Please, Ma'am - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Kynky Kytty

As the cover page says, 'Please, Ma'am', edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, and is a book of 200 pages about male submission. I was looking forward to this book, since there were a few things about BDSM that turned me on in the book Pleasure Bound, and I wanted to know more. As I was reading this collection of 18 short stories, I realized that there was a lot more about male submission than I knew about. As a result, I often found myself reading this compilation of stories out of curiosity more than to get aroused by the content.

Unsurprisingly, the book's main focus is domination and submission more than bondage and sadomasochism. Even if there is some bondage and some pain involved, but it was more like something on the side. To give you an idea of the content, there are stories with a money slave, regular slaves or devotees, as well as a houseboy and a butler. Even if most of the stories were between a male submitting to a woman, there was also living furniture witnessing a girl on girl action, and another story where a dominant woman has a harem of several much younger men.

The women in this book were, for the most part, professional dommes and really knew what they were doing. They were strong women and inspired respect as well as awe, even from a reader's perspective. I would probably have been stirred into obedience if they had ordered something from me. That reaction was greedily shared by the male protagonists who wanted to please their mistress to the best of their abilities. This eagerness was very sexy and made me wish I could be the object of such a fervent devotion. I'm sure that most readers will definitely love the strength of character in those women.

When it came to sex and the depiction of the submissive activities, I have to admit that it was more explicit than two other books I've read lately, which were edited by Alison Tyler. Some chastity and restraint devices were used, as well as cock rings. Anyone with a foot and shiny leather shoes fetish will have some fun stories to read as well. There is a little bit of exhibitionism, voyeurism, and sex in public places. So yes, I did get my share of arousal when things got down and dirty after the submissive male had deserved it. But then, not all stories were sexually explicit. You have to like the non-sexual aspect in order to get aroused. For instance, the one story with the money slave does not contain anything sexual; I was surprised to see it end when it did.

The narrator is usually the male submissive and mostly written to the first-person, which was a point of view that I could not relate to. To be perfectly honest, I expected the point of view to be that of women. Even if the action between them does not change, it affects the dynamic of what was going on. Even if I praised the variety of narrating style in another book, I actually appreciated that it was mostly in the first-person since the reader is inside the mind of the submissive and see through his eyes. There is also a recurrent theme in this collection where a dominatrix recognizes the submissive fantasies of a man with a single look, as if she could read his most secret desires. I'm not sure if dominatrixes are actually able to guess what men want or have a glimpse of a submissive personality in a glance, but I tend to believe it's more fictional than anything else.

As I found out, my fantasies are quite light and not heavily leaning towards the content of this book. Even if some strap on play, bondage and control had been a turn on for me in another adult book, this collection brought everything to another level. One of the things that kept me from enjoying this book is that I am not turned on by humiliation, degradation, or cross-dressing, which played an important part in this book. I value respect in my sexual life and like my men to be as manly as possible; so you can understand how this book caught my curiosity more than excited me.

However, the fact that I was not turned on from beginning to end does not take anything from the quality of this book; I was still very much captivated by the content. I actually read through this book very quickly and learned a few things about male submission. I think I am more turned on by female submission and particularly interested to read Please, Sir from the same editor.

Ok, the book is good, and my "not liking it" is due to the fact that male submission is more a turn off than a turn on for me. It was interesting, and there was a lot of sexy action in there, but I will not be reading it again. Actually, I will most probably offer it to someone. Christmas is coming and I'm sure I can find someone who will enjoy this more than I will by keeping it in my library.