Kitty
Using eloquent vibrant language and vivid description, Mr. Hunter has created a rich offering of sensual tales for those who are into the world of BDSM. There is, within these pages, offered a little something for everyone. Whether you are into hardcore BDSM, or just curious as to what it's all about. If you are a long-time practitioner of the lifestyle, or just taking a few first wobbly steps into the world, there are tales here to titillate and captivate your imagination in this creative exploration of the lifestyle.
Two of the stories in Chain Reaction, "The Documentary" and "With Open Arms" (by Chelsea Shepard), will collar your heart as you share a sweet moment of insight into the minds of those submissives who love their masters, and the deep satisfaction they have in being well-bound and disciplined. While "O Carol" is a refreshing and funny tale of a well-intended sub's holiday gift to her dominant hilariously gone wrong.
Other tales like "Clockwork," "Ready, Pet, Go" and "A Turn of the Page" will arouse your interest and delight as they explore, with a lighthearted touch, the often humorous interplay between couples who believe in turn and turnabout in the interplay of who's-the-dom for the interlude. Their intense creativity in their chosen scenarios hints to the devilish depths that Mr. Hunter's mind is capable of. Those depths are chillingly revealed as he exposes a darker, more sadistic side in "With Friends Like These" and "I Spy." If ever having fancied revenge on an unfaithful lover, one will applaud that darker side in his tale "The Box." Chilling in a different mode is "Action Figure," as it explores the cold and uncaring businesslike side of the modern day sexual slavery trade from the eyes of a trader.
The whimsical fantasy of "Lord of the Ring Gag" will tickle the fancy of those who love finely-rigged, high-stepping irony and a good story with a twist. Even as he captivates the reader with his tongue-in-cheek salute to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Mr. Hunter is also skillfully presenting for reflection, a thought provoking comparison between the two ponies - one open to new experiences and adaptive - and the other rigid and narrow in her opinions and actions. Other lighthearted offerings from the fantasy realm included in the collection, and equally fun, are "Liquidity" and "Behooved."
There are two poetic offerings, "Re:boot" and "Tres," which are creatively arranged with a restrained elegance very reminiscent of the Japanese haiku. Mr. Hunter confines his words to one to four per line. He coaxes your imagination in a meditative, yet stimulating manner, to give itself free reign over the highly erotic tale bound within those few tightly constrained words.
While most of the stories in this collection are lavish with detail and flow in an easy storytelling manner that enthralls the reader, a few seemed to miss the mark. "Later," "Sunset Sea" and "Creature" left this reviewer feeling as if they had prematurely ended before the true resolution and end of the tale had been told. The laundry list of bondage items in "Room Serviced" interrupted the flow of the story and ruined the mood so splendidly set before it. The ending then seemed rushed and the actual purpose of what the dom was doing was left obscure. In a book so rich with much other excellence, these barely detracted from it making it a recommended read if you are at all interested in this type of literature.
ACJ Leveille
Donovan Grant is infamous - not only for the revolutionary software he created that ended the peer-to-peer file transfer blitz, but also for the huge not-for-profit sex site that he runs from his private Caribbean island. An island where bondage is the byword and pleasure is more than just a pastime. But Grant's deep desire to Dominate goes beyond the paradise he has created - he wants nothing less than the entire world. It's up to Carroll Farmer, a woman who once loved the young Grant, to uncover his secret plot and save the world. Along the way she's going to get the chance to explore her own bondage fantasies and maybe, just maybe, find out what she's been craving all along.
Hunter and Shepard have penned a wild, intricate and delicately plotted masterpiece here. Unlike most erotica novels, Once Bitten has a real plot to it, one that is both modern and enjoyable. The sex is dynamite, but this book is also very well-written, well-paced, and lavishly detailed. Full of explicit sex, vivid imagery and layered, believable characters, Once Bitten is a sure bet for any reader who enjoys bondage erotica.
