, she is en route to Mexico. Her kidnapping is traumatic enough in and of itself, but her arrival over the border is when her nightmare really begins. It signals the start of a dark psychological battle between her and her captor, Caleb, who is absolutely determined to break Olivia down to her core in order to create the perfect, saleable, sex slave. Olivia is equally determined to fight and resist him – even if it means bringing the full force of Caleb raining down upon her. And when I say force, I really do mean it. (‘I like to hurt you Kitten…it’s what gets me off.’)

For all intents and purposes, this is a story about human trafficking but C.J. Roberts doesn’t make it anywhere near that simple for the reader. Against all odds, she manages to grab hold of this incredibly emotive and difficult subject and turn it into something dark, edgy and powerful. The key to her success? Well, in my opinion it’s largely to do with her amazing and brilliant characterisation of Caleb. As I read the prologue, I wondered how on earth she was going to redeem this man – a human being who is single-minded in his focus, and almost (almost) completely remorseless about what he is doing.

‘There was only one obstacle between him and vengeance. The last true test of his soullessness – wilfully stripping someone of their freedom.
         He’d trained so many he no longer remembered their names. He could train this one too …’

And the short answer is that she doesn’t. At least, not in the way that you expect her to. Caleb is absolutely a product of abuse and the criminal underworld he’s a part of – sadistic, cruel and unforgiving – and Roberts doesn’t give into the temptation to give him a hearts and flowers makeover to make things easier on the reader. Not even when Olivia’s thoughts and emotions start to become tangled towards him. What she does do, however, is let us to glimpse where Caleb has come from and in doing so, helps us understand why he behaves the way he does. Despite wanting to hate him, I began to find myself torn in my feelings towards Caleb and, heaven forbid, seeing him as being deserving of sympathy. He is the ultimate anti-hero.

In heaping praise on the characterisation of Caleb, I can’t fault that of Olivia either. Given the bleak nightmare she is thrust into, she has your empathy from the very beginning but as the novel progresses, she also gains your respect. She is fundamentally powerless against Caleb but that doesn’t stop her from trying to escape the horror she finds herself in. She has grit, but she also has a sense of self-preservation.

Interestingly, Captive in the Dark is told in both the third person and first person, with Caleb’s thoughts and actions being observed and Olivia’s coming directly from her. Reflecting on it, this was a smart choice on the author’s part because it allows the reader to experience the full impact of the trauma and abuse that falls upon Olivia (‘I was my pain and nothing else. No thoughts, no emotions, only a body screaming to be released’) and to examine Caleb’s rationale for the way he behaves at a slight distance – almost in the same way that he examines himself. This becomes more and more important as the book progresses and he tries to understand his increasingly complex feelings towards his captive (‘He wondered, not for the first time, what the fuck he was thinking. He knew this was the last thing he should be doing, inviting her into his space’). When the tenuous thread of humanity that’s present in him emerges, it is all the more believable because we’ve been able to see what has led to its appearance. Ultimately, the reader becomes as confused as Olivia is about Caleb; he stands as a dark, yet steady beacon within the even darker world Olivia has been dragged kicking and screaming into. Is she suffering from Stockholm syndrome? Is the reader, for that matter?

If I had to pick on one thing to improve Captive, it would be the editing. As with a most self-published books, it could have been a little tighter. There were some punctuation errors and some minor typos but, really, for an indie title, the standard was pretty good.

Captive in the Dark won’t be for everyone. It is gritty, twisted, and goes places some readers will be uncomfortable with. However, if you are open-minded and enjoy the psychological dynamics of power-exchange (in this case, not quite consensual and with a heavy dose of sadism) I think you’ll devour this book. I can’t say it’s an ‘enjoyable read’ – the subject matter doesn’t allow it to be – but it is undeniably erotic and disturbing in equal measure and I cannot wait for the second instalment to be released in September.

Read it. I dare you.

Captive in the Dark: The Dark Duet (Volume 1) is available from: Amazon.co.uk (Kindle ; paperback), Amazon.com (Kindle ; paperback).

The post Captive in the Dark: The Dark Duet (Volume 1) – C.J. Roberts appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.