Book Review....Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas

Warning...the following review of Comfort Food is meant for adult readers only, please.

From Amazon.com:

BOOK DESCRIPTION:Emily Vargas has been taken captive. As part of his conditioning methods, her captor refuses to speak to her, knowing how much she craves human contact. He's far too beautiful to be a monster. Combined with his lack of violence toward her, this has her walking a fine line at the edge of sanity. Told in the first person from Emily's perspective, Comfort Food explores what happens when all expectations of pleasure and pain are turned upside down, as whips become comfort and chicken soup becomes punishment.

DISCLAIMER:This is not a story about consensual BDSM. This is a story about “actual” slavery. If reading an erotic story without safewords makes you uncomfortable, this is not the book for you. This is a work of fiction, and the author does not endorse or condone any behavior done to another human being without their consent.

*Author's Note: Several readers have emailed me after reading the book saying that they were nervous about reading it because of the disclaimer. Comfort Food is not "brutal" or particularly "violent". The disclaimer is because I don't want people to assume they are reading "BDSM romance" fiction with safewords. That's not what this is.

The first time I saw Comfort Food, I have to say I passed it off as just another little story from a self published author. Perhaps it was recommended on my Kindle App, or somehow that interesting little world called Twitterland whispered the title into my ear. Either way, after checking it out, I dismissed it, if only because most of what I've sunk my teeth into lately has been primarily on the paranormal side. I wasn't sure, after a sneak peak, it was something I would enjoy. Another thing I really have been considering...is it something I would review here? Not a paranormal or urban fantasy...and so far away from the YA I sometimes enjoy.

Fast forward a month or two...again, Kindle and Amazon sent a gentle nudge my way. And, in all honesty, I enjoyed following Kitty Thomas on Twitter. Just a little thing here and there, but the buzz (if you can call it that because it just sounds...odd to me) continued.

Inevitably, I caved. Call it an experiment, if you will...plus, I liked the idea of supporting an artists work. Commence the download. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong...it took a week for the Kindle App and Amazon to decide to play nice with one another (in which time, I tried three times, whispering sweet nothings to no avail to hit the buy now button. Unsuccessfully, because in their eyes, I already did. Silly, silly.) .

Finally, the day arrived, and the sync happened.

Warning, in advance, that this really is an incredibly explicit book...disturbingly dark and almost uncomfortable at times, yet somehow beautiful. Erotica? Definitely...But, in my eyes, it was so much more. The insanely addicting things for me made me at once realize that I wanted to scream and yell, but somehow cry for the parts that were broken yet fit together. If this had been written in a different time, there is a part of me completely believes I wouldn't have had the urge to do these things. How could this happen, now? Maybe in an old manor in the English country side...cold and isolated, maybe in the eighteen hundreds. But, in the present?

More and more, I saw it as a character study or a psychological documentation of some kind, which I devoured even as I rode the roller coaster of emotions it brought upon me. The methods employed, the rewards, even the mode of communication seemed a calculated line that was precariously walked. (Which as the reader, you feel...trust me.)

Even the point of view that were told mostly through Emily's eyes but then would change during certain situations felt like a piece of the puzzle that fit together and wove together in such a twisted yet precious way. (It seems strange to use some of these words to describe how the story unfolds, but I hope if you've read or will read it, you will agree.)

Would I recommend Comfort Food? Definitely, but not for the faint of heart.