Sensual Romance
Carroll Farmer has been given the assignment of a lifetime. She's supposed to interview the rich and infamous Donovan Grant -- a man she had once loved more than anything. She goes to his private island, a world where Grant indulges his wildest sexual fantasies and then puts them on his popular website. Also living there are Sindie, a female dominant who is very, very good at what she does, and Grant's crew of computer geeks. Carroll manages to successfully avoid recognition for a time, while uncovering what could very well be the biggest story of her life, when everything collapses around her, including her own long- held sexual beliefs.
This book is not for the faint of heart. It contains very detailed bondage scenes as well as some questionable seductions. For those who like more explicit erotic novels, though, Once Bitten is a fast-moving roller coaster of a novel. The characters come alive and the plot, though drenched in sex from beginning to end, is both modern and grippingly entertaining. While the romance is more of a sideline than a main plot, the book does have a happy ending. The good guys win and our girl gets the devilishly sexy and very intelligent hero, to boot. Of course, the story is also stuffed with lovingly described tricks, toys, and ties. Hunter and Shepard create images so vivid that you experience them as you read them and for those readers who are interested in bondage but don't have much experience, Once Bitten isn't just a book -- it's also an education.
Simon Lowrie -- author, A Journey Round a Darker Sun
I thought this was a very clever and enjoyable book, and just the job for two lazy summer afternoons. The story centres on Donovan and Carroll, who used to be lovers years ago, back when they were both impoverished Oxford students. Carroll chickened out when Donovan's kinks began to surface, but having been bitten by the bug of deviant sex, it never really left her--even though she never felt fully at ease with herself about it.
By the time they meet again, fifteen years later, Carroll has become a successful journalist, while Donovan has made it huge on the net, and is about to become richer still by perpetrating the greatest crime ever seen on the World Wide Web. Assigned to interview him much against her will, Carroll falls into his sphere again. But this time, both have lost their youthful innocence, and some painful fireworks result.
The book is excellently paced, and is written with the sharp cutting edge of one of those airport bestsellers you buy to read on the beach. The difference though, is that this is a bdsm novel with a capital B. Leather, gags, whips--the whole nine yards. Take that as a warning or a promise, according to your tastes, but in addition to a good yarn and some very graphic scenes, I was pleasantly surprised to find real delicacy of touch in the way the characters were developed and explained. The motives and drives of the lifestyle are explored very well, though not at the expense of bogging down the story. As one of the characters puts it: "Whether you use silk or leather, a feather or a whip, you're still playing the same game. Some like it hard, some like it soft. What matters is what goes on in your mind."
Erotica Book Review
Once Bitten combines non-stop snazzy narrative depicting sketches worthy of magical genius in the field of hunt' em down, string' em up, and let's play "Mornington Crescent"-- BDSM style. In game-like vogue, a female journo sets out from London on a designated assignment to the Moon Glow district of Amsterdam. Initially, the place itself holds little attraction in any sense of the phrase "sexually entertaining," for the heroine, that is. Interview of a porn filmmaker even less so. But hell, once you're in the capital of XXX sex, dragons and demons of denied desires oft fuse in a hot haze of magical memories. Further assigned to a tropical isle to interview Internet porn king is one thing, a scoop article on despicable ex-lover another. But one flip of fate, and overload and meltdown comes like a straightjacket from hell.
Meanwhile, the hero's data-based empire is set to launch covert global software assault upon unsuspecting Internet porn seekers, not to mention instant access to trussed-up young women hanging bat-like for his pleasure and for that of wannabe masters and mistresses. Unfortunately, journos who venture on forbidden territory, not to mention secret database, can really pee off a resident leather-clad femme fatale. Naturally, a rattled mistress's consumed with desire for revenge and ultimate power will often resort to killer instinct. So, who gets off the island alive, if anyone?
Kevin's Book Review Corner
They say money can't buy happiness, but that isn't the way Donovan Grant sees it. Donovan is rich, if not super-rich. He has amassed a fortune from his invention that protects the copyright of videos through the Internet. Hollywood execs have been thrilled and paid very well to use his technology while the same people who approved of the Napstar style tactics are horrified and disgusted.So, he has taken his money and purchased his own private island in the British Virgin Islands, named Jost Van Dyke.
