BONDS OF LOVE

More episodes of sexual maneuvering on the heels of British author Sarah K’s (The Secret Life of a Submissive, 2013) best-selling erotic memoir.

Months after the author and her sexual “Dom,” Max, parted ways, she still ached for his unique brand of sweet torture. While retaining everything she’d learned and experienced on “the real life delights of being a submissive,” she was back on the prowl, eagerly “window-shopping” for a replacement Dom using online personals. Alex, a fleeting contact she’d dismissed in favor of a relationship with Max, reintroduced himself and re-ignited the author’s tinderbox of desire, which was smoldering in the wake of Max’s departure. The author was needy and spontaneously accepted a last-minute invitation to join Alex at a family friend’s wedding weekend in the English countryside. Blissful in the orchestrated dynamics of their newly consummated affair, she and Alex enjoyed the push and pull of dominance and submission in the bedroom, yet the author continued to compare her sexual submission to Alex to her past with Max. Was it a doomed rebound romance, or had she finally met her match? Max’s unsurprising reappearance stirred old desires, but the author was firmly resolved to challenge her boundaries as a submissive by test-driving other Doms (“my search for Master Right”) of varying intensities and perils, some of whom took items like clothespins and felt-tipped markers to titillating heights. Nestled among the author’s personal escapades navigating the BDSM dating scene are insightful asides into the often complex, taboo nature of this niche lifestyle. She notes one of the key differences between traditional relationships and a BDSM-based one is in both partners’ hierarchal negotiation. Another slick memoir that reads like erotic fantasist fiction as the author continues her quest to live “happily ever after in nipple clamps and handcuffs.” An obvious choice for Fifty Shades devotees.