My husband's thoughts on COMFORT FOOD by Kitty Thomas

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 erotica 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.

(Blurb from Goodreads.)

So, I (Diana) read Comfort Food about 4 months ago after a long internal debate over whether I should read such a book!  It is, after all, erotic fiction about non-consensual sex as the disclaimer warns.  After reading many glowing reviews from other book bloggers I know and trust, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and read it.  Simply put, the story blew me away.  It was so much more than I expected.  I wrote up a review shortly after finishing, but I don't think I did it justice.  My head was still spinning from the experience.  Needless to say, my husband, Patrick, got an earfull about it and decided to read it himself.  Here's what he thought:

There are a couple of things that surprised me in Kitty Thomas' Comfort Food. The story focused on the psychological aspects of the captive and even the captor to a lesser extent. Much of the narrative is an internal monologue of the victim, so the story follows how the captivity affects her. I would have expected more time on the mechanics of the captivity and the mystery of how she got herself into the situation.

The other thing that surprised me was how non-graphic the story was. A story about a nonconsensual relationship certainly could have been very graphic. Even during the scenes with sex, the language was rather tame, often alluding to the act but not giving much for details.

In spite of the story being different from what I expected, I really enjoyed reading it. Comfort Food is an interesting psychological study in nonconsensual relationships.

At one point while reading the book, Patrick mentioned that he thought "Master" would actually make a poor Master because of his insecurities.  But by the end, he had changed his mind and believed that Emily and Master were well suited for each other.

It was fun to have my husband read a book I've read so we could talk about it.  I think the last time that happened was 11 years ago when we read What's Eating Gilbert Grape. (Great book, by the way, though much different than Comfort Food!)

Thanks for the review, Patrick!