Every now and then, he goes off of his island for a little while and drifts into the bar known as the Krusty Conch. There, he never knows what he might pick up in female entertainment and what they might allow him to do. As the novel opens, he meets the very drunk Michelle and her equally smashed friend, Debbie. He is having a good time with them and sexual desires, among other things, are briefly discussed, before Michelle suddenly remembers where she has seen the famous Donovan Grant before. After arguing the issue with him, she has had enough and wants to leave. "Debbie pretended not to hear her soon-to-be-ex best friend as her internal search engine spat up metatag matches to keywords like 'single,' 'cute,' and, to her thrilling surprise, 'kinky.'" Soon Debbie is off with Donovan and headed quickly back to his island.
Having your own private island is wonderful on its own, especially when you like domination and bondage. With his privacy and his resources, he is able to construct his own bondage fantasy world. In pleasuring himself, he also brings pleasure to millions who visit his sites daily through the Internet, via his free and paying sites. But, it still isn't enough. He has come up with a program that by taking advantage of his millions of users will help him dominate the world through the Internet.
At the same time, half a world away, a young woman by the name of Carroll Farmer is having another unsatisfactory bondage experience. While the man bound and writhing on the bed beneath her is trying his hardest, he simply can't give her what she craves. Her work life isn't that much better, as she is Associate Editor for Netconomy, England's leading Internet magazine. While she has the title, she does not seem to have the control to go along with it. She still writes and reports most of the stories herself, and her boss wants her to go to Amsterdam to interview the famous porn webmaster Dirk Meessens.
She goes very reluctantly, and her fears are confirmed after she watches one of his women perform. The experience shakes her as it reminds her of the past and desires that, once awakened, were never dealt with properly. Donovan Grant awakened those desires, and because of his link with Meessens; her editor makes her follow the trail to Donovan Grant and his island, and unwittingly into his ultimate plan for world domination.
At 266 pages, this is a very enjoyable and arousing novel with complicated and interesting characters. There are plenty of twists and turns, as this adventure-style novel that just happens to have plenty of graphic sex thrown in, winds its way to an intriguing conclusion. That fact, plus the amusing social commentary sprinkled throughout the work as well as just flat-out funny bits of dialogue makes this a must read.
ACJ Leveille
Isabel is first. She’s always craved something more, but this is the first time she’s had the guts to really go for it. She’s given herself to a Master she’s never met for a week of pain and torture...will it live up to her fantasies? Next is a dash through a collection of six shorts – all stories about bondage, humiliation, and giving yourself fully to the plea- sure of pain – that introduces us to a range of characters, including ponygirls and female doms. Jennifer’s saga closes the book for us with a four-part story of a woman who when she decides that her husband isn’t inventive enough for her, puts herself into the capable hands of her best friend’s hubby. Things get complicated when her best friend enters the picture, too.
Bondage aficionados, this is your book! Crash Your Party Dress opens with a bang, and never actually stops. From the nine-part epic of Isabel to the handful of unconnected scene-like shorts, Hunter consistently surprises and titillates. Those who have considered exploring bondage, or those for whom bondage is an interest or a fantasy, will no doubt be intrigued by the sheer creativity displayed in Hunter’s work. Thankfully, the painful details are experienced by sympathetic and very human characters, allowing Crash to escape the trap of coarse dime-novel porn and become something a lot deeper. With captivating accounts of bondage, discipline and humiliation, Hunter easily captures the imagination and the senses. Readers in search of an intense and sometimes suffocatingly sexy experience should definitely pick up Crash Your Party Dress!
Bondage Resource Center
I begged and pleaded and received Crash Your Party Dress from Santa! I've been a huge fan of Adrian Hunter's writings for years on the net, and have enjoyed his more recent collaborations with Chelsea Shepherd as well.
This short-story collection contains my ever-favorite "Isabel," a story of a young lady's dawning understanding of bondage and domination. The ponygirl stories are very fun, and "Pretty Pleas" has a delightful ending.
If you've read Adrian and Chelsea's stories online, here is a wonderful opportunity to buy their writings in paperback form...great to keep handy at your bedside!
Enjoy!
