Book Review: Diary of a Submissive

So, do you remember about 8 months ago when I couldn’t bring myself to read the Fifty Shades of Grey books?  Yeah well, I still haven’t read them. I had a myriad of excuses – the biggest that I am a prude (still am). So, it might surprise you that I willingly read Diary of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan AND that I actually didn’t hate it. I know. Shocking.

 Synopsis:

 In the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey, here is a memoir that offers the real story of what is means to be a submissive and follows Sophie’s story as she progresses from her early erotic experiences through to experimenting with her newfound awakened sexuality.  From the endorphin rush of her first spanking right through to being collared, she explains in frank and explicit fashion her sexual explorations.  But it isn’t until she meets James, a real life ‘Christian Grey,’ that her boundaries and sexual fetishism are really pushed. As her relationship with James travels into darker and darker places, the question becomes: Where will it end? Can Sophie reconcile her sexuality with the rest of her life, and is it possible for the perfect man to be perfectly cruel?

OK, so let’s get this straight – this book is totally NOT my cup of tea. It is sexually explicit, it made me blush, it made me cringe, and at times I couldn’t help but want to sit Sophie down and ask her what the hell she was thinking. BUT, it was a really intriguing look into a lifestyle choice I would never imagine myself  involved in and I enjoyed Sophie’s brutally honest tale of self discovery. While I don’t understand and relate to the life of a masochistic submissive (even though I can tolerate 26.2 miles of running, pain is just not my thing), she is definitely passionate about why this lifestyle works for her. And I say more power to knowing what you want – so high fives all around to Sophie.

Because I am a prude, I really didn’t know a lot about the BDSM lifestyle (in fact, I am so vanilla I actually had to google that acronym – and yes, I’m going to make you google it too) and umm… wow. I am enlightened! I found it particularly interesting that Sophie does not attribute her sub-tendencies to anything she experienced in her childhood or as a teen. In fact, Sophie strikes me as someone I would hang out with in my own circle of friends. She’s a successful journalist, enjoys writing, reading, movies, and working out. She doesn’t necessarily flaunt her submissive personality, though it was intriguing to me that she so easily met men that were interested domination — or maybe it’s just that most men have those tendencies? This book definitely made me take pause and think “How well do I really know my friends?” So, is there anything you guys want to tell me? Or maybe not.

Would I recommend this books to others? If you really enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey and want to really get into the nitty gritty the D/s relationship – then yes. This book IS actually well written, easy to read, and very fast paced. It took me about 2 days to read, with interruptions. Would I recommend it to my mom? Probably not. And if you DO read this book mom – I don’t want to know.

In full disclosure - this is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club. However, all opinions and recommendations are my own.