BRIE LEARNS THE ART OFSUBMISSION

TITLE: BRIE LEARNS THE ART OF SUBMISSION

AUTHOR: RED PHOENIX

Pages: 484

Date: 06/02/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: Submissive Training Centre

Own/Kindle

The blurb, copied from Amazon.com:

“Join Brianna Bennett as she is introduced to the erotic world of submission...

Brie's life changes the day Sir comes to her tiny tobacco shop. His invitation to the Submissive Training Center is about to rock this young woman's world. The renowned school is famous for its elite submissive instruction. She has no idea what will be asked of her or the boundaries that will be pushed. One thing is certain: Brie is about to learn more about herself in six weeks than she has over the previous twenty-two years.

From formal classes, hands-on practicums and weekly auctions, Brie will confront her deepest fears and desires. In the process, she will also forge lifelong friendships with fellow submissives and fall for several of the Center's skilled Doms.

As graduation day approaches things begin to unravel, forcing Brie to make an unexpected choice of Master. Which Dom will ultimately earn her devotion and capture Brie's courageous heart?”

Months ago, when I first got my Kindle app I found an interesting looking freebie on Amazon and so I got myself “Brie’s First Day of Submissive Training”. This shortish instalment turned out to be as intriguing and hot as it had sounded and I was eager to find out what would happen next. However, I don’t like having to buy my books in bits and pieces so I curbed my curiosity and decided to concentrate on other, complete stories. A few months later I was delighted to see that the nine Brie stories had been combined into one book. I bought it and read it immediately and haven’t regretted the decision for one second.

This is a fascinating story for anyone who is interested in BDSM and everything it entails. Through Brie the reader gets an insight into what it takes to become a good submissive. In six short weeks Brie and her fellow students are taken through their paces and transformed from innocent wannabees into accomplished submissives. Not a single aspect of submission (as far as I could tell) is ignored. Along with Brie the reader is introduced to obedience, bondage, floggings, anal sex, objectification, oral sex, humiliation and a variety of other experiences of which Kinbaku (Japanese bondage) was my personal favourite. What I really liked about the way this story was told was that it was a learning process for Brie. She didn’t embrace everything she was introduced to with immediate enthusiasm. A lot of the things she is introduced to are acts she had previously thought hateful or scary. She is training to become a submissive, and as with all training, this means pushing boundaries and going beyond what you think you are capable of and comfortable with.

As the subject of this book suggests most of this book revolves around sexual acts. I mean, how else are you going to train submissives? But thankfully there was also room for a bit of background story. So the reader gets a chance to get to know Brie and appreciate how she grows. I liked the way Brie was torn between several of the men she interacts with. In most romances I can’t stand characters who can’t make up their mind about who they love and want to be with but in this book it made real sense. When you experience such deep and emotionally charged exchanges it would be hard not to develop feelings for those you are so very intimate with. Of course the fact that it kept me guessing as to who Brie would end up with in the end was a nice added bonus.

I also liked that in these books all the Doms and submissives are individuals; they are young or old, well built or flabby, black or white, nasty or nice; they are just like everybody else: unique. A lot of popular books with a BDSM theme seem to portray certain stereotypes as their main characters (the words billionaire, troubled past, and young and innocent spring to mind). It made a very nice change to read a book with this theme in which the characters came across as people I might actually meet in my day to day life.

I also appreciated the way in which this book allowed the author to inform the reader about BDSM and submission without ever getting preachy. With the story set in a learning environment it made perfect sense that some of the lessons Brie was taught were shared with the reader. This means that the information that was given never interfered with the flow of the story but rather enhanced it.

The only thing that bothered me a little bit was that it was obvious that this story had previously been published in shorter sections; whenever a new week of Brie’s training starts you are treated to a bit of a recap from the previous one. And while I’m sure this is useful if you’re reading the story in instalments, it is not necessary and at times a bit annoying when you are reading the whole story in one, continuous book.

So now I’m faced with a dilemma. The author has recently published the first instalment of the second book in Brie’s series. And while I’m very curious to see what is going to happen to her next I’m no more enthusiastic about reading books in instalments then I was all those months ago. The big question is: will I be able to curb my curiosity once again or will I submit to the urge to find out what happens next? Only time will tell.