Kevin's Book Review Corner
"It's been said that lives have been changed by Adrian Hunter's words. Some beg to differ. Others simply beg."
With that kind of interesting and amusing quote from the back cover, the expectations are high. Fortunately, as he did in his novel co-written with Chelsea Shepard, Once Bitten, he delivers. Crash Your Party Dress is an anthology of short stories that are well-written and where the sex becomes secondary as the characters evolve and deal with their own obsessions. Why they have these needs is irrelevant and more to the point is the quest for pleasure and fulfilling the inner longings.
The anthology is artfully split between a long multi- chaptered novella with the title of "Isabel" and an assortment of short stories. "Isabel" opens the work, and is the tale of one woman's obsession turned into orgasmic reality. Isabel always was interested in bondage and through the computer, is introduced to various individuals in a bondage chat room. One individual in particular seems to be more interested in her as a person, and his name is Ron. Soon, she agrees to meet him for a week of pleasure, and from the moment she steps into his world, she is under his total control. The week becomes an incredible experience as she learns what it is to totally submit to him and his friends for a week of pleasure, pain and humiliation. But why stop at a week?
Then there are the short stories, including an incredibly arousing tale by Chelsea Shepard that is open to the reader's interpretation. Titled "Sweet Butterfly," it tells the tale of what happens to one young woman when she innocently suggests to her male friend that they have some bondage fun. He takes her to a hothouse, and after removing her clothes, he ties her up in an assortment of metal chains. Then he liberally applies a coat of a sweet smelling jell to her breasts and between her legs. Then he hoists her to dangle at the top of the hothouse in the moonlight. Soon a butterfly spots her and she hates bugs. Her fear climbs as the butterfly makes a straight track for her and lands on her gel-covered left breast.
"Its velvet-soft wings flap across my bare skin, and a faint moan escapes my gagged mouth. The butterfly takes no notice as it lands on my nipple and begins to suck it, or do whatever butterflies do. The flowery fragrance, the light, and by the look of it, the taste of the potion makes me the perfect bug attraction.
"Helpless in the moonlight, more and more butterflies are drawn to her and land to taste her. While she is being terrorized in one sense by the wave of butterflies that keep on coming at the same time, she also feels the orgasmic bliss as they keep touching and tasting her. Is this the way madness lies?"
These are just two of the very arousing stories in this anthology. The writing is detailed and intense, and the whole work is more about the mental musings of the characters and less about the sexual aspects of the acts. Like the very enjoyable novel, Once Bitten, Crash Your Party Dress explores the human in each of us and the wants and desires that fuel our daily existence. This anthology is extremely well-written.
More about Crash Your Party Dress
ACJ Leveille
Something Just Clicked is an anthology of fourteen short stories. Six of the stories make up "The Rubbermaid Chronicles,", stories of a maid who didn't think very much before she accepted a year's wage in advance and ended up a slave to her very inventive master's every wish. Two stories combine to tell the tale (or part of it) of Samantha, an executive who finds herself at her mercy of her temporary secretary. The rest of the stories vary, all of them being explicit and intriguing. "Odalisque," one of the longer stories in the anthology, is a story of sexual dominance set against the lush backdrop of a vaguely Middle-Eastern country on the verge of total revolt. There is also one story, "The Game," written by Chelsea Shepard, a contemporary story of trust, love and sexual exploration.
Something Just Clicked is the second of Hunter's superb collections to be published by Renaissance Books, and it is every bit as good--in fact, some ways better--than the first offering. Each story is well-told, and many have a bit of a twist at the end that make them all that much more delightful. Hunter's true strength though, and the real pleasure of these stories, is the endlessly descriptive bondage scenes. Delightfully detailed and sinfully seductive, Something Just Clicked is a sure bet for anyone who has ever been interested in sex with a little kink involved.
Kevin's Book Review Corner
This is the third of a series of books I have reviewed by Adrian Hunter and Chelsea Shepard. Readers may remember my review of their novel, Once Bitten, which I enjoyed immensely. Readers may also remember the short-story collection, Crash Your Party Dress, which I also enjoyed. Something Just Clicked is the second collection of short stories and novellas.
