Review: The Chateau

The Chateau by Tiffany Reisz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The story I've been waiting for and didn't even know it! I did not read the blurb; all I did was see Ms. Reisz name so I picked this book up for a read. I am so glad I did. This is story is hard to review because I am still reeling from the aftereffects. I am boneless as my senses are overwhelmed and my emotions on overload. This is a story focused on Kingsley. I have always adored this Frenchman switch. Whilst this could be read as a standalone, reading the Original Sinner series would help explain why this story is so cruelly beautiful.

The Kingsley we know from the Original Sinner series is a mature man with great wealth, extensive spy network and erotic mastery. In The Chateau, it is when he is young, twenty four to be exact. This is his years whilst he worked for a covert French spy agency. Seeing this Kingsley makes me emotional because he is in such torment. He wrestles with his demons of wanting someone he does not think really wants him - sadistic Soren. For a book which Soren does not appear until the end, he is a constant monster in the shadow, just waiting to leap in a moment of Kingsley's weakness.

When it comes to complicated relationship and sadistic mind games, Ms. Reisz excels at writing them. This cathartic journey she forces Kingsley to make is brutal. As an unofficial assignment, Kingsley needs to retrieve a wayward nephew of his boss, from the clutches of an evil woman running a sex cult. This woman apparently lures high powered men into her web and they disappear for weeks. IF and when they return to their families, they are in a dazed stupor. Kingsley sees no reason to take this job until he learns the Chateau is run by Madame who is a Domme. Kingsley's need to serve again is so strong, he can not resist her siren call. Like Alice in the Looking Glass, he falls down the rabbit hole and ends up in a world where everything is different and yet, better.

What I loved most about this story is the psychological depths Ms. Reisz plunges her characters through. She hits all the senses whilst seducing the reader's mind. My mind is actively engaged and whilst her erotic scenes arouses, it also pains me as I witness and vicariously live through Kingsley's pain. What he finds at the Chateau is a long overdue answer he's needed validated by an outside observer. When his epiphany occurs, it shatters him completely. I'm moved beyond tears. Not just because of Kingsley's loss. But because I too have achieved an understanding I couldn't fully grasp as a switch. Madame translates the physical love language Soren spoke to Kingsley that he misinterpreted. She can do so because she is a master sadist who understands another dominant. This perspective is insightful and makes Kingsley's anguish magnify. Just when Madame thinks she has converted another discipline, she realizes Kingsley's devotion and worship of Soren is unparalleled. And it is a hard choice. Madame's "wonderland" is fantastic. Still, bypassing the slight chance of being with Soren is unfathomable.

The ending confrontation occurred as I anticipated because I had an inkling early on about Madame's unspoken husband. That relationship is dysfunctional in an Ayn Rand "The Fountainhead" way. Remember, every story has two sides and sometimes there are only losers. If Ms. Reisz ever wrote a story about Madame and her husband, it may be one I need to pass up. I am not sure I can handle the sheer cruelty and devastating mind games. I find my tolerance to bittersweet to bitter endings to be high, but Ms. Reisz dances just on that edge where I am not able to cope. This erotica tale is highly recommended to kinky readers who want to experience love's torment.

*provided by Netgalley