Molly Weatherfield (Pam Rosenthal) is a New York native who met the love of her life in a poetry class of all places, she has worked and been part owner of Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco and later worked as a computer programmer in the financial district. She moved on to writing reviews and essays, and finally novels. Her first attempts at fiction were Carrie's Story and the sequel Safe Word, which were both penned under the pseudonym Molly Weatherfield.

She has since written a plethora of romantic fiction The Edge of Impropriety, The Booksellers Daughter and Almost a gentleman under her given name, Pam Rosenthal. If you are interested in learning more about her you can check out her website Here

Molly Weatherfields writing style is engaging, entertaining, and has a bit of an edge of your seat aspect to it. She has a good grasp of people, and is able to create a story with characters that are, if not relatable, definitely realistic. The style is a balance of both physical and emotional information being processed by the characters. Subsequently the book flows well, it is not so intellectual as to be alienating for those attempting to relax with it, yet remains an intelligent and enjoyable piece of literature.

I think it is safe to say that anybody who enjoyed The Story of O would probably enjoy this book as well. The principal difference I found was the writing style. Where The Story of O is more formally written and detail oriented, Weatherfields writing is far more relaxed. This may be in part due to the time periods both were written in, but is also a consequence of the writing style of the individual authors.

Carrie's story is a well written first person narrative of a young womans entry, education and ultimately her absorption into the world of S&M. Carrie begins the book as a university student whos only exposure to the world of S&M is through erotica and pornography. She meets Jonathan at a party, and shortly after observing her reaction to a pornographic S&M flick he hands her his card, and invites her to come to his home and become his sex slave. Carrie, intrigued and a little bit frightened shows up at Jonathans house and begins her immersion into this new and exciting lifestyle. It follows her throughout her first year of training as well as her introduction to, entry into and sale at a slave auction.

Molly Weatherfield details the decent into a world that for many, would be difficult to imagine. From bondage and canings, to being stabled and taught to preform as a pony Weatherfield delves deep into the emotional response evoked both intentionally, and unintentionally during Carries training process. She touches on how personal limitations come into play, and how the lifestyle varies from one M/S arrangement to the next.

Since I am only somewhat versed, and not personally familiar with the power dynamics and rules of full on S&M relationship dynamics and circles, I can not speak to the accuracy of the goings on in the novel. What I can say is that even though this is not a lifestyle that I would be interested in living, the story turned me on and kept me excited pretty much from start to finish. The grittiness, the confusion, and the desire to perform at any cost got my heart a flutter and kept it going.

If you have issues with power dynamics between men and women, forced submission or partner humiliation you will probably want to avoid this book. Weatherfield seems to have fully embraced the humiliation and pain endured by the slaves, as well as the pure delight that it causes their masters. She has also dealt with the pleasure that the slaves derive from their situations. This may be a very difficult thing for some people to accept, and in some cases may require rationalization. The point of this book is not education, it is instead meant to provide that dirty fantasy for those of us who are rather vanilla in comparison, realistic erotica for those whos lifestyles it more closely matches.

Carries Story comes in paperback form, it is well designed and attractive but in no way, shape or form discreet. It has somewhat thick, fairly durable pages, and a sturdy cover, which is not to say that is indestructible, only that it will survive for quite a while if well taken care of. It also includes a 3 page introduction written by the author, it is as much an introduction to her as it is to the story, and is a nice little addition to the novel.

My only real issue with this story was that it left out some of the more intimate details of hygiene. This was not a problem for me as far as enjoying the story went, only in that anybody attempting to recreate the situations in the book may deal with some rather severe health issues as a result. This perhaps could have been dealt with by adding a disclaimer of some sort.

This book had me aroused from start to finish. I was surprised that something which I was not sure how I felt about, got me so hot in such a short amount of time. I was equally appalled and aroused by a great deal of the goings on in the novel, and it has left me wanting more. Though this in not a fantasy that I am interested in bringing to life, I do enjoy aspects of it, and am happy to find books which cater to my deviant nature.