What treat to emcee Spanking Stories Book Club! Thank you,
Celeste for allowing me to host. My selection is The Grass Could Be Greener by Constance Masters. First, the blurb:
Jeremy and Jamie are a
young married couple that live together but live separate lives. Jamie is a
busy professional journalist, obsessed with giving their two little girls
everything... except for her time.Sarah and Joe are a happily-married couple that have four children. Sarah is a stay at home mother who home-schools her brood. She and Joe are living in a domestic discipline relationship.
When Jamie finds out that Joe spanks his wife she sets out to expose him as the abusive husband she believes that he is, and what better way to do it than to participate in a "Spouse Swap" program. It doesn't take long for her to end up over her fake husband's knee getting a first hand account of what it's like to be a spanked wife.
As soon as I heard about The Grass Could be Greener, my fingers couldn’t click, “Buy Now” fast
enough. You may know that I write and read spanking
romance. What you may not know is that my secret vice is watching (un) reality
TV. I love them: Survivor, Real
Housewives, Amazing Race, Sister Wives, Millionaire Matchmaker, etc.
“Wife Swap,” upon which The
Grass Could be Greener is based, is one of the shows I watch. The producers
always pair up two totally opposite families, which Masters followed when she
sent a career woman who rides roughshod over her milquetoast husband to a home
in which the housewife is in a DD marriage and is spanked by her husband.
Here are some warm up questions:
Do you think that the host husband of the Grass Could Be Greener
should have spanked the visiting wife when she misbehaved? Why or why not?
Most spanking romances contain quite a bit of sex. But The
Grass Could be Greener was quite tame. How much sex do you prefer in your
spanking romances? Are you okay if a book doesn’t have it?
The Grass was very family-oriented and much was centered on
the family dynamics. Do you like having children involved in a spanking romance
or do you prefer stories strictly about adults?
If you were going to write novel about an existing reality
TV show but give it a spanking twist, which one would show would it be and why?
Thank you for joining the discussion.
Thank you Cara and Celeste! :)
ReplyDeleteCara, these are some great questions. Thanks so much for filling in for me today. I just can't always get to all the books I want to read, but I am intrigued by this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm rushing out the door but will answer the questions later. Thanks!
Great questions!
ReplyDeleteI loved this book!
Let's see....
A reality show? I would love to see spanking Survivor.
Each person has to go through a tough course of spanking obstacles. And if they don't accept, or try to get out of it, they get voted off. :)
About the host husband, spanking the guest wife:
I was very glad he spanked her. It was so well done. no sexual advances, just straight "punitive direction". And the guest wife was totally asking for this spanking anyway.
About the children. This was such a delicate matter, but was written perfectly! They were not the focal point. The adults were the center of attention.
I have read spanking romance stories that have included child spanking, and I did not like this at all. When I read a romance, I want to read about the spark of interest, arousal, etc... And I want the adults to be the key "spanking" players.
I absolutely adored your story, Constance!
:)
Great questions, Cara!
Thank you so much Katherine! I’m so glad that you liked my story. I was worried when I wrote it that I hadn’t got it right :)
DeleteI'm with Cara. Once I read what this book was about I couldn't hit "buy now" fast enough. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a chance to read it, yet. That said, I definitely think the host husband should have spanked his guest wife. She was there to expose him, so she needed the first hand experience.
ReplyDeleteSex isn't necessary in spanking books for me, and I don't think it would be appropriate in this one, so I wasn't expecting it. That said, I do love it when spanking leads to hot sex afterwards stemming from a desire for a deeper emotional as well as physical connection.
Children are a part of life, and if a couple in a DD relationship have children, but are trying to keep this aspect of their marriage hidden from them, I think the writer needs to address how the couple chooses to do this. As for spanking children, I think it's okay for the backstory, and perhaps even create a conflict between the protagonists, but I believe current behaviorists prefer parents use other, non-physical means to punish their children, so it's not popular in fiction today.
Lastly, "Wife-Swap" is the only reality show I watch on a regular basis. I've also seen "Shark Tank," but I can't imagine a scenario where spanking would be appropriate on that show unless... What if a spanking implement company wanted money to expand their enterprise and needed to show how their implements worked and why they were "special" in order to capture the investors' interest. Hey, it could happen....
