this had potential but there was just so many errors and conflicting dates and plot. needs a good editor.

I'm going to start by saying this book has potential. I think if the author or editor or both would take the time and go back through it and redo the placement of events it would make a big difference. This story was everywhere. You get the past and then the present in random. There are also inconsistencies in her dates. Her son was born I thought 1994 but then she jumps to the 80s and her son is a few months old.

I enjoyed reading about Bella's life as a dominatrix and how she done it all for her son. Showing the love that she has for her family and willing to sacrifice for it showed how strong a woman she was. I did get worried by her drug use, constant need for dangerous lovers especially with a child around. But showing how she found her peace and is finally happy in herself made me happy.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I had expected and would recommend this to people who enjoy reading erotica as it shows the life of a real dominatrix and how the life isn't as glamorous as it looks from the outside.

I think I went into this expecting something totally different which was my mistake. For everything that was shared, I had a hard time resonating with anything which affected how I took in new info as it was shared. Probably not the book for me but I have no doubt many will enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Was drawn by the cover of the title. Splendid moments when reading. I quite like the plot and enjoyed it a lot.

A steamy, sexy, kinky, romance book that will make you fall in love with the characters and their love story. A charming, can't put down book.

I am always looking for a piece of erotica that rivals "The Story of O", or "Last Tango in Paris". While I have not read any of the “Fifty Shades of Gray” I have heard from others there are things lacking, like decent writing. I would hope for something well written, worth the time spent reading it. Fetish Girl by Bella LaVey was not what I expected.

I see a true to life woman, mother, lover, wife, struggling with her choices in life. A woman who tells of her journey as a dancer, stripper, dominatrix, wrestler and BDSM. It is an emotional journey, while she looks for her place in the world. She grows and isn't afraid. She meets good people and bad, and one very bad ex-boyfriend. She is also a Mom!

She has a son, who she cares for and wants the best, especially when she needs to work. He is not an inconvenience and seems to do well throughout the book.

I enjoyed this book. I did not find it too graphic, but there are parts that are dark, necessarily so, to keep the story real. Lessons are learnt and unexpected steps are taken. You may not 'enjoy' what Bella goes for a living, or her thought processes that lead her to her next step(s), but you won’t put this book down either.

Thank you She Writes Press and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

This memoir was an interesting read, I was glad to have read it and learned another’s story but it would not suit all audiences.

i NEVER GOT THIS TITLE! With regrets! ;Netgalley often doesn't send approvals in a timely manner. I'm sorry that I didn't get to read this book.

I knew this book would be uncomfortable to read at times, but I also knew it would be worth it, and I was right. It's not for everyone, but it's for more people than many would think. When I realized this woman and I were born less than two months apart, I kept thinking "oh, at that age, I was doing this, while she was doing that...." She and I are both single parents of one son, though hers is younger than mine, so there was another similarity, albeit also not a strong one.

I think she did a relatively good job of referring to the negative events that happened in her life that helped steer her down this path, while not making it all about those events. (I say "relatively," because people who want to believe that, will believe it anyway.)

I wish I were better able to express the powerful emotions that I felt from her, and that I felt from myself reading this book. And I hope to read it again, to get a better perspective.

I agree with her that the type of work she was doing at the time she wrote this book is essential (at least until we stop shaming people over sex, and that's not likely to ever stop), and I understand why it's the kind of work that leads to burnout. I probably understand this type of work more so than the "new age" type she apparently does now. (No offense is intended toward her or those who believe as she does.)

*DNF* Read 65%.

I had high expectations but sadly It wasnt for me.


I'd like to thank to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really had higher expectations for this book seeing it's rare that many people write autobiographies based on their kink or fetish lives. Unfortunately, I found this to be very boring and too spiritual for my taste.

I was drawn into this story. It is fascinating to read Ms. LaVey’s life and her journey. I loved the truthfulness and bravery of her story. She told all and didn’t hide anything. A great memoir!

Bella’s story is an amazing one to follow. An amazing woman tells her story of her life and they twists and turn that occurs. Doing her best to be a single mom and learning who she is a person. The story really draws you in, lots of emotion and drama. I was hooked from beginning to end.

Reading this Memoir was an exercise in exorbitant fascination and curiosity. The blurb hooked me and when I received the book to begin the story I felt absorbed in the wild, often scary, and always brutally honest tale of this woman's life as a sex worker and as a mother. To me, her story is one of survival amidst her own fascination of sex - how sex is used to feel both empowered and how it can be used to destroy. In addition to this fascination it's a candid portrayal of wanting to live a full, free life in a world where we're so easily judged and criticized for not falling into the "normal" way of doing things. It's about abounding love and abysmal self-doubt. It's about the selfish decisions made that aren't the right decisions or the most agreeable ones yet the lessons learned and growth from those decisions and the consequences faced in those decisions that help to move us forward in life. And I didn't agree with this author's decisions in her life, in fact at times I was scared straight because of reading them, but I respect and admire her courage and honesty in putting those down on paper and making herself vulnerable to her own demons and the demons that will arise from telling her story. And, like I said, to see this life lived, so vastly different from my own or even my own perspective was an intriguing read. This book was unlike anything I've read or expected and I found it brave, enlightening, and honest.

I what different than what I usually read that is for sure. I thought the author did a good job using the descriptions and words to have the reader understand the pain, pleasure, and turmoil that the main character felt. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

Sadly, I did not care for this. A little too spiritual, a little too thin, and without a comfortable flow to the storytelling.

This book is more of an endless trainwreck than anything. The author's poor choices never seem to conclude; rather than any intelligent insight on all this, it's as if the author relied solely on the shock factor of drug use, sex work and deviant behavior to keep a reader enthralled (indeed, despite all this, I couldn't stop turning pages either - what kind of tragic mistake will the author find herself a part of next, and what kind of awfulness will she drag her child through?. The ending didn't leave me feeling all that confident).

I don't say this lightly, either - I'm intimately familiar with pretty much every world she sets foot in here from fetishland to island hippie bliss. I'm not shocked by anything she's done in her life, but I still couldn't get over how she dragged a child through so many terrible decisions.

I don't generally leave negative reviews - I'm working through a bit of that "if you don't have anything nice to say" kind of thing, because writing a book is really hard work. If only this didn't seem like the final result of a NaNoWriMo endeavor...There were moments of brilliance here, but overall I didn't think this book was ready for publishing, at all. A good editor could have done something with it, but this is not what happened.

I went into this book with an open mind.
This was such a tough read.....I found it very hard to follow, I didn’t like the writing style, it did not keep my focus at all.
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book. It just wasn’t for me at all.

I could not get into this book. Seemed very drawn out without a good storyline. Tried to read it last month. Didn't keep my interest. Tried again this month. Still nothing.