When the nameless protagonist of Swallowtail is seduced by a young and aloof goth princess at an art gallery, he thinks of it as little more than an anonymous, erotic one-off.
However, his curiosity about the mysterious woman is piqued and it is not long before he calls the number that she left scrawled in lipstick on his chest.
With this call, he embarks on a journey of submission that redefines the nature of pleasure and the instruments used in its pursuit.
I received this free on Amazon and for awhile it sat on my Kindle, while I was thinking it was probably going to be a waste of time. First time author, self published, free...sometimes bad signs. Not always, but sometimes. Then I read the blurb and decided it was really not my type of book at all. So that also made me delay even longer. After reading and a few other similar books I had decided that BDSM was just not really all that interesting to me.
So much of it focused around shocking the reader, or gratuitous sex scenes, and I'm sorry but that sh** just does not interest me. I want to read about a relationship, about a connection, I want it to have more depth than, "OH MY GOSH HE FLOGGED ME" (insert eye roll).
There, I inserted it.
And then I started reading it.
I was just surprised at how quickly it caught and held my attention. A story about an alpha male, a man who owned his own advertising company and had been raised to be a "good ole boy" by a gruff, masculine father was going to become a submissive? I'm not sure that he's ever named, throughout the entire novel, which was also interesting. But I really liked him, we'll call him Jack.
Jack was sooo interesting. He was smart, successful, and had a self deprecating sense of humor that made me instantly relate to him. And even throughout the entire story, I never felt he lost any strength from submitting to Dex. Watching his struggle to grasp this new way of thinking was hard, and there were times I sympathized with him so much. I felt bad, but it made me not like Dex as much.
It's just beyond bizarre to me really, how that sort of relationship can showcase trust, as "Jack" described it by the end of the novel. Nothing about what they do screams "I trust you, I respect you, I love you" to me. I'm not saying I think it's the wrong way to be, evidently some relationships flourish in this environment, but it's not something I can ever pretend to understand.
Jack did help, his internal dialogue was very spot on to what I would have been thinking, and it made me understand something of what was going on inside both characters heads.
Just a few tiny grammatical errors that I noticed, but the writing was pretty sharp, neat and very no fuss. Impressive.
Overall though, I truly enjoyed the relationship between the two, the EMOTIONAL relationship (I just really felt like there were a few too many sex scenes, so that I started skipping them), but I found their back and forth progress fascinating. In the end, I rooted for both of them to hold onto each other.
KT McColl has presented us with a brilliant novel! The smooth prose and the almost poetic articulation of events are second-to-none. Despite some fairly steamy scenes, this book was more about the psychology of a BDSM relationship than straight-up erotica. That suited me just fine! And when the action became intense, the author used the perfect amount of levity to break the tension!
An alpha male who owns his own ad firm meets a young Goth girl named Dex at an art gallery. Dex casts her spell and hooks her man during an impromptu bathroom scene. Then it's on, as she gradually convinces our protagonist to do things her way. Dex somehow manages to be both honest and cunning in her dealings with her prey, assertive and firm, yet never malicious. Before our man realizes what is happening--or maybe he does and has thrown caution to the wind--Dex has him willing to do most anything to please her.
The novel depicts the delicate balance of a sub/Domme relationship, the yin and yang of how two people discover happiness through their kink. Swallowtail is a great novel for those interested in pursuing a BDSM relationship, and the writing is simply magnificent!
The strenghts of the novel are many and essentially refer to its form.
The author possesses an impressively large vocubalary and she puts it to good use. The characters feels real and whole. Its got a slowly building story line at an appreciable lenght. It's a bargain for its very low cost.
The content didn't meet my expectation or I failed to assess it correctly from the book description. It really is a romance novel dabbling a litlle with kinks. It is mostly vanilla and when femdom activities are involved its done safely and consensually. I like, when reading fiction, that the personnages crosses lines like in fantasies, its what makes it pleasurable. I wished it had been kinkier for the author hold a real and scarce talent.
I undoubtedly know that some of you will like the story a lot. It simply wasn't my cup of tea.
KT McColl has written a beautiful story of change. What started out as a mind blowing tryst becomes an addiction, but the role reversal causes doubts. Best depiction of Dom/sub I have ever read not the obvious roles, written with heart and passion from the male POV.
KT McColl's Swallowtail is an inside look at how a couple's sexual exploration inside of the BDSM culture defines their relationship. The novel is excellently written with numerous spots of humor to balance some of the darker aspects of the lives revolving around the sub/Domme participants. An alpha professional man is surprised when he is gradually coaxed into submitting to a young Goth woman who is a bit haunted by her past as a sub. Her goal is to be the kind of Domme she wished her previous lover had been to her. Her approach is almost clinical in how she balances the pain and pleasure she administers to the story's nameless protagonist. A great read, elegantly and tastefully rendered by a very talented author!