Dark Tales Diaries Vol. 1 by London Saint James 
Link to buy Dark Tales Diaries
Story Rating: 3.5 out of 5 paddles
Sting Factor (kink): 4 out of 5
Review:
I liked this! These three short stories are united under an interesting fictional premise: a rich man searches for his lost love among the naughty letters sent to him for publication.
“Red Stilettos” is a tale about Mistress Guinevere, a professional dominatrix whose clients kneel before her red stiletto heels. She meets her match in her old lover Marcus, a handsome Dom who knows what she secretly likes.
“The Leather’s Edge” is the story of Sherri, a recently-divorced housewife who, desperate for a kind of sexual release she has never known, answers a personals ad for no-strings-attached sex. The man she winds up meeting shows her what she’s been missing.
“Safe Word” is Marissa’s story, about a sexy geek girl sent to whip the malfunctioning computers at a bondage club into shape. The owner takes her firmly in hand. This one has a twist ending that didn’t quite work for me, but it was still a really good idea.
The stories feature spanking, light to medium bondage, verbal domination, a nice riding crop scene, and some anal play with sex toys. All the encounters are male-dom/fem-sub. Characterization and plot is light, but the stories are short and the personalities are quite distinct. The writing is good.
The editing needs work. I understand when writers have occasional trouble with homophones and punctuation. It happens to the best of us. Editors are there to catch that, though, and there were many mistakes that kept jarring me out of the story. The worst offender has to be repeated misuse of, commas. It’s frustrating to see an otherwise good book dragged down by poor proofreading.
