Title:

The angst! Oh, the angst!

At Any Turn should seriously consider a brand partnership with a pharma company manufacturing Captopril (“Free bottle with every copy!”) given the elevated blood pressure levels people are likely to experience when reading it. My daughter recently discovered a cartoon series on Netflix, appropriately titled Total Drama, and I’m pretty sure that this book is a more grown-up version of it, all rolled into a convenient, three-hundred-and-sixty-seven page package. I swear, if you’d hooked me up to a pressure cuff or stuck a finger on my pulse while I was reading this thing, you would have rushed me to the nearest A&E.

At Any Turn picks up where At Any Price left off (spoilers ahoy-hoy for those who haven’t read the first book in the Gaming the System series); videogame millionaire, Adam Drake, and gamer-girl blogger Mia Strong are attempting to explore a post-virginity-auction relationship. Adam is working on controlling his workaholic tendencies and Mia is anxiously waiting to find out if she’s managed to get into med school. Given that the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ drama of book one, I thought that At Any Turn might follow a slightly smoother plot trajectory. You know, give readers a bit of time off for good behaviour.

No. No, no, no, no, nooooo.

Unlike At Any Price, which was narrated by Mia, Adam takes the reins in this one, and I can only say that, emotionally, he is like a light switch at the mercy of toddler – turned on and off repeatedly until you think you’re in an 80s discothèque. One minute he wants to stay in a relationship with Mia. The next, he’s totally over the whole thing or playing silly games with her emotions.

I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t.

Fuck it. Fuck her. I pulled my eyes away and never looked at her again.

“When can I see you again?”

“April says you’re taken and I as pretty sure that you were single. So which is it?”

… in spite of the warning bells at the back of my head, I decided to milk it a little.

“I am currently unattached.”

 I was willing to concede, finally. I was willing to put this in her hands.

 I was starting to hate the fact that I was still so hung up on her. Maybe it was just time to walk away from this mess?

“… we are done. Forever.”

… it was time she knew she was mine. “I love you,” I said hoarsely as she turned the knob.

You get the idea. (Quick ‘thank you’ to Katniss for standing in for Mia and Ken for Adam. Although I do apologise for the fact that Mia’s hair colour remains the same throughout. The Children’s Toy Box Production Company didn’t have a suitable Barbie replacement.)

In all fairness, Mia, bless her, certainly doesn’t make things easy on old Adam. Granted, her character is going through some pretty heavy stuff but crying all night into a self-help book: what does every single relationship councillor on the planet tell couples going through rocky patches? That’s right, they use the ‘C’ word. No, no that one, this one:

COMMUNICATION.

I do like a book that builds tension but, to me, it felt like that there was a lot of drama for drama’s sake and it all could have been resolved much sooner with a simple conversation between the protagonists. Ultimately, that would have made me like them both a lot more than I ended up doing – and not left me with the overpowering urge to hit both of them over the head with an Xbox controller.

As to the gaming aspects touched on in the story: if you read my review of At Any Price you’ll know that I was originally attracted to the book because of its inclusion of game development in the plotline. As someone who used to work in the videogame industry, I was intrigued as to how Brenna was going to weave the rather unglamorous life of game dev. into the storyline.

While most of the story was believable, two things stuck out for me – the hidden quest in Adam’s online game, Dragon Epoch, and the paintball match against rival developer Blizzard (who actually exist in real life).

Now, according to the book, Adam is the only one who knows exactly what the hidden quest is – which in the real world is highly unlikely because implementing any sort of gameplay isn’t just the work of a single coder. Even simple mechanics require concept artists, modellers, riggers, animators, lighters, a sound team. Then you’ve got the problem of inserting something into existing software. Nine times out of ten, something will break when you do this. Okay, maybe I’m being a little melodramatic, but the bottom line is changing code is (really) risky. That’s why new stuff, after it’s been made by a raft of people, is always always put through its paces by a group of testers before it’s released to the general public. And why the entire studio will take turns shooting you with a Nerf Gun if you ask for a change in the days prior to publishing/manufacture approval.

I know this from personal experience.

As to the paintball game; the only people who usually get shot at these kind of videogame studio corporate get-togethers are the executive and senior producers. And ‘friendly fire’ is a relative term: arm a dev. team with paintball guns after three months of twelve-hour days and eating Domino’s pizza night after night, there’s going to be anarchy.

