Review: Club Mephisto
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2013
Molly and her husband have a Master/slave relationship that includes total power exchange. Molly is a willing slave who happily follows her Master's bidding 24/7, she likes having the control taken out of her hands and she enjoys having a routine that she is made to stick to. When her Master has to go on a week long business trip he knows that Molly would be unhappy left on her own so he arranges for a friend of his to take over her care. Mephisto is the owner of a BDSM club, he lives the lifestyle but has never been interested in having a full time slave before. He has agreed to take on Molly as a favour for his friend but his desires are very different and Molly is going to have to learn a whole new set of rules while she is in his care.I've read quite a few novels containing BDSM now and although it isn't a lifestyle I'm involved in I find it fascinating to read about. I've never really come across total power exchange before though, the few novels I've read that involved a 24/7 slave type relationship couldn't really be considered consensual so I was curious to find out why an intelligent young woman would willingly become a slave. As much as I don't envy Molly's lifestyle I did come to understand why it worked for her, there must be something quite appealing about leaving the decisions to someone else. It's probably liberating in a strange kind of way to give control to another person and it is obvious that Molly and her Master (and husband) have a very special relationship. They each offer the other something that the other needs and they both love each other deeply. I didn't feel that it was healthy for Molly to be so dependent on her Master for everything though, she wasn't capable of getting through a week without him on her own - even the thought of him leaving her for that long really upset her. I'd never really considered what a burden it must be for a Master to have someone so completely dependent on them all of the time, as much as they are the one who gets to make all the decisions they must also always have the slave's best interests at heart and make sure that they are safe and cared for. That is a huge responsibility to live up to!The idea of loaning out your slave to someone else seems really odd to me but then again I'm not the kind of person who would want to be either a slave or a Master so I don't have a clue whether that is common practise or not. I happen to have a preference for exclusive relationships but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading about other alternatives. I could actually see why Molly's Master wanted to involve Mephisto though, he was worried that Molly would be completely lost if anything ever happened to him and he wanted to show her that she could survive without him and even be happy with someone else. Mephisto was an enigma, because the whole story is told from Molly's perspective we never really knew what his motivations were and he both fascinated and scared the crap out of me. I have since read the follow up to this story Molly's Lips which covers the same week in time but from Mephisto's perspective and I have to say I'd highly recommend reading both stories - it really makes a difference to how you see certain things when you get the chance to get inside Mephisto's head. I'm now looking forward to reading the final part of the story Burn for You and finding out what happens next.At times Club Mephisto makes for uncomfortable reading, Mephisto takes Molly to some dark spaces and I certainly wouldn't want to swap places with her. In spite of that I thought it was a fantastic story. If you aren't afraid to push your boundaries, if you enjoy reading about the BDSM lifestyle or if you're even slightly curious about the idea of a total power exchange then I'd highly recommend reading this book. Do make sure you read Molly's Lips afterwards though - it won't even cost you anything because the author has published that story as a freebie (it can be downloaded free from Amazon for the kindle or in multiple formats via Smashwords).