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Kate Marley

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Subtext: A Modern Day Tale Of Female Submission Paperback – January 3, 2011

by Kate Marley (Author)

3.7 18 ratings

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Kate is a submissive.

In this candid account she explains exactly what that means and what exactly an independent, 21st Century woman gets out of relinquishing her power and personal freedom to a dominant man for their mutual pleasure. From the endorphin rush of her first spanking right through to being collared, Kate explains in frank and explicit fashion the road she travels as she reconciles her sexual needs with the rest of her life. She'd call it her journey if, in the current climate, that didn't make her sound like a reality TV reject. Suffice to say, if you've ever wondered how, when and why a woman would beg someone to cane her until she comes - or if that's even possible - then this is the book for you. And if you haven't, well this book will give you an insight into the deep end of a dating pool you never knew existed.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Xcite Books
Publication date

January 3, 2011
Dimensions

5 x 0.62 x 7 inches
ISBN-10

9781907016455
ISBN-13

978-1907016455
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kate Marley is in her early 30s. She is working hard at a career she loves, surrounded by friends, amused and exasperated by her family in about equal measure. Loves animals and Marmite, hates people who stop abruptly when walking down the street so you walk into them, and spends too much money on books, DVDs and handbags, mostly in that order. The one thing missing in her life is someone to share it ... and the fact she wants that someone to dominate her sexually, as well as helping sort the recycling.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1907016457
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Xcite Books (January 3, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781907016455
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1907016455
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.62 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,779,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,707 in General Sexual Health
- #8,271 in Sex & Sexuality
- #27,453 in Women's Biographies

Customer Reviews:
3.7 18 ratings

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3.7 out of 5

18 global ratings

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Master_Vyle

Real All The Way

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2011

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About a week and a half ago I broke down and bought a Kindle, because I felt if I was going to be published by Amazon and in e-book format for a while that I may as well actually have one so I would know some of the ins and outs of them, and to know how things actually appeared to readers. That being said I already had a list of books picked out in My head that I wanted to read, and on the top of the list was subtext: A Modern Day Tale Of Female Submission by Kate Marley. Kate and I came across each other on twitter, and funnily enough a majority of our conversations have not revolved around writing, or the BDSM lifestyle, but rather her love and My hate of one John Cena.

subtext was indeed the first thing I put on My new Kindle, and I read it from cover to cover over a four days, the quickest I have read anything since I was right out of high school. I was hooked from the prologue, and knew I had found what I wanted to find in a good story about someone involved in the BDSM lifestyle. As a rule I tend top avoid a lot of lifestyle fiction because they usually disappoint, mainly due to the fact that the author has no clue about BDSM to begin with. I can assure you that subtext is the farthest thing from an outsider hack job that you can find.

Kate autobiographically relates her journey into submission, from her discovery of the lifestyle through scenes in a book, to her first experience being spanked and finally to the beginnings of a relationship with a dominant man who appears he may be "the One". The book is described as being candid and straightforward, and it is that and more. The is some tale of reverence and awe from some mindless sheep willing to do anything she is told, but the story of a strong willed woman not afraid to she her back bone and speak her mind when she feels that she is being treated unfairly.

To say more would be giving too much away. Having tweeted back and forth with her since finishing I can tell you that subtext is only the beginning, and that she is currently working on the follow up, to which I hope she makes her deadline, because I am dying for more.

3 people found this helpful

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A.Ajuda

Excellent!!!

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2013

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I love every word of it. A quick read. I have been wet since I first began reading. I learned to understand a lot about my own submissive nature from this book. It has also given me the courage to stop suppressing this overwhelming need I have to submit completely! Excellent read!

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2013

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Extremely sexy book. Great physical and emotional detail of one woman's intimate experiences in the world of BDSM. Highly Recommended.

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AlexJouJou

The journey and exploration of a submissive

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2010

First and foremost Subtext is erotica. So if you're looking solely for some sort of biography type book - well you might want to rethink a bit mate!

Kate's actually a feminist with a very good job - a job she is good at and takes very seriously. She's educated and intelligent and it shows. That might, in and of itself, take some readers by surprise if all they think about BDSM is of the cliches and stereotypes so prevalent about this community. Kate, wisely, recognizes early on that there is something different about herself. While she doesn't really get a chance to explore until college her recognition itself helps her to accept what she eventually comes to understand are her wants and needs as a submissive masochist.