Reading this review back, I think I sound a little harsh. That actually wasn’t my intention. Brenna is an excellent writer and At Any Turn is a fine example of self-publishing; the copy is wonderfully clean and the story hangs together well. However, I would be lying if I said that the constant on-again-of-again plotline didn’t wind me up and leave me feeling exhausted. I just hope that the third Gaming the System book dials back on the deliberate miscommunication. I don’t think my blood pressure can handle another round of Adam and Mia sabotaging their relationship at any and every turn.

*Please note that a copy of At Any Turn was provided by the author free of charge in exchange for a fair review.

**REVIEW UPDATE: Brenna (who, I might add, has been an excellent sport about the Barbies) has confirmed that Adam alone is not responsible for the secret Dragon Epoch. Misunderstanding of the text on my part. So you can consider that portion of my review A Very (Very) Brief Overview of Videogame development.

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

Amazon.com

• At Any Turn – Kindle

Amazon.co.uk

• At Any Turn – Kindle

Kobo

• At Any Turn – ePub

The post At Any Turn – Brenna Aubrey (Gaming the System) appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

[Cue voice of Brian Butterfield] …

CARI SILVERWOOD’S NEW EROTIC ROMANCE PARODY, SQUIRM! 

Every erotic romance you’ve ever read over the past two years rolled into one handy novella. Horny virgin? Check. Fifty shades of Charlie Hunnam? Check. An enormous penis – I mean tentacle – that just won’t stop poking? Check.

Cue interview …

JANE: Does eau de biker have a two-stroke top note and can I buy it from Selfridges or John Lewis?

CARI: I hope you appreciate how much Googling I had to do for this – I’d heard of Selfridges though. To let the US and rest-of-the-world readers in on this, think Target and Walmart with a smidge more class.

I think two-stroke would be a wonderful way to describe this sought after perfume. Although the exact ingredients are a closely held secret by all motorcycle clubs, there’s definitely a base of petrol/gasoline along with the other obvious ingredients like beer, grease, and pizza leftovers.

I doubt you can buy it at Selfridges/Walmart due to the price being the blood of an untamed virgin … or the kiss of one. My inner voice just yelled at me that blood is too icky for a humorous story about a tentacle monster ravaging a virgin. Let’s stick with kiss.

JANE: As you know, women like their erotica light and flowery, because – let’s face it – as a gender, we’re all about puppies and kittens. That said, I see Squirm really pushes the boat out with regard to naughty, sexy language. Do you feel that you’re breaking down barriers by referring to Virginia Chase’s lady garden as a ‘downstairs department’ and how heavily were you influenced by the ground breaking work of E.L. James and Anastasia’s ‘down there’ area?

CARI: Oh my. Do other women have a downstairs department? Wow.

I’m not sure if I’m breaking anything except hymens in this story. Crap. Apparently that was crass, too. Pardon me.

In all seriousness, I don’t think there are very many erotic parodies out there. Hens’ teeth are a little more common. So in that way, I’m breaking new ground. I was taking a bit of a risk with Squirm. Although I can parry and riposte smart-ass witticisms on Facebook now and then, when the wind is coming from the right direction, I had no real reason to think I could do a whole funny book. I should probably get a medal for this.

I think the genre needs a bit of fun thrown in to counterbalance the enormous load of sheer passionate emotions erupting from the pages of most romances. There’s so much crazy. The lust. The passion! The devastation from almost dying due to the grief of breaking up with a boyfriend, and the weeping and the screams of Noooooooo when he leaves the toilet seat up. People just plain throwing their arms in the air, dancing, and being freaking crazy in LOVE.

Bikers, billionaires, rock stars, assassins, bunny rabbits, werewolves, vampires! Rock-hard cocks that come and go all night, only to then get used to beat up the ninjas springing through the window. All that.

I think I lost track of what I was talking about somewhere up above, but the world will tip off its axis if we don’t laugh a little.

With regards to the terms I used to refer to lady bits, I’ve probably set erotic fiction back by a decade.

Karl did say cunt, too, though. Does that count?

Excuse me while I quickly flash read that E.L. James work referred to above.

Whips, chains, an inner goddess, and a stalker. Lucky girl.

I was vaguely influenced by that other book. My lawyer told me to say that. *shifts on seat* Moving on?

JANE: Would you call Virginia size-ist?

CARI: She does like big schlongs, doesn’t she? Yes. She’s size-ist. Poor Jace was probably a perfectly good lay, even if he was easy, and only a measly nine inches.

JANE: Let’s talk influences. Bikers, billionaires and sea monsters – a natural venn diagram if ever there was one. In fact, I’m incredibly surprised that no one has thought to combine them in a story before. Danger, money and multiple appendages; it’s every woman’s fantasy come to life. To what extent did you base your characters on Byker Grove [if you click on this link, try not to fall over with laughter when you see that users who 'liked' this series also 'liked' Sons of Anarchy – the two have about as much in common as a bicycle tire and a cock ring], Wall Street and Paul the Psychic Octopus?

