I’m not sure there’s any such thing as the perfect erotic novel, but Sara Desmarais comes damn close with A Change in Our Marriage. I can’t say enough good things about this read – it aroused me, amused me, intrigued me, and delighted me with every virtual turn of the page. It’s clear that a great deal of thought went into this book, both in terms of plot and theme, which is a level of professionalism we see all too rarely in electronic publishing.Nearly all of my favourite fetishes are explored here: cuckolding, forced feminization, female domination, humiliation, mind control, pegging, cum-eating, and forced bisexuality. What makes it all work so well is the way in which Sara so careful develops the psychological coercion, alongside the physical domination.
Right from the start, Sara manipulates John into heading down the path she has chosen for their relationship. He thinks she’s stumbled onto his cuckolding fetish, and is so wracked by guilt that he’ll do anything to appease her rage. When we discover that it’s actually Sara who secretly turned him onto the fetish, carefully setting him up so that she can pursue her own twisted fetish . . . well, let’s just say my mind wasn’t the only thing that was blown.
Sara is in complete control every step of the way, but succeeds in breaking John’s spirit by granting him the illusion of control. Time and time again she leads him down the path of temptation, putting ideas into his head, and then teasing him to the edge of arousal, before suddenly turning the tables and forcing him to make a decision. She gives him the chance to either take things further, or to back out entirely, but always does so in such a way that there’s really no choice but to go forward. Sara gets inside his head, using the threat of post-arousal humiliations to make him readily accept them while still aroused and open to enjoying them.
For me, the turning point in the novel came rather late, with a bit of enforced role playing. Sara turns her bedroom into a brothel, her hubby into a whore, and herself into the well-hung stud she’s been cuckolding him with. As Steve, she not only physically reinforces their new roles (violating Julie orally and anally with her strap-on dildo), but she talks about their relationship from the bull’s point of view, reminding John of who he is and what he’s allowed his wife to do. It’s the first time she really treats Julie as a complete woman, and the first time she forces her hubby to be completely lost in the illusion of pleasing a man.
This is a read that’s as emotionally powerful as it is exhausting. Slowly and inevitably, John (a slightly submissive hubby with a bit of a transvestite fetish) is transformed into Julie (a caged cuckold with a hormonally-induced borderline transsexual condition). The gender roles in the relationship are slowly reversed, with Sara continually reinforcing Julie’s femininity. For me, that respect was the key to the whole story – she never treats him as a sissy, never mocks his submissive femininity, and never treats him as if he’s gay. Instead, she nurtures the woman hidden inside him, making it entirely natural and acceptable for him to desire a man (not another man, but simply a man). There’s definitely some question as to how much of Julie’s transformation is born of her own hidden desire, and how much is the result of Sara’s careful manipulation, but eventually it all blends together.
Finally, what puts the book over the top is the fact that Sara and John/Julie never lose their love for one another. Rather than looking to escape the relationship or destroy her husband, Sara is looking to adjust their relationship so that it can accommodate her sexual needs. Not just an arousing, amusing, intriguing, and delightful read, but a respectful and empowering one as well.
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Darker than I expected, this is a story that rides a gloriously taboo wave of sexuality. The affair between Mommy and her strapping young step-son may not be biologically incestuous, but it's as close as you can get without a blood relationship. The fact he's been spying on his parents' sexual adventures for years, imagining himself in his father's place, is definitely a bit creepy . . . but also incredibly sexy.
A very quick, very short read . . . more a fantasy scene than a complete story. Hot and exciting, though, with some nicely detailed foreplay leading up to hubby's first pegging. It's definitely a nice twist to have such a story written from the perspective of the curious wife, especially when it begins with her embarrassment, but it does prevent us from really getting inside the reluctantly submissive hubby's head.
Oh my . . . what a gloriously hot read! Rush may not consider himself to be a cross-dresser, but he definitely knows how to put together and outfit and present himself as convincingly female. The thrill of passing comes across wonderfully, emphasized by his uncertainty and fear of being exposed. There's a definite danger in allowing himself to be led down to the basement with three hunky guys, but you absolutely cannot blame him for giving in to the temptation. I know I would!
As much as the blurb turned me on (If the worst man in the prison wants him for a toy, at least the others will leave him alone, right?), I'm afraid the brutal violence and distasteful nature of the humiliation (scat & urine) forced me to keep my distance. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore a forceful man and don't mind the suggestion of being taken against your will, but the brutality went beyond sexual coercion and into pure sadism. It's probably more realistic than most prison fantasies, but I guess I'm just not aroused by realism.
Having only been exposed to the very vanilla, very heterosexual, very male-dominated world of newsstand magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, Club, Hustler, and Swank (most of which were heavily censored with big black dots for most of my youth), these novels were eye-openers for me. They called to me, spoke to something deep inside me, and awakened an awareness of what it was I’d been trying for so long to define. In the pages of the Nexus line it was okay for men to be submissive to women, to dress in sexy lingerie, to be physically transformed by women, and to be ‘forced’ to please other men.
Suddenly, gender was no longer restricted to the male/female binary, and sexuality was no longer limited to gay/straight. As a reader who identified as genderqueer (even if I didn’t have a name for it at the time), I discovered something in the sissies and the shemales of the Nexus line that spoke to me. These were not just men who liked to dress like women, or who wished to become women. Instead, these were sexual creatures of a third, middle, blended gender. These were characters who were who were happy to be something other, content to be something different. They weren’t waiting for some gender transformation or metamorphosis – they were already complete, just as they were.
As I work through the final draft of what I had once hoped would be my debut Nexus novel, I can’t help but mourn the lost opportunity to join the ranks of Lisette, Yolanda, Arabella, Aishling, Jennifer, Christina, and Wendy. It’s been several years since Virgin last published any titles under the Nexus banner, and the imprint no longer even appears on their site. While I look forward to joining those wonderful ladies in finding new life under new publishers, it will never be quite the same without that eye-catching cover. 