The Diary of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan - A review

The Diary of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was going to give this a thorough review, mostly because of my feelings whilst reading this book. However, after looking at the reviews briefly, I feel this has been more than done with the 2.8k+ reviews already submitted. In particular, I want to mention Natasha's review 'Natasha is a book junkie' which I thought was brilliantly done and described almost everything that I wanted to say anyway.
The difference between her 2 star rating and my 5 star is that I did not want to mark the book down because it was a little too over the top for me. I have been interested in this genre for a long time, before the Fifty Shades of Grey fiasco anyway - and was thrilled with Fifty hit the shelves, leading to a sudden saturation in the market. I have read a few other trilogies too, some pretty mediocre, so, when I picked up this one, it did shock me a little.
I too have to wonder how much of a submissive she is compared to an actual masochist and although I know the two go hand in hand, the balance, in my opinion, seems to be tipped a little too much to the latter. I didn't 'feel the love' as I did with the other books I have read and yes, Thomas scared me too, but I am not sure if that is simply because the author didn't dwell on the touch feely side of him because she was so focused on the 'punishments' or if there just wasn't any of that coming from him.
James restored a little of my faith in men. Either Sophie wanted to make him a little less sadistic and more human, or he just was, we will never know, but regardless, it was all a little too violent for my taste.
That however, does not make this a bad book. It is just the other spectrum of the BDSM lifestyle that I am sure people do practice.
I do have to wonder about Sophie's outlook in life, her kink and like Natasha, I actually do feel sorry for her need to be treated this way. There is a very fine line I believe, between keeping a D/s relationship a loving and caring one, to simply a physical one. This book, I felt missed out on the loving/caring side of the D/s dynamic.

But, to each their own I guess. For readers that enjoyed Fifty Shades, but who are not active in the lifestyle I would NEVER recommend this book. It does leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. For those however who truly are interested in a D/s lifestyle and want to read an 'honest and frank - all holds bared' side of it, I would recommend it. There is nothing black and white about D/s, there is no absolute rules, this is just one side of it that some people could perhaps enjoy.

I did say I wasn't going to write a review, and there I go doing just that. The reason for my 5 stars was because the author kept me riveted, even if she did make me queasy and in some scenes, quite upset and disturbed, (which is a good result for any writer to get from their readers in my opinion). I found no fault with her writing and have walked away thinking that I understand even more about the D/s dynamic, even if it wasn't pretty.

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Music

There is probably nothing in the world that has an effect on me more than music does.  Just one song can completely alter my mood.  I can go from happy to sad in an instant. 

I grew up on music.  I remember as a young child my parents holding house parties and I remember knowing the words to some 1960’s songs which had been popular before my time but had been hits in my parent’s teenage years.  I remember quite clearly listening to ‘The best of the 1950’s/1960’s’, to ‘Abba’ and to ‘Neil Diamond’ that my mother used to play sometimes when she was cleaning the house, or on quiet Sunday afternoons.  I remember these with very fond memories.

I grew up in the eighties and I will forever believe that the music from the 80’s was the best era, EVER!  My interest in music changed from what my parents exposed me to, to what I liked and I was one of those people who listened to the radio on a Saturday, recording all the hits to my tape cassette and listened to it all week through to the next Saturday.  As a young adult I went clubbing and would dance, mesmerised to the music on the dance floor, allowing the deep base and thud thud thud to go through my body, surrendering it to the beat while I swayed back and forth, or kissed the boyfriend I was with. 

In my darker moments, I will seek music to suit, listening to sad love songs, or songs of woe that only helps to plunge me further into an abyss, which, when I am depressed and/or down, is where I would rather be.  Sometimes, though, if I am happy and upbeat and a song of sadness comes onto my iPod, my mood will immediately plunge until I am reminiscing about the times that the song reminds me of.

Likewise if a song comes on which is upbeat and fast, a spring in my step will appear, a smile on my face and I will glide around happily, a silly grin plastered to my face.

So why does music have such an effect on me?  Is it like this for everyone? I could live without almost everything in this world, but without music I would be doomed. I truly would be a miserable person.  As I type this, I am listening to music and I am smiling.  I tend to sing along, sometimes loudly, but I am aware that my singing voice is not quite up there for any type of recording contract but that’s ok with me, I love it and I will sing regardless.

They say the sense of smell is directly connected to your memory bank in your brain and that it is so potent that just the smallest whiff of something can immediately transport you back to the memory you have of it.  That is very true, I have experienced this many times, but music does this for me too.  So many songs send me back to a time that song played and the memory will play perfectly clear in my mind, my feelings, my thoughts, everything crystal clear.

I have many favourite songs, and the list constantly changes.  At the moment, I am swooning over Christina Perri’s ‘A thousand Years’, Emeli Sandé’s ‘Beneath You’re Beautiful’ and Rihanna’s ‘Stay’, but they are merely the fave’s of the moment.  REM’s ‘Everybody hurts’; Adele’s ‘Don’t you remember’; Aerosmith’s ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’ and Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’ are but a few of the songs I will never be able to get enough of and there are far too many more to list without boring you silly.

Music is the ultimate soothing remedy for my soul.  It’s the ultimate downer and the most potent upper I could possibly take.  The high’s I sometimes experience – others would call it giddiness – when I have my earphones plugged in, drowning out all the sound of the world around me and causing me to dance – sometimes unselfconsciously – is what makes me love music so much and which is why, if music suddenly ceased to exist, I would want to also.

Bx