Not one bit. I based it on all the information that flows through my head daily. There’s a lot of stuff in there and though most of it is totally useless, sometimes I can make sense of it all. It’s not like that monkey pounding the typewriter keys analogy though. Mine is more like a shaken snow globe method. If it’s pretty and sparkles, it goes into the Word .doc.

I had a whole bunch of Beta readers from the Badass Brats street team for this and all they did was nod and cheer. Talk about monkeys. I’d sack them but they work for peanuts and bananas. And I love them.

My lawyer said to put that, too.

P.S. I’m so glad my tentacle, biker, billionaire fantasies tee up with yours. Multiple appendages is such a clever way to describe it and almost sounds acceptable to normal society. I’m writing that one down for my next tea party.

“Why yes, Janice, do have a cucumber sandwich. And when is your next appointment for a multiple appendage sex orgy?”

JANE: Lastly, let’s talk about Cari, the writer. How has Squirm challenged you and where do you feel it sits within your dark erotica oeuvre?

CARI: It was a rollercoaster ride. I’d been stewing on writing a parody for a year possibly – ever since I caught sight of the zillionaire vampire cowboy book. And then the Booty Call for Cthulhu hit me. Shucks.

I wouldn’t say it was a challenge as much as a surprise. I didn’t know I could do this. But it was easy to write and so much fun. I tried to get Sorcha Black to join in and she ran away screaming – despite an earlier promise to help write one of these.

Where does it sit within my dark erotica oeuvre? Gah. My fingers fell off retyping that last word.

It doesn’t. If it’s there at all Squirm is sitting fidgeting and looking sideways at the exit. This is a silly, short, monster sex book that pokes fun at everything I could get think of that fitted the plot. Admittedly some of the ideas were bunged in with a sledgehammer.

I’ve been told I’m an ADD author and this parody is a prime example of my wandering attention. It doesn’t even have to be shiny to attract me, just wriggly and able to be used in various orifices. Oh look! World’s biggest gummy worm!

Joking. I think.

From the cover:

A parody of everything great and weird in erotic romance that could be stuffed into one book without it exploding. 

For some girls, one tentacle isn’t enough. 

Having a bad day isn’t good but when Virginia Chaste has a bad day, she gets felt up by a tentacle monster. If it simply has to happen, let it at least be a billionaire and a hot biker. 

Virginity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and her search for the Holy Grail of Erotic Romance, the ten inch purple-headed schlong, may have finally borne fruit. 

Yeehaw! Playing hide the tentacle has never been so much fun. 

Ready for some tentacle love? Click on the following links to purchase a copy:

Amazon.co.uk

• Squirm – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Squirm – Kindle

Smashwords

• Squirm – ePub

*A big thank you to the delightful Cari for agreeing to step behind the curtain and subject herself to my ridiculous questions.

The post Squirm: Cari Silverwood talks inches, virgins, billionaires and tentacles appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title: 

Quiet.

That’s the word that springs to mind when I reflect upon Sorcha Black’s first solo novel, Ein. It seems like an unusual adjective to apply to an ‘erotic’ fantasy – I can’t recall a time I’ve ever thought of describing a story from this genre in such a way – but against all odds given the content (torture, sadomasochism, non-con), it just seems to fit. And this lack of literal ‘noise’ in Ein is in no way negative. Far from it. As a writer, it takes some serious, serious skill to wield a club weighed down with a heavy storyline and stop yourself from beating readers over the proverbial head with it. 

If I’m going to read fantasy, I generally prefer the urban kind. It’s not that I have a rubbish imagination, rather that I tend to enjoy those books that have some sort of link to my own reality. There’s a level of grittiness to a novel that’s only a few steps removed from real life that I just don’t seem to be able to find in one that’s infested with plagues of elves and goblins. Creatures that breathe fire and have hairy feet don’t really get my engine going. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is about my limit.

So is Ein an urban fantasy, then? Well, no. Somehow, it manages to sit smack bang in the middle of an erotic fantasy no-man’s (or should I say ‘no dragon’s’) land. And that’s a place that I’ve not visited before. It’s as if Sorcha Black’s gone a hundred metres towards Graceling, hung a left up the hill towards Comfort Food, crossed the bridge towards Robin Hood’s house, and finally pitched the Ein tent on a patch of land about a mile down the road from all three. Perhaps the reason the story feels so relatable is the mediaeval undercurrent that seems to flow gently through the world that the author has created.

