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From the web: A memoir in three parts, Concertina spans five years of the author's life as she makes the extraordinary transition from culinary expert to professional dominatrix. Taking the reader into the secret, hidden world of suburban sadomasochism, Winemaker introduces us to a fascinating array of colourful characters, before she breaks the code of domination: falling in love with a client.

The chemistry between the author and her lover - a high-powered City executive addicted to extreme physical sensation - becomes the catalyst for a deeper and more intimate exploration of their desires. As they take the games out of the dungeon and into their everyday lives, the consequences of their union make addictive reading, and we learn something about relationships taken to a level most of us never dare experience.

Review written by Daemon Grendl

While a definite improvement over other biographies like the pleasure's all mine and From Wife to Dominatrix, it was still only a marginal read. Once again they, the writer and editor, have left out the titillating stuff that we the reader bought the book hoping to find. I did not find there to be many interesting characters, on the contrary I thought they were under developed. The book should have been titled, “Adam and the Dominatrix: A Dysfunctional Love Story.”

The first half of the book alternates between her describing her boredom and frustration in the role as dominatrix with short descriptions of sessions with a regular client named Bernie. Bernie liked to be placed in heavy bondage then suffocated by the dominatrix sitting on his face while she wears a rubber skirt. It also has flashbacks to her first career as a chef and feelings of being abused and under appreciated. It's almost worth reading -- Almost entertaining.

The second half of the book starts out more interesting as she describes her relationship with Adam, her first client, and their relationship after she has left Anna's dungeon. But the story quickly loses momentum. While at first very romantic, intimate, and descriptive it reads more like a Harlequin romance than a biography. She gets overly sentimental about what she cooked for Adam and how lovely the sex was. Then the devolves into one of mutual disdain as the relationship sours over the course of another year. The book concludes with the end of their relationship. This isn't what I'd expected when I started the book and quite a disappointing turn from where it started.

What's missing from the book is her motivation to become a dominatrix and why she stayed at it. In Shawna Kenney's book I was a Teenage Dominatrix she makes it very clear she did it to pay for college -- It was easy money. Ms Winemaker isn't as forthcoming. There's a brief section where she recalls meeting a dominatrix in her past and applies for training with a few local ones, but nothing about why she chose that over office work or retail sales. Did she think it was fun and glamorous or that she wanted to turn what she enjoyed doing into a profession? This is what the readers really want to know. It's also ironic that in chapter 14 she tells us more about Mistress Ariel's motivation in one paragraph than she's told us about hers in two hundred pages.

There's so little about her personal life before the dungeon or outside the dungeon that I wonder if she was born a dominatrix. Did she have friends? Did she have lovers? In passing we get hints of her studying dance and yoga but not near enough to develop a full picture of her life and build a desire to know more.

For a biography, it's much too impersonal and fails to educate or create interest. I found it difficult to finish as I lost interest in her or her relationship with Adam - It just failed to keep my attention. I suggest it be passed over.

Alternate Cover I'm not sure if the difference in covers is hard cover to soft cover or UK edition to US edition. I do know that my copy, with the yellow cover at the top, is a hard cover and was printed in the UK. I think the strawberry on the boot is in reference to a game she and Adam played where he balanced a strawberry on his back. It attempts to tell the reader she has a soft side to her too. The change of subtitle to emphasize her culinary background is also funny.

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