Kate is a snarky and sarcastic narrator in this first person tale - so much so that you feel like you'd enjoy her among your friends. She's really quite engaging. That is fortunate since her voice is the novel. From the beginnings with the hairbrush and her American boyfriend to the end with Josh and toys far more sinister (*snarky grin*) she entrances and makes the reader want to keep reading.

In particular I enjoyed how some chapters were really scenes and they seemed encapsulated within that page span - almost like little vignette's within the story. It was an effective tool for me as a reader as it allowed me to "view" them and imagine them as a whole - not broken up across the narrative. I also loved the ingenious use of common household or store items - chopsticks, spoons, clothespins, and more. Not only is this book HOT but it's also educational - a twofer. Superb.

Remarkable as well is how Kate keeps her work and play life separate - there's really only one episode where the two are intertwined. This seems sensible and honest and comes off as authentic (not withstanding the below issue). It would have been even stronger if there would have been some dialogue and work scenes in the book - because as it is that part is all telling and no showing. I think Kate would have come off as more multifaceted had more been revealed. The narrative is strong, particularly the opening chapter, and the writing is very solid - clear and lucid without loosing the flow.

There were a few things that pulled me out of the story - the first is the level of pain. No two ways about it - Kate is what I've heard referred to as a pain slut. Sometimes it almost seems to go too far - too much pain that likely would leave injuries more severe than are mentioned in the book. Instead of the usual BDSM counts of 10, 20, or 30 Kate typically gets 100 of whatever she's getting. When you are talking about some heavy duty implements 100 is no small number - and although she mentions occasionally she feels like there should be blood that is never confirmed (although it is highly likely). It just seemed a bit much to me and I squirmed not in a good way. Even Josh is repelled by this - and he's the one doing it. So you know it goes further than most would be comfortable with. I definitely wondered how the hell she could go to work as one big huge bruised body - so again her devotion to her work and the way it is presented just didn't really jive with this level of pain being administered on a regular basis. Blunty sometimes I wondered how she could even walk.

The other part of this is that aftercare, which for me seems like it would be really critical, gets very little mention - and sometimes it is intentionally left out on the part of the Dom. Given the safe, sane, and consensual espoused in the book and the level of pain Kate experienced I really needed the aftercare to kind of "close the loop". Yet it was conspiciously absent a little too often for my comfort. In many BDSM books the experience of subspace is described but here I never really felt it - other than marginally - as Kate seemed always focused on the pain and it never seemed to lessen that much nor did it seem the endorphins kicked in for her as much as I might have expected. So there were times the pain really did seem more like torture than pleasure regardless of how Kate later related it or felt about it.

And, in the pain vein, the major thing that pulled me out of the story was the oft repeated phrase of that pain (the one for that particular scene) being the worst pain she'd ever felt. It came to be that I actually anticipated when that statement would show up. It impacted the, well, impact that the pain had on me. I guess I felt that it was just too much of a progression - and maybe not as real since it lent to the idea that every scene would have more pain than the last - and it seemed more plot device than natural story flow.

The last thing I found tough, as did Kate at times, was the verbal humiliation parts. However this is something that I can recognize would be very difficult for me personally so I certainly wouldn't mark down for it. Kate was clear in her need of it - but her extreme level of hatred of it made it hard to read for me. Hard to reconcile. As such I really didn't care, at all, for any of her Dom's. That presented something of a challenge, even though the book was really about Kate, because she was the only person I liked.

Overall though this is an excellent book - certainly erotic and intriguing. I also should confess that there were so many times when her words could have been mine - certainly this is a personal book. Novels, even erotica, often seem larger than life with characters that don't exist there in the real world we all live in. Subtext turns that on its toes - Kate does seem real and her thoughts and words will resonate with anyone who has questioned themselves like she does. I very much enjoyed the read and look forward to more books by this talented new author!