The mold-breaking doesn’t end there, either. Einan, our heroine (Ein for short) isn’t, despite the hellish ordeals she goes through, a damsel dishrag in need of rescuing.

Halle-bloody-lujah.

The girl has a backbone of pure steel and is able to compartmentalise the sacrifices she makes with her body for the sake of her children in a way that we rarely see. She loves her man (and her woman) fiercely but her relationships don’t define her personality or her well of inner strength. Even when they’re not there, she survives and endures.

The BDSM content is intriguing, to say the least. There are clear markers for the modern D/s lifestyle – such as Ein’s simple and beloved rope collar – however, as with her characterisation, Sorcha doesn’t go for the obvious. This is definitely not the standard male Dom, female sub story. I won’t say any more than that to avoid introducing spoilers but even if switching and F/F are not normally your bag Ein is still worth your time; the characters’ relationships are twined together so beautifully that I’m pretty certain you won’t find the time to get hung up on who is topping and who is bottoming.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I wrapped the word ‘erotic’ in the first paragraph in quotation marks. That’s not unintentional. Even though Ein does have erotic elements (capture fantasy, D/s, polyamory) I would tentatively suggest that if sits closer to the dragonless fantasy genre than traditional erotica. Why? Because the Gutrian/Cedesian tapestry into which Ein’s love stories are woven is just too colourful and rich to ignore and, to my mind, supersedes the sexual content.

A wonderful, albeit intense, read and the perfect book to drag me out of the erotic romance cookie cutter funk I’ve been drowning in lately.

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

Amazon.co.uk

• Ein – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Ein – Kindle

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

The post Ein (The Dustmother Trilogy) – Sorcha Black appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

The original version of Safeword: Rainbow was published back in 2010. At the end of 2013, however, author, Candace Blevins, released a revised and updated version of the book. Michael read the first iteration and gave it four stars on Goodreads; has this new, extended edition answered some of his original questions (Tyler always worried him a little) or simply made him more curious about his relationship with Viv?

MICHAEL

Let me tell you a quick fairy tale to start things off.

Once upon a time, in the Magical Land of New Hampshire, a dark and secretive Master named James finds the slave girl he’s been searching for. James and Katrina spend a weekend exploring the limits of passion and desire and pain. And in the end, James vanishes into the night. And they never see each other again.

Well, not exactly. Let’s skip ahead a few years.

Viv’s father is home in Miami, rehabilitating following a heart attack. Her brother has been looking after him but she wants to be involved, too. And then her brother’s old friend, Tyler, arrives. And things take an interesting turn.

You see, Tyler sometimes uses the name James. And Viv has been known to use another name in certain … situations. And now they are together. For Tyler, this is everything he could have ever dreamed of. He has been reunited with the submissive he’s been searching for – the one he can finally make his own. And mould into his perfect slave.

There’s just one teeny tiny problem.

You see, Katrina wasn’t real. She looked real and felt real. She did as she was told and obeyed pretty much without question. But she wasn’t real.

Viv isn’t just a slave. She’s an academic and a researcher. She’s an expert on the world’s oceans. She is out to save the planet. And she can’t really do these things kneeling at her Master’s feet, serving his every whim and desire.

So our question comes: Can Tyler learn to scale back his fantasies to a reasonable level? Can Viv figure out a way to balance the person she wants to be with the possession she desires to be? And just as important: is there a place they can figure these things out together?

This version of Safeword: Rainbow is a revised version of the original. More material, more copy editing, and a more cohesive story. But … I still don’t feel quite like the story is over. Especially based on the new last chapter. While Tyler doesn’t necessarily cross the boundaries between real life and fantasy, he edges dangerously close in my opinion. And it likely wouldn’t take very much to send him right over.

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

Amazon.co.uk 

• Safeword: Rainbow (2013 Extended Edition) – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Safeword: Rainbow (2013 Extended Edition) – Kindle

* Please note that a copy of Safeword: Rainbow (2013 Extended Edition) was provided free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

The post Safeword: Rainbow (2013 Extended Edition) – Candace Blevins appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to work in the videogame industry. I won’t go into detail, but suffice to say, when At Any Price (Gaming the System) came to my attention earlier in the week via a link in this post by Skye Warren, I was immediately intrigued. My mind began to whir. Was the heroine going to get ‘serviced’ next to the servers? Would the hero decide to ‘review her build’ during the daily Scrum meeting? In my experience, game dev. is a whole load of (stressful) fun, but calling it sexy would be … a stretch, to say the least. Unless you count listening to hundreds of emote .wav files to make sure they don’t sound unintentionally orgasmic, getting shot (repeatedly) with Nerf guns when you tell the dev. team they need to fix a bug the night before manufacturer submission, asking the rigger to make a character’s boobs smaller, and informing the lead artist that the creature he’s spent the last few days concepting needs to look ‘less penis-like’.

