Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Pet Shop by K. D. Grace

http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Shop-KD-Grace/dp/190800679X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326221669&sr=1-3

Story: 3/5
Erotica: 5/5

The Pet Shop is a story of one woman's adventure into a private club for human pets. Stella's boss assigns her to visit the club. She becomes infatuated in Tonio, an over-the-top pet, who ravages her. She later meets Vincent, a wealthy businessman,  who is also vying for her affection. Eventually she realizes that the two are different aspects of the same person, one civilized and the other depraved.

The story is twenty odd chapters of over-the-top sex, sex, sex! Numerous themes are explored including bizarre pet-play, dubious non-consensual bdsm, M/M, F/F, menage and group sex. Each chapter is a "blow-by-blow" description of sexual encounters between the principal and support characters in a fantasy setting of an elaborate playground for the wealthy.

Throughout the story Stella is incredulous about all the manipulation of the thinly-disguised characters as she is made into a pet, pursued by Tonio and  eventually dumped by Vincent. Stella stumbles into the underworld with only a flashlight. We learn of events only from her naive perceptions and how slow she is to put the pieces of the puzzle together, as she is subjected to numerous encounters of tantalizing sexual perversity.

At times I wish Stella would get a clue but then the sexual escapade would be over. Eventually she becomes enlightened and this serves for a turning point of the story which I won't give away here.

This is a book that is either highly praised for its "inventive" hot sex or  is condemned for the tawdriness (mostly the character's "whoring" ). The story is about an innocent woman's seduction into an underworld that is run by and for the ultra-wealthy for an environmental cause. Readers will have to suspend moral judgement of the characters and enjoy the erotica for what it is. I was unable to get a picture of what the main characters were like as they are only superficially described. The plot seems to only serve as a theme to introduce increasingly varied and depraved sexual encounters. At times I had wished the author would simply state what the characters did in a particular encounter instead of a detailed description of the sex. If you can "slog" through the endless sex scenes in the beginning you will be rewarded by one of the more passionately described encounters near the end.

This book is more like a movie or television script. Although K. D. Grace articulates the sex scenes, the plot is a bit like a soap-opera with a HEA ending. Fans of erotica will appreciate the ability to "jump in" to the story from almost any chapter as they will figure out the running plot quickly.

If you have an open mind to a world of depraved sexuality, you will find Pet Shop most rewarding.