However, this one is far different in tone and theme than the other works I have covered. While well-written, this particular collection is extremely dark at times, and is far different than their other works. That is not to say that the work is bad. On the contrary, it is extremely well-written. Precisely because it is so well-written, the fact that it is so dark in nature it came across, at least to me, as far less erotic than the preceding works.
In their other two works, the erotic was a secondary theme. Both works focused more on a person's desires and how that person related to others. The focus did not cover why the characters had certain desires, but had to do with how they pursued fulfilling desires. Those desires were usually fulfilled and enjoyable for all parties involved by the time the story concluded.
However, this collection pushes the erotic still further out of the focus and comes across as extremely dark in nature and tone. The story "Sweet Butterfly" from the first anthology only hinted at the possibility of madness; almost every story in this anthology embraced madness in one form or another and celebrates it. While in some cases, the women are in charge of the pleasure and pain, more often they are the victims of some especially cruel treatment at the hands of others. Sometimes the treatment is in the form of denial of the possibility of sexual release.
"Once he had her stripped, handcuffed and gagged, he could have done anything he wanted. Instead, he had spent hours taking photographs of her bound in strenuous positions. Hogtied on his desk. Spread-eagled on the coffee table. Hanging from the coat rack. Stretched out in front of the fireplace so you couldn't miss the Senator's pictures on the mantle. Very intimate angles. Very obvious location. Very incriminating for her, not to mention her very married boss. But not even one gratuitous fondle. Cold. Methodical. Vengeful."
But cruelty has shades of variation, and withholding release is one thing. At other times, it would appear that there is no hope, depending on how the reader interprets the work; then in other stories, such as the novella "The Rubbermaid Chronicles," it appears that the woman has survived and might be stronger after her ordeals. Throughout the work, while much of the stories depict situations that are somewhat open to various reader interpretations, it is clear that the overall theme of the collection is extremely dark and somewhat disturbing at times.
A pleasant change of pace and theme in this anthology is the story submitted by Chelsea Shepard. Titled "The Game," it tells the tale of a young woman attending a rather pleasant evening at a friend's house. But this is not bridge night at the neighbors (or maybe it was, and we just did not know what our parents were doing all those years ago).
"And the dice roll again. I am thoroughly enjoying the escalating bondage and torment, when the unexpected happens. Bill's pawn stops on 'tease-6' and he gestures for Mary to move forward. As she lowers her head between my quite immobilized legs, and her tiny tongue barely brushes my clitoris, a shockwave ripples through my body, and I panic. This wasn't my fantasy. I have never mentioned being touched by another woman, and certainly not another sub! My heartbeat frantically pounding in my head--the only sound I can hear--I look at my lover with all the anguish I can convey through my eyes. I'm not ready for this. Please, will you stop it? He seems to hesitate for a second, says a few words I don't hear, then walks behind me and...places a blindfold over my eyes. Oh, good, like this will help me forget there's a woman licking me!"
This was my favorite story on the anthology, and was clearly lighter in tone and theme then the others. All too soon, this very enjoyable story is over and it is back to the dark side for the reader. As in their other writings, the action is very graphic and the inner mental workings of each character are fully and completely detailed. Sex is a secondary issue; instead the focus is more on the limits, both physical and mental, of the characters involved. In almost every story, those limits are not just tested, but pushed very hard and things are left open to reader interpretation. Like the other works, this particular anthology is very well written. However, it should be noted that this work is much more intense than the others.More about Something Just Clicked
Leviticus -- author, The Writings of Leviticus
Adrian Hunter, the master of his genre, and Chelsea Sheppard, his very willing accomplice, have brought forth another masterpiece. This time, they tackle the age-old tale of boy meets girl, and they do so with a flair that puts you right inside these character's heads. You can feel the ropes that bind, smell the leather that confines, and revel in the power of captivity as an innocent bondage photo shoot turns into something more sinister, and yet ultimately more rewarding. Adrian and Chelsea show once again that their partnership knows no bounds in erotic bondage fiction.
All contents copyright © 2004 Adrian Hunter and Chelsea Shepard. All rights reserved.