However, it turns out that the videogame backdrop for At Any Price (the first in a series of three books by author Brenna Aubrey) is more peripheral than integral, despite the references to patches, servers and avatars. It’s true that Adam, the hero, can code like a god (apparently, he’s the Zeus of C++) but it’s his addiction to his mobile and laptop, rather than his association with MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing) game development, that ultimately define him in Ms Aubrey’s story.

It all starts with an online auction. Gamer girl and blogger, Mia Strong, from whose point-of-view At Any Price is told, is strapped for cash; her mother is recovering from cancer and, thanks to a bunch of medical bills, about to lose her house. Mia herself is struggling to foot her college tuition. What’s a girl to do? Well, if you’re her, you decide, in a rather Catarina Migliorini-meets-Belle de Jour move, to wave your middle finger at the social stigmas surrounding prostitution and sell your virginity online.

 I’ve decided to decry the crimes and impositions put upon my sisters since the beginning of time until now. And I offer, therefore, a new paradigm. One where a woman can sell her purity and enjoy the fruits thereof.

I’m not spoiling the story by revealing that Adam Drake, CEO of Draco Multimedia Entertainment, is the guy who wins the right to deflower Mia. But despite a raft of contractual clauses pertaining to said deflowering, things go a bit … awry.

Hands up, I was more than a little worried that our leading man might turn out to be yet another carbon copy of the dreadful Christian Grey (beware the millionaire with the contract), but, thankfully, he managed to dodge the Fifty Shades of Gaming bullet. So how best to describe Mr Drake, then? What sort of man pays three-quarters-of-a-million for some skin and blood? At the risk of revealing myself as a complete geek, one who is Alpha in both the traditional (me Tarzan, you Jane) and gaming (fully functional but his assets need work) senses of the word.

Mia? She, too, is very much a work in progress – not without her bugs and, like Adam, in possession of an emotional and social codebase that needs a whole lot of finishing.

At Any Price raises some interesting and difficult questions. If you sell yourself for money, just the once, are you a prostitute? Will society continue, as it has done for hundreds of years, to see prostitution in the negative and malign those who engage in it? Independent Institute research fellow, Wendy McElroy’s words seem particularly appropriate in this instance:

“Prostitution is not merely an exchange of sexual favors; it is a financial exchange. At this point, individualist feminists rise to defend the free market as well as a woman’s self-ownership. This is expressed by the question: ‘Prostitution is a combination of sex and the free market. Which one are you against?’”

Of course, I couldn’t help but jokingly accuse a bunch of ex-colleagues of writing At Any Price under a pen name, which lead to some hilarious back-and-forth about whether the hero performed at ‘a consistent 60fps per second’, if he ‘qualified as a Class A’ (for the non-nerds amongst you, that’s the worst type of bug you can get during development and, generally means that no one is getting any sleep for the foreseeable future) and this extremely witty parody from a good friend of mine who is married to an Executive Producer:

“As his fingers pumped the buttons of the controller her thoughts turned to what else those dexterous digits could do… the washing up, putting that picture on the wall that’s been lying around for 6 months, clearing out the garage. #reallifeofagamerswife”

Sexually speaking, At Any Price is relatively tame. But the story is more than interesting enough to carry things along. Some readers may find the coitus interruptus aspect a bit frustrating, but the good news is that although this book is the first of three about Mia and Adam, there’s no make-you-want-to-tear-your-hair-out cliff-hanger.

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

Amazon.co.uk

• At Any Price (Gaming the System) – Kindle
• At Any Price (Gaming the System) – Paperback

Amazon.com

• At Any Price (Gaming the System) – Kindle
• At Any Price (Gaming the System) – Paperback

*Apologies for the lack of stick figures in this one, troops. My black ink pen has run dry and I’ve yet to buy a new one!

The post At Any Price (Gaming the System) – Brenna Aubrey appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Title:

A huge apology to Sadey Quinn, Bad Girl Good’s author, who has been waiting super-patiently for me to post our review of this book. As many of you may be aware from my Tumbleweed post, things are slightly chaotic behind the florals at the moment and I’m rather behind on, well, pretty much everything. Hmm. Maybe I need Todd, Bad Girl Good’s male protagonist, to keep me in line…?