I think Wife Swap was the perfect choice for a DD reality TV novel. I could also see A Real Housewives, DD version. Some of the behavior is BAD. I can see the husband spanking the wife for acting like a bitch.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a show where viewers get to vote on which wife gets the spanking? Call it Real Housewives Finally Meet Some Real Men.
DeleteI would love to read both. I agree with the desperate housewives and the viwers voting is a great idea :)
DeleteGreat thoughts everyone.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a version of Say Yes To The Dress where there is someone at the dress shop who spanks all the bratty brides, snarky "friends", and "my way or the highway" mothers.
Children. That's a tricky one. I think that children can provide plenty of conflict for a couple ---parent who is too lenient, attempts at blending a family, even issues with adult children can provide fodder for a spanking story. But, I think that I like to read something that isn't quite so close to real life.
Now I am eager to read this book.
Well...I don't watch reality TV, or, really, any kind of TV (except for hockey games), so this is new to me. It does seem like the non-DD wife ought to get spanked simply because she went out of her way to arrange this in order to harm them. Bad girl, bad, bad, bad.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I like sex in my spanking novels. That's what I write and that's what I read. That being said, I think there's a place for all kinds of levels of intimacy within the spanking sub-genre, and I'm glad for the differences. There ought to be something for everyone.
Children...Unless they're infants (and therefore have no input in the story), I find children an uncomfortable aspect of spanking novels. As a mom, I don't believe that children should be spanked, so that would totally turn me off and I'd put the book down. Even if they were only one aspect of the story and not being spanked, I would skim over those parts. Just me. I know that's not the reality of DD marriages, but I tend to read as escapism.
Great questions, Cara! And best wishes to Constance. She's a great writer and a lovely person. :)
Thanks Trish :) No kids were spanked in the writing of this book lol. Normally my books have sex but in this case it wouldn’t have fit I don’t think.
DeleteI have to say that I have not read the book. Sorry Constance but I have it on my kindle's TBR and am moving it up to the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the host should have spanked the visiting wife. In fact, since she knew he spanked I would expect that she was expecting and eagerly anticipating it. I know I would have. The point of wife swap is to walk a mile in another's shoes in order to learn, correct? So a spanking is very apropos.
I'm OK if a story doesn't contain a lot or any sex. But I do need to feel the love. Especially after care or a good reason why it is withheld. Maybe the H's internal dialogue why this is being done and important for the lesson he is trying to teach. Otherwise, like sex - gratuitous spanking without caring on the H's part is just that... unwarranted and I'll pass.
Reality show??? I love to watch Hell's Kitchen. I think instead of kicking the chefs out of the kitchen for ruining dinner they need a good paddling instead. I can just here Jean Phillippe in that great french (Belgian?) accent saying Vous le chef de rien, vous méritez cette fessée translation... You naughty chef, you deserve this spanking. And I wouldn't mind getting a good slippering from Gordon myself. As long as he didn't call me a stupid cow. I'd rather hear in him say in his British accent, "you need to learn to saute, my dahling."
Children in a DD romance, hmm... In Faithfully, I touched upon it because the story was about the couple's relationship and growing family over the course of 3 decades. I reference the kids in the context that they had to be creative to find privacy for both sex and spankings (sounds familiar, huh?) The 5 year old had a tummy ache while they were getting busy on the couch, the teenager came home while mom was lying in bed with a blistered butt. Dad had to explain that Mom was feeling well and went to bed early. But the children never knew other than dad was the head of the family. They even soundproofed their bedroom. The H's idea of course. LOL In my WIP, it is spoken of openly but it is a 19th century western so the times were much different. Definitely this is an adult concept between consenting adults and for my H/h's in a committed relationship. In my mind that's cut and dry.
I covered 4 questions so I guess that's my eight cents.
Great questions and discussion!
A few of my stories have kid. I have always had to go around kids.(we have 5) Obviously our personal life doesn’t include them and it doesn’t in my books either. It’s just a matter of juggling stuff to get privacy at home and in my writing. I will add though it is much harder to go around young adults that live at home lol :)
DeleteStill on my TBR list too, but I can't wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard, isn’t Renee to fit in everything. If only there were more hours in the day! :)
ReplyDelete