4 people found this helpful

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G. Remrow

Outstanding view into the inner workings of a submissive female

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2011

I'm not going to retype the content of the book here for you. I do tell you why I love this book and why you might want to read it too - until you're finished, from one end to the other.
It is first of all, open, honest and it is real. No, this isn't some tame fiction generated from some overused wordprocessor blocks and sold, heavily overprized, to the juvenile reader, advertised by some steamy sentences and a book cover which is by far the hottest thing of the whole book.
Far from this, here is a book which is hot, from the beginning to the end, and not just the scenes the yound sucessfull journalist quite frankly tells us. She let us have a view into her inner workings: Why the heck is a young, independent, sucessfull woman into spanking, humiliation, submission, masochismen ? What does she get out if it ?
And she does tell us almost everything she feels and thinks, and too what she understands and learns from the men she's going to play with. Yes, she plays safe, she knows about safeworlds and aftercare and all that.
This book is one of the very rare real life experiences, and it's written damn fine well.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

sunshine

Now exists as"secret diary of a submissive"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2012

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Great read but don't be tricked into buying it twice- Secret diary of a submissive is the exact same story (with a few tweaks to make it slightly better). They've just changed the names and are now billing it as a true-life memoir. Would recommend the story though as it's a good insight into the D/s dynamic and is indeed much more believable than 50 shades.

One person found this helpful

M. J. Wennington

Interesting story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2013

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I was interested to see how realistic this tale of submission was. On the whole it was a good read. Not too serious, not too flowery

Simon Brooke

More erotica than memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2010

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Subtext is a memoir of a real person; but it is, I think - I hope - somewhat fictionalised or exaggerated to work as erotica. And if I was considering it just as erotica, I might give it five stars. As memoir, however, as a document of lived experience, it fails, and it fails just because it seems exaggerated and fictionalised.

The book is an account of Marley's discovery and exploration of her submissive and masochistic nature. I've no doubt that the overall story she tells is more or less true, although she's clearly chosen to narrate it in an erotic manner (which I don't object to!) However, one or two episodes don't ring true.

For example, in chapter twelve, Marley describes being used as a rope bunny - someone being tied - by an experienced rigger, Mark, who is demonstrating rope bondage to her friend Russell. Marley wants to be released quickly, and, with an experienced rigger present, the rope can't be untied and so it is cut. This makes a funny episode in the story, and is effective as narrative, but it doesn't seem likely.

More significantly, Marley describes a series of beatings she endures which seem to me to be improbably severe. I'm well aware that there are a number of people on the scene who choose to allow themselves to be beaten to the point of actual injury, but that isn't what Marley seems to be saying. Nevertheless I would expect at least one of the beatings she describes - the one with the wooden spoon - to have caused lasting tissue damage.

On the other hand, she describes an episode (the same wooden spoon beating) after which the sadist is so shocked and repulsed by his own cruelty that he withdraws from the relationship. This I believe. I have worn that t-shirt. It is not a comfortable one.

I bought the book intending to give it to a woman friend who has not yet seen herself as submissive, but who I think is and would benefit from accepting the fact. I'm not going to give it to her. The masochism that Marley expresses is so profound that it seems more likely to repel than to convert the uncertain; and that seems to me a shame. Particularly as it seems a trifle over-egged; a little exaggerated.

From a literary point of view one thing really niggled, which was her repeated use of the sentence 'I've never felt pain like it'. It becomes almost a catchphrase, and repetition robs it of effect. It is - probably - true of one of the episodes she describes. It is possibly true of more than one, because pain can be qualitatively different. But it can't be true of every one. It grates.

And, therefore, as both memoir and as erotica, it doesn't quite make top marks; four stars not five. However, it is a rattling good read, and, considered simply as erotica, very hot.

5 people found this helpful

Lisa Washington

5 star read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2010

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This book is written with a lot of warmth, humour and wit which all makes it very readable and easy to empathise with the lead character, Kate. As a female reader, I found it very female friendly but think it would appeal very much to the male reader also. Highly recommended!

9 people found this helpful

cartoon

no no no

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2011

Verified Purchase

Firstly do not compare to either The story of O or nine half weeks . This woman cannot write . The language is more slang/ forum style rather than of erotica I would expect . Each male dominant seems to have no personal characteristics and by the end I had lost the will to live, I wanted to slap her myself for being so borring . Dont get me wrong , I love sexy and dirty books but this isnt . After a good couple of chapters, when I thought , hurrah , this is genuine , real , kinky , it became just a list of what the man wanted her to do / or not do . She should have kept it as a little short story . We threw our copy in the bin as I didnt want any one else to be irritated by it . Not sub dom for grown ups .

One person found this helpful

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