Review: Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Kitty Thomas

Vivian Delaney leads a life of privilege, but behind closed doors she feels isolated and trapped in a gilded cage. Unable to achieve sexual pleasure with her husband, she finds herself in the capable hands of Anton, a massage therapist intent on awakening her to her full sexual potential. By any means necessary.

As their secret meetings progress, she falls farther down a rabbit hole where the line between rape and illicit affair grows increasingly blurred. Anton will accept nothing short of her complete surrender as he molds and shapes her to be sold to the highest bidder.

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction, and the author does not endorse or condone any behavior done to another human being without their consent. Further, this book contains no use of condoms or talk of STDs. It is fantasy, not reality and should not be read in any way as resembling reality.

Warning: This book contains sexual situations of dubious consent, coercion, sexual blackmail, multiple partners, master/slave, girl on girl, humiliation, boot worship, oral play, and anal play.

Review:
I find that I’m having a hard time expressing what to say about Guilty Pleasures. It would be easy to pass judgment or to scoff at the content and plot. It would be easy to cling to cliches and call the story sick and twisted. It would be natural to feel outraged at the absurdity of situation the protagonist finds herself tangled in. And I believe most would feel completely repulsed by idea of considering rape anything but a violation, blurred lines be damned.

On the outside, Vivian Delaney lives a perfect life with a gorgeous husband who loves and wants her. But Vivian is not your typical desperate housewife choosing to entertain herself with her own devices while her husband works to support their lavish lifestyle. On the inside, Vivian feels like an empty shell, like a burden. She is withdrawn and inhibited. Unable to love herself, she doesn’t understand what her husband finds appealing about her. 

As arguments with her husband become more heated, he demands she meet with a sex therapist. Soon after and without her consent, Vivian is forced to submit to the commands of a very sexually charged man, Anton, who awakens her deep rooted desires. Frightened yet enticed, Vivian is thrust into a world she could never imagine, and suddenly discovers herself becoming a willing participant in a house run by a ring of men that train and sell women as sex slaves.

Circumspectly yet provocatively, Kitty Thomas once again draws in readers to not only explore raw human emotion but to also experience a descent into a illicit darkness that simulates the senses as much as it repels the mind. Thomas’s character development of Vivian was fascinating, and it was maddening to realize that I found myself encouraging Vivian to release repressed passions and yearnings.

There was some predictability in the end. It was easy enough to guess who would buy Vivian to become her new Master, and I didn’t care for the “grand scheme” planning of the husband and his friends. Still, I dare to say, I enjoyed the story as a dark fantasy novel and marveled over the writing style. 

Word of caution, for those that do read D/s fiction, please note that Vivian was not trained to or given the option of using safe words. 

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Posted at 5:35 am  •  Labels: 2010, 4 stars, Book Review, D/s, Kindle Edition, Kitty Thomas, Risqué Reads