MICHAEL’S TAKE

Bad Girl Good is a Domestic Discipline novel. When Chloe breaks one of her boyfriend’s rules, Todd gets to spank her.

Bad Girl Good is a Total Power Exchange novel. Chloe has given control of her life to her Dom, Todd, and he disciplines her when she violates any of his dictates.

Which one of those is accurate? I am still not entirely sure.

I have to say my favourite moment was when Todd spanked Chloe after she left the house and went home. She was drunk but he didn’t just punish her for that. She was stoned but he didn’t just punish her for that. He punished her because he thought she should have and discussed things before she left. In other words, he didn’t approve of her decision-making while she was drunk and stoned. That still makes me laugh.

Personally, I thought Todd was a bit of a jerk. But Chloe liked him and I felt like she needed him. The question really came down to whether Todd loved Chloe more or loved the idea of fixing Chloe more. And did it really matter.

JANE’S TAKE

I don’t normally talk about book covers in my reviews, despite the fact that I tend to be quite swayed by them (yeah, I know you’re not supposed to judge the text by the façade but I’m quite a visual person and often can’t help myself). However, I think Bad Girl Good’s one deserves a mention. It’s sexy. Very, very sexy and – thank God! – there’s not a piece of jewellery, men’s accessory, or a piece of fruit in sight. (Apparently, nothing says ‘sex’ these days like an inanimate object. Yes, Penguin marketing department I am looking at you.)

Right, on to the book itself.

To me, Bad Girl Good is a domestic discipline (DD) novel, although I agree with Michael: it does stray close to TPE at times and I, too, wasn’t sure whether Todd’s hot button was mending the girl or the girl herself.

Let me put it this way: Coldplay’s Fix You could be the theme song to this book – and I’m not entirely sure how comfortable I am with that (no offence to Chris Martin).

Did Chloe need Todd? Yes, I think so. Did she need the discipline he could give her? Probably – and she enjoyed it. (The punishment scene with the clothespins? Hot.) But did Todd need to treat her like a naughty toddler rather than a grown up? In my opinion, no, and, as a result, the way he talked down to her rubbed on me a little.

Bad Girl Good is well written and I suspect that fans of DD are going to love it. For me? As someone who has a marked preference for more clear-cut D/s scenarios and storylines? Well, let’s just say that Sadey’s Spanktastic, which I reviewed a while back (and adored), continues to be my favourite of hers.

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

Amazon.co.uk

• Bad Girl Good – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Bad Girl Good –Kindle

*Please note that a copy of Bad Girl Good was supplied free of charge by the author in exchange for a fair review.

The post Bad Girl Good – Sadey Quinn 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:

If you recall, Michael reviewed Leila’s Confessions Collection Vol.1 back in February and was left wondering just what was going to happen in the next instalment …

‘Two men. One a politician on the verge of greatness and the other a philanthropist on the cusp of corruption, each own a piece of me.’

This is a short review but this latest instalment in the Confessions series really isn’t that long.

I’ll admit that this is one of those books that took me some time to get started with but, after that, I was genuinely pulled back into the story.

The positive thing for me is that Desniah seems to be gaining more control over her life. London only plays the smallest part and Desniah makes a massive decision at the end – or at least I hope she did.

Caden makes a huge step forward as he finally realises the truth that has been staring him in the face for long.

Rhys I have nothing good to say about. Trying to create a total power exchange relationship with someone who isn’t totally enthusiastic about it is wrong. Telling someone that you intend to complete their hard limits list is also wrong.

Going in I probably liked Rhys more than Caden. I’ve changed my mind at this point.

*Please note that a copy of Bond Confessions (London Brown) Volume 2, Novella 1 was provided 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

• Bond Confessions (London Brown) Volume 2, Novella 1 – Kindle

Amazon.com

• Bond Confessions (London Brown) Volume 2, Novella 1 – Kindle

Smashwords

• Bond Confessions (London Brown) Volume 2, Novella 1 – ePub

The post Bond Confessions (London Brown) Volume 2, Novella 1 – Leila DeSint appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

What we used: standard riding crop
From: Jack’s Floggers
Material(s): leather, glass fibre
Price: £12.00
Reviewer(s): Lizzie & Thomas

A crop is a crop is a crop. Or is it? Find out what Lizzie and Thomas think of their newest purchase from U.K.-based Jack’s Floggers.

