Honest and raw tale, surprising amount of heart

I have a love and fascination for sexuality, and I think it is one of the oddest parts of humanity that something everyone wants, and does, is still so taboo when it comes to someone who works in the sex industry. I watched a documentary called "Fifty Shades of Fetish Models" and Melissa Todd was interviewed, she mentioned this book and I decided to give it a listen. I love to hear what it's like for someone who works in the adult industry/fringes of society.

This is an interesting style for a non-fiction book as Melissa goes between the present, when she wrote this book, to the past explaining how she got started working in the adult industry. I enjoyed the story but I couldn't help but notice some mistakes with the audio quality, you can hear her breathing lots of times and there are a few mistakes where she starts to say one word and then corrects herself, these things are a minor annoyance but common from what I've heard from people who make their own audio book.

I very much enjoyed all of her stories, she has seen most parts of the sex industry and while plenty of the stories are light hearted/weird or a little gross some are sad and others on the disturbing side. I felt bad for the things she went through, men can be absolute monsters sometimes, and it is very brave of her to tell so many details from this terrible instances, I hope it is a warning for other people thinking of doing similar work. I admired Mellissa's spirit, she never gives up and always find a way to work even while pregnant and then while looking after an infant, and I can identify with her a little as someone who also has 2 degrees didn't end up using them for work at all. She is truly a free spirit and I applaud here for avoiding the traditional 9-5 bullshit and forging her own path. I will say that there are a few chapters towards the end which get into a short affair she has with a photographer. Two of them have a graphic sex scenes/BDSM/breath play that some people may certainly find offensive, I was impressed about how calm she is with essential someone she barely knows and how she is fearless when it comes to having this experience. As stated in the book it is very surprising for someone who works as a dominatrix to be so submissive when it comes to her own sexuality/men.

I enjoyed this book though I did find it a little bit disjointed, I think it could have used some more editing/sound work. Obviously not for children, due to graphic sexual content, coarse language and mature/disturbing content I would say ages 21+. I would recommend this to anyone who is curious about how a woman navigates the sex industry and is not offended by the mentioned content. I will certainly consider checking out her other books, she is a very intelligent, insightful and interesting person and to be honest sounded a little down in this book, I hope she is doing better now. I will say that I enjoyed the shorter chapters and the length of less than 5 hours leaves you wanting more.

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