More recent reads and reviews . . .

Boy Farm by Rose Thornwell:

I really hate to say it but, despite some really hot scenes of male bondage and pegging, they were just way too many plot holes for me to enjoy this. It's a shame, because there was so much potential in the idea of a mother-daughter femdom rivalry, and so much that could have been done with the concept of a boy farm. Unfortunately, the plot falls apart right from the start when the daughter makes it clear how much she is disgusted by her mother's dominatrix role, only to demonstrate a few pages later that she has no such issue with her her best friend's dominatrix antics. As if that weren't enough, she is all-too-eager to try and fill her mother's high-heel bitch boots for somebody so disgusted by the BDSM world. As for her poor/lucky boyfriend, he completely wastes the opportunity to submit to a powerful older woman (probably the most realistic part of the story), and then makes a miraculous weekend transformation from reluctantly submissive heterosexual boyfriend to eagerly submissive bisexual boy slave. The emphasis here is definitely more on cruelty and humiliation, which is not my thing, but if you isolate the sex scenes and enjoy them independently of the plot, they are quite good.


What Worse Place Can I Beg in Your Love? by Syd McGinley

Wow, what a weirdly erotic, strangely seductive read. On the surface, it's a story that should be more clinical than arousing, more science-fiction that erotic, and yet it works superbly. Basically, this is the story of a young gay man who, after playing bottom to a fellow human captive, is prepped for display and sold to an alien as his pet. The aliens here are humanoid in shape, but with reptilian characteristics, and (of course) almost impossibly large genitalia. To them, humans are nothing more than domesticated animals, flesh-and-blood companions to be kept as pets. There's no affection beyond that of an owner for his pet, no attempts to communicate beyond the simplest commands, and no interest in the pet's pleasure or satisfaction. There's a very strong element of domination here that made me weak in the knees, and I simply cannot get the image of the burly alien walking around his home, carrying out his daily tasks, while his human pet sits, arms wrapped about his torso, impaled upon his manhood for hours at a time. Not at all the story I expected, but a wonderful read.



Pretty Face Vol. 1 by Yasuhiro Kano

Well now, wasn't this a fun but of PG-rated shojo manga! Cute, amusing, and deliciously twisted, it's the story of an arrogant bully who is horribly mangled and left for dead after a bus crash, only to have his face reconstructed in the image of his high-school crush (whose photo he keeps in his wallet). It's a rather preposterous scenario, but the book quickly owns up to the fact, which makes the whole thing a bit more clever than I expected. Although the usual manga exaggerated facial expressions and dialogue are here, the story is actually told very well through the characters. You really come to emphasize with Rando, finally coming so close to the girl he loves, but being unable to express his love . . . outside of an excruciatingly teasing big sister/best friend sort of way. Rina slowly changes the young man, redeeming the jock/jerk he used to be, while Dr. Manabe keeps trying to push him into a complete sex change. Definitely a fun story, although I'm not sure there's enough depth to make me want to read the other 5 instalments.


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