First thoughts

Lizzie
So, can I just say that my eyes were going all over the place when I saw Jack’s line up of truly beautiful implements at LAM (the London Alternative Market), which is where Thomas and I bought this lovely, lovely riding crop a month or two back. The quality of Jack’s products was abundantly clear but, not only that, they were all, without exception, incredibly stylish. This crop stood out to me, first and foremost, because of the colour – I’m a sucker for red – but as soon as I picked it up, I thought ‘ooh!’. Our current Bondage Boutique crop, the one we reviewed a while back, is now a little worse for wear and, lately, we’ve noticed the keeper has started to part company with the shaft.

Thomas
Like Lizzie, I noticed straight away that this crop of Jack’s looked and felt far superior to our current one. And although they’re both about the same length overall (approximately 27.5 inches from end to end) the leather strop/keeper on his design is much longer (7.0 inches at the attachment point as opposed to 4.5).

Construction

Lizzie
I’ll say it again. This is an absolutely stunning crop and the quality of the craftsmanship is evident everywhere you look: the beautiful braided handle in gloss red leather; the black braided handle butts; the slim, tapered shaft; the soft leather keeper embossed with the Jack’s Floggers logo. Everything on it is neat and tidy, the finishing impeccable, and, basically, it’s just really well made. This isn’t an instrument that’s going to fall to pieces on you in a hurry.

Thomas
This crop is far whippier than our old one (I gave Lizzie a few experimental whacks before buying it and the difference was immediately evident) and it’s definitely better put together as well. The leather keeper is more securely attached to the shaft and the shaft material itself, which is glass fibre, is superior, too. I like that the handle is braided as the uneven surface helps with grip. Overall, the finish is very, very good.

In use

Lizzie
I love the crop. It’s become one of my favourite toy bag items. The threat and tease of it as it’s run or tapped over my body prior to or during a session; the sting of the tip and shaft when it’s applied to my bottom and thighs with force. The ‘smacking’ sound the keeper creates when it hits the skin, too, never fails to send a little thrill of fright through me.

Thomas and I liked our last crop a lot but, wow. It pales in comparison to this one. For starters, Jack’s creation has far (far) more bite than the Bondage Boutique version. The slim, stiff shaft really smarts when it hits and the split keeper seems to give far more sting to the wielder’s flicks and swings. Thomas had to strike relatively firmly to generate bruises with our previous crop. This one? Well, I had some truly spectacular purple keeper-shaped marks on my bottom for far less effort on his part.

If you’re someone who enjoys stingy sensations, this crop is a slice of heaven … and maybe just a little bit of exquisite masochistic hell, too :-).

Thomas
Jack’s crop is far more aggressive than our last one. The shaft is slimmer and stiffer, and the leather strop is softer and longer. This all combines for a lot more whip and a lot more snap in the end – and so a lot more sting. Lizzie wriggles about far more than usual when I use this crop, which tells me I have her undivided attention.

Any downsides?

Lizzie
None that I can think of. Although I would say that the slightly longer-than-we-were-used-to keeper dimensions caught us out a little; Thomas mis-judged a relatively firm hit by a fraction of an inch and ended up catching me between the legs before he intended to do so (he normally warms me up a bit more before going for that spot). I can tell you categorically that a firm swat with this on the clitoris will make you jump about like nobody’s business!

Thomas
As Lizzie mentioned, the only issue with this crop was that I made the schoolboy error of not practising enough with it beforehand and assuming if would behave the same way as our old one. The lesson? Always put a new toy through its paces, even if the overall style is familiar, so that you get the reach right. This one caught me out because I placed it fractionally further into the buttock than I should have (although I don’t think Lizzie minded too much ;-).) If you are used to a crop with a short, unsplit keeper, you will need to be extra careful with your aim until you get used to it.

The verdict?

Lizzie
A superb riding crop that is amazingly priced, beautifully made, and a joy to be on the receiving end of. If you like sting with style, this is £12.00 you won’t regret parting with.

Thomas
A very nice crop nice to hold and use and very effective (especially when applied to the clitoris!).

In summary

Things we liked:

• The finishing. Truly beautiful.
• The design. Sting city!
• The price. At £12.00 this is a total bargain.
• Being able to try before we bought. Jack (and his stall) were fab. But he also offers a great online service, with worldwide shipping, if you can’t make it to the London Alternative Market.

Things we weren’t so keen on:

• Nothing!

Tickle your fancy? Click on the following link to visit the Jack’s Floggers website. (You will need to navigate to the Canes, Crops and Paddles etc. page.)

• Jack’s Floggers

*LAM (the London Alternative Market) runs the first Sunday of every month. Entry is £4 per person. Full details here.

