Review: The real deal
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 3, 2012
When you read Annabel Joseph's bdsm fiction, the impression you get is that you are reading the real deal. Not pretend, not make believe, but the way things are.  The truth.Molly Grace Belden Copeland is the 24/7 slave (and wife) to Clayton Copeland. She exists only to please him in a total sublimation of self. If that means accepting his beatings, then she's happy to suffer. If she's to crawl about naked on all fours on a leash, she's as eager to please as a caged dog fed table scraps."She had long ago learned to hold her desires and wants silent like a secret in her heart, and wait to hear what he wanted. She lived to fulfill his needs."When her Master is called away on mysterious business, he loans her out to Mephisto, a bdsm club owner, for safe keeping and (let's call it) inservice training."I've arranged for someone else, another Master I trust, to watch over you and put you through your paces while I'm gone. That way I know you're occupied and behaving yourself," he tell her, but after she expresses gratitude at his foresight and cleverness, he warns, "Mephisto is an exacting Master. Much more so than I.  I coddle you shamelessly."Under Mephisto exacting, brutal care, Molly is put through the paces of being beaten & whipped and used as a sex toy for Mephisto's pleasure and that of his club patrons. Yet there is chemistry between them and a concern that Mephisto has for her that is evident throughout the book. Although he is much more brutal than Clayton ever thought of being, Mephisto expresses concern for Molly's happiness and sees a person under the submissive. It is through him that the reader learns Molly's full name and that she is quite educated, with a degree in environmental studies.With face-slapping honesty, Annabel Joseph dissects a sadomasochistic total power exchange relationship. It's not a comfortable read, but a compelling one that keeps you turning pages despite dismay (horror) at the brutality of the scenes. Her writing is superb and the story unfolds with well-paced precision. Club Mephisto is told entirely from Molly's point of view. The next book, Molly's Lips: Club Mephisto Retold, revisits what occurs during Molly's week at the club from Mephisto's point of view.Club Mephisto is a 5 star read, but not for everyone.