Review: The Marketplace

The Marketplace Series is a series of books by author Laura Antoniou that deal with a secret society of slaves, slave traders, slave trainers and slave masters around the world. For those of you interested in real life sexual slavery, it is the series for you.

The first book inThe Marketplace Series is titled, surprisingly enough,TheMarketplace. It introduces us to 'The Marketplace', the title used in the series for this secret society of slavery. In this first book, we are introduced to the key character that appears in all the books (so far) of the series, Chris Parker. Chris is a mysterious character, with more secrets than the Marketplace itself. I will not ruin the surprise by spilling the beans here. You need to read the series.

Chris Parker, as the series begins, is working as the Majordomo for two very influential slave trainers, Alexandra Selador and Grendel Elliot. This female/male partnership is very entertaining. Both Alexandra and Grendel are bisexual and they are also each other's lovers. They run a training center for slaves, where they are assisted by Chris Parker and their housekeeper cum trainer, Rachel. Also assisting in the training is the stable manager, Jack. Please note that the slave training includes a great deal of sex. All of the trainers engage in sexual activities with the trainees.

The story opens with the reader's introduction to our four slave trainees that are about to enter Alex and Grendel's training. The candidates are balanced with two females and two males. It must be understood that the slaves are in training to be offered on the block for sale into the Marketplace.

The first female is Claudia. Claudia is by all appearances a perfect slave. However her Mistress, Madeleine, finds her too perfect. She has sent Claudia to Alex and Grendel for additional training in hopes they will help Claudia loosen up. Claudia is unaware at first of the reason she is there but she does work to improve herself.

The second female is Sharon. Sharon is what is considered a pleasure slave, or so she thinks. Pleasure slaves are mostly used for sex. She has not been professionally trained and she managed to find Alex and Grendel through subterfuge. She stole their names and contact information from a binder at a party she attended at the home of a spotter. Spotters find potential Marketplace slaves and pre-groom them for additional training before recommending them to an official Marketplace trainer.

The first male slave is Brian. Brian is your typical leather man than many people consider as the norm for gay slavery. He has served other men outside of the Marketplace but this is his chance to get inside. He is cocky and thinks he doesn't need to know anything that he doesn't already know. He will soon discover differently.

The second male slave is Robert. Robert is by far the most sympathetic of the slave characters. Robert has been abused by his previous Mistress. He has been made to think being a man is a bad thing. He was forced to dress as a female and had even considered having his cock surgically removed. It was from this horrid situation that he was rescued by a spotter who then sent him to Alex and Grendel for deprogramming and retraining.

The story itself focuses on the four weeks of intense training our candidates receive. There is a great deal of sex, mostly rough, and beatings are of the norm. This series is published by a small BDSM printing house called Mystic Rose so do remember that. If you do not find BDSM to be your style, you might find the books a bit over the top. I am not much into BDSM myself but I find the slave lifestyle intriguing and enjoyed this first book of the series greatly. My one complaint is there were too many typos and misused words but that does not seem to be a problem in the rest of the series.

Laura Antoniou has great talent and her series is well worth the read for anyone interested in BDSM or real life slavery. I have read most of the Gor series as well but I think I enjoyed this series more because it is more realistic. It is set on Earth and it never goes over the edge, pushing reality to fantasy.

The series is available at the publisher's website and most of the online bookstores. I do recommend it, at least try this first book and see if you wish to read the rest of the series. Believe me, once you read the first book, you will be hooked and want to read the rest. I found myself curious to learn more about Chris Parker and was pleased to discover he is a featured character in every book. So give it a read if this type of sexual stuff interests you. You will be glad you did.