Angel Recommends - Carolyn Faulkner

Before I get to the book review part of this blog - Chapter 13 of Marriage Training was submitted yesterday. =)  It's basically a transition chapter to get us from one part of the story to the next, it's one of the few chapters which doesn't have TONS of details, although it has quite a few.  In the next chapter comes the Earl and I am so looking forward to that!

 

Okay... back to Carolyn Faulkner, who has been inspiring me for quite some time and her writing definitely inspired parts of Marriage Training.

 

I've been reading a lot of darker erotica lately but unfortunately not all of it appeals to me.  Mostly because even when things are dark, I want there to be some form of connection between the characters and, hopefully, a happy ending.  Yeah, of course this means major Stockholm's syndrome in some cases, but I still like reading it.  Because I like the fantasy. 

There's a couple authors I've come across, like Kitty Thomas, Skye Warren or Claire Thomspon, who are a little TOO dark for me.  Although I do love Kitty Thomas' Submissive Fairy Tales, that's one that's staying on my Kindle, mostly because I'm a bit obsessed with her version of Beauty and the Beast.  The other two are interesting too but that's the one that I keep to re-read.

 

My favorite author for really rough stuff / dark erotica is Carolyn Faulkner.  She writes some lighter stuff too, but I'm not usually as interested in it.  And she has a lot of works out, I've read most of them, and have only found a few that I think are really 100% worth the price (since she charges more than my favorite $2.99 price =) 

 

The Little Miss is a Victorian Age Play story and if you're into that kind of thing, it's HOT.  I actually didn't think I really was into that kind of thing, but this book got me all sorts of hot and bothered.  I think because of how very controlled the little miss is.  The Kindle book is a 4 for the price of one deal which is nice.  I've tried reading other age play stuff and most of it doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as this one; in fact most of them don't appeal to me at all but I re-read this one on a regular basis.  It has a lot of things that don't normally appeal to me, including wrapping/swaddling (which I think is similar to the wrapping/mummification fetish) that ends up just being hot.  Lots of spankings, birchings, strappings, etc. as well as mind manipulation and sexy time.  I don't know if it's because it's set in the Victorian era or what, but I love the book.

 

There are a lot of similar Victorian age-play books that I might talk about eventually on here, if you start reading them you may notice some similarities between the governesses and Mrs. Banks.  Her character was partly inspired by the way the governesses in these books handle their "girls."

 

Prima is another really good dark one, she's got a couple others set in the same world but I think Prima is the best.  This one is definitely not for the faint of heart - SEVERE punishments... sometimes for no reason other than it turns Joseph, the other main character, on.  Prima is his woman.  The setting is a futuristic earth where something has happened to decimate the population and women have become basically chattel again.  Reading this actually gave me an idea for my own series in a futuristic earth - mainly cuz I started thinking about how I would deal with a major drop in the female population differently - but my series will be a lot less dark and a lot less severe.  But I love reading Prima.

 

Captured by the Count is one of the few books that does not have a happy ending that I keep on my Kindle for re-reads.  There's definitely a little bit of schaudenfraude going on here because the Cassie really isn't the most likable character in the world so you almost enjoy seeing bad things happen to her... at first at least.  Then it becomes more of a sexually horrified fascination where I'm almost embarrassed that it turns me on.  Like The Little Miss, there's some fetishes in this book that normally don't appeal to me that end up being really hot the way she's set them up.  This is, at its most basic, a breeding fantasy novel that also includes BDSM, bondage, non-consent/reluctance and also a milking machine.  I ended up checking out more breeding and milking stories after reading this, but found that (like The Little Miss) they didn't appeal to me outside of this book.  Go figure.

 

Submissive Desires is probably the most severe story she's written that I've read.  Electricity, canings, all sorts of very painful things... for the first time she went into a fetish that went too far for me - I'm just not a needles kind of girl apparently.  Some of the beatings also went way farther than I was comfortable with... but it didn't stop me from reading or getting all squirmy in my seat.  For those of you who like the really rough stuff, this is probably a good choice for you.

 

Like I said, she's written some other ones, but those are my favorites.  She also has a spanking series called Priceless Love that's pretty good, although it's not the kind of dark stuff that I normally look for from her.  I haven't read everything by her thought cuz I think she can get kind of pricey and sometimes I'm just not going to pay the money for a book that's under 100 pages.  Ya know?!  But I think the above books were pretty darn well worth it.  =)