Posted by Unknown on 23rd Apr 2010

Review of Captivating Katy by Lancelot Knight

Dominants and submissives are perhaps in a special position in our vanilla society. Because the lifestyle is not a usual one, such couples often find themselves isolated and alone, surrounded by little understanding and less sympathy. This issue becomes especially difficult when, as Reese Gabriel points out in this book, Dominants and submissives show their mortality.

What happens, therefore, when a Dominant dies, leaving His or Her submissive on his or her own, which is precisely what a submissive does not seek.

Katy and her husband Warren have just begun to explore the exotic world of Domination and submission, of bondage and humiliation, the mingling of pain and pleasure when Warren dies. He commits suicide. Suddenly Katy is left not just bereft but confused, angry, trembling on the threshold of submission. She is an emotional wreck, more so because her feelings about submission have not crystalized. Furthermore, there is the shock of suicide to contend with, the all too human idea that suicide is akin to betrayal. Mark, himself a Dominant and Warren’s closest friend, believes that Warren entrusted Katy’s submissiveness into his care. Katy, on the other hand, isn’t sure what she wants.

Reese knows the buttons to push that excite a submissive and a Dominant, and there are plenty of hot scenes of punishment throughout the book until finally, Katy finds “herself through the freedom of bondage,” that paradoxical idea that is at the core of the submissive experience. Gabriel is a gifted and thoughtful writer who probes the complex emotions of the world of Domination and submission in a state of crisis. His prose is beautifully honed, his characters well-rounded, their dilemmas deeply moving.

This is a touching novel of discovery, even in the face of death.