Review: Girl: The Training House (Book 1) by Eden Bradley

04 December of 2015 by Deb Markanton

Reviewer's Rating: 5

5.0Overall score

A Mesmerizing New Series From Eden Bradley

Girl: The Training House, Book 1 By Eden Bradley

BDSM Erotica

Released September 15, 2015

Self-Published

Series: The Training House, Book 1

Reviewed by Deb

In those breathless moments between pleasure and pain lie the most poignant truths…

I have signed myself over to The Training House: my devotion, my obedience, my body. It is what I have always yearned for—to lose myself in powerlessness. To be made to. But this place is more than anyone could possibly prepare for, especially the Master of the House. He is too stunning, too commanding, bringing out a yearning for submission in ways I have never imagined, and I am lost in nearly unbearable desire. He uses my body until he brings me to tears, then tenderly wipes them away, enslaving me to him instantly, body and soul. I cannot imagine existing without him, without his wicked touch, his strict and sensual command…

Until I meet another slave, and he changes the game of kink for me forever. How can I decide what my heart wants most, without risking losing it all?

WARNING:: These books contains material that may be difficult to read about and/or cause triggers for some readers, including consensual non-consent and other scenes that could be disturbing. Do NOT try this at home!

A Mesmerizing New Series From Eden Bradley

Eden Bradley has outdone herself with Girl: The Training House (Book 1). Admittedly, I am one of Ms. Bradley’s biggest fans. I have yet to be disappointed by one of her books, and I don’t expect I ever will be. Not only does she create stunningly interesting and complex characters, she lures us into their minds. We experience life through their eyes, we feel their emotions, and we become lost in their world. Ms. Bradley also has a knack for painting each one of her novels with the aura of the city in which it takes place. Whether it’s the moody setting of rainy Seattle, the mixed modern and Victorian aspects of San Francisco, or the sultry magic of New Orleans, each city has a particular ambiance that is a vital part of each Eden Bradley novel. And it is another reason I immediately fall into her books and savor each page. But this book…Oh, this book! I didn’t like Girl. I loved it! Loved!

Girl is a surprising and delicious departure from Ms. Bradley’s usual BDSM romance novels. She deliberately and unapologetically pushes boundaries. It is shocking in its intensity, its truth, its darkness, and in its beauty. It is most definitely not the type of story everyone will appreciate or even understand. Girl is a journey into the life and mind of Aimée, a young woman whose need to relinquish herself completely, in all ways to one Master, is as essential as breathing. Aimée is not a submissive, content to include BDSM into her life. Aimée is a slave who finds bliss in the rules, restrictions, and inflexibility of service. And the Training House has what she has needed all her life.

I try to let my mind empty, but the only time it’s not spinning in some mad mind fuck is when I am in service. When I’m being beaten or restrained. That’s when I can let my ego go, when I become nothing to the point where my silly little worries or endless loops from my childhood stop whirling through my brain and I can just be.

Girl is a mesmerizing story I couldn’t put down. I understand and relate to the need for discipline and structure. Most people with OCD personalities require it. It is why many of us find comfort and relief in a BDSM lifestyle. Even though Aimée’s needs go well beyond mine, I nevertheless understand and loved her. She is not confused, misguided, or easily influenced. She knows herself implicitly. She is exactly where she wants to be.

I know this about the Training House—about all such formal places—that we are afforded few luxuries, and I had mine with my first meal. No, here the luxuries are in being beautifully bound, harshly punished, having no sense of self or time or meaning beyond what the Masters want us to be. Slave. Girl. Without identity. With no need for it. Yes, to sink into that. To drown in it. Bring it on.

What Aimée doesn’t expect is the immediate and all-consuming desire for the Master of the house. It is unlike any feeling she has had with previous Masters or Mistresses. It is at once disturbing and exciting. She is even more conflicted when she encounters a fellow slave who is addressed by name, Christopher, rather than merely Boy as are all other males in the house. Could it be possible to have such strong feelings for Christopher when she knows nothing about him? Ms. Bradley is making us wait until the release of Boy: Training House (Book 2) to find out. Dammit! But I hear it’s to be sometime this month. Whew.