The post The cream of the crop appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

MICHAEL’S TAKE

I guess it was sort of inevitable if we did this long enough.

A lot of people are comparing this to Captive in the Dark. I can see why. And I can certainly make the case for comparing them. A young woman is kidnapped. Mexico. International human trafficking. An anti-hero with a troubled past. But there comes a point when this has to sink or swim on its own merits. That is where Jane and I disagree.

Probably the biggest difference is Marco. He is a little hard to describe. He’s a monster, right? The evil human trafficker who forces his captives to do his bidding to further his criminal empire. Simple. Only at least some of his slaves delight in serving him, happy that he rescued them from a life of poverty and despair. In fact, at least one is desperately in love with him. And he could have killed our young heroine right at the beginning instead of taking her into his home. And he certainly could have taken her anal virginity … because … well, the reason he didn’t I didn’t quite get. In fact, I found that entire subplot a little odd.

Douglas. Colin Douglas. That doesn’t actually appear in the novel and Colin never got assigned a designation starting with a couple of zeros but the whole MI-6 thing was an interesting choice. But it was such a minor issue that aside from adding some unintended humour it didn’t make much difference.

Angela’s character was obviously inspired by Natalee Holloway. In fact, when Jane suggested this book, I deliberately just started reading without knowing anything about it. So I had no idea what was about to happen although perhaps I should have seen it.

Ultimately it came down to whether I liked Angela and Colin. And I did. They weren’t Livvie and Caleb but they had their own strengths and weaknesses. I was really hoping things would work out for them. And they did – although not without a few twists right up the very end.

I’m sorry this didn’t measure up for Jane but there is always next time.

JANE’S TAKE

I live in the U.K. Granted, I wasn’t born here but I’ve spent the last decade of my life residing and working in Britain and, over time, have become reasonably familiar with all the dialects therein. Although I will never get the hang of Cockney rhyming slang (the first time someone asked me if I ‘fancied a butchers’ I had all sorts of bizarre images going through my head – we were going to some sort of butcher appreciation event? Some sort of sausage festival? Seemed a rather unlikely turn of events given the nature of the conference call we were having …). My point is that I have a semi-reasonable handle on regional accents these days.

I’ve worked with a few Scotsmen. One of my neighbours is from Edinburgh. And I can tell you right now that NONE of them sound remotely like Colin, the Scottish dude in this story. If ‘C’, said neighbour, started talking to me the way Colin does at certain points in Escape from Paradise, I’d probably think she’d been drinking a lot of Glenfiddich. In short, I could count on one hand the times I’ve heard ‘och’, ‘lass’, ‘lassie’, and ‘ken’ come up in conversation with Scottish people my age.

Reading the blurb for Escape from Paradise, I was excited – in fact, this was my reading choice rather than Michael’s. I like dark erotica, non-con in particular, and I thought this was going to be in the vein of C.J. Roberts’ Captive in the Dark, which I adored. Unfortunately, I fell rather heavily from the wagon within the first quarter of the book and just couldn’t get back on it again.

It wasn’t just the dialogue that flipped the off switch for me, but the rather erratic characterisation of both Colin and Marco, neither of which felt believable. The first does a dramatic personality one-eighty in the space of a few paragraphs, albeit due to a major life event (narcissistic party boy to avenging angel) and the latter is, well, just off somehow. (I was incredibly surprised that he didn’t kill Angela at the very beginning. I realise that would have stopped the story dead but, ultimately, that reaction from him to the circumstances would have been far more true to type.) Oh, and the way the police show up and deal with the crime involving Colin’s younger brother at the very beginning of this story? Er. No. It just wouldn’t happen that way here.

“I’m sorry to tell you this,” one of them said softly. “But we must work quickly. Your parents have been murdered and your brother’s gone missing. We’re taking you into custody for your own protection.”

Maybe this book works better for non-U.K. readers? Looking at this review I can see a lot of my gripes are to do with context and setting. For a comparison, it would be like me trying to write in a caricature American accent.

‘Howdy, Michael. Are you swell today? Because, dude, I totally I am. I am a total hot mess. My checking account is full of cooties and there’s a stick shift stuck in my drywall.’

Eh, something went wrong for me, that’s for sure. I wanted another Caleb, another Livvie – and I didn’t get either. Although looking at all the positive reviews Escape from Paradise is getting, it would seem I’m in the disliking minority.

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

Amazon.co.uk

• Escape from Paradise – Kindle
• Escape from Paradise – Paperback

Amazon.com

• Escape from Paradise – Kindle
• Escape from Paradise – Paperback

The post Escape from Paradise – Gwendolyn Field appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.