I loved the honesty in the story, it pulls no punches and has a sadness about a life that can never be.

 

It is a slow starter, but stick with because all of the emotional turmoil that you are enduring at the beginning is very relevant to the life of Kit.

 

The main character, Kit Cayman is a middle aged man lying in hospital paralysed the only thing he can do is masturbate. Such despair surrounds him as he rejects everything around him. From a beginning of the end, we look back on what brought K to this finality.

 

K is a middle aged man having a crisis. His life is stale. A translator, working from home, he has been seeing Anna for a while, he has no real social life, he is an alcoholic, stale stale stale. Then he sees a picture of the Egyptian Princess on a website and he falls in love. He meets this Dominatrix and fulfils his fantasy of being spanked wearing a body stocking and it changes his life.

 

If you are looking to read details of erotica then forget it, however, if you are expecting something deeper psychologically, then this is your book. It is the real deal, it is about the cruelty of life, mid life crisis, BDSM, fantasies and fetish and trust. It is about love, and obsession.

 

Losing his girlfriend by telling her of his fantasies, K steps into the world of BDSM; trust and power exchange. He become obsessed with his dominatrix the Egyptian Princess, who transforms his life by understanding and fulfilling his fantasy desires. Feeling empowered he deals with his drinking, loses weight and leads a much healthier lifestyle. His whole life gets better.

 

Having improved his sexual desires, fulfilling it is the one thing which is not part of their relationship and is his one regret. After constantly bombarding her with writing, one day without warning, she disappears from him and passes him to her colleague CC who gives him new experiences and fulfillments although his love obsession is still with his Egyptian Princess.

 

Forget frivolous descriptions, this is the real deal that explores the relationship between a Dominatrix and a ‘submissive’ or ‘bottom’. The love that comes with trust, the bond that develops between the giver and receiver. An account of just what people get from masochism experiences.

 

Would you move across country to follow your desires to feel alive? K did just that and meets with his Egyptian Princess once again, but was it the same?

 

I loved the characters of the Dominatrix, they were real people. Ordinary with a fetish side to them they enjoyed and played to make a living. There was an emotional frailty to the Egyptian Princess that made her endearing as a person.

 

Well thought out and well written, certainly a book that will stay in your head for a while.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many thanks to the Publisher for a digital copy via NetGalley in return for my honest review.

He & She by Wayne Clark is a book which compels you to think hard. While the book will leave you unsettled, it will be in a good way. Adulthood has been described by psychologists where the individual has a maturity and an ability of independent decision making. With the use of this insight into human nature, the reading of Wayne Clark’s He & She certainly gets a new dimension. This is the story of Kit Cayman (or K) who extensively indulges in sexual fantasies. Fantasizing about sex for K is no ordinary matter. On the other hand, it is an ‘aesthetic experience’ from which maximum delight has to be drawn. It is these sexual fantasies that gave a sense of completion to him. This novel is mostly about K in various phases of his life. However, this novel is not just the story of K and his sexual fantasies. The novel is much more. This is a remarkable narrative to discover how diverse and complicated the sexuality can be. More importantly, it is in my view also the record of K’s attempt to come on to his own and to carve a niche for him in the intriguing world of adults.

 

You must have got an idea about the book. However, following is a better description (taken from Goodreads):

“A Web photo of a dominatrix sends a man on a last-ditch attempt to feel truly alive one more time, even if it kills him. Growing numb to life, to his on-and-off girlfriend of many years, his career, even Scotch, a man turns fifty. He is a translator who can no longer dream of translating beautiful works of fiction. He is an amateur musician who can no longer dream of expressing his life on a higher plane, without words. As he glares inside himself he sees little but his declining sexuality, his crumbling hold on life, a growing list of failed relationships, and a darkening well of loneliness. Stumbling upon an image on the Internet one night, he suddenly hears cell doors sliding open. He stares at a young woman, in profile, beautiful, unblinking, regal. Instinctively he knows that by lingering on that image he will shatter a relationship that has kept him on the sane side of loneliness as surely as if he stepped in front of a speeding eighteen-wheeler. But desperate to feel alive again before time runs out, he knows he must see the stranger behind the pixels on his laptop screen. Although it is her image that first transfixes him, his eye afterwards chances on a handful of words on the Internet page. She is a dominatrix. The word triggers something inside him, blows the dust off fantasies trickling back to adolescence, and slowly begins to re-choreograph his decades of sexual memories. Was he ever really the dominant male he thought he was? Did he have a sexual alter-ego? Was this the last card he had to play in life? The face on the screen held the answer. He would find out even if it killed him.”

 

To be frank, I was quite apprehensive when I started reading the book. I was not sure whether I will be able to finish this book or not. However, to my surprise, I was very soon hooked. The story slowly but steadily started to conquer my mind and I kept reading. Very soon, I also fell completely for the main character. Thanks to the craftsmanship of the novelist, K is alive as a character. The excitement and tension that prevail in K’s world are authentically portrayed. The character of K was described with such a passion that you automatically root for him in difficult situations. His sufferings quite often brings lump in your throat. His development as a character in the story is done remarkably and the author certainly deserves lots of praises for that. The women characters though could have been dealt in much better way. However, this is the story of K and there should be no complain.

 

This book is not a causal read as the book keeps forcing you to think on. So, keep your thinking cap on if you are planning to read this book. While some readers may complain that the book is too lengthy, this is a good length to travel on. I can ensure you that you will enjoy this sensual and touching journey. Although the book can be placed in the categories of erotic novels, there isn’t a lot of explicit sex. And it is not the sex scenes but the captivating storyline that leaves a long lasting impression. The end pages are beautifully written, particularly the last chapter. This chapter contains all the essence of the story. However, one needs to read the whole book to get that essence.

 

Kudos to Wayne Clark for crafting a fascinating and insightful tale…:)

 

(I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.) 

The Devolution Chronicles: Passage to Ni... Passage to Niburu is the first book of a set of two. The story starts on Earth, with a number of very strange and apparently unrelated abductions. All the abductees are brought together and blasted into space, on the way to a moon station. When they are threatened by a missile, things become precarious for the crew of the moon-shuttle and interesting for the reader. A lieutenant who is not who he claims to be is a bonus to the perils of the people on board.

If you like fast-paced action, diverse characters and interesting creatures that not only come from outer space, true science, witty quips and also ethical questions, then Passage to Niburu is the book for you. It is followed by the book Rise of the Chimera (of which a review will